My hands shook when I reached over and plucked the flowers from the vase. They were cut short, and after I tossed them onto the top of the dresser I grabbed the vase and tipped the lip into my hand.
I wasn’t all that surprised when thirteen near-perfect diamonds rolled out into my palm. Surprised, no, but my heart raced and felt as if it were missing every third or fourth beat. I found myself thinking the unthinkable. Was Tanya more involved with Destiny than it first appeared? Had the two of them been playing me for a sucker?
I knew Destiny had spent time in the house, and she could very well have placed them there at any time. She could have given the vase to Tanya as a gift. Those were only a couple of the innocent possibilities.
Then there were the possibilities that turned my thoughts dark. Was Tanya involved from the start? Was she using me like Destiny had? Was she really in danger?
I couldn’t answer any of these questions to my satisfaction, and I had a heavy heart when I tucked the diamonds into my jeans pocket. Despite my fears, I turned back to my search for the key to the gun.
While I moved over to search the desk, I forced my thoughts away from the diamonds. Instead, I asked myself why someone would buy a gun and render it impossible to use in an emergency.
If the closeness of the gun gave Tanya comfort, she’d set herself up for a big fall. I’ve found that anyone who owns a gun and isn’t prepared to use it might as well give it away. It’s better to run at the first sign of trouble than to falsely believe you can get to a hidden or locked gun fast enough to save yourself.
I spent the better part of an hour searching without success for the key, but I did find some disturbing information about Tanya.
In the top drawer of her desk I came across a stack of past due bills. Some were over ninety days past due, others only a week. I added them up in my head and they totaled over twenty thousand dollars. On top of this, I found her checkbook. To my dismay, it was overdrawn in the amount of one hundred and thirteen dollars.
I placed the bills and checkbook back where I’d found them and shook my head. I wanted with all my heart to give Tanya the benefit of the doubt, but I was having trouble doing so. There was no way I was going to desert her, but I wasn’t going to turn my back on her anytime in the near future either.
In a fit of anger, I tossed the useless gun back into the drawer where I’d found it and stomped out of the room. I needed caffeine and I needed sugar, and I was damn well going to take care of those needs before my meeting with Elvis.
Chapter 27
I didn’t want to walk around town with a fortune in diamonds in my pocket and I wanted to find a secure hiding place to stash the stones. I wasn’t familiar enough with the house to be aware of any good hiding places, so after some consideration I decided to bury them in the backyard.
Once I’d made the decision, I headed to the kitchen. It only took a couple of minutes of poking around in the cupboards to find what I wanted, a small plastic container. I placed all but one of the stones into the container, shoved the loose one deep into my pocket, and dug around in the drawers looking for a large serving spoon. When I found one, I walked outside.
I looked around for a good spot that would be easy to find again, and my gaze settled on a small cactus planted along the back fence. Hunching my shoulders against the rain I ran across the yard, knelt beside the cactus, and began digging with the spoon.
The rain had softened the dirt and I had no trouble digging a hole large enough to hold the plastic container. Once I’d placed the diamonds into the ground, I covered the container, spread the excess dirt around, and using my fingers I raked half-a-dozen pebbles over the spot before heading back into the house.
My shorts were mud stained and my shirt and hair were soaked. I pulled off my clothes, took a quick shower and changed into my last clean pair of shorts and the Sloppy Joes t-shirt Tanya had bought me.
The last thing I did was transfer the loose diamond to my clean shorts. The stone in my pocket was my insurance policy. I knew Destiny was going to demand proof I had the diamonds before she let Tanya go. Since she couldn’t know I’d found the stash in Tanya’s bedroom, I was going to have to sell her on the idea that I managed to get away from the cops with the batch of diamonds in her purse. I was pretty sure she wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the stones the police had and the ones I’d found.
I was almost ready for a cup of coffee. First, I ran back into Tanya’s room and made another quick search for the key to the gun, but I was out of luck.
I felt uneasy going through her things again. Tanya’s presence was everywhere in the room. From the lingering scent of her perfume to the stuffed animals she kept on her bed, I could feel her. Despite the circumstantial evidence, I refused to believe I’d been wrong about her. The fact that Tanya was in debt didn’t mean she was in cahoots with Destiny, or so I kept telling myself. Maybe I didn’t want to believe Tanya was capable of deceiving me, or maybe I couldn’t admit that two different women had conned me in as many days.
On my way out I noticed a compact umbrella hanging from a hook in the kitchen and I grabbed it. It was still raining, a fine drizzle that had a dimming affect on paradise and my mood.
Since The Bad Ass Coffee Company was located only a couple of blocks from where my mother was staying, I called and asked her to join me. It was time to fill her in on what was happening, and I was glad when she answered. She agreed to meet me and said she would be there in thirty minutes.
The rain put a damper on foot traffic. The cars were bumper to bumper on Duval. I watched a long-legged woman pushing a baby stroller and carrying a blue and white umbrella dart in front of a gray Mercedes. The impatient driver braked, honked at her, and then opened his window and started shouting obscenities in a loud voice. Their actions made me shake my head, at the woman who thought nothing of endangering her child, and the driver who would arrive at his destination perhaps thirty seconds later because of her.
I arrived before my mother, which didn’t surprise me in the least. I ordered a cup of coffee and a muffin. Someone had left a copy of USA Today on a table next to the window, so I sat down, opened the paper, and dug into my muffin.
According to the paper, nothing much had changed in the world since Nick had been murdered on Smathers Beach. That was the big picture. In my own little snapshot of life I was overcome with the feeling that my world had gone topsy-turvy.
Death had been stalking me across the city. I’d lost a close friend. I’d fallen a little bit in love with Tanya. Of course, being a little bit in love is a lot like being a little bit drunk. You look at things through a hazy filter. When you come down off the high, you wonder what was real and what wasn’t.
I wanted to believe there was something between us, but I knew that if Tanya had helped Destiny steal the diamonds, it wasn’t going to work. Even if she had nothing to do with the murders, her participation in the theft would be a deception I couldn’t accept.
I glanced up twice when the door opened and watched strangers walk in. The third time I looked up, I saw my mother. It looked like she’d been crying. Her makeup was askew, her eyes were dark, and she appeared to have aged. I felt sorry for her. Besides me and work, Nick had been the only constant in her life for as long as I could remember-my life too. I was not surprised arranging for Nick’s cremation had taken a toll on her. Life’s a bitch, I thought, pushing the paper aside. And then it sometimes gets bitchier.
I felt an ache in the back of my throat and was overwhelmed with empathy for my mother. I stood and said, “Have a seat mother, and I’ll get you a coffee. Lots of cream, one sugar, right?”
She nodded, gave me a weak smile, and sat down while I grabbed my cup for a refill. When I returned with our coffees, she was staring at the front page of the paper.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
She folded the newspaper and set it aside. “It was harder than I thought, seeing Nick’s body. I’ve been in this business a lot of years and I’ve seen a lot of bodies. This was different.”
I reached out and touched her hand. She seemed surprised. “I’m sorry, mother. I cared for Nick too. He was the closest thing to a father I ever knew.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m going to pick up the urn this afternoon and fly back to Detroit this evening. Why don’t you come home with me?”
“I can’t. I’m not cut out for this kind of work. I wish you would realize that I’m much happier down here.”
