Читать книгу The Diamond Secret - Lenora Worth - Страница 12

THREE

“Ted, tell the police it was a break-in. I’d locked the door but hadn’t set the alarm. Two men came in and started shooting, but I ran to the back and hid in the studio. Then I managed to get away.”

She heard Ted’s deep exhale. “They shot at you? I can’t believe this. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, trying to reassure him. “Check on Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds for me. I’m headed back there now. I’ll come around front.”

“Good, because I got here and the police are asking all sorts of questions. And Mr. Reynolds is talking to them right now. Of course, Miss Helen is telling anyone who’ll listen that we all almost got murdered. But are you okay? I mean, really okay?”

Ted fretted about things, especially her health and well-being. “I’m fine but rattled. I could have stayed to fight them but they had guns and I—”

She stopped, refusing to lie, but she’d also left out the part about the handsome tomb raider who’d helped her escape, and Esther was glad of that for now. She’d have to tell Ted about that later, when her assistant wasn’t about to hyperventilate. Later, when she could think straight.

Of course, if Helen Reynolds had seen Cullen, the whole city would know about him soon enough.

She hung up, then stared at Cullen. “I have to go file a police report. I can’t hide this from them. This is my livelihood and I’ll have to file an insurance report.”

He did another scan of the area. “Okay. I get that. But we need to talk.”

“Yes, I’m all ears,” she retorted. “I think you have more on your travel itinerary than searching for diamonds, right?”

He didn’t even bother trying to look innocent. “Yes, and I’ll explain. But not here, okay? Is there someplace besides your shop where we can meet back up? Maybe somewhere I can hide out for a while?”

Esther shivered in spite of the warm night. Her clothes were dirty and rumpled, her hair falling down around her face. She wanted a bath and a cup of tea and…she wanted to wake up with her shop back intact and her brain less jumbled.

She should tell him to take a hike, but she was in this up to her neck now. And she wanted answers. “I have another place in the Garden District. My father lived over the shop, but I live in a studio apartment behind an estate house.” She thought about hiding Cullen in the space over the shop, but she didn’t like the idea of him snooping around up there. “My place is on Prytania Street. You can stay there until I get finished, but I’d rather not have another shoot-out.”

“I promise if anyone shows up, I’ll draw them away from the house,” he said, his blue-gray eyes washing over her like a storm. “Will your landlord mind?

“No.” She wasn’t about to tell him that her friend relied on Esther’s discretion. “Maybe this is a bad idea,” she said. She couldn’t risk anything happening to Lara’s second home in the United States. “Can’t you find a hotel?”

“They’d check all the hotels.”

“Who are they? Who is Hogan?” She knew she’d heard that name before.

“Not here,” he said, pulling her through the crowd. “It’s too risky.”

He tugged her toward the corner, then glanced into the crowd. “They must have split once they heard the sirens. I’ll shadow you back to your shop, then I’ll find my way to your other house. Do you have a key?”

She gave him the address and told him where to find the spare key. “I have an alarm, but it’s one of those kind that alerts me, not the police or a security company,” she explained. Then she whispered the code. Grabbing him by the arm, she leaned close. “Cullen, don’t make me regret this.”

As if sensing her concerns, he reached into his bag and brought out the small worn leather pouch again. “Your father’s letters. You can read them later, but for now that’s all the proof you need in order to trust me.”

Esther touched the rough dark leather, the warmth from Cullen’s body still on it. “Thank you—again.” She noticed the street sign at the corner of St. Peter and Royal. “We can part here. The shop is right up there.”

He nodded. “I’ll watch until I see you with the police. I’ll be waiting, Esther. It’s not safe for you here alone.”

He looked as if he didn’t want to leave. “Go,” she said, her heart flooding with gratitude. But her head still buzzed with questions. So she headed toward Carlisle Collectibles and braced herself for what she might find.

And she prayed Cullen would make it to the Garden District safely.

“Are you sure you’re all right?”

Esther rubbed her temple and nodded at Ted. “Other than a couple of scratches and getting hot and dirty, I’m okay. I have a headache, but I’m fine, really.”

Mr. Reynolds stood outside the office door. “Esther, I heard all the shooting. ’Bout scared the daylights outta me. I called the police right away.”

“Thank you,” she told the elderly merchant. “I’m so glad you didn’t get caught in the cross fire.” Then she glanced beyond him. “Where’s Miss Helen?”

“Oh, she went back to our shop to tell our employees what happened and caution them. She saw several strangers hanging around today.”

Esther’s heart skipped a beat on that one. “Really? Did she talk to the police?”

“She tried, but she didn’t have enough of a description to really help, I’m afraid. She wasn’t wearing her bifocals.”

Esther couldn’t stop the sigh of relief that washed over her.

Ted watched Esther with his intense brown eyes, his bi-focals and spiky dirty-blond hair intact. Ted was a worrier. He fretted about money. He paced when they didn’t get many customers. He was always rearranging things and searching out every nook and cranny to make sure they could make a good impression on their devoted, long-standing clients. But he was good at his job and he had always been devoted to Esther and her father.

He sank down in a chair across from her after Mr. Reynolds left. “Tired of all the questions from the police?”

Esther leaned back in the red leather armchair, her gaze moving over the uniformed officers roaming around the shop. “They’re doing their jobs.”

The intruders had broken most of the items along the main aisle. A few vases and knickknacks, some picture frames and lamps—some expensive and some for show. They’d overturned chairs and ripped out the stuffing, and shot open some of the cabinet locks. And they’d tried without success to break the shatter-proof glass surrounding the estate jewelry. They’d wanted something they couldn’t find in that case, however.

Cullen and that diamond, no doubt.

Thus proving what Cullen had told her. At least they had not found the safe and her secret stash of exquisite jewels. Good thing, since the Levi-Lafitte Diamond wasn’t there, either.

“They destroyed the office,” she said, knowing she sounded redundant since the desk drawers were open and gaping and most of her papers and books were tossed to the far walls. She wanted to get back to Cullen so she could get to the bottom of this mess. But sitting here, she couldn’t help but notice the broken frame that covered the only picture her father had kept of him with her mother. According to her father, Marilyn had been five months pregnant with Esther when the picture was taken.

Ted pushed at his glasses and coughed. Then he picked up the shattered picture and set it back on the desk. “A break-in. Esther, I’m so sorry you had to deal with this.”

Mr. Reynolds came back, surprising her with a bottle of water. “Here, honey. Drink this.”

Esther took the offering, glad she had people who cared about her. “Thank you.” She smiled up at both men. “I’m okay, really. We’ve been blessed. We’ve never been robbed before.”

Esther glanced out into the shop, watching as uniformed officers and plainclothes detectives went about their work and instructed the crime scene investigators. She’d gone round and round with the first officer on the scene to get Ted

and Mr. Reynolds in the barricaded front door. They couldn’t straighten things up until the crime scene people had dusted everything for prints and extracted a few bullets. Standard procedure, according to the dour officer in charge. But there wasn’t much hope of finding anything that would lead them to the men who’d done this, also according to that same officer.

Like Miss Helen, Esther hadn’t been able to give very much of a description, either. She might have to go into the station and look through mug shots. Not that that would help. Big and burly was the only way to describe those two. If they’d truly followed Cullen across the universe, they could be international criminals. And he might be, too, for that matter. But she had no idea how to explain that to the nice officers and detectives. They’d laugh if she told them about a giant ancient chocolate diamond, too.

Her father would be so disappointed in her right now. Withholding information from the police went against Carlisle standards.

“So you didn’t get a good look?” Mr. Reynolds asked. He was obviously afraid the thugs would come back to finish the job. Or maybe rob him next time.

“I don’t remember details,” she said.

Ted patted her hand. “Maybe you’ll remember something later.”

“I saw two big men dressed in black and carrying guns. But I took off before they got up close. I was running for my life so I didn’t stop to get a picture.”

“I’m sorry, Esther.” Ted plopped down on a stool near her feet, then looked up at her with those puppy-dog brown eyes. “I should have been here to protect you.”

She almost laughed, hysterically. Ted was about as puny as they came. He was a sweetheart and a devoted employee, but he had severe allergies and he was terrified of everything from spiders to shoplifters. She probably would have wound up protecting him.

“No, I’m glad you weren’t here,” she said, meaning it. “I managed to get away and that’s the important thing.”

Ted didn’t seem convinced. “I’ll go out and see if I can help with anything.” He turned to Mr. Reynolds. “Thanks for calling 911.”

Esther nodded. “Yes, thank you so much. I panicked. By the time I was safe, the sirens were already wailing.”

One of the officers approached her after Ted went out into the shop. “So you were closing up for the day, right?”

“Yes,” she said, standing to face him. “I had one late customer who wanted to look at some jewelry, but he didn’t find what he was looking for.”

That was the truth. But she couldn’t allow for any more information. Or should she give the police Cullen’s name and description and be done with it?

Her head shouted yes, but her heart screamed no.

“Did you know this customer? Is he a regular?”

“No. He was traveling through.”

The officer looked skeptical. “He could have been a front—a distraction.”

Esther thought about that, but why would Cullen need to distract her? He had a gun and so did those men. They’d fired at Cullen. Had that all been a show for her? To convince her to listen to him and trust him?

“I don’t know,” she said, being honest on that account at least.

“Did you find anything missing from the jewel cabinets?” she asked the officer instead.

“Come see for yourself,” the young officer replied. “Looks like they tried to shoot the lock, but the glass held. Must be some powerful glass.”

“We have some very rare, one-of-a-kind jewels,” she replied, motioning to Ted and hoping he’d go into the storage room and check the vault behind the secret wall her father had built years ago. She discreetly pointed to the storage room door.

Ted dashed away while she talked to the police. Esther studied the three main jewel cases, each ring and brooch, each elegant necklace and sparkling bracelet with matching earrings etched in her brain. “Nothing’s missing that I can tell.”

The officers nodded, wrote in their little notebooks, then suggested she padlock the doors for the night.

Ted came back up the aisle and helped her. “Safe is intact,” he said under his breath.

One of the officers approached them. “You can call the alarm company first thing tomorrow, but for now you need to do something to protect your property.”

“We can use the hurricane shutters,” Ted suggested. “You know, we’ll put up that plywood we used when the last big one came through, on the inside of the door. Then if we tug the shutters closed and lock them. I can sleep down in the showroom.”

“No,” Esther said, startling not only Ted but a nearby officer. “I don’t think you should stay here tonight.”

“You shouldn’t stay here alone,” Mr. Reynolds said from his spot near the broken doors. He hovered, worry on his aged face. “Wanna come over to our apartment?”

Esther would have, under any other circumstances. The couple attended her church and treated her like their own daughter. She could use that kind of comfort tonight. “Thanks, but no. I’m going home. I’m exhausted.”

Esther had to get rid of the police and Ted before she could meet up with Cullen. She had to find out the whole story about this mess.

“I’ll be fine,” she said. “I’ll stay at my own apartment tonight. Surely they won’t go there.”

“Can you call a friend?” the officer suggested.

Ted bobbed his head. “One of your church friends maybe.”

She almost laughed at the irony of that. Cullen probably hadn’t graced a church door his whole life. But her friend and absent landlord, Lara, was a devout churchgoer. She’d be safe in her studio at Lara’s private compound. Only, Lara wasn’t in the States right now. But what about Cullen Murphy? Would she be safe with him?

“I’ll be okay at my place.” She waited for the police to finish up, then turned to Ted. “Now we’ll need the hammer, some nails and that plywood. And you know I’ll need you to help me pull the storm shutters down. I always have trouble with that.”

Esther had learned years ago that keeping Ted busy was the best thing for her sanity and his. He hurried to his tasks.

“I’ll help,” Mr. Reynolds said, hobbling to catch up with Ted, his red bow tie askew.

“Do you know of anyone who’s angry with you? Or out to do you in?” the officer in charge asked, his thick New Orleans accent sliding over the quiet office.

“No, sir.”

“Have you ever seen the two men who came in here before today?”

“No, sir. Never.”

He scowled, doubt clearly written all over his face. “Think hard. You might know them and not realize it.”

Why did police officers always seem so jaded and cynical?

Maybe because, here in this city, they saw pretty much everything?

“I can assure you, I don’t know them.”

“If you remember anything else, let us know,” the officer said. Then he and his men finished up their business.

Two hours later, Esther felt guilt tickling at her conscience when she finally convinced Mr. Reynolds to go home and told Ted they’d done all they could for now. They’d cleared up some of the debris and secured the doors and rechecked the inventory. The safe hadn’t been touched.

“I rode my bike to work this morning, but maybe I’ll take a cab home,” she told Ted. At least she had her car at the carriage-house apartment.

Ted held his hands against his waist. “Want me to ride with you?”

Then she’d feel obligated to invite him in and she couldn’t do that. Not tonight. “No. I’m really tired. And you’re still sick from that cold. You need to rest, too.”

He gave her a disappointed nod. “You’ll call me if you need anything, right?”

“Of course. I promise.”

Ted found her a cab, then stood on the street corner watching as the car pulled away. He waved and she turned and waved out the back window, thankful for having someone to help her through this. Had she mentioned her late-day customer to Ted? She couldn’t remember. She’d have to tell him about Cullen sooner or later. Esther put that out of her mind, however.

Even though she was exhausted, she was eager to have a sit-down with Cullen Murphy and find out the real reason he’d disrupted her life.

Because things weren’t adding up. He’d come to the shop searching for the diamond, but he thought the diamond could possibly be buried in the swamp. He claimed he’d corresponded with her father, yet Esther had never before seen a letter come in from Cullen. Did he have a map? Had her father sent him clues? Or had her father kept things from her, maybe even a post office box?

Her father had never once mentioned he had someone else interested in this quest for the Levi-Lafitte Diamond. But then, Jefferson Carlisle hadn’t been a man of many words. He’d done his fatherly duties by teaching Esther right from wrong, reading to her from her favorite books when she was younger and spinning tales to entertain her when they were both lonely. Then he’d given her a solid art-and-history education at Tulane.

Her father had been quiet, studious and dependable. And lost in the world of antiques and rare jewels. Esther felt he would have told her of his discovery, since he did often talk about the possibility of finding the diamond. It had been a constant subject in the weeks before his death, to the point of making him ill. But he’d never once mentioned that he might have found the diamond.

What were you hiding, Father? she silently wondered. And more to the point now, what was Cullen Murphy hiding?