Garage Sale Diamonds (Garage Sale Mystery) (22 page)

“Not a problem,” said Roshan good-naturedly, “she’s outside in my car. May I bring her in?”

The Shannons exchanged glances. Was this wise? Would this help get to the bottom of the story or invite raw danger inside their house? Clearly, the diamonds’ owner knew the Shannons had them now and wanted them back.

“Yes,” Jason’s decision surprised Jennifer. “Please do bring her in.”

They accompanied Roshan to the front door and waited while she brought Zayneb to the porch and introduced her before they all returned to the living room.

The woman looked frightened, not like a mother recovering a loved doll for her child.

“Your hijab is lovely,” Jennifer observed. “Are you Muslim?”

Seeing Zayneb’s anguish, Roshan spoke for her. “Her name was Phoebe when she was Protestant before converting to Islam about twenty-five years ago. Remember how Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali? Well, Phoebe took the name ‘Zayneb.’” She sighed. “That’s what she’s asked friends to call her for this last quarter century.”

“What can you tell us about the doll?” Jennifer asked the young woman.

Zayneb wrung her hands. Too scared and tormented to invent a story, she knew she must get the doll before returning to those madmen at home. Nothing rang like the truth. “The doll belonged to my little girl but she hadn’t played with it for a long time. It lay in a box in the room our guest occupies. I found it high on a shelf there this morning and put it in Roshan’s sale. But our guest became,” she blanched at the memory, “terribly upset when he discovered the doll gone and sent me to find it. So here I am.” She lost her composure. “Please, please let me take it back to them.”

“To ‘them’?” Jason asked.

“Yes, to my husband and his guest.”

“Who is the guest?”

Roshan started to rebuke them for so many questions but wanted to hear this answer herself.

“I don’t know. Years ago, my husband said if a countryman visits the U.S. we would welcome him into our home. No one came for twenty-four years—until two days ago.”

“So your husband is not born in America like you?” Jason asked.

“No, he’s from the Middle-East, like our guest.”

“And their names?”

“Why all these questions?” Zayneb protested. “Would you please just kindly return the doll?”

Jennifer smiled guardedly. “First, we must ask our granddaughter if she’s willing to make the trade. Second, we’d like to know your name.”

Close to panic, Zayneb conceded in desperation, “My husband Mahmud’s last name and mine are the same: Hussein. Our guest is Ahmed. I don’t know his last name.”

“Thank you. Now excuse me a minute while I bring the little buyer.” Jennifer left, returning with Alicia, who clutched her doll protectively. “I’ve explained the situation to her but the decision is hers. Would you like to show her the doll you’re offering to trade?”

Roshan held the shoebox toward Alicia. The child removed the lid and rustled the tissue aside. “Oh,” she said before the rest saw what lay inside. “This doll is beautiful.” She lifted it out for all to see, then looked at her first purchase. “Are you sure your little girl will love this one again?”

Roshan spoke, “We are sure.”

“Then I will trade,” agreed Alicia, cradling her exotic new doll from India.

A gasp of relief escaped Zayneb’s lips. She covered her face with her hands to hide her tears.

“Are…are you all right, Zayneb?” Jennifer asked with concern.

Far from all right, Zayneb recovered quickly. “Yes, yes. When I return the doll, all will be well.”

But in her heart, she knew this was a lie.

50

Saturday, 7:17 PM

When the two women left moments later, the Shannons stood as if rooted in the foyer, confused by what they’d heard and what it meant.

“Oh, Jay. What will this Ahmed do when he finds the diamonds aren’t inside the doll?”

Moving fast, Jason locked the front door and hooked the safety chain. “I’ll set the security alarm and double-check door and window locks throughout the house. It’s dark now so we’ll close all the blinds. Probably not necessary but why take a chance? You do this floor and I’ll do upstairs. He didn’t add he’d load his pistol and put it in his pocket.

They hustled to secure the house and returned to the table. “Sorry to interrupt our meal,” said Jennifer, not wanting to upset the children. “Back to where we were before the doorbell rang.” But the children wanted to talk about the doll trading.

“Do you think someone will come with a trade for my jewelry box?” Christine wondered.

Milo pouted. “I won’t twade my dinosauws for anything, no matter what somebody bwings.”

“Then we won’t let that happen. Your dinosaurs are safe with you.” The boy smiled his relief.

“When we finish dinner, could we have our under-the-pillow gifts early?” Christine asked.

“Instead of when you go to bed?” Jennifer asked with mock surprise.

“We won’t have time to play with them then because we have to go to sleep. We’d have to wait until morning to enjoy them,” she explained.

Alicia added, “You could still call them under-the-pillow-gifts but not put them under the pillow.”

“Well thought out. Okay, just a minute.” Jennifer went to the laundry room cupboard, selected the surprises planned for that night and brought them to the table.

Stretching out the excitement, Jennifer asked, “Is there someone here named Christine?” A hand went up and she put a newspaper-wrapped present into it.

“Anyone named Alicia?” She distributed the second gift.

Anticipating what came next, Milo wiggled in his chair.

“Anyone here named Bill?”

“Bill? Not Bill. It’s Milo.”

“Anyone here named Milo?” He jumped up, nodding, to accept his gift.

“All right,” Jason instructed, “open them at the same time when I count to three.”

Afterward, Jennifer gathered up the pieces of torn newspaper. “Now how about taking your new toys to the playroom?” The children bustled down the stairs.

“A glass of wine?” Jason offered.” Jennifer nodded. He poured two and handed her one. They sipped in silence, each lost in thought.

“What should we do, Jay? When the men learn the diamonds are gone, will they come after them and after us? Bad enough that we’re here, but what about the children? Should we go to a hotel?”

Jason snapped his fingers. “I have an idea.” He grabbed the phone and dialed. “Hello, Adam?  How would you and Hannah like to spend the night at our house? Yes, I know it’s a strange request but it’s important; we need to talk with you about something. Sure, ask Hannah what she thinks…. You’ll come? Great and this may sound even stranger, but do you have the police cruiser at home tonight?... Good, would you mind driving it over here and parking in front of our house? Thanks. Yes,” Jason laughed, “I will have a good explanation.”

51

Saturday, 7:41 PM

“Zayneb, are you in danger?” Roshan asked with concern when they returned to her house.

“I…I don’t think so. But if anything ever happens to me, please find a way to watch over my girls, especially little Safia. And if…if the worst should happen, tell the police what you know.”

“Your talk frightens me. McLean has safe houses where abused women get help and guidance. Or we could call the police to stop him or put him in jail. A restraining order would keep him away from you. Let me help you make a better choice. At least stay with me tonight. Or if you think he’d come after you here, I’ll give you money for a hotel until you decide what to do next.”

“Thank you, dear Roshan, for caring so much. Getting the doll should solve their problem. Your help tonight made that possible. I must go now.” She hugged Roshan and hurried out the front door to her own porch.

The men waited at the door as Zayneb arrived. Mahmud snatched the doll from her. “Is this it?” Ahmed nodded as his host passed him the toy. He squeezed the doll’s soft torso for the hidden packets. Feeling none, he jerked open the doll’s clothes and tore apart the newly stitched seam. He fought for control. “What was hidden is gone. But where?”

Mahmud grabbed his wife roughly by the arm, but Ahmed put up a warning hand. “Tell us exactly what happened at that house.”

“Roshan went inside. I stayed in the car but they asked to meet me also. Roshan took me into their house. The husband and wife were friendly. They said their granddaughter who bought the doll should decide whether to trade it for the substitute doll we brought. The girl said yes, gave us this doll and we brought it straight home. I did exactly what you told me to do.”

“You removed nothing from the doll yourself?”

Zayneb looked stricken. “Of course not. I held the doll on my lap during the trip home while Roshan drove. It did not leave my hands for one minute.”

“They handed it to you in the way it is now?”

“Yes, the granddaughter carried it to us in the living room from the kitchen and gave it to me when she took the new one we brought.”

“Anything else we should know?”

“As Allah is my witness, I did what you asked and I told you everything that happened.”

“Go, then, and wait for me upstairs.” The raw anger in Mahmud’s voice scared her but she obeyed instantly. She heard the men close the study door as she hurried up the steps.

Trapped by circumstance, Ahmed had no choice now but to confide his plight to Mahmud.  “Hidden inside the doll were packets containing 290 highest quality diamonds. Add ten more I left with the Russians this morning for their expert to assess and the total is 300. From the Great Leader’s own hands, I brought these stones nearly 10,000 miles sewn into my ragged clothes. When the Russians phone me accepting the diamonds, they’ll expect the remaining diamonds to pay for the weapons, arms and vehicles needed for our attack.  That meeting is Monday morning. We have until then to produce the missing stones.”

Mahmud pondered. “What hands touched the doll after it left your room? Zayneb took it to Roshan’s sale next door. Would she remove the stones? I don’t think so. She is too simple a woman to think of that. Then the Jennifer woman and her grandchildren took the doll home. The people in that house must know where the diamonds are. Shall we confront them tonight? We can invent a story about how you own the diamonds and ask for your property back. They may choose to return your property the easy way or we can wrest it from them the hard way.”

“And what if they deny knowledge of the diamonds or admit they found them but refuse to return them? This is a fortune worth millions of dollars,” Ahmed pointed out. “They’ll want to keep it.”

“So what next? We can’t get the diamonds back if we don’t confront them, but when we do they will tell the police. So we must kill them. There’s no other way.”

Ahmed sighed. “Yes, you are correct. But when the dead family is found, you said police will search tirelessly for us. Yet how could police trace our connection?”

“Wait, finding diamonds would seem big news for this family,” Mahmud said. “How many others have they told? If those others tell police about the gems, they’ll know the family’s dead because someone wanted their diamonds back.”

“But even if they know why the murders happened, how can they know who killed them?”

“Tonight they met Roshan and saw Zayneb. If others are told of this, police can follow that trail.”

“Get balaclavas to cover our faces and two silenced-pistols from your basement stash. Let’s solve this tonight.”

Thirty minutes later their car nosed into the Shannons’ residential community and down the dark street toward their house. Lights on behind their shade-drawn windows indicated the family was at home. As they approached, Mahmud uttered a strangled cry. “Allah, why do you curse us when our mission is for your great glory?”

They stared, frozen, at the police cruiser parked in front of the house.

52

Saturday, 8:32 PM

“Mom, this diamond story you’ve told us would be unbelievable for anyone but you,” Hannah said, noting nods also from Adam and her father as they sat on the sun porch.

Adam cleared his throat. “As it turns out, this may be part of an even bigger picture. What do you know about clairvoyance?”

“Now there’s a segue for you,” Jason chuckled.

Adam smiled. “Just hear me out before you decide. What do you know about clairvoyance, Dad?”

“Not much.” Jason searched his experience. “I’ve read psychics-for-hire scam gullible people into paying for pronouncements or predictions. Some skillful psychics make clients dependent enough to fear making decisions without the psychic’s input—that input available only for a fee. Or the psychic weaves a story about the client but leaves out the punch line, which the client must pay more to hear. Believe it or not, these charlatans can gather devout followings.”

“What about the other kind who don’t charge, don’t want publicity and are more puzzled than proud of their visions?”

“We could look it up on the internet, but the dictionary might give us a quick answer.” Jennifer grabbed the one above the kitchen desk. “Okay, let’s see what Merriam-Webster has to say. ‘Clairvoyant: unusually perceptive, having the power of discerning objects not present to the senses.’ Okay, next we’ll try psychic: ‘of or relating to the psyche; lying outside the sphere of physical science; sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces.’ And here it defines psyche: ‘the soul, the self or the mind.’ ”