Chapter 12
Dane stood in the door too aware that he hadn’t had a chance to shower after he left Angelique. He didn’t want to share the lingering scent of her perfume with either Shana or Cap. But especially not Shana.
“Thank the lord you got the air conditioning fixed,” he said.
Shana sat in her usual chair in front of Cap’s desk. She didn’t look at him. She busied herself looking through the ME’s preliminary file. He was sure she’d already memorized every word. Cap had just hung up his phone and shut down the intercom.
“Dane Blaise is in the room,” Cap said. “We just finished a conference call with the Assistant US Attorney, Governor Peter John Douglas, and Director David Young,” Cap said. “Have a seat.”
Dane stayed where he was. “What’d the AUSA have to say?” He had a good idea, but he was stalling, waiting for Shana to warm up, hell—waiting for her to look at him.
“He said—and I quote, ‘This Angelique Dubois—she’s the insurance investigator isn’t she? Of course she’s looking for the jewels. Of course she has an idea where they might be and who stole them. So of course she might have gotten into a scuffle’.”
“Skeptical about our theory—”
“The man would have to be convinced to be skeptical. He didn’t go for the personal vendetta theory and he scoffed at the flimsy connection to the Tavares case.”
“Then I doubt Acer’s intel that she faked her background to get the insurance investigation assignment will convince him.
We’ll need a damn confession. He’s been talking to the FBI Special Agent in Charge.
” Dane had figured the AUSA’s opinion may have been tainted by his close working relationship with the FBI.
No one bothered to suggest the FBI join the status teleconference. Their skepticism was a given.
“Damn. She faked her background?” Cap considered this and said, “You’re right—we’ll need more than that. Especially since it’s Acer’s intel. We’ll probably need more than a confession to convince Boston to issue a search warrant,” Cap said.
“We don’t need Boston. What do we need to convince them of?” Shana asked.
“If I want a search or arrest warrant then I need to convince the AUSA that Angelique is involved in the thefts and not just a damn insurance investigator,” Cap said.
“They’re convinced she killed Bellarine in self-defense and they won’t let me move on her except for routine questioning to get her statement. ”
“I’ll have Acer talk to your people, Cap. They can find the intel on her faked creds—including a faked degree in law enforcement. That should get us somewhere,” Dane said.
Shana scowled.
“Eventually. But how long will it take? We’ve been all over this.
David has nothing. Interpol has nothing.
I know she’s no more an insurance investigator than I’m an astronaut, but hell.
” Shana paused, seemed to consider her words, then said, “I even tried calling Jean Luc. Left a message. It’s a long shot, but maybe he’ll sign an affidavit on her background. Give her up.”
“Maybe.” For you.
Cap said, “If anyone can finesse Jean Luc Ruse, you can.”
It was, Dane realized, what he should have said himself. It was how he felt. He held back. It had been automatic. He didn’t mentioned that he’d spoken to Jean Luc again. Self-preservation.
“According to Jean Luc, she met with Bellarine before she got the insurance job. A statement from him would help prove that she was working with Bellarine and not looking for him,” she said.
“You’re right.” That should have mollified her, but Shana looked anything but mollified to Dane.
“They were working together,” Shana said. “We found his business card in the car she rented.”
“In the meantime,” Cap said, “my men have circulated her photo and names at every hotel, motel, inn and realtor on the island to see if we can find her secret stash of stolen jewels. Nothing. If she’s renting another property, it’s off grid or she’s wearing a disguise when she visits. ” His computer beeped.
“Hold on—I got something from Interpol. In response to my inquiry on Bellarine. According to them…” Cap skimmed his computer screen. “That’s his only name. And his job is not art dealer. He’s a well-known international jewel thief.”
“Known associates?” Dane asked. He made it sound like a routine question, but he knew what Cap would find and that it would put the final straw on making this case officially very important. He waited while Cap clicked at his keyboard. He made no move to come inside the office.
“I’m in Bellarine’s file now…” Cap paused and studied his computer’s screen. Then he shook his head. “You’re not going to like this—”
“Tavares?” Dane said.
Shana snapped to attention. She met his eyes, not with disbelief or annoyance or her usual scowl. Her face held stark fear, just for a flicker. But he watched it fade and morph to hard angry determination as if by a trick of digital photography.
Dane straightened from leaning against the doorjamb and finally took a step inside the room, but no further.
“Seems like more than a coincidence. One too many coincidences,” he said.
“Angelique wasn’t looking for Bellarine but she might be trying to frame him.
I did some checking myself.” He paused a beat and waited for Shana to acknowledge him.
When she motioned with her hand for him to continue, he noticed her nostrils flare.
Otherwise her face was inscrutable. Damn.
He walked all the way inside the room then and sat down next to her in the chair facing Cap.
“What the hell, Dane? You wearing perfume now?” Cap waved his hand.
Dane hesitated a beat and then said, “It’s French.” He noticed Shana’s almost imperceptible flinch from the periphery of his vision. “It looks like Angelique has an interesting background—”
“No kidding,” Shana said.
“Gabriele Tavares was her roommate at a Swiss prep school for privileged young women.”
“You’re shitting me,” Cap said.
“Are you sure?” Shana said. “Did you call her on it?” Shana sounded excited more than anxious.
“Acer had to work hard to uncover Angelique’s true background. Says either she or someone who works for her has massive hacker skills. He’s looking into finding out if she’s hired someone. He knows a lot of people in that community.”
“Did you call her out on the Gabriele connection?” Shana asked again.
“No. I’m going to play along with her insurance investigation scam, though we know she’s conned the insurance company, and let her continue to seduce me.”
“Until you find the stash of jewels,” Cap said.
“No. Now we need to catch Gabriele in the net. We need to make sure we get evidence of her connection to the thefts or the murder or both so we can put her away,” Dane said.
“I don’t care about the jewels if we can get Gabriele Tavares,” Shana said. Her voice cut like steel in its sharp seriousness.
“All right then,” Cap said. “Let’s review what we have.”
“We have one dead thief and a potential murder suspect with no evidence,” Shana said.
“But we do have evidence that she’s an associate of a known criminal.
Or was. That about sum it up?” Shana sounded disappointed.
Dane reached out a hand and patted her knee—more to test the waters than to comfort her.
She didn’t flinch or pull away or bat his hand away.
She didn’t react at all except to scowl at him.
She gave him that gorgeous Shana the Beautiful scowl. He winked at her. She rolled her eyes.
“We have more than that—albeit unofficially.”
“Practically everything on this case beyond the body stuffed with jewels is unofficial,” Cap said. “Unless you can get me Acer’s info officially?”
“No, but I can have him pass along a couple of clues so that your men can duplicate his findings—eventually.”
“Tell us already—what the hell ‘more’ do you have?” Shana stood abruptly and started pacing.
“I took Angelique’s phone from her bag to take a look at her text messages. There were several between her and Gabriele Tavares.”
“You’re sure?” Cap said.
Dane nodded and watched Shana stop dead in her tracks.
“So it’s not some remote connection from the past then.”
“Afraid not. Gabriele is involved in this. I’m certain. She might be here on the island. Hell—she might be the one hiding the jewels.”
“So if we find the rest of the jewels, chances are we’ll find evidence to tie to Gabriele and the murder.”
Cap said, “That’s my job—and we have enough information to bring Angelique in to question her as a possible witness—maybe as a person of interest. I’m going to start there.”
“Maybe she can answer the question about why the jewels were found in Bellarine’s mouth,” Shana said “I know you need them for evidence in the murder case, but can we bring the jewels to the Gables to confirm they’re the missing ones?”
“Sure,” Cap said. “I’ll go with you.” He turned to Dane. “When I bring Angelique in for questioning on the murder of Mr. Bellarine, maybe you can convince her to spill something about Gabriele’s involvement and the whereabouts of the missing jewels from the other three thefts.”
Dane thought about it. He knew there was something wrong with all the pieces to the puzzle. They didn’t quite all fit together. His phone buzzed—it was Acer. “I have to take this call.” Cap and Shana watched him and waited in silence.
After he finished his call, he said, “I have a better plan.”
“Yes?” Shana prompted. He dreaded sharing the latest intel with her.
“When we thought Angelique might be working as an insurance investigator, theoretically on the right side of the law, I had a bad feeling about her.
While I had Acer looking into her real identity, I also had him do some checking into the provenance of the missing jewelry.
Most of it was unremarkable—except for one piece.
One piece—owned by the Gables—was one of those obtained from an estate sale in France twenty years ago.