Page 73 of Gem Warfare
“That’s ballsy,” said Garrett.
“You’re telling me. Any number of things could have gone wrong with his plan but he was in and out and no one saw a damn thing.”
Chapter Sixteen
“What do you think of our detective friend?” asked Garrett. We’d hung up while Detective Phipps retrieved his file from a storage bin in his garage so he could answer some more in depth questions, giving us a few minutes of time to kill.
To me, that meant killing a second donut.
“I was fascinated,” I said between chews. “We know the why. He figured out the how but he hit the wall on the who. We might have a who. That’s assuming the two cases definitely connect.” How many rubies of that size were floating around unclaimed? It seemed outlandish to think there might be more than one. Yet even more outlandish to think it had been found here, in an unassuming backyard.
“It might be very hard to connect our deceased man to his suspect.” Garrett pushed back in his seat, and tapped his pen against the desk. “We know Phipps’ suspect is good. No, not just good, to pull that theft off, he’s exceptional. But if it were Black, he fell foul of someone. Something went very wrong and he didn’t see it coming.”
“I can’t imagine the patience of someone who could conceal themselves in a tiny room overnight with millions in jewels and then just stroll out in the morning.” If it were me, I would probably fall asleep, lean against the concealed door, fall out, and wake up with security officers pointing guns at me. Not this guy though. He slipped out of the museum like it was nothing. I wondered if he’d even broken a sweat.
“The patience of a man with a huge payday coming. That’s a thing,” said Garrett, pausing to tap his pen against his chin. “I can’t conceive that he’d want to keep the jewels for himself. Black wasn’t living a luxury lifestyle, although his son’s school fees were a fair whack and the remaining funds covered collegetoo. He wouldn’t keep all those jewels for himself, so who was his buyer? It weren’t the person who shot him. If it were a double-cross, they’d have taken the jewels. And what was he planning to do after he sold them? Even with the red-hot discount fee, I don’t see someone with that kind of cash retiring here to put their feet up. Where’s the thrill in living a mundane life after committing that kind of heist?”
“Whoever killed him was as dumb as rocks not to search his body before they buried him.”
Garrett dropped his pen and stroked his jaw. “Perhaps that’s what we’re dealing with. A killer who wasn’t necessarily dumb but didn’t know what was right within reach.”
“If that’s the case, it means Black was killed for another reason.”
“There’s probably a bunch of reasons to kill Black. A man like that could have made enemies throughout his life. Both direct and indirect.”
“You mean, the people who knew him, and the people who didn’t know him but knew what he stole.”
“Precisely.” Garrett contemplated something for a moment. “It’s been surprising to me that Black’s name hasn’t come up in reference to any other high-end thefts but I wonder if I’ve been looking in the wrong place. I feel like I should put a call in to the Feds. Maddox investigates major crimes like that.”
“He was interested in the jewels earlier,” I said. “Maybe give him a call. He’d definitely appreciate the heads-up if there are any similarities to his case.”
“Any idea what he’s working?”
“No, only that it involves jewels and his suspect is a Caucasian woman, and she’s in her thirties so way too young to be associated with Black.”
“Father or son?” asked Garrett.
“I meant the father, but who knows about the son? Gideon…it feels weird to call him that… is a conman and he didn’t only steal jewels…” I mulled it over in my mind, my thoughts not quite connecting, while Garrett watched me, waiting patiently. “I guess they have something in common.”
“Or possibly are in competition with each other. Stranger things have happened.”
“He could just be trying to steal our case.”
“Likely, but I’m not stubborn enough to swat away any help Maddox might be able to give,” Garrett said as he reached for his desk phone before stretching. He sat up a little straighter when his call was answered and said, “Hey! Special Agent Maddox, it’s Lieutenant Graves over at MPD… No, I don’t know why I announced myself so formally either… Itiswork-related though… No, my crazy sister isn’t with me. As if!” He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “It’s about that high-end theft I’m looking into and I hoped you might shed some light on the name I’ve got. Charles or Charlie Black. I’m not getting any hits in our databases. Can you run it through yours? That’s great. Appreciate it, buddy.” Garrett set the phone down. “He’ll call back.”
“I can’t believe he called me your crazy sister,” I hissed in indignation.
“Let’s assume he meant Serena. That way, I wasn’t lying.”
“That’s fair. She is actually crazy. Unlike me. I’m just average nuts.”
Almost as soon as Garrett took his hand off the handset, it rang again.
“Lieutenant Graves?” the voice drifted through the receiver.
“Detective Phipps, thanks for calling back.” Garrett hit the speakerphone button again and I scooched closer to listen.
“I skimmed the file and I gotta say, it’s pretty thin for anything concrete. Plenty of notes about dead leads. However, I noticed something when I was taking a look at the photos of thecontractors who were fitting out the museum. You remember I said, we investigated those guys and didn’t find anything? Well, I noticed the photo of your guy looks a heck of a lot like one of the guys on the maintenance crew we interviewed. He’s got a few days’ stubble in our pictures and his hair is different but it’s easy for guys to change their appearance like that. He didn’t stand out at the time because he was still working for the company the last time we checked, which was two months later.”