Killer Diamonds (13 page)

Chapter 29

“What took you so long?” Skillz asked backing the Explorer out rapidly.

“I was making sure I didn’t leave anything behind.”

“We’re going to Tip and Nano’s crib. Hitman is meeting us there.”

“Why the hell would Craig and Ace do some shit like that?”

“I know,” Tip added. “After all the jobs we’ve done.”

“Two people with sixteen dollars is better than seven,” Nano enlightened them. “We’ve got a little while before Dice comes home. We’re going to straighten this out and get the diamonds back.”

*****

“Mr. Ace, I’m glad you came through on your end. I had my doubts at first. Do you have them?”

“They’re right here.” Ace directed his eyes at the box.

“May I see them to confirm it’s the actual collection?” Ace handed to box over and Mr. Colodon smiled. “Please, have a seat.” Craig and Ace both took chairs at the small table in the corner. “Can I offer you something?” he asked them.

“Nah, we’re just here about the diamonds.”

Mr. Colodon looked at the bodyguard, who was smiling. “Train, would you get me my case?” The bodyguard walked to the closet where three suitcases sat. Ace and Craig determined that they must contain the millions of dollars they would get for the diamonds. However, the bodyguard had reached up and brought out a small box similar to the one the diamonds were in. Train then gave that to Mr. Colodon. Impatiently, Mr. Colodon opened the box and brought out a small magnifying glass used to examine diamonds. Mr. Colodon then opened the velvet box Ace had handed him, and chose one of the diamonds to examine.

“Yes, these are lovely,” he said in reverence. Mr. Colodon replace the diamond and chose another one. He smiled, “Beautiful. It’s true what they say about the Sanco collection.” He then replaced that diamond before removing another from the box. ”Nice… very nice Mr. Ace.”

Ace nudged Craig. “I told you,” he whispered.

“Train, would you be so kind as to pay these gentleman.” Train walked back to the closet and opened one of the suitcases. When he came
up, he was holding a P95 Ruger. It was similar to the P89, but had an extended clip holding thirty to rounds. Ace and Craig were caught off guard. They had expected to see money instead of the gun, and they couldn’t react fast enough.

Train pulled on the trigger sending a steady stream of bullets from the gun’s silenced barrel. After the clip ejected itself, Craig and Ace’s bodies were twisted in unnatural ways. The
thirty-two rounds had slaughtered them.

“Can we find this Club Delight?” Mr. Colodon asked.

“We can,” Train replied. He was already in the process of disassembling the gun. “Why if I may ask?”

“These diamonds are not real. Somebody out there has the real ones and that’s where we will begin.”

*****

Hitman walked to the window and peeked out when he heard car doors closing. Seconds later, Nano walked inside.
“You alright?” he asked Hitman.

“I’m here,” he replied. His clothes were disheveled but he seemed calm.

“What the hell happened?”

Hitman sat
back down to explain. “Ace drew down on me.”

“Where’s the money,” Skillz rudely interrupted
. He didn’t want to come out empty handed now that the diamonds were gone.

“We good on the money. I already put that up.”

“So what are we going to do?” Tip asked. She took a seat beside Hitman looking defeated. She pulled off the UPS hat and threw it across the room.

“I think we should find their asses, get the diamonds, and murk ‘em,” Skillz yelled. Hitman came to his feet. “That’s something we don’t have to worry about. Somebody already did that.” They all looked at Hitman in shock.

“What,” Tip said.

“What the fuck is going on?” Nano asked.

“Whatever happened, they got what they wanted. Somebody plotted them out like they did us.” Everyone got quiet and Hitman continued. “Y’all know what that means?” They all looked around confused. “It means, somebody is talking in the group. Did any of you talk to anyone about the diamonds?”

“That
probably died with them,” Tip said.

“Probably didn’t. If the diamonds are still out there, we better move fast before we lose them for good.”

Chapter 30

“Mrs. Rogers, is there anything you can remember about him?”

“Like I said, he had on a ski mask.”

“Other than his skin being black, is there anything else
distinctive you can tell me?”

“No detective, he didn’t reveal anything about himself.”

“Did he use any unusual phrases? Did you recognize anything in his vocabulary?”

“All I know is he was a black male from his neck and hands.”

“Any tattoos that you could see?” Detective Powell asked her.

“None.”

Mr. Rogers looked at his wife. The man hadn’t worn a ski mask, but he assumed she was scared that the man might return.

“How about you Mr. Rogers? Any tattoos or marking you can remember?” Mrs. Rogers squeezed his hand unbeknownst to the detective.

“I didn’t see anything significant,” he answered.

“Okay, we have a picture book we would like for you two to look at.” Detective Powell looked up at his partner. “Hey Gary, can you get the book for me?” The man in the wrinkled suit nodded. He then walked out the door to get it.

“Do you recall if he touched anything?”

Mrs. Rogers became nervous. Not only had he touched the glasses, he had touched her. “I remember that he was adamant about remaining in one place
. I did offer him a drink or seat, but he declined. He only stood and watched me.”

“Powell,” Gary called out as he returned carrying a thick black book.

“Okay, this is what we call our suspect book. You both can look through it and see if you recognize anything. Some of the people in this book have a history for this type of thing. Just take your time and let me know. I’ll be standing over there,” he said pointing to a group of uniformed officers.

“Why did you lie?” Mr. Rogers asked when Detective Powell was out of earshot.

“It doesn’t matter. You’re safe. I heard these people sometimes come back, and I don’t want to chance that.”

Mr. Rogers felt like she was right. “He didn’t touch you did he?”

“John, please!”

They opened the book together. After reviewing the first page, John Rogers turned to the next page. Mrs. Rogers had no interest in the book. She was hoping the police wouldn’t start searching for prints. John Rogers turned the page again,
and then nudged Mrs. Rogers. She looked down to see a photo of the man she had recently had sex with. She now knew that his name was Victor Scott.

“Is something wrong,” Detective Powell said startling them.

“I think so. I remember he made a phone call just before he left.”

“Did you hear anything important?”

“I think so. He was telling someone about a flight tonight.”

“A flight! Do you know where?”

“New York. I’m sure he said New York,” Mrs. Rogers told him.

*****

“Tony, there’s a strange looking man out front for you.”

“All of them look funny. What does he want?”

“These aren’t your regular customers,” Chell said tilting her head.

Tony sighed and stood from behind his desk. He was in his office waiting on Craig to call. “Bring them in,” he told her. Chell disappeared and returned with two men.

“How can I be of service?” Tony asked.

“My name is Mr. Colodon, and this is my personal assistant Train.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Mr. Colodon looked at Chell. “Is she your personal assistant, because what I have to say is strictly business.”

“She’s my sister. Is there a problem?” Tony asked growing agitated.

“No, there’s no problem.” As Mr. Colodon spoke, Train pulled out the P89 and pointed it at Chell. “Hold up,” Tony yelled jumping up.

“I assume you have a lot of love for your sister,” Mr. Colodon said.

“What’s with the gun? We can talk about this! Whatever it is.”

“Let me warn you, Train isn’t just my personal assistant, he’s like my guardian. Right now, you have a problem. Can I sit?” Without any response from Tony, Mr. Colodon took a seat on the couch. “I’m going to be frank with you. I made a down payment on Amanda Sanco’s diamonds. I would think that you know this. Do you know Mr. Ace?”

“Ah shit! I know him but we ain’t rolling together.” Tony started to sweat.

“Well Mr. Ace took a million dollars from me as a down payment. The problem that I now have is that I had to kill him and his brother for trying to deceive me.” Chell gasped placing a hand over her mouth. “Your problem Tony is that Mr. Ace has mentioned your name to me.” Mr. Colodon removed his shades. “So, where are the diamonds?” Train pulled on the action engaging the Ruger.

“My sister doesn’t have anything to do with this!”

“I didn’t say that she did. Do you know where the diamonds are?” Tony looked around his office thinking. He was once the man at the head of his organization, which had changed quickly. “I’m waiting Tony.” Train stepped closer to Chell.

Tony sighed. “I might know who’s got them.”

“Who’s that?”

“There’s this guy named Hitman. He’s like the head man of their group.”

“What does this group do?”

“They do licks, jobs, like the diamonds.”

“Go ahead, explain more…”

“Alright, last week Craig…”

“Who’s Craig?”

“That’s Ace’s brother.” Tony began sweating profusely. “Can I fix a drink?” Tony put his hands down realizing he was holding them up. He then walked to where he had some bottles of liquor. He eyed the two men grabbing a clean cloth and wiping out two glasses. He needed to buy some time. Maybe he
could get himself and his sister out of the situation. Tony looked at Chell whose eyes were large with fear. She knew Tony kept a small gun somewhere in the office. She was pleading with him not to do anything stupid. He poured two drinks of Crown Royal debating. With a change of mind, he carried them over to Mr. Colodon.

“Hitman, you were saying,” Mr. Colodon prompted.

“Yeah, um… they’ve been doing things like this for a while. So last week Craig tells me about the diamonds. He was kind of nervous about it being that it was their biggest hit ever. I told him, if he could get the diamonds that I could find a buyer.”

“You wanted to get your hands in?” Mr. Colodon asked.

Tony took a sip of his drink. “I guess. Who wouldn’t?”

“Who all is a part of this group?”

“I don’t know all of the players. All I know is Craig, Ace, and Hitman.” Train took another step towards Chell and put the P89 to her cheek. A small whimper escaped her lips.

“As I was saying? Who all is in this group? I’d rather you lie to me than keep something small to yourself.” Chell started sobbing. “Please Tony, tell them what you know,” she begged.

“There’s seven of them not counting Ace and Craig,” Tony said.

Mr. Colodon smiled. “That’s better Tony. I knew you had a soft spot for your sister. Now how do we find these people? Do you know where they live?”

“I know where Nano stays, and I know where Time and Skillz be at. I don’t know about the rest of them. They meet up when Hitman tells them to.”

“I’m starting to believe you. So how are we going to do this?”

Tony looked at him lost. Mr. Colodon continued, “I need collateral. I said I believed you, but I’m a man of business. I’ll give you the choice of picking. You or your sister?”

*****

“The police will be all over this. There is sixteen million dollars in diamonds missing. There was, I don’t know how much cash in the van. Two of us are dead. We need to start thinking,” Hitman said. “We’ll go to Lendora’s pad. She’s feeding the money through the money machine now.”

“Hitman, no disrespect to you, but I’m about getting the diamonds,” Skillz
said.

“Me too,” Time added. The two of them turned to Nano and Tip.

“We did this for the diamonds,” Skillz said trying to tone it down.

“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. Skillz you’re going to drop me and Time off. Tip, can you get somebody to watch over Dice?” Hitman asked.

“Yeah.”

“Alright, in two hours we will meet in Carson City.”

Carson City was what Hitman called his house. “Y’all bring some trash bags. Everybody needs to drive their own whip. Come pick up your bread, then we’ll go get the diamonds.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Skillz said. He turned to Time. “Don’t Nique work as a dispatcher?”

“Yeah, she does.”

“Well we need help. She can probably give us the heads up on what’s going on out there. We don’t want to be blind.”
Time thought for a minute. He remembered the morning Monique was tripping on him. He knew she knew about the diamonds. Was it possible that Skillz, Craig, and Ace had something going on and Skillz had killed them? There was too much shit going on and it all seemed to lead back to Skillz. Plus, he was the one that had wanted to cross the group. He decided he needed to talk to Hitman as soon as possible. He turned to Skillz and said, “You’re right.”

*****

“Why aren’t y’all out there looking for them? I would think that would be a top priority,” Cindy said with her arms crossed. “Y’all said there were more people held against their will. So there has to be more than just the two of them.”

“I’m sorry you had to endure that, but many times people don’t survive this type of situation.
Usually they would leave no witnesses,” Detective Powell told her. He turned to Mr. Davids. “So, your daughter was here also?”

“Yes she was. She played cards with the woman.”

“You said cards?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have the cards?”

“No they took them.”

“Okay, we’ll dust the place just to see if we can pull any prints, but after that we’re done here. Um… one more thing. Are any of you familiar with the name Craig or Ace?”

Mr. Davids shook his head no.
“Not off the top of my head,” Cindy said. “Are those the other kidnappers?”

“We’re not sure yet. We just found their bodies at the Radisson Hotel,” Powell told them.