Page 52 of Barbed Wire and Burglary
Her eyes widened. “You’ve never kissed in an elevator before?”
“Nope. You?”
“I have now.” She tugged his head down for another kiss that lasted until the elevator doors swung open.
They received a look of disdain from an elderly man in a business suit waiting for them to exit. His demeanor was so starchy that it was difficult to hold back a snicker as A.J. nodded a greeting at him. The man stared right through him, assuring him that his and Aurora’s inadvertent public display of affection would be remembered if anyone questioned the guy later.
Only after they were buckled inside the rental car did Aurora let out a gusty sigh. “Oh, A.J.!” She shuddered like she was freezing, prompting him to turn up the heater. “It’sgoing to take me hours to go through everything I downloaded, but I’m telling you right now…it’s bad.”
“How bad?” It required so much concentration to weave through the busy city streets that he only partially listened to her answer. Yellow cabs zipped around them as if they were standing still. Horns honked. Sirens wailed. Though the car windows were rolled up tight, the drone of big-city sounds polluted his ears, making his brain weary. His army career had taken him all over the world, but he’d remained a country boy at heart.
“Maybe I’m wrong.” Aurora spoke in a faraway voice. “I want to be wrong about this.” When he didn’t answer, she murmured, “Maybe we should wait until we get back to the hotel.”
He could practically taste her stress level rising during the thirty minutes it took him to drive a little over three miles. They sat through multiple cycles at each stoplight behind endless bottlenecks of traffic.
“I don’t miss this,” she declared more than once. “I don’t miss it at all.”
They finally reached the hotel, and she trudged at his side to the elevators leading to the second floor. Since both of their laptops remained in his room, he escorted her there and bolted them inside.
“Start talking, darling.” From the way she was acting, whatever she’d discovered couldn’t be good.
Instead of booting up her laptop, she sank into the desk chair. “Have you ever heard of the Collector?”
“I have.” His shoulders tensed at her reference to a key detail of the case he was investigating for the JSA.
“Then you also know about all the gems he stole, mostly diamonds, that have never been recovered.”
“I do.” Conservative estimates valued the total cache atten million dollars, but the stolen gems were likely worth a lot more. To the dismay of treasure hunters all around the globe, the Collector had died without leaving so much as a clue as to where he’d hidden the gems.
“I think someone found his stash.” She scooted the desk chair over to the desk and opened her laptop. Plugging in her zip drive, she pulled up a series of photographs. “These are from an encrypted folder, buried deep in the bowels of Diamondback’s system. They detail the contents of a mysterious storage unit, line item by line item.”
She scrolled through the photographs, shaking her head. “While treasure hunters have been tearing apart every known place the Collector visited while he was alive, someone has been secretly tracking down the real locations of the gems.” Not places, but things—old, tacky-looking vases, figurines, and other baubles. The dusty kinds of things that most people would putter right past at a yard sale or estate sale.
There were a total of forty-eight items pictured. Her scrolling slowed as she came to an atrocious-looking olive-green frog. “Bingo!” Also pictured were a pair of smoke-stained kerosene lamps and a lopsided blue candlestick holder that didn’t stand up straight.
In the bottom right-hand corner of each photograph were handwritten notations. A.J. leaned closer to read them.
Twelve-karat diamond ring.
Eight uncut yellow diamonds. Forty karats.
Ruby necklace. Eight karats.
He recognized several of the gems from photographs he’d seen in cold case files provided by the JSA. It was further proof that someone had hijacked the resources at Diamondback to track them down. Not only did it makeCary Cannon look guilty, it didn’t look good for Aaron and Aurora, either.
Another thought nagged at him—that it had almost been too easy for him and Aurora to walk into Diamondback and retrieve this information. Maybe he’d watched too many Indiana Jones movies while growing up, but shouldn’t there have been more safeguards in place? Or booby traps?
“We have to tell the police.” Tears dripped down her cheeks.
His heart ached for her. He hadn’t wanted this any more than she had. In the face of such overwhelming evidence, however, it was impossible to continue defending her uncle. He was guilty and would soon be on his way to jail.
Chapter 9: Point of No Return
Aaron read the encrypted email from his sister, feeling like he’d been shot all over again—straight through the heart this time. After spending the last two years of his life searching for their parents, having it end like this was especially difficult. They still had no bodies to lay to rest, and their uncle’s arrest was imminent.
We tried. We lost. It’s over.
He tossed his cell phone onto the table in front of him, unsure of what would become of Diamondback. Never before had he felt so defeated.
