Snake in the Glass (19 page)

“Did you ever see any of his money?”

“Some. He gave us enough to pay off the first round of loans—called it a good faith deposit.”

“Did you give him any stones, in exchange?”

“What we had. Look, in the beginning we didn’t have many of the treated ones. We were kind of stumbling around in the dark, trying different techniques, until we finally found a combination that worked. And then once we figured that out, we were supposed to produce a whole lot more, but Alex wanted to work someplace where people weren’t looking over his shoulder all the time. That’s when I came to you, Em.”

I looked at Matt, who asked, “If what you were doing was legal, then why is Alex dead?”

“I don’t know!” he replied vehemently. “You think I haven’t been going crazy trying to figure this out? We haven’t missed our deadline. Maybe the guy was pissed that he couldn’t make a big announcement at the Gem Show. But killing Alex? That makes no sense. But . . .”

“What?” Matt said.

“Alex and I, well—I guess he didn’t trust me completely. He didn’t tell me everything. Maybe he thought we were safer that way, or maybe he had some idea of cutting me out. I just don’t know. With Alex dead, I have no way of finding this guy, and he’s never going to get his stones, even what he’s paid for. I mean, I can’t pay him back, not until I get enough stones. And if he killed Alex, what do you think he’s going to do to me?”

Roast you slowly over an open fire?
I managed not to say that out loud. Matt and I exchanged a glance; we were still missing a piece of this puzzle.

“Denis, I still don’t see any motive for killing Alex,” Matt said slowly. “Unless he had lied to you about where he got the stones?”

The whites of Denis’s eyes were showing. “I’ve told you all I know! I know we own properties, but how can I prove where the stones came from? I thought Alex was my friend, but maybe he was pulling a fast one.”

“I think our first priority is to track down this mystery man that Alex was working with,” Matt said. “And since Alex is the victim, we—or should I say, the sheriff—will have access to Alex’s records. You’re saying that all this started after you began hitting the casinos?”

“Does that make a difference?”

“Maybe Alex lied to you—he could have been borrowing money from someone, off the record, and he put the stones up as collateral. Maybe he got in deeper than he admitted to you. Or, as you suggest, he could have been using the partnership’s funds to gamble with. Or he could have put up the land, without your consent. Plenty of possibilities. I hope you haven’t signed anything lately?”

“No, nothing like that. You mean that he might have forged my name or something?”

“Could be. Or he could have just entered into a business agreement with someone he met at the casino or elsewhere. That’s more or less what he told you, right?”

“Well, if it was business, like I said, I never signed anything, and Alex told me not to tell anyone. He didn’t say it was illegal, but he didn’t want word to get out.”

“So now what, Matt?” I figured I should keep my foot in this conversation.

“I’ve got to fill in the sheriff. He’ll want to talk to you, Denis. We can arrange for protection for you, if you want, until this is cleared up. We can get into Alex’s files—you happen to know whether he kept them at home or at the university?”

Denis shrugged. “I’d guess at home. His office at the university is a mess, full of rocks and stuff. And people are in and out of there all the time.”

“What about whoever it was who does your taxes?”

Denis brightened. “Yeah, I’ve got copies of those papers. I can give you the guy’s name, and he should have more information.”

“Matt, what about Cam?” I felt like a little girl tugging at his sleeve, but my brother was my first priority, and I wasn’t about to lose sight of that.

Matt thought for a couple of seconds. “Look, the way I see it, we’ve got two main avenues: find the guy Alex was working with, or find out where the stones are coming from. Either one could lead us to Cam.”

Now I was faced with a dilemma. I knew that Matt meant well, and he could muster all the combined forces of local law enforcement. But that was a mixed blessing, because law enforcement had to follow the law, which meant there were procedures that had to be observed. Which, as a good citizen, I supported, but official procedure took time, and I wasn’t sure what kind of time we—or Cam—had.

“When do you think you’ll have anything?” I asked.

He gave me a look that mingled frustration and sympathy. “My people will talk to the recorder’s office today. We can call the accountant at home, I guess. But I still have to bring the sheriff up to speed.”

“Denis, what about your deadline?”

Denis shrugged, looking miserable. “I don’t know. I was going to give what I had to Alex and he was going to deliver the stones this week, before the show ended. I don’t know what happens now.”

“Matt, somebody’s going to search Alex’s house, right? Maybe he left some information about the buyer?”

“Of course. As soon as we figured out who’s handling what. We’re headed to the sheriff’s office next. Denis, you ready go to?”

Denis stood up shakily. “I guess. I’m sorry I’ve made such a mess of things. I should have paid closer attention to what Alex was doing.”

I tried to feel sorry for him but gave up. “You just tell the sheriff everything you know and let him and Matt sort things out. Matt, you’ll call me?”

“When I can. Come on, Denis.”

He and Denis took their leave, and Frank and I were left behind. “Well,” I said.

“Well, indeed,” he replied. “I take it we’re still hunting for the properties?”

“Of course.”

“You didn’t mention that to Matt.”

“No, I didn’t. He has to go through channels, and I don’t want to wait. We’re not doing anything wrong. When Nessa comes in to work, I hope she’ll have something for us from her son-in-law. And maybe you can replicate what Cam was working on? Map out where the stones might have been found?”

“I’ll give it a try. You don’t happen to have a geological map handy?”

“No, but the Internet is a wondrous thing, and I’m sure you can find something online.”

He looked as disgusted as I felt about computers, but at least we could get started. If Cam was anywhere near the right kind of geological formations, we’d track him down.

Frank was pecking away at my computer in the
corner when Nessa arrived at eleven the next morning.

“Hi, Nessa. Thanks for coming over on your day off,” I said, grateful the shop was closed on Mondays—we wouldn’t be rushed. I got right to the point. “Was your son-in-law able to find us any information?”

“Yes, dear. Arthur was able to access those property transfers online.” She handed me a large envelope, then went over and laid a hand on Frank’s shoulder, peering at the computer screen. They exchanged words, she nodded, then turned back to me.

“Good news?” I asked her, hefting the envelope.

“Some, I think. But there are a number of properties involved, scattered around over a wide area, and most are completely undeveloped, which means there is poor access.”

“Dirt roads?”

“More or less. Arthur thought that Denis and his partner paid a fair price for most of the parcels, but they weren’t good for much, which is why they were affordable. And as we already knew, the market has since dried up, so they would be having trouble selling them again.”

“Any idea how much Denis and Alex owed on them?”

Nessa mentioned a dollar figure that made me gulp. “But of course, they put only a small portion of that down, expecting, no doubt, to sell the properties quickly before the balloon payments were due. Arthur says they weren’t the only people to make that assumption.”

“Of course not. No shortage of get-rich-quick schemes, or of suckers to sink their money into them.”

“Too true. Anything new on your end?”

“Yes. Denis showed up here in the wee small hours.”

Nessa’s face lit up. “Really? So he wasn’t running?”

“No. He said he was worried about his wife, so he took her to the airport and shipped her off to her parents to keep her safe, and then he came to me, saying he was scared to go home. I called Matt this morning, and he came by and picked Denis up. They went off to tell the Pima County sheriff all about it.”

“Thank goodness! Did Denis have anything useful to say?”

“Not much. Apparently he left almost everything related to their investments and the peridot to Alex. Alex met this unknown man, Alex cut some sort of deal, Alex kept all the documents, Alex hired Cam, and so on. I don’t know whether he’s covering up something or he’s just an idiot. Either way, he didn’t tell us much.”

“Oh dear. That leaves us no further along, does it?”

“Yes and no. Matt and the sheriff can put their heads together and pool their information. Bless you for finding the land records. Frank’s looking into geological formations, and we think that if we match the geology and the properties, we can narrow down where the stones came from and maybe find Cam somewhere in the vicinity. Matt still thinks he may just be sulking.”

Nessa was quick to protest. “Oh, Em—I don’t believe he would go this long without contacting you. Cam knows you would worry. He would contact you if he could.”

“That’s what I think. Which means he’s either stuck somewhere out there without computer or phone access, or someone is stopping him.” I stood up abruptly, not wanting to dwell on the other possibility: that Cam had met with Alex’s fate. “I can’t just sit here—I’ve got to do something. Frank, you have anything?”

“Maybe. Some ideas, anyway, but I’d have to see the land to know. Rough land out there?”

“Some, I guess. I haven’t exactly done a lot of offroading, you know.”

“Em, can I take a look at the property records?” Frank held out his hand, and I handed him the envelope. He moved to the table and spread out what he had printed out next to the papers Nessa had brought.

“Shouldn’t you wait for Matt? Or Denis?” Nessa asked.

I laughed. “Denis knows squat, or if he knows something, he doesn’t know he knows it. I’ll leave him to Matt, and he and the sheriff can dig up whatever documents Denis might have. Frank, you up for a road trip?”

“Grand,” he replied promptly. “I’ve got some ideas.”

“Did you have plans for today, Nessa?”

Her eyes flickered briefly toward Frank before she answered. “Nothing special. Is there something you’d like me to do?”

“Maybe you could hang out here? I don’t know how long we’ll be, but I’d feel better if I knew you were here.”

“I’d be happy to. If Matt should call, is there anything I should tell him? Or not tell him?”

I shrugged. I had faith that Matt would do whatever he could, but he couldn’t include civilian me, and I couldn’t sit still. “I’ll fill him in when I see him—we shouldn’t be more than a few hours. We’re just kind of scouting things out at the moment. Frank, let me dig out my road maps and get dressed, and we’ll head north.”

A short while later we said our good-byes to Nessa and sallied forth. I didn’t know what I expected to find. Maybe I clung to the illogical hope that I would be able to home in on Cam by some natural instinct. Mostly I just couldn’t stand sitting around talking and waiting anymore. Besides, this excursion would allow Frank to see the land, which was always better than studying a map, or at least so I hoped. Since this was a preliminary expedition, so to speak, I was willing to take my battered car. If at some point we needed to head overland, we’d have to reconsider our choice of vehicle.

I had moved to Tucson ten years ago mainly for its thriving crafts community and good climate for glassmaking, but I had not been prepared for the monochrome austerity of Arizona mountain and desert. I had come to love it and had never regretted my choice. Still, I hadn’t spent a lot of time driving around the countryside admiring the cacti; Cam was the one who preferred long-distance treks, which was lucky, as it meant he usually came to visit me, rather than the other way around. In any case, I didn’t know the land that lay beyond Tucson very well, so I couldn’t give Frank a lot of guidance.

“You have any idea what you’re looking for here?”

“Peridot’s usually found in basaltic formations. The whole of Peridot Mesa, where the reservation is, is a single huge basalt flow, with masses of olivine—that’s the peridot.”

“The stones are embedded in solid rock?” I tried to sound intelligent.

“Yup. The olivine—that’s another name for peridot—has a high melting point, so it crystallizes inside molten rock. Either the basalt weathers away over time and the peridot crystals wash out, or you can get at the crystals by drilling and blasting.”

“Okay, so you’ve got crystals inside the mesa—I get that—and either they fall out or are blasted out and collected. But what are
we
looking for?”

“Basalt is volcanic—and you can have big flows and small flows. I’m guessing that what Alex stumbled on—if he was telling Denis the truth—was a smaller basaltic intrusion away from the main body of the mesa.”

“Ah. And you can identify that just by looking?”

“If you know what you’re looking for.”

I scanned the empty horizon rimmed with low hills. “Alex and Denis must have been crazy to think they’d be able to resell this land for a profit. Who’d want to put a housing development way up here? It looks like the back of beyond.”

“Maybe they were thinking they could use it for grazing land,” Frank suggested.

I tried to picture Denis managing a herd of cows and almost laughed. Besides, there probably wasn’t much return from leasing land for cattle. No, they must have had some optimistic expectation that the Tucson housing boom would eventually spread this way. Certainly, some people had done well—investors with a better sense of timing than Denis and Alex.