Who Killed Tiffany Jones? (25 page)

“ M a v i s K a y e ”

181

Harlem. Clarence “Mojo” Johnson and a member of his religious sect, known only as Shawayne, had been found dead in the back room of the Old World Music Shop. A crack addict had discovered the bodies and informed police officers who were staked out in front of the premises. It was “apparently a gangland slaying,” the reporter said as he stood outside the sealed-off murder scene. Another member of the sect, who had been called to identify the victims, indicated that Mr.

Johnson and his chief assistant, Martin Latrell, had often argued during the past few weeks. Police officials said that Latrell was a former associate of Harlem drug and gambling kingpin Shabazz Pearson.

Both were being sought for questioning. Pictures of Pearson and Latrell were flashed on the screen.

When Kim saw the photo of Latrell, she nearly dropped the ornate wine goblet that she held. She had seen him before, and it took only a minute for her to realize where. It was the same man that she had briefly glimpsed at Cheeno’s Malibu party—the man who had turned and slipped away when she approached the African, Mawuli, and the two British businessmen. Kim was deep in thought, trying to figure out the connection, when the phone rang. It was Lt. Jackson, calling from his car.

“Have you heard what happened to Mojo?” he asked.

“Yes, yes . . . I just saw a report on TV.”

“Well, that’s not all. I—”

“Wait a minute Maurice! I know this Latrell. I saw him at the L.A.

party, just before Cheeno was found dead. I recognized the photo.”

“Latrell was in L.A. when Cheeno was killed?”

“Yes, and he was with two Englishmen and an African who said he was from Liberia. There has to be a connection, Maurice.”

“Yeah, and there’s something else. We got a report from authorities in Sierra Leone. Kwabena was murdered late Friday night in Freetown and, earlier the same day, Frank Napolini was killed in Ohio. It looks like someone is clearing the deck.”

16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 182

182

W H O K I L L E D T I F FA N Y J O N E S ?

“Kwabena and Napolini? Then who’s doing this, Maurice—who is behind it?”

“Look, Kim, it could be anyone—Svrenson, Pearson, Latrell, Ruff Daddy, who knows? The thing is, you’re not safe. Whoever’s behind it knows that you know too much. I’m putting another man outside your apartment right now. Don’t leave without informing me. I want to know all you know about the people Latrell spoke to in L.A., but I can’t talk with you now. I can’t leave the murder scene. Latrell’s our main suspect right now. He may not be the mastermind, but he’s definitely involved with these killings. He knows something, and we need to know what.”

“Okay, I’ll talk to you tomorrow. But, tell me, what’s your gut feeling about this? Who do you think is behind it?”

“I really don’t know. But I’d put my money on Klaus or Ruff Daddy or both. We’re still looking for them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them is working with Latrell or Shabazz Pearson. Diamonds are worth a lot more than policy slips or even crack cocaine. I think it’s a take-over, a kind of coup, directed by someone who was already involved in the scheme and aided by someone with enough clout to back them up.”

“Yeah, well, maybe you’re right,” Kim said resignedly. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Kim hung up the phone, turned off the lights and the television set, and checked that the door was securely locked before climbing the steps toward her bedroom for what she knew would be a night of fitful sleep.

16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 183

,

<

<

,

FOURTEEN

New York—Sunday, August 5

Ki m wa s awa ke n e d
at 9:30 A.M. by the insistent ringing of her doorbell. She hadn’t slept well, and her head still ached from the blow she had received in New Orleans. At the door, she peered through glazed eyes at a UPS deliveryman and the uniformed officer who stood beside him. “It’s all right,” the officer said when he noticed that the eyelet in the door had been opened. Kim unlocked the door, pulling her nightgown tightly around her shoulders.

The deliveryman offered an envelope. When Kim hesitated, the officer nodded his head and said, “It’s okay, we checked the route from England. Everything seems in order.”

England, Kim thought as she took the package and signed the receipt. “No bombs, then,” she said, half smiling.

The officer shook his head no, and the visibly shaken deliveryman 16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 184

184

W H O K I L L E D T I F FA N Y J O N E S ?

backed away from the door and hurried back to his truck. Kim thanked the policeman before shutting the door and going to her desk. The package had come from Sheffield, England, and had been sent by a Professor Winfred J. Blair. The location of origin and, of course, the name Blair immediately intrigued her. Expectantly, she tore open the envelope.

It contained a floppy disk and a handwritten note, which Kim quickly read.

Kim Carlyle:

I don’t know you but I’ve discovered that my daughter called you just before her death. Apparently she trusted you. That’s why I’ve sent the disk which accompanies this note. As you might expect, I’m deeply concerned with having those responsible for Mariana’s death brought to justice. I’m not certain that the authorities here are aware of the breadth and scope of this situation. Since Mariana had begun a dialogue with you and you have been touched directly by these killings, I thought the information on the disk would be of particular interest to you. I was allowed into Mariana’s apartment four days after her murder, when the authorities had finished searching the premises. My daughter always confided in me, so I knew where her notes were hidden. Although her computer had been confiscated, no one had found the notes that I’ve sent to you. They will, no doubt, retrieve the information from the computer in due time; and I’m sending another copy of the disk to Scotland Yard. I hope that this information will help in the search for those responsible for my daughter’s murder. Please, keep me advised.

Sincerely,

Winfred J. Blair

After reading the note, Kim rushed to her computer and inserted the disk. The first entry was dated January 19, 2001. It noted Mariana’s 16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 185

“ M a v i s K a y e ”

185

initial introduction to Kees Van derVall in Amsterdam and described her curiosity about his connection to Ruff Daddy. Kim quickly scrolled down, scanning the single-spaced pages on the screen. The last entry was dated July 30, the day Mariana died. Kim read carefully, hoping to discover a clue that might point to the reporter’s killer. But there was no smoking gun, no decisive bit of information that clearly pointed to a person or a group of persons who may have been responsible for the killings, or even to a motive. Disappointed, Kim rose and went to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. When she returned to the desk, she printed the file then settled on the couch with the pages and a cup of strong black coffee. She reread the notes, underlining everything that seemed pertinent.

An hour and a half later, she rose and poured another cup of coffee.

Returning to the couch, she hunched over the pages laid out on the coffee table, poring over the sixteen underlined entries.

FEB. 15 - Kees V. in London for two days, aside from hotel and drinks with Ruff Daddy, only stops are at De Beers Central Selling Office and a Mayfair flat, unable to determine who he saw.

MARCH 30 - Informants say police investigating Kees V.’s possible connection to heroin sales and gun smuggling—supplying arms to Sierra Leone Revolutionary United Front.

APRIL 5 - Amsterdam-K.V. & Petris N. meet young American at Grand Cafe, heated discussion. American registered as Riccardo Napolini at Swissotel Ascot. . . . Petris drives R. Napolini back to airport.

APRIL 6 - Klaus S. & Tiffany J. arrive in Amsterdam. Klaus meets Kees V. at De L’Europe Hotel night of Tiffany concert.

APRIL 7 - Tiffany leaves for Paris—loud argument with Klaus at airport. Kees accompanies Klaus to Antwerp. (activity unknown) 16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 186

186

W H O K I L L E D T I F FA N Y J O N E S ?

APRIL 8 - Ruff Daddy arrives, meets Klaus at De L’Europe. Both go to airport, take flight to Paris.

MAY 3 - Informant: Kees V. meets swarthy American at airport.

Visitor stays in his apartment and rents car under the name Brian Woods????

MAY 14 - Confirmed, Brian Woods, low-level hood who worked at KCS Collection Agency in Los Angeles before moving to Las Vegas. KCS a subsidiary of a K. Svrenson parent company.

MAY 26 - Kees V. & Petris N. invite members of rap groups Watts Up and Kool Aid to a suite at the Renaissance Hotel on Dam Square after their concert. Entire group celebrates at ‘Koe-pelkerk,’ the landmark 17th-century reception hall across the street.

JUNE 6 - Kees V. and Ruff visit Lester B. at Paris apartment, then accompany him to funeral of Luther Olson, expatriate U.S blues singer who died of heart attack on stage??? Rendezvous at The Emerald Isle.

JUNE 19 - Introduced Brixton to Ruff, reluctantly!!!

JULY 9 - Kees and unidentified English business type visit T.

Jones backstage after concert at The Palladium. They are followed by Asian woman and companion (appears to be Latino) when they leave.

JULY 10 - Petris N. leaves London on flight to Antwerp. Informant confirms that P.N. meets Kees V., they are seen in and around diamond district during next two days.

JULY 13 - Suspicious Asian woman spotted in Amsterdam, appears to be following Kees V. (informant) Who is she?

16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 187

“ M a v i s K a y e ”

187

JULY 24 - Petris N. at De Beers, spends two hours inside. (contact unknown)

JULY 30 - Confirmed, R. Napolini nephew of Frank Napolini, Ohio mob underboss.

After an hour, Kim was certain that her suspicions about the deaths of the performers were correct. Somehow they had been involved in a scheme with Kees Van derVall and Klaus to smuggle diamonds into the country. Kwabena must have been the inside man in Africa. She also concluded that Cheeno had been involved, which would explain his high living even before he broke out as a popular recording artist. Clearly they had been shipping the gems back to the States in coffins, she’d derived that much from the encounter with Mojo in New Orleans. But the artists must also have been used in some other way. How?

What had gone wrong? Why were they killed?

After scrutinizing the notes again, she went to her computer and began checking foreign and domestic newspapers for information on Kees’s Dutch associate and Frank and Riccardo Napolini. Without a last name, however, she was unable to find any references that matched Mariana Blair’s scant description of Petris N. But a quick search of Las Vegas and Ohio newspapers revealed that Brian Woods had been murdered recently and that Frank Napolini’s nephew, Riccardo, was among the chief suspects in his uncle’s death. Neither story mentioned anything about diamonds; both incidents were considered mob hits. There were no named suspects in the Vegas murders, although police said that the killer knew the victims. Casino security guards were being questioned, but none had provided any useful information. In Ohio, authorities attributed Riccardo’s possible involvement in his uncle’s death to either his lingering anger over 16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 188

188

W H O K I L L E D T I F FA N Y J O N E S ?

Frank Napolini’s complicity in the death of Johnnie Napolini, Riccardo’s father, or an internal struggle for control over the Ohio mob.

Kim went back to the couch and, for the next four hours, continued poring over her own notes as well as Mariana’s, trying to integrate all the information she had accumulated.

It was midafternoon when she called Lt. Jackson at the station. She told him about the arrival of the disk from Mariana Blair’s father. Yes, she would immediately fax a copy, she assured him, before hurriedly describing its contents. She informed him of Mariana’s findings about the previously unknown Dutchman Petris N. and the American Brian Woods. Woods, she told him, had been killed a day after Mariana was murdered in London. Then she pointed out that, according to Mariana, it was Riccardo Napolini, not Frank, who had been actively involved with Kees Van derVall and his associates in Amsterdam. Riccardo was also acquainted with the Dutchman Petris N.

Lt. Jackson listened in near silence. Throughout her rapid-fire recital, an occasional “Yeah” or acknowledging grunt was all Kim heard from his end of the line. She ignored the lukewarm response and continued.

“And I think you’re right, Maurice, Klaus is probably behind the whole thing. I don’t know how, but I’m sure he was using Tiffany, forcing her to help him smuggle gems into the country. She would never have been a part of this unless someone was making her do it. She was on her way back to the top—she wouldn’t have risked ruining her career. And Klaus is the connection between this Woods character, a mob wanna-be who was also with Kees in Europe. Woods worked for Klaus in Los Angeles; he was recruited because of his mob ties. He’s behind it, Maurice, the gem scheme and the murders.”

“Kim, hold on a minute. There’s something I need to tell—”

“No, listen! I’ve done some research, it makes perfect sense. The scheme probably started to unravel when Klaus discovered that Kees 16470_ch02.qxd 7/12/02 4:40 PM Page 189

“ M a v i s K a y e ”

189

was not only skimming from him but also dealing arms for conflict diamonds with the rebels in Sierra Leone. Mojo was also robbing him blind. And poor Tiffany must have told him she wanted out. They had been cool toward each other since she returned from the last European tour. All of them had to be killed. And if that’s true, then when Tiffany died the other artists, at least the key players who were apparently bringing gems in, also had to be eliminated. They knew too much, and they were afraid. Anyone involved in the old operation was a target, including mob guys like Woods and Frank Napolini. I wouldn’t be surprised if Riccardo wasn’t next. Klaus would have been forced to shift his alliances, find someone who was powerful enough to take them on. I think Klaus, Shabazz Pearson, and Mawuli, the African from Liberia, are behind it. Latrell and the Asian woman that Blair spotted in Europe were probably their paid henchmen.”