Chapter One
MIGUEL
We climbed into Raven’s truck a half hour later. Thankfully, Dolly had shown up on time and we’d just had time to brew coffee and pour it into travel mugs before leaving her with Raven’s nana. If nothing else, I had to admit I was becoming increasingly addicted to Raven’s fancy Starbucks coffee, having spent over two decades drinking the swill Marines call coffee and then the cheap stuff, which was the only thing I’d been able to afford over the last decade. As he slid into the driver’s seat beside me, I settled in and lifted the mug to take a huge sip. He started the engine and I nearly spat the “coffee” onto the dashboard, holding the cup away from my face, staring at it like it’d sprung a cobra’s head, baring venomous fangs.
“What the fuck is this?” I asked, swallowing the vile stuff with a grimace rather than soil Raven’s truck. He glanced over at me, and I was relieved to see the devilish smile on his full lips since he’d obviously been worried after the phone call with Cassidy.
“It’s coffee.”
My jaw dropped open as I spluttered, trying my best to forget the taste on my tongue. “It is not! It tastes like dirt.”
“It’s not the usual,” he said, sounding way too flippant.
I stared at his profile and the amused smile he was wearing. “I should say not. What the fuck is it?”
“Mushroom coffee.”
My eyes flew wide with horror. “Oh, God, no! How could you just replace your Starbucks with this?” I held the cup out, staring at the offending object before bringing it close and sniffing it through the tiny hole in the plastic lid. My nose wrinkled as I looked over at him. The grin on his face as he stared out the windshield while he drove was downright evil. I narrowed my eyes at his profile as a thought occurred to me. “Wait a minute. We were at Sprouts yesterday and I asked you to make sure to grab coffee while I went to the meat section. Is this what you bought?”
He turned to look at me with an inscrutable glance. “Yes, I went back and swapped it after I saw what you picked up in the meat department.”
I frowned, thinking back before it occurred to me. “Hot dogs?”
“Hot dogs!” he said with way too much emphasis. “And they weren’t even chicken,” he said, sounding way too disgusted.
I blanked my expression, remembering the conversation we’d had about hot dogs a few weeks ago. He’d been going on and on about having the guys over for a barbeque once this case was over, which had led to a discussion about the menu. When I’d suggested barbequing hamburgers and hot dogs, he’d practically thrown a fit before listing all the ingredients found in hot dogs…in great detail.
“Wait…in my defense, I wasn’t thinking about the ingredients in them, just that I sometimes liked them in place of bacon in my omelets.”
“At which point I explained to you that they’re primarily made of pig anuses and nipples.”
“They are not.”
“They are too!” His voice rose. “And then two nights ago, when we were watching The Incredible Dr. Pol, you almost threw up when you saw what an actual pig’s nipple looked like!”
I shuddered, remembering the horrifying show. “It was…long.”
Raven snorted. “Can we please get off that subject? Just thinking about the way poor Dr. Pol’s whole arm disappeared up the sow’s ass makes me feel like I’ve just spent an evening watching dangerous porn.”
I laughed. “You’re the one who brought it up!”
He ignored me. “But seriously,” he went on. “When we meet Cassidy and Mike, I’m going to have no appetite at all.”
I set my travel mug in the cup holder and pointed at it. “Well, that mushroom shit can just fuck right off.”
A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “You really don’t like it?”
“It tastes like Old MacDonald’s barnyard…after a rain.”
He snorted again. “It’s not that bad, and it’s incredibly good for you.”
“If you like dirt,” I shot back. “There’s a word for that.”
“What?”
“Pica. It’s where kids eat dirt just to get the minerals,” I said. “I could never understand why their mothers didn’t just give them a pill.”
“My mother used to give me Flintstones vitamins,” he said.
I turned to find him looking at me with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his lips. “As interesting as that is, it’s probably a good thing. It would have come as a great surprise to find you out in the yard, grazing on the soil.”
He barked a laugh. “The coffee’s not that bad.”
“It’s not that good! In fact, it’s horrible.” I shuddered. “Don’t drink that stuff and expect me to kiss you ever again.”
He dragged his gaze away from the road again as we stopped at a red light. “You wound me, Miguel.”
“If you weren’t driving, I would,” I muttered under my breath.
He cupped his ear, eyes dancing. “What’s that you say?”
“You heard what I said.”
“I did,” he said, giving me a sharp nod as he smiled. “You know…I could tongue kiss you right now, you smooth talker.”
“Right after I find something to wash the taste of this out of my mouth.”
“Fine. If you want to withhold your affection, I suppose I’ll have to accept it.”
I ignored him. “I’m tossing that shit in the trash when we get home. God forbid Dolly drinks any. We’d never hear the end of it.”
He thought, frowning a little. “I don’t think Dolly drinks coffee. But if she did, drinking mushroom coffee would help her lose a few pounds. It works for weight loss.”
“You’re probably right,” I said thoughtfully. “Throwing up always makes me lose weight.”
Raven sniffed. “Fine. I’ll keep the mushroom stuff for myself and Judy.”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, God! Don’t tell me you’ve replaced the office coffee with that crap too?”
“Babe, you’re so dramatic!”
I watched his profile, shaking my head. “And apparently, about to be so thin.”
We arrived at Mel’s Drive-in in Santa Monica about an hour later than we’d set off from the house after fighting traffic all the way. Although I loved living in Southern California, the weekday commute seemed to be getting worse every day. At least the noise of the busy traffic and the honking of horns as inconsiderate drivers constantly swerved into our lane, was mostly blocked out by the windows in Raven’s big Dodge Ram. It was a good thing Raven held my hand and sang slightly off-key to Stevie Wonder as he drove. It was a merry sound and never failed to relax me.
I couldn’t keep my mind on his Spotify playlist as I kept running over what Cassidy had shared on the phone. Though I felt sorry for the investigator, whom I’d never met, it was more worrying that his untimely death had occurred right around the time when we’d caught up to Cassanova, Bishop, and Mendez. Dave Reynolds, had been the victim of a homicide, but what really bothered me was the timing of the whole thing.
Raven pulled into the busy parking lot and found a slot at the back, beeping his key fob as I walked around to his side of the truck to take his hand. He smiled at me, falling into step as we walked to the front of the restaurant, seemingly unconcerned at the public display of affection. Before meeting Raven, I never would have held hands with a man in public. Whether it had something to do with my Marine Corps training, where I didn’t dare hold hands with anyone, much less John, or whether it was just that I didn’t like having judgy eyes on me, I couldn’t really tell. But whatever it was, it didn’t bother me with Raven. He was just too damned important to me to care about what other people thought.
We spotted Cassidy and Mike waving at us from a booth, and nodded at the hostess as we pointed to our friends, making our way to their table. Both men stood and held out their hands. We shook and I was surprised to see the look of exhaustion on Cassidy’s face.
“How are you?” I asked as we slid into the booth and ordered coffee from the waitress.
“Me?” Cass asked. “Fine.” He scrubbed both hands over his face before looking back with tired green eyes. “Just tired. The new chief has had us on nights for the last two weeks and it’s been a bitch getting adjusted to it.” He glanced at his partner who was much older than Cassidy and smiled before elbowing him. “The old guy likes it.”
I chuckled. “You like working nights? Why?” Raven asked, dragging his gaze to the waitress and smiling at her as she set our coffee down.
“Action,” Mike replied with a smile on his lips.
Before I could ask why, I realized I’d been ignoring the waitress who was hovering close. I looked up at her and smiled.
“Are we all ready to order?” she asked brightly.
“In a minute?” I asked the others. At their nods, she walked away. I opened my menu, browsing the mouthwatering selections. Breakfast had always been one of my favorite meals and I looked longingly at the Nutella French toast before glancing at Raven.
“Don’t even think about it,” he said with a small growl.
I snorted. “What?”
“I know you’re looking at the Nutella French toast.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“Because you’re dribbling saliva down your chin. Now, stow it, Miguel, and pick something healthy.”
Cassidy choked on his coffee and we both looked across the table at him. He cleared his throat, grinning. “Jesus, it’s like listening to Jarrett and Thayne.”
I laughed. He was right. I turned to Raven who was holding up his menu and pointing at something on it. Leaning in, I squinted my eyes at him. “Steel cut oatmeal?” I asked, knowing I sounded horrified. I shook my head. “ Uh uh . I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s delicious,” Raven reassured me. “But if you want, you can have the organic granola and low-fat Greek yogurt.”
I felt myself gag. “Again?” I whined.
“It’s full of fiber.”
“Yeah? Well, my grandma called it roughage for a good reason.”
“Since when is that a bad thing?” Raven asked, a smile on his lips.
“Oh, yeah, well tell that to my toilet bowl. I swear there’s so much fiber in there, I could knit a sweater.”
Mike and Cassidy both burst out laughing and I turned to them with a big grin on my face. “You see what I have to put up with?”
“Unfortunately, all the talk about your toilet bowl has me rethinking biscuits and gravy with a side of large Polish sausage,” Cassidy replied, grimacing when I chuckled.
Mike dramatically slapped his menu closed. “Thanks, partner. There goes my choice of the Elvis scramble.”
“Why?” Raven asked with a grin.
“Because it has sausage too.”
Cassidy looked affronted but I could see the smile playing around his lips as well. “Lightweight.”
“Bully!” Mike called back.
I cleared my throat as I spotted the waitress coming back. We gave our orders and waited for her to leave before Mike pulled out a small, spiral notebook and pen, flipping a couple of pages before looking up. I took a big gulp of coffee and leaned forward.
“I’m guessing the reason you two look so tired isn’t all about the lack of sleep,” I said.
Cassidy sighed, setting down his coffee cup and opening his jacket as he leaned back in the booth. “Unfortunately, no. It’s because I just found a business card with the names of my friends scribbled on the back, tucked into the pocket of a long-dead homicide victim.”
“We hadn’t even met Dave Reynolds,” Raven said.
“Tell me what you know about him anyway. You were slightly cryptic when we spoke on the phone earlier.”
“Well, like I told you, I didn’t even remember the man’s name until Raven reminded me,” I said. “Neither of us ever talked to him because of the mess with those CIA fuckers.”
Cassidy frowned. “Okay.”
“Are you sure he was murdered?” Raven asked. “You said the body was pretty messed up.”
“We can definitely confirm he was murdered,” Mike said with a frown on his face. “It looks like someone put a gun in his mouth and shot him, but we can rule out suicide.”
“Don’t people shoot themselves in the mouth all the time?” Raven asked. “I see it in movies.”
Cassidy snorted, shaking his head. “Oh, yeah. I forgot you’re a detective because you watch the Lifetime movie channel.”
I shook my head.
“Did I forget to say we didn’t find a weapon at the scene?” Cass went on. “And since he had an exit wound in the back of his head the size of Texas, he couldn’t have ditched the gun before expiring. You need more brains on the inside of your head than on the outside in order to accomplish that.”
I snorted. “Sarcastic much?”
Cassidy rubbed his face again. “Sorry.” He lifted his coffee cup and saluted us.
“Gotcha. So, someone shot him in the mouth,” Raven said, looking a little pale.
“Either that or they made him do it and then took the gun with them,” Mike said. “We’ll have to see if the coroner can get any gun residue off his hands. Like we said, the body is pretty decomposed.”
“Okay, I see what you mean,” Raven said. “So, how can we help you?”
“Well, I want you to tell me everything you know about this law firm, Aston, Summerfield, and Billings as well as Greg Aston who was representing your client.” Mike referred to his notes. “You said you suspected he might be involved in the theft of your client’s ruby.”
“That’s right. Tawny Flores is the client,” I said. “We were contacted by Gregory Aston for an appointment to meet her before she hired us. He accompanied her to that first meeting at the Sagebrush Cantina in Calabasas.”
Cassidy nodded as Mike took notes.
“Let me ask you a question,” Cass began before the waitress arrived and started setting down plates of food.
I glanced down at my veggie omelet and then over at Raven’s bowl of Greek yogurt before shooting him a small smile. After an eyeroll, he looked back at our two detective friends.
“Go on, Cassidy. If we can help, we want to do that.”
Cassidy nodded, looking back at Raven as he chewed a bite of scrambled eggs. He swallowed and then continued. “Mike and I know a little bit about your situation from Sarah Connor and what happened between you and those rogue CIA operatives, Cassanova, Bishop, and Mendez before they were taken into custody that night. But we’ll need a comprehensive background on the case and how you first came into contact with him.”
“And how all this ties into our murder victim, Dave Reynolds,” Mike added.
“It’s kind of a long story, Mike,” I said.
Both detectives sent me a knowing look.
I sighed, picking up my fork. “Okay, here goes.”
We told them everything we knew as we ate. When we’d gone over everything we could and our plates were clean, Cassidy sat back.
“Wow, man, that’s quite a story,” Mike said. “So, let me ask you some questions about it.”
“Whatever you need, Mike,” Raven said.
“Okay. So, from what I understand, you and Miguel got a call from Greg Aston, Tawny Flores’ attorney, who told you that she’d been left a very valuable ruby which had gone missing.”
“And that he said the recovery might be dangerous which is why he wanted us to carry guns,” Raven clarified.
“Right,” Mike said, referring to his notes. He looked up. “And that’s when you two saw John Sutter at the restaurant.”
“I spotted him,” I said.
“Right.”
“He ran. We chased him, but he jumped into a car and sped away,” I said.
“Okay, so you then went to your client’s house to see the safe,” Cassidy said.
“Yes, then afterward we went to talk to the guy in charge of their security where we first encountered the man we now know as John Mendez in the stairwell,” I said. “He told us that he wanted us to find the ruby and give it to him. He threatened us with a gun.”
“And gave us the burner phone with explosives in it,” Raven added.
“Got it,” Cassidy said. “And later you made contact with Rosina Cassanova at the Getty, who threatened you again.”
“Yes, and then we confirmed that Sutter had been kidnapped in Afghanistan,” I said. “We’d gone years thinking he’d been lost out there in the desert during a sandstorm but when Judy hacked into Langley, she pulled up a message sent by someone in the rogue CIA cell.”
Cassidy nodded. “Which is when you went to Mark Evans and gave him the phone that John Mendez had given you.”
“We went to Mac first. He was at the FBI with Jarrett and Thayne, and Jarrett suggested we talk to his dad, so we did,” I said. “And afterward, I went to Vonne. He showed me the letter from Daniel, the kid John Sutter had been protecting…along with his mother.”
“Which is when you two started putting the pieces together about what had happened to him,” Mike said.
I nodded. “After John found me at Vonne’s house, everything started falling into place.”
“So, you convinced him to go to the ATF with you, and that’s when you all decided to actually bring us into the picture,” Cassidy said with a frown.
Guilt flooded my insides. “I’m really sorry we didn’t bring you guys into this at the very beginning. As soon as John Mendez pulled a gun on us in the stairwell, we should have called.”
“Yeah, you should have, but that’s water under the bridge,” Cassidy said. “We understand how fast everything happened after that.” He sat back in the padded booth and picked up his coffee cup, taking a sip and wincing at the cold brew. He set it down and glanced over at Mike. “Anything else?”
Mike shut his notepad. “So, you never talked to Dave Reynolds?”
“No,” Raven said. “We meant to call him about the investigation, but it was never the right time. I did leave a message, though.”
Mike nodded. “Honestly, do you think the lawyer is involved in this somehow? Could he have stolen the ruby, or could your client be involved?”
I shook my head. “I suspected her for a long time, but that’s something you’ll have to find out. I mean, at least talk to the cops who took the original police report from when she reported it missing. I’m sure there was one.”
The two detectives exchanged a glance before turning back to us. “Yeah, that’s where we’ll start. Her insurance company would have needed that to consider paying the claim,” Cassidy said. “We’re also going to talk to Aston now that we have some background on him and his possible involvement in this case. Is there anything else you can think of?”
“We think that the theft of the Mulberry diamond is tied into the missing ruby,” Raven said.
Cassidy frowned, thinking hard as if trying to figure out what Raven was talking about. “The Mulberry diamond? Wait. Are you talking about the case where you and Miguel first met?”
“That’s the one,” Raven said.
Cassidy looked down at his cold coffee before signaling the waitress. She started walking over, and he said, “It looks like we’re gonna need more coffee.”
“Amen,” Mike said.