Death Before Diamonds (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 10) (18 page)

CHAPTER
41

When I turned onto Edgewood Road
fifteen minutes later, the tree-lined lane was as placid and calm as it had
been during my first visit. As I sped past the spick and span bungalows with
their neatly manicured lawns, I saw two vehicles in the driveway at Bitsy
Curlew’s house: a white Buick Regal and a dark brown Ford F-150 pickup with New
Jersey plates. They both appeared to be empty, although the driver’s door on
the sedan was open and the radio was blaring.

I parked at the curb, stepped from
my car and paused to look around the immediate area. The only thing disturbing
the sun-splashed silence was the incessant
ping, ping, ping
chime announcing
that the keys were still in the Buick’s ignition.

Before proceeding up the driveway,
I sent a quick text to Dina:
Lansing
’s car at Bitsy Curlew’s. No sign
of Rex.

I slipped the phone into my pocket
and walked between the two vehicles. A quick glance into the pickup confirmed
my hunch; a Starbucks cup labeled
THEO
was on the floor near the
passenger door. As I turned to peer into the front seat, I heard someone
calling my name. When I swiveled around, Polly Ladd was halfway across her
front lawn.

“Something’s wrong,” she shouted,
gasping for air.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” she said,
reaching the edge of the driveway. “But I just called 911. I was coming home
from the store when I heard squealing tires and saw that car race up the street
and pull in beside the truck.”

“Did you see both drivers?”

She shook her head. “Only the one
in the white car; a young man, maybe early twenties. He was dressed in green
scrubs, like doctors wear. And no shoes. He was cursing up a storm and seemed
very upset. I watched him stomp up to the door and then I heard this huge boom
when he kicked it open with his foot.” Her eyes expanded in disbelief. “His
bare
foot!”

“What happened after that?”

She stopped to catch her breath.
“Well, about five minutes later, I saw him forcing Bitsy across the street.”

“What do you mean ‘forcing’ her?” I
asked. “Did he have a weapon?”

“It looked like a stun gun,” she
said. “It was yellow, so I knew it wasn’t a real pistol.

He had it pressed against Bitsy’s
back while he gripped one of her arms tightly with his other hand.”

I turned to look up and down the
street. There was no indication that anything unusual had transpired.

“Did you see where they went?” I
asked.

Polly’s head bobbed. “Right over to
Mildred’s.”

My phone vibrated, but I kept the
focus on Polly. I asked her to repeat everything that she’d just shared with
me. As she went over the events again, beginning with her return to Edgewood Road
and the frightening sight of Rex Greer pressing a Taser into Bitsy Curlew’s
back, my mind plunged down parallel tracks. I was listening to Polly’s account,
but also speculating about the likelihood that the brown pickup belonged to
Theo. And, if that was the case, why didn’t Polly see both of them guiding
Bitsy away from her house?

When Polly finished her description,
I suggested that she go home and stay inside.

“What’s going on?” she said
anxiously. “Do you think he’s going to hurt someone?”

“I don’t know, but he’s definitely
in a highly agitated state.”

“About what?” Polly’s eyes were
wide with fear and her hands were trembling.

“It’s a long—”

A muffled sound across the street interrupted
my reply.

“What was that?” Polly whispered.

Before I could answer, another
subdued
pop
,
pop
,
pop
came from the far side of the street.

“Get down!” I shouted, one hand on
Polly’s shoulder. “And stay down!”

“What is it?” Polly instantly
crouched between the Buick and the garage door. “What was that sound?”

“Gunshots,” I said firmly. “Now,
stay right where you are and don’t move!”

CHAPTER
42

Once Polly Ladd was out of harm’s
way, I started across the street. I was fairly certain that the gunshots had
come from Mildred Nelson’s house, and I wanted to sweep the area once before
the patrol car arrived in response to Polly’s call to 911.

When I was halfway up Mildred’s driveway,
I heard another volley of gunshots inside the bungalow. My heart began pounding
even more violently and my breath lodged in my throat.

I glanced left, then right,
deciding that the best bet was diving for cover behind a low stone wall that
encircled a birch tree in the front yard. I took two lurching steps, threw
myself forward and slammed into the ground with enough force to knock the air
from my lungs. A sudden, sharp pain exploded in my left side as I scrambled on
my hands and knees before rolling and tucking myself behind the wall.

While I concentrated on catching my
breath, I dug in my purse for my phone. Before I could get it out and dial 911,
I heard sirens in the distance.

Perfect
, I thought.
Just
hold your position and
—

Another torrent of shots erupted
inside the house.

I pressed against the wall,
listening to the propulsive thuds echo in my ears.

“Kate?”

It was Polly Ladd, calling from
across the street.

“Are you okay?”

I glanced quickly in her direction
to make sure she was still behind the car.

“Stay down!” I shouted.

It seemed like time had shifted
into an otherworldly realm; each second crawled by, each minute vanished
without assurance that another would follow. As I pressed against the cold,
damp stones, the sirens in the distance began to sound strange and distorted,
like a child’s toy instead of the real thing.

“Hurry up, guys,” I whispered. “The
situation isn’t getting any better over here.”

As I tried to estimate how close
the cars might be, I suddenly heard another sound: Mildred Nelson’s garage door
chugging into motion. It moved upward and curled along the ceiling, eventually
thudding into place with a metallic groan and a final shudder until the
entrance to the two-car space was uncovered.

I crept along the ground to peer
around the edge of the stone wall. If the gunshots didn’t start up again, I
would do my best to get a glimpse into the garage.

“Okay,” I said quietly. “One. Two.
Three.”

I rolled onto my side, strained my
neck and looked around the craggy limestone barricade.

The first thing that I saw was Theo
Greer. I recognized him from the flyer that Rex had brandished at Sky High
Pies. His face was turned toward the street, and he was flat on his back in an
expanding pool of blood.

For a split second, I considered my
options. I could stay put, waiting for the CCPD officers to arrive. Or I could
race into the garage and see if Theo was still alive.

My heart was thudding in my chest,
the strident, relentless response to the massive surge of adrenaline along with
the inexplicable impulse to help someone in need.

I held my breath to listen for the
sirens, but they still seemed impossibly far away. I quickly looked across the
street at the Ford pickup and white sedan. I could see Polly Ladd, huddled
behind the front of the car.

Stay right where you are
, I
thought.
Don’t even try to
—

Another burst of gunfire sounded
inside Mildred’s house. The shots were followed by more ghostly silence, the muted
echo of the muffled blasts and the sound of a door slamming open.

I took a deep breath, slid along
the ground and peered around the stone wall again.

Rex Greer stumbled from the house
into the garage, one hand pressed to his abdomen and the other hanging limply
at his side in the bloody sleeve of his sweatshirt.

“Theo,” he said, sinking to his
knees.

As I started to call Rex’s name,
there was another series of explosive blasts inside the tidy bungalow. Rex
instinctively looked over his shoulder, wincing in anticipation—or heartsick
dread—that the person firing the weapon would soon appear in the open doorway between
the house and the garage.

But the threshold remained empty.

And Rex went back to his brother,
slowly and carefully reaching out toward the lifeless form sprawled on the cold
concrete.

“Theo!” His voice was frayed and
weak. “Say something, Theo!”

I waited and watched, one shallow
breath after the next, until I heard the sirens moving up Edgewood Road. When I
looked down the street and saw the flashing red and blue lights, I pushed up
from my hiding space and raced along the driveway toward Rex and Theo.

“He’s hurt,” Rex said when he
noticed me approaching. “Mildred did this.”

CHAPTER
43

I rushed toward the brothers,
crouching beside Theo and pressing two fingers to the carotid artery in his
neck.

“Don’t let him die,” Rex pleaded.

There was a faint pulse, fragile
and retreating, as if he was gradually surrendering to the inevitable cleft
between life and death.

“Where’s Mildred?” I said quietly.

Rex looked at me, eyelids rising
and falling in the aftermath of whatever the Greer brothers had just endured
inside the house.

“Rex?” I raised my voice slightly.
“Where is Mildred?”

He swallowed hard, lifting his
chin. “She…she shot him,” he said through barely parted lips. “Then me.”

“What room is she in?”

He reached with the uninjured arm
and clamped his bloodstained hand around Theo’s wrist.

“Rex,” I said again. “The police
will be here in a matter of seconds. Where is Mildred?”

His jaw clenched repeatedly as he
took another long, slow breath. The growing volume of the sirens signaled that
the CCPD cruisers were almost to the house. I saw Rex’s eyes lift and expand as
the first car arrived.

“I didn’t call them,” he said,
frowning at the seemingly confusing development.

I repeated my question, asking again
where he last saw Mildred Nelson. I was still waiting for a reply when I heard
the fast drumming steps of someone running toward the garage.

“Police!” a man shouted. “Hands
up!”

I slowly looked toward the open
garage door. It was Denny Santiago, a veteran member of the force. Amanda
Crane, Denny’s longtime patrol partner, was a few feet behind and to one side.
They both had their service weapons aimed squarely at where I knelt with Rex
and Theo.

“Katie?” Denny’s voice was a tangle
of confusion and relief. “What’re you doing here?”

“Check inside,” I said. “The house
belongs to Mildred Nelson. I think Bethany Curlew is with her.”

“What’s going on?” he asked,
walking closer. “Who are these two?”

“Rex and Theo Greer,” I said.

Denny briefly conferred with
Amanda. Another patrol car was approaching and they decided to wait until the
other two officers had arrived before going inside.

“It’s been quiet for the past couple
of minutes,” I said. “There was one final round of shots after Rex came out.”

“Do you know what this is all
about?” Amanda said, stepping into the garage.

“Diamonds,” Rex said, keeping his
eyes on the faint movement of Theo’s chest. “My brother was going to blackmail
her into giving him half of the diamonds.”

Denny’s forehead crinkled.
“Diamonds?” he said. “We haven’t heard about any robberies in the area.”

I noticed Rex’s mouth twitch, but
he didn’t respond to Denny’s comment.

“It wasn’t around here,” I said.
“And it wasn’t recent.”

The two-way radio in the patrol car
crackled with the dispatcher’s voice.

“Is somebody going to help my
brother?” Rex moaned, bending forward so that his head was pressed against
Theo’s shoulder.

“Sir?”

I looked back and saw Mike Kramer,
one of the newest officers with the CCPD. He was walking slowly toward Rex with
one hand outstretched.

“Can I get you to come away from
him?”

Rex didn’t move. He held his
position as he mumbled repeatedly under his breath. Mike stepped closer,
reaching down and lightly touching Rex on the upper back.

“Sir?”

Rex suddenly lurched away from
Theo.

“Don’t touch me!” he seethed. “I’m
helping my brother.”

Mike Kramer’s facial expression
remained calm and unruffled as he looped one hand under Rex’s uninjured arm.

“I understand that,” Mike said.
“But I need you to come with me. The EMTs will be here at any moment. They’ll
take care of you both.”

While we waited to see what Rex
would do next, two more cruisers rushed to a stop at the end of the driveway. I
kept my eyes on him, studying the way his gaze shifted slightly from side to
side until it finally came to rest on Theo’s right hand. I hadn’t noticed the
black velvet pouch during the chaos, but my eyes fixed on the flowery script
that was embroidered in white thread against the dark fabric:
Diamond
Galleria,
Philadelphia
,
PA
.

CHAPTER
44

The table in the main conference
room at the Crescent Creek Police Department Headquarters was covered with
stacks of file folders, bowls filled with paper clips and a small arsenal of
staplers. It was two days after the chaotic scene in Mildred Nelson’s garage,
and I’d been called in by Trent and Dina to provide my final statement about
the case.

“Dina will be here in five,” Trent
said, bounding into the room. “You want anything to drink?”

“No, thanks,” I replied. “I had
something before I left home.”

“How was it today?” He settled into
a chair across from me and put the case file in his hand on the table. “Busy as
usual?”

I nodded. “Breakfast was pretty routine,
but lunch was nonstop.”

“That’s good,” Trent said. “I was
talking to Colin Drake yesterday. Things have been nuts over there since the
review hit the paper.”

“Pulled pork,” I said. “I heard all
about it, but haven’t tried it yet.”

Trent recoiled with surprise. “Are
you kidding me? What’s the holdup, Katie? That pulled pork is the best thing that
I’ve had in—”

“Sorry, sorry!” Dina blurted,
coming through the door. “Did you get my text?”

Trent looked at his phone. “Let me
check,” he said. “I’ve been talking to—”

“It doesn’t matter now,” she
interrupted, pulling out a chair beside me. “I was just letting you know that I
was running a few minutes behind schedule. The coroner had a few more details
about the Westbridge case.”

Trent nodded silently as Dina
flipped through the pages of her notepad. I waited while they both reviewed
their respective files. Then I asked how Mildred Nelson was doing behind bars.

“Not a happy camper,” Trent said.
“She complained about the thread count of the sheets.”

“What didn’t she complain about?”
Dina scoffed.

“Good point!” Trent smiled faintly.
“Luckily, she won’t be with us forever. We’re expecting a warrant for
extradition to Pennsylvania on the Diamond Galleria robbery and murder charges.
Since Theo and Rex both survived, Mildred will be charged here in Colorado with
attempted murder along with a slew of other felonies before she’s returned to
face murder charges in Philadelphia.”

“Did she confess to a role in the
diamond heist?”

Trent smiled. “Confess?” he said
sarcastically. “She was like a tone-deaf canary, singing a tune that had almost
as many lies as flat notes.”

“What about Bethany Curlew?” I
asked. “What are you charging her with?”

“Most gullible human on the planet?”
Trent said, barely smiling. “Or maybe lack of common sense?”

Dina cleared her throat. “Trent? Some
decorum, please?” She flared her eyes angrily before turning slightly in her
chair. “I think what Deputy Chief Walsh intended to say was that we’re charging
Bethany with felonious assault for her role in the attack on Rex Greer.”

“As well as lack of common sense,” Trent
said again. “Up until the moment that her mother shot Theo, Bethany had believed
every word out of Mildred’s mouth for the past six years. The story about
inheriting millions from a distant relative? Check! Bethany believed it. The
lies about why Theo was in Crescent Creek? Check again! Bethany completely
accepted her mother’s explanation that he was trying to steal some of Mildred’s
inheritance.”

“Are you saying that Bethany had no
knowledge of the Diamond Galleria heist?” I asked.

Trent shook his head. “Not at all,”
he said. “I mean, she knew about it at the time because her mother worked
there. But Bethany claimed that she was clueless about Mildred’s role in the
actual heist. It’s the same old song and dance; she believed what she wanted and
ignored the rest.”

“Sounds like plenty of folks that I
know,” I said.

Trent scowled. “None of which are
in this room, right?”

“Absolutely,” I said. “Present
company excluded.”

“Good,” he said. “I’d hate to think
that you’d lump me and Dina in the same category as Bethany Curlew.”

“Speaking of which,” I said. “Did
she give you anything?”

Dina turned in her chair again.
“Does indigestion count?”

Trent laughed. “You bet it does!
Bethany Curlew will be a good witness for the state, despite the fact that
she’s one of the least likable people I’ve ever met in my life.”

I laughed. “Worse than Bobby Turkington?”

Trent’s face lit up. “Oh! I haven’t
thought about Turkey Turkington for a million years! What’s he up to these
days?”

Dina said something that was too
soft to hear. When Trent asked her to repeat it, she told us that Bobby
Turkington was living the high life in La Jolla after selling his tech start-up
to Google for more than one hundred million.

“Oh, yeah?” Trent’s smile melted.
“Maybe I should’ve been nicer to him back in school.”

“Maybe,” Dina agreed. “Now, Kate? I
have a couple of questions for you.”

I smiled and waited.

“Do you know how Rex found Bethany
and Mildred?”

“Didn’t he tell you?”

“He fell asleep at some point
during the interrogation,” she said. “When he woke up a few hours later, he had
a high fever and a badly infected incision. He’s back in the hospital, and the
doctor told us that it would be another day or two before we can interview him
again.”

“I still think that’s extreme,” Trent
griped. “I mean, the guy’s a witness to a crime. Can’t they dose him with
antibiotics, stick an IV in his arm and give him a Jell-O cup? We need to move
this along, detective.”

Dina fixed her eyes on Trent,
glaring silently for a moment or two. Then she looked back in my direction.

“Please ignore the man behind the
curtain,” she said. “Deputy Chief Walsh has obviously been switched for a bad imitation
of Oscar the Grouch.”

Instead of defending his honor, Trent
smiled and opened a case file that was on the table.

“How far did you get with Rex?” I
asked.

Dina checked her notes. “We made
pretty good progress,” she said. “He retraced his steps after leaving Philadelphia.
Apparently, once he learned that Theo had located Arlene or Mildred or whatever
you want to call her, Rex decided to follow. He used geotag data from a series
of pictures that Theo posted online.”

“Did you know that whenever you
take a picture with your smartphone,” I asked, “it puts a bunch of hidden
information in the picture?”

“Uh…” Dina frowned faintly. “What’s
that, Katie?”

“Never mind,” I said. “I wanted to demonstrate
some of my newfound tech knowledge.”

She smiled at the remark and went
back to her interview notes.

“Okay, so Rex used geotag data to
track Theo to the motel in Frisco,” she continued. “They went to a bar down
there, had a few drinks and then ended up in a nasty brawl because Rex insisted
that he accompany Theo to Crescent Creek for the confrontation with Mildred.”

“And Theo had different plans?”

“Always,” she said with a laugh.
“He’s the big brother. He didn’t want Rex anywhere near Mildred and Bethany for
the exact reason that we’re dealing with now.”

“Shootout?”

“Something like that,” Dina said.
“Theo knows her fairly well. Or, to be more accurate, he
knew
Mildred
back in the day. He was aware that she’d do absolutely
anything
to
protect her property.”

“Isn’t that ironic?” Trent interjected.
“She shot those two brothers
after
she gave up some of the diamonds.”

“Thin skin,” Dina said. “Huge ego. When
Theo proved that he had her on tape confessing to the heist and two murders, he
gave her the recording in exchange for a small quantity of diamonds. And Mildred
actually believed that was his only copy of the tape.”

“Ah, the old bait-and-switch trick?”
I smiled. “He double crossed her and then couldn’t resist telling her off as he
was leaving?”

Dina shrugged. “But it wasn’t worth
the modicum of glee he must’ve felt for almost tricking Mildred. The guy took
two fairly devastating hits, one to his upper chest and one to his midsection.”

“What’s the prognosis?”

She answered with another shrug.
“Touch and go, based on what Dr. Lansing had to tell us.”

“I hope he pulls through,” I said.

“We all do,” Trent agreed from the
far side of the table. “Trying to blackmail Mildred was a fool’s errand, but he
didn’t deserve what he got.”

Dina flipped through her notepad,
running one finger down each new page as she quickly scanned the lines of text.

“Here’s something,” she said,
looking up and smiling. “Did you suspect that Bitsy was involved in assaulting Rex?”

I nodded. “Not at first,” I said.
“But when she lied about knowing Rex and Theo Greer, I started to have doubts
about her.”

“When did you first suspect that
she wasn’t being truthful?”

“It was the picnic photo,” I
answered. “The one that I downloaded from the Diamond Galleria website.”

Dina shrugged silently, but the
quizzical look on my face got the message across.

“I sent it to you guys,” I added.
“It showed ten or twelve people standing beside a picnic table loaded with
food. Bethany was in the front row since she’s on the short side, and the Greer
brothers were in the back on the right.”

“I don’t know if I saw that or not,”
Dina said. “But I’ll take your word for it.”

Trent tapped his knuckles on the
table. Dina and I both turned to find him grinning like an ill-behaved
schoolboy.

“I have a question,” he said.

“What’s that?” asked Dina.

“Did you two know that Mildred
Nelson owns three houses on Edgewood Road?”

Dina glanced at me and smiled.
“Yes,” she said. “Does this mean you read the case file, Deputy Chief Walsh?”

He glowered. “No, it means that I
ran into Eugene Crisp at a poker game last night.”

Dina dropped her pen, folded her
arms on the table and put her head down.

“Tired, detective?” Trent asked.

Dina mumbled something. Then she
lifted her head and said, “Katie uncovered that information by talking to Eugene’s
assistant. And her initial statement is in the case file, but I guess you’ve
been too busy playing cards and smoking cigars to make time for a little light
reading.”

Trent’s face was a furrowed collage
of annoyance, shock and indignation.

“I didn’t get to finish my
thought,” he said. “What I was going to say was, I ran into Eugene and he
confirmed what was in your case file.”

Dina pressed her lips into a tight,
flat line. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m running out of steam.” Her eyes darted to
the clock at the far end of the room. “Maybe we should wrap this up. I can
always call you, Katie, if we need more.”

I nodded. “Whatever’s helpful.”

“Another Ooey Gooey Butter Cake
would be incredibly helpful,” Trent suggested.

Dina didn’t even bother to
acknowledge his quip. Instead, she asked me if I knew why Bethany Curlew
visited Rex Greer in the hospital when he was first admitted.

“From what Rex told me in Mildred’s
garage,” I said, “it was to let him know about Theo. He drove over from
Palisade, went to Bethany’s house and told her the truth about the robbery back
in Philadelphia. Then he went across the street to confront Mildred about
attacking Rex. I guess that’s when Bethany raced over to the hospital.”

“Are you kidding me?” Dina asked.

I shrugged, both palms toward the
ceiling. “I’m just repeating what I was told. I didn’t make up any of this.”

Trent pushed his chair away from
the table. “What about the other one?” he said.

“Which other one?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed. “The other woman
from Edgewood Road.”

Dina sighed. “Do you mean Polly
Ladd?”

“Yeah!” Trent said brightly.
“That’s the one. What’s up with her? Was she involved in any of this?”

“No,” Dina said firmly. “She was
out of town when Rex was attacked. Despite the best attempts by Mildred and her
daughter to somehow implicate their neighbor, Polly is completely innocent.
Although we’re pretty certain that Mildred drove Polly’s car the night that she
took Rex back downtown after he turned up on Bethany’s doorstep looking for her
mother.”

“Aren’t they all old friends?” Trent
asked. “From back east?”

“I don’t know if friends would be
the first word out of their mouths,” Dina said with a dark smile. “But you’re
right; they met when Theo and Mildred worked together at the jewelry store.”

“What about the phone calls?” I
asked. “Do you know how Rex got Mildred and Bethany’s numbers?”

Dina raised one eyebrow. “Hacked
his brother’s phone,” she said. “On one hand, the guy seems as bright as a dark
room. On the other, his skills with technology seem to be top-notch. According
to Mr. Headley—that’s his parole officer in Philadelphia—Rex completed all of
the computer and IT classes available during his years in prison. Headley
arranged an apprenticeship for Rex at a computer repair company. If, that is,
he can keep his act together.”

Trent’s phone vibrated on the
table. He checked the screen, flashed a grim look at Dina and announced that
they both had another meeting starting in five minutes.

“Is it too late to call in sick?”
she said, gathering her notes.

Trent stood, stretched his arms
overhead and picked up the file that he’d been reading.

“Katie?” he said. “On behalf of the
Crescent Creek Police Department, the State of Colorado and the people of our
fair town, I’d like to thank you for lending a hand with this case.”

I nearly fell out of my chair.
Compliments from Deputy Chief Walsh were as infrequent and ephemeral as Halley’s
comet.

“Thanks, Trent,” I said, feeling my
face grow warm. “I’m happy to help you and everyone at the CCPD. I know that it
may seem like—”

“This isn’t the Oscars, Katie,” Trent
muttered as he headed for the hallway. “You don’t need to make an acceptance
speech.”