Chapter 13 #3
The police arrived within five minutes and turned the place upside down.
Angelique took it well—as if it hadn’t been the first time she’d suffered a police search.
They found nothing, but they insisted she come in for questioning and Dane insisted on going with her.
All part of the plan. All making him damned uncomfortable.
He did not look forward to playing his role with Shana and Angelique in the same room.
*****
Dane looked at his watch for the fifth time.
It was part of the game. He knew Cap was going to make them wait like he would anyone else.
He sat at the table in the interrogation room at State Police Headquarters in Vineyard Haven.
It was a place he’d been many times. But he’d never been the one cooling his heels waiting for the interrogators.
He looked around. Angelique sat silently next to him. She was a pro. She knew the police would hear everything that was said and see everything Angelique and Dane did in this room. They remained silent and still.
When Cap and Shana finally came in the room, they sat across the table from Dane and Angelique. It felt very odd being on the wrong side of the table from his girl. Shana played her role of estranged lover well. Too well.
Angelique explained that she’d been hired by the insurance company to follow this Baylor Bellarine and then to recover the jewels.
“I took the assignment when I discovered Bellarine was going to Martha’s Vineyard and I’d have a chance to meet the legendary Dane Blaise.”
Shana scoffed. It was part of the act, he assumed. And part real.
“How did you fake your insurance investigator credentials?”
Angelique shrugged. “That is all a misunderstanding—a computer glitch of some sort. I am sure we will straighten it out.” She took a card from her bag and slid it across the table. It was a Lloyd’s business card with a name and number on it. Cap snatched it up and put it in his breast pocket.
“I’ll check on that. We’ll see.”
“Where are the rest of the jewels?” Shana leaned forward and stared at Angelique. Dane kept his smile to himself. Angelique remained unflustered.
“I have no idea where the jewels are. Bellarine didn’t share that information with me before he aimed his gun and took a shot.”
Cap said, “Lucky for you he was a lousy shot.”
“Not so much luck—I was prepared. I evaded the shot.”
“How did you end up on the beach?”
Angelique shrugged her bare shoulders again. She was still dressed for the party. He still wore a black dinner jacket but with his shirt collar open and his tie loosened. Angelique had liked the look, had laughed when he’d loosened it up.
A wave of sadness that she was so misguided went through him, but it was quickly followed by anger. At Jean Luc. At himself. At the unjust world at large. He calmed himself by turning his attention to Shana. Her green eyes sparked and she scowled, but her gorgeousness still gave him a jolt.
Now she waited patiently for Angelique to answer, staring the French woman down.
“I followed him. He got out of his car and I assumed he was going to where he hid the jewels. So I followed. When I stumbled in the sand—I made the mistake of wearing heels because I had no notion of sandy beaches or that Bellarine,” she waved her hand, “would go there.”
“Then what happened?” Cap said.
She turned to Dane and smiled at him.
“After I successfully defended my life, I found the jewels on him and realized they were the Gables’ jewels.” She eyed Dane again from under a flicker of her lashes. “I left them for you—to return to your client. I thought you could redeem yourself.”
“That’s another thing,” Shana said. “How did he get into the room and rob the safe without being seen or detected?”
“He is skilled at being invisible, that Bellarine,” she said. “He is also an expert in électroniques. For him it is child’s play to… fix the security program… to show what he wants. To hide what he wants.”
“You mean wanted, don’t you? Because he’s dead now,” Shana leaned forward again. “Conveniently—”
“Wait a minute,” Dane decided it was time he jumped in to rescue the damsel in distress—as she expected. “It was self-defense. You know he shot at her. What more do you want?”
“Lots.” Shana glared at him. He reminded himself it was a role, but he felt the chill all the same.
Cap spread his hands and said, “Wait a minute—calm down everyone. We’re conducting an investigation—that’s all.
We know self-defense is a possibility, Ms. Dubois—a strong possibility, but not a definite.
Yet. We need all the facts. So you say you don’t know where the rest of the jewels were stashed? ”
“No. But it is my current assignment to find them, so you can be sure I will continue looking.”
“How about the special heirloom jewel—the one piece of the Gables’ collection that’s still missing—any idea where that is?” Shana leaned in and stared.
“No, I told you—”
“Don’t lie. We know whose estate the piece came from, Angelique. We know it’s an heirloom from your family, that it had once belonged to your grandmother.”
Dane noticed Angelique turn still as stone, noticed her skin pale. She said nothing, didn’t blink, didn’t even seem to breathe.
“She won’t be leaving the island any time soon,” Dane said.
Cap nodded. “Good. Because after we charge you and book you, we will let you go into Dane’s custody at his request. We will need to bring you in again, Ms. Dubois, for arraignment, and possibly to increase the charges from failure to report the crime and manslaughter up to second degree murder, depending on the final results of the ME. ”
He stood. Shana stood.
Cap said, “As for your insurance investigation—it’s over.
You’ve been officially relieved of your assignment.
You’ll find an email from the company in your inbox when you check.
You will no longer be ‘searching’ for the missing jewels.
Don’t interfere with our investigation. It’s my job to find the missing jewels.
If we find them in your possession, you will also be charged with theft. ”
“Then we can go?”
“After you write everything down about your altercation with Baylor Bellarine.” Shana slid a notepad and pen across the table toward her.
Shana followed Cap to the door to leave and then turned before she walked out of the room and said, “For the record, Angelique, I think you’re a lying thief and a murderer. ”
Dane stood and said, “You’re way out of line—” But Shana slammed the door behind her. He’d felt silly saying it, but needed to say something, needed to play his role. He’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit to being a little shaken by the fact that Shana’s anger was real.
Angelique touched his arm, caressed it. He turned and found her smiling at him. Then she started writing.