Scottsdale Heat: a romantic light-hearted murder mystery (Laura Black Mysteries Book 1) (28 page)

Boris pulled his cell phone out. He speed dialed a number and spoke into the phone for thirty seconds in a low murmur. There was a pause as Boris passed the information to Ivan. Ivan took the phone and listened intently for almost a minute. Ivan spoke one sentence and gave the phone back to Boris who listened for a full minute. Boris then spoke two or three sentences. Without disconnecting the phone, Boris placed it on the table. Boris and Ivan talked to each other in rapid-fire Russian and then seemed to come to a mutual agreement.

Ivan separated from Boris in a way that made me think of a two-man military team preparing to go into combat. Boris spoke to DiCenzo in a loud voice that was meant to carry, not only to all of us in the room, but to those on the phone as well.

“Mr. DiCenzo, there is a problem here. The electronic transfer was for two million dollars fewer than we have agreed to. Please explain the meaning of this!”

Smith spoke up, “That is for your incompetence in losing the diamonds. It is our fee for making us hunt like dogs to get them back. You are lucky to get as much as you did, take our money and be at peace.”

Boris pulled a semi-automatic pistol from a shoulder holster and leveled it at Smith’s head. “I must inform you we are under strictest orders to not permit you to leave until Moscow is wired the additional two million dollars.”

Jones pulled a pistol from behind the small of his back and pointed it at Boris’ chest. “Take the diamonds,” Jones quietly said to Smith, who in turn walked over and picked up the briefcase. Ivan pulled his piece and brought it to bear on Jones.

From behind the bar, Gabriella brought out an Uzi and leveled it at the two brothers. A smile of pleasure was lighting up her face. Max was next to Tony in an instant, pistol drawn. Smith had also pulled a piece and was pointing it at Ivan. It had quickly become a stalemate, a Mexican standoff.

Tony and Max looked at each other. I saw volumes of information pass between them, although neither spoke a word. Tony then looked at the ground and shook his head. I heard him mutter, “I don’t fuckin’ believe it.”

Max lifted his free hand to his mouth and quietly talked into it. He then gave Tony a slight nod. Tony seemed to relax slightly.

“Boys,” Tony said. “This don’t help nobody. The price was agreed on weeks ago and the merchandise has been delivered as promised. So, Mr. Smith, either wire Moscow the rest of the money or this deal don’t go down at all. I’ve got a dozen men in and around this building. You ain’t gonna get even one diamond out of here unless this whole deal goes down smooth.

“Oh, but you are wrong, filth, we
can
take the diamonds. We will now be allowed to walk out with the diamonds, or everybody here dies.” Jones then unzipped and opened his jacket. He was wearing a vest packed with enough explosives to blow the building apart three times over.

“Jesus Christ!”
Tony moaned, more in exasperation than from fear.

I dove behind a desk and looked around to see if there was a way out. So, OK, guns I can sorta tolerate. Bombs I can’t.

Gabriella stood there looking at Tony and Max for instructions. From the look of joy on her face, I could tell she was hoping for a shootout. It’s funny, but as I looked closer, I saw her look was more than just joy. She was panting and her face had taken on a light pink glow, the exact same look Sophie gets whenever she is about to be with a man. It was a look of growing erotic ecstasy.

Wow! Go figure that one out.

Tough Tony DiCenzo just stood there. His eyes had narrowed and he looked pissed. Max was talking into one hand. His gun was still in the other.

The brothers started yelling in their weird language and the Russians started yelling in Russian. Neither side was doing a lot to calm the situation.

On the back wall of the office, underneath the window, a panel approximately three feet wide by four feet high swung open, creating a small doorway to the outside. Johnny Scarpazzi’s face appeared in the opening, beckoning DiCenzo to come through.

Moving with the grace of a cat, Gabriella moved from behind the bar and positioned herself next to this new door. Max pushed DiCenzo in her direction. I saw Max was acting as Tony’s bodyguard while Gabriella covered their escape. Max looked over and motioned for me to follow.

We formed a line. DiCenzo was in the lead. Max was in the middle, acting as sentry. I was at the end, hoping they would both go faster. The yelling was getting louder and I didn’t think it would be very much longer until somebody started shooting.

DiCenzo made it to the door. I saw several pairs of hands waiting to pull him to safety. Suddenly, a voice cried out. It was Smith.

“American! You will not escape. If I am to die today, so shall you!” With that, Smith spun around and fired at DiCenzo.

As soon as Smith turned, Max was in the air, diving in front of DiCenzo. The bullet from Smith’s gun hit Max squarely in the chest. The impact of the slug knocked him into Gabriella, who was sighting the Uzi at Smith. The arm holding her Uzi was knocked upward. There was a loud
Buuuuurp
as a dozen bullets sprayed the ceiling. As she pulled the trigger, I saw her lips had tightened into a tight moan of ecstasy.

Arms reached in and pulled Max through the opening. Gabriella was on her back. She was trying to get up, but the impact of Max’s body had knocked her senseless. I saw her shaking her head in an effort to clear her vision.

Smith took aim at Tony’s head. DiCenzo just turned and stood facing the man. He didn’t try to run. I guess he’s not the type to back down, even in death.

I was crouched along the back wall, next to the window. Jones was still in a standoff with the two Russians. Their eyes were all locked onto each other. Each was waiting for the other to flinch.

Seeing that DiCenzo wasn’t running, Smith smiled, savoring the moment. I saw his finger tighten on the trigger. Without thinking, I lunged at Smith’s gun. I hit him against the side of his arm just as he fired. He was solidly built and I merely bounced off, but it was enough for his shot to go wild. The bullet struck the wall slightly to the left of where DiCenzo still defiantly stood.

At the sound of the shot, Jones turned. It was just for a moment, but that was enough. Boris and Ivan each shot simultaneously. I didn’t see where Jones was hit, but I saw him start to go down. That was good enough for me.

Gabriella had made it to her knees and was bringing the Uzi to bear on Smith, who had just turned back to fire at the Russians. Then everybody started shooting.

I felt a hand grab me by the shoulder and DiCenzo tossed me across the room in the direction of the escape door. I landed hard and I felt my lungs empty out with an
ooof
. Several pairs of hands yanked me through the door.

I stood up and turned. As if in a slow motion dream, I looked back and saw DiCenzo being pulled out of the building. Gabriella was next. She was still firing her Uzi into the building even as she was being drug out. Goons surrounded us and we all limped toward a waiting line of cars.

I heard more shots being fired from the inside of the building. It seemed like Boris, Ivan, Smith, and Jones were going to finish each other off after all.

I looked ahead and saw Max being helped into the back seat of a car. His eyes were dazed but open and very much alive. I looked but didn’t see any blood. In my slow motion time frame, that sight both surprised and pleased me. I wanted to go to the car and find an explanation as to why he was still alive but my legs weren’t responding. Johnny Scarpazzi was waving his arm and shouting that we had to get out on the back road.

I stumbled four or five steps away from the building when there was a blinding flash and a tremendous explosion. Something that felt like a big warm hand gave me a hard shove. I flew forward ten feet and landed on my face. Pieces of the building landed all around me.

I got up and took a step toward the car. Suddenly, something smashed against my head. Bright lights danced in front of me. I went down to my knees as I felt the pain of the impact. The bright spots were now black spots. The blackness grew until the daylight faded and was gone. The pain faded. Then there was nothing.

When I came to, I was in a semi-private room of a very modern hospital and I had a bitch kitty of a headache. On the bed next to mine was Max. His shirt was off and there was tape wrapped around his ribs. He looked surprisingly good for someone who had taken a bullet in the chest. He was awake and he smiled when he saw me.

“I thought you’d be dead,” I mumbled. I found it hard to focus my thoughts and my words were coming out with difficulty.

“Hope I didn’t disappoint you.”

“No, I’m happy to see you’re alive. What happened? I saw you get shot.”

“Bullet-proof vest.”

“Oh, I didn’t think tough guys like you were into things like that.”

“After today, I may never take it off.”

I looked out the window and saw the orange glow of a sunset or maybe a sunrise. It was hard to tell which it was.

“How long have I been out?”

“You’ve been out about 14 hours, but you haven’t been unconscious the whole time. You woke up a couple of times last night. They’ve wheeled you in and out of the room several times. You’ve had X-Rays, CAT scans, MRIs, and I don’t know what else. So far, they’ve been letting you sleep it off and no one’s in a panic over you. I take that as a good sign.”

“That still doesn’t explain what happened to me.”

“You got hit with a shoe. I saw it happen. The explosion must have shot it pretty high in the air. When it fell, it landed on your head.”

“A shoe shouldn’t have knocked me out.”

“Well, umm, there was still a foot and part of a leg in it. I think it was Smith’s.”

Uuggh.

Black spots danced in front of my eyes and I fell back on the pillow.

~~~~

When I woke up again the room was much brighter. I was guessing it was around mid-day. Max was still there, now with a shirt on, reading a book. Somehow, I was disappointed he was fully dressed. I kind of liked it the other way.

“Welcome back,” he said. “How do you feel?”

I thought about it for a moment. The headache was gone and I wasn’t feeling fuzzy anymore. “Better,” I said. “I actually feel better.”

“Good,” he said. “When we get out of here, you and I have some unfinished business.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault the building blew up. They just started shooting at each other. You can’t expect bullets and bombs to live in harmony. Sooner or later something’s going to explode.”

“I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the kiss we had at Lenny’s office. After all we’ve been through I think you owe me another one. Although this time I’m going to kiss you without your friends watching. I hate short kisses.”

Oh, boy.

~~~~

Five minutes later, Tony DiCenzo came into the room. Milo and Sophie followed him. She was carrying a bouquet of flowers. My heart was still pumping double time from my conversation with Max.

“Hey Laura, these are for you,” Sophie said, laying the flowers on the table by my bed. “I thought you’d never wake up. We’ve been in here most of the night and all morning. The doctors say you check out OK. You can go home anytime you want.”

“Tony,” I asked. “Is everything OK?”

“It’s been a long night for all of us. Everybody’s been very busy. Milo, would you mind escorting Miss Rodriguez back to her place of employment so she can pick up her car? Max and I need to talk with Miss Black for a few minutes longer.”

Milo acknowledged the order and turned to leave.

“Looks like I’ll be seeing you
later
,” Sophie said.

From the look on her face and the tone of her voice, I doubted she would let Milo stop at just taking her back to her car. I hoped Milo had a good strong heart.

When we were alone, DiCenzo pulled up a chair and positioned it between Max’s bed and mine.

“We’ve had us quite a time yesterday and last night,” He said. “I thought those guys were going to conduct business with some honor. Maybe I shoulda known better, but I’ve dealt with them before and everything went OK. Of course, if somebody goes into it with the intention of stirring things up there isn’t a lot you can do about it.”

“Did everybody get away OK?” I asked.

“Everybody but Reinhardt. We knew the cops had been trailing him so we had set up a diversion to free him up. After that, he drove his car to within a few miles of the buy. One of my guys then shuttled him back and forth, I thought that would do the trick. Unfortunately, the cops weren’t fooled as long as we had hoped for. One stopped Ice just after he got back to his car and had driven about a mile. Ice didn’t have anything incriminating on him when he was stopped, of course. The cop questioned him for a while, wanted to know what he had been doing all afternoon, and searched his car. Then the cop let him go. They might later try to tie him with the explosion and the bodies, but I doubt it. When the cop stopped Reinhardt he was a good five miles away from the building that blew. They might not even make the connection at all. But, in the end, they’ll have nothing.”

“Won’t the police make a connection with the guys in the building and you? They must have come into the country using passports. They stayed in your hotel. Doesn’t that leave a trail?”

“Fortunately, none of them were traveling under their real names. The police won’t have a clue who they were. We show them as checking out the day Alex disappeared. How could any of this be out fault?”

“What about your building?” I asked. “Buildings don’t just blow up by themselves.”

“We had a team in the building before the fire department arrived. They scattered enough money and drugs around to give the cops something interesting to think about. I don’t think we’ll have any problems there. They know the resort belongs to me, but other than there is nothing to tie our guys to it. It’ll just go down as another drug deal that went bad.”

“Won’t the police find the diamonds scattered in with the bodies?”

“Fortunately, my guys were able to recover most of the diamonds. The steel briefcase they was in took most of the explosion. It was burnt and ripped but still mostly intact. We’ll be able to turn over all but five of the diamonds, including the three Alexander sold. The Consortium is sending over a couple of new guys to pick ‘em up. Max will lead the team in charge of the handover.”

“You’re still giving the diamonds to them? After what happened?”

“Sure, they paid for them. We’ve found out the Consortium never authorized the reduction in payment. As far as they knew, the full sum was transferred. Smith and Jones decided to skim on the deal themselves. The loss of the bag made too perfect of an excuse for them to pass up. With the help of an accomplice in the Consortium, they diverted the two million into a private account in the Cayman Islands. Fortunately, the deal was set up so quickly they were sloppy about it and the transaction was easily traced.

The Consortium has already wired the remainder of the money to Moscow. They’ve apologized to both the Russians and to me for their irresponsible men. They even offered to buy me a new building to make up for the one that blew up.”

“Are the Russians in Moscow OK with the apology?” I asked.

“OK enough to wire my fee. Our two Russians left their phone line open after they had finished receiving instructions. Moscow heard the whole thing. There’re convinced our two dead Consortium friends were acting independently and both paid for their stupidity with their lives.

What I can’t believe is Smith and Jones thought the Russians would accept less than full payment, or they could steal all those diamonds just because they had a bomb. If that were the case, guys would be bringing bombs every time anybody made an exchange. They made a serious miscalculation and it cost them.”

“I’m surprised Moscow and the Consortium aren’t more upset.”

“Actually, the deal went down pretty smoothly, all things considered.”

“Tony,
people were killed
.”

“Yeah, but the brothers brought it on themselves. You can’t walk into a deal like that, ready to double-cross everybody and expect to come out clean. Their superiors were more than happy to wash their hands of them. The two Russians died with honor. Moscow considers the two guys you called Boris and Ivan to be heroes. Their pictures are probably already up in a bar somewhere in Moscow.”

“Seriously?”

“Dead serious. And I imagine their families will be well taken care of.”

DiCenzo shifted in his seat and looked at me.

“We’re almost done here, but we got something personal to settle between us. I ain’t ever had my life saved twice in one day before. Max and me have helped each other out more times than I care to remember. He’s the only person I completely trust and that’s saying something. But you, Laura Black, that’s completely different. You stuck your neck out to help me. I won’t forget it. We now have a bond between us that’s formed in blood. As such, I owe you a favor. For me to repay this debt, you may come to me at any time. Whatever you ask of me, if it is in my power to do so, I will. Now Laura Black, this is not something to be taken lightly or to be used without desperate need. Once the favor is used, it can never be used again. Of course, as a friend, you can come to me anytime, in case something minor comes up.”

Yikes! It was like talking with Don Corleone.

“Tony, is Danica alright?”

“Your co-worker, Miss Rondinelli, did a good job of getting her out of the building where they were holding her. She’d been roughed up a little and got bruised in a couple of sensitive areas, but she is otherwise all right.

She came in and spent the night in Alex’s room. He had a broken nose, a couple of cracked ribs, four broken fingers, and a lot of bruises, but he wasn’t otherwise seriously injured. They were both released this morning.”

“What about the police? There was a dead guy in Alex’s apartment then he disappeared. They’re going to want to know what happened.”

“Alex knows he stole a bag from three guys in the Blue Palms two weeks ago. He knows in the bag were three diamonds. He knows he fenced the three diamonds and made a nice chunk of change. He knows the same three guys met him in his apartment four days ago, only one of them was dead. He knows they grabbed him and broke his fingers until he told them he had given the bag to his girlfriend. When Alex is questioned by the police that’s all he’ll know. He’s smart enough to know he stole from the wrong people. He also knows what’ll happen if he guesses too much about what happened.”

“What are you going to do to him?”

“The toughest thing I had to do last night was to figure out what to do with that little prick. I got the diamond he sold to the Iceman at the Tropical Paradise, but the first two diamonds he fenced came out of my commission. Plus he almost got me into more trouble than I knew how to get out of.”

“Tony, please let Alex off the hook. You can use that as my favor. He didn’t know he was doing anything against you. He was just stupid.”

“No need to use your favor on that. I’ve already made an arrangement. Last night I called Muffy Sternwood and let her know what had happened to Alex, well, the basics of it anyway. I wanted her to know the actual truth of the matter. Her late husband and I used to do business together in the old days. She knew what a tight spot Alex was in. She reminded me she owns a prime piece of land in north Scottsdale. She also knows I’ve wanted to buy it for years. She’s been sitting on it, even though I’ve always offered her a good price for it. She said she’d let me have it to build a new resort on, but only on the condition we split ownership fifty-fifty.”

“Muffy Sternwood? You and Muffy?”

“Yeah, go figure. I hate having partners, but that’s how the world works.”

DiCenzo stood up. “I know you’re both anxious to get out of here, but walk with me for a moment, Laura Black.”

I stood up and we walked out to the hallway. At the end of the hall were two goons. One was near the elevator and one was posted at the stairs. Down at our end of the hall it was just Tony and me. It was the first time I had ever been alone with him. It was kind of a creepy feeling.

“Now that business is out of the way,” DiCenzo said. “I think you should consider going out with Max. Do you know he’s mentioned you a couple a times over the past few days? He’s a great guy. I think the two of you would work out swell.”

“Thanks Tony, but I think I’m already in a relationship. He’s a Scottsdale cop.”

At that, Tough Tony DiCenzo starting laughing. An honest laugh that came from deep down.

“Well, Laura Black, I won’t comment on your choice in boyfriends, but I’m truly happy for you. Of course, these things sometimes have a way of falling apart. If that day comes, then I think you should consider Max.”

“I’ll keep it in mind, Tony. I really will.”

With that, Tony stuck his head back into the room. “Max would you mind driving Miss Black back to Lenny’s office? Her car is still there.”

~~~~

Twenty minutes later, Max and I were sitting in the parking lot behind Lenny’s office.

“Before you go,” Max said. “Tony wanted you to have this.”

He handed me a small white envelope, the size of a thank-you card. There was something lumpy in the envelope, along with what felt like a card. I fingered it and wondered what was in it. Tony had said if everything worked out he’d give me a cut. My first thought was it was too small to hold cash. My second thought was it was probably also too small to hold a check. That is, unless it had been folded two or three times.