The Missing Ink (30 page)

“Where are you taking me?”

He glanced at me, then looked back at the road. “Where is it?” he asked.

I forced myself not to touch my pocket. “What?”

“You were saying you found it.”

“My keys. I found my keys. I’d lost them.”

“You said you’d found what ‘they’ were looking for. That doesn’t sound like your keys.”

Give the guy a gold star. He wasn’t stupid. Even though he might look it.

“I misspoke.” I sounded like one of those politicians making excuses for saying something truly stupid.

“No, no, I don’t think you did.”

“Where’s Elise? What have you done with her?”

“Don’t worry about her.”

“Why not?”

“What did you do with it?”

Back to the diamond again. This guy was getting a little tiring. I studied the eagle on his neck for a second.

“Coleman does a nice tat,” I muttered. “Even if he likes flash.”

“It’s not flash.”

“What?”

“My sister designed it.”

“Kelly?”

“She was good.”

“I saw she worked at that shop in Malibu.”

He gave me a quick glance before looking back at the road again. He didn’t speak for a long time as we headed west on 215, and abruptly he got off the highway, turned onto Charleston toward Red Rock Canyon, through Summerlin. The housing developments on our right clashed with the brown desert on the left. Everything was brown here; it was the hardest thing to get used to after the greenness of the East Coast. But after a while, I saw past the brown to the touches of green in the banana yuccas, the Joshua trees, the bright blooms of the desert in the winter, the red rocks that crashed into a bright blue, cloudless sky.

“She loved him at first,” Matthew finally spoke, and I took “him” to mean Jeff Coleman. “She was grateful for what he did. I was grateful for what he did. But she got restless. And she was pretty once she got cleaned up, really pretty. Coleman kept her in that shop; she needed to go.”

I knew how she felt.

“Who killed her?” I asked.

He slammed on the brakes, the car skidding across the road and over into the breakdown lane. When we stopped, he twisted around in the seat, his left arm draped across the steering wheel, his right looping over the top of my seat. His fingers grabbed my hair and yanked me back.

“Don’t worry about that.”

There were a lot of things to worry about now, and he was right: Kelly Masters’s murder wasn’t exactly at the top of the list for me at the moment.

“I was just making conversation,” I tried.

He let go of my hair and turned back to the wheel. My fingers found the armrest and crawled over to the door release latch. I had to get out of here. The guy had beat up Ace, trashed my shop, and who knew what else?

I yanked at the release just as the car started to move. My door swung open, and before he could register it, I threw myself out of the car, rolling along the dirt by the side of the road. When I came to a stop, I saw the car was next to me, idling, and Matthew was getting out.

I scrambled to my feet, hoping the Tevas would find purchase in the slick desert sand, happy when they did, and I took off toward a subdivision entrance just a few feet away.

The sign proclaimed it Desert Bloom. A lovely name for rows and rows of red-tiled roofs over caramel-colored stucco. I could hear Matthew’s feet pounding the pavement but didn’t turn around for fear of losing ground. I dashed around one of the town houses, skidding a little on my Tevas as I rounded the back of it. My chest heaved as I panted, sucking in air as quietly as possible. The dry heat filled my lungs, and I wanted to cough in the worst way.

I peered around the side of the house and saw Matthew almost straight ahead, bent over, his hands on his knees. He was breathing heavily—I could hear him, the air was so still. I was lucky I was just wearing a tank and a light, billowy skirt. He had on jeans, a T-shirt, and the jean jacket with the sleeves cut off. Too much clothing for a run. I didn’t wish bad things to happen to most people, but right then, I wanted him to pass out in the worst way.

I had a feeling Sister Mary Eucharista would be okay with that.

I had nothing that could help me except the heat and the sun. No phone. No people around. Too late I realized this development was still under construction, and no one had moved into this section yet.

I was alone out here with Matthew, a sitting duck. He could kill me and either leave me here or dump my body in the desert just across the street, and I wouldn’t be found until the next batch of houses were going up.

It was not the most reassuring thought.

Matthew straightened up again, and I ducked behind the house again just as he swiveled his head around, searching for me. I held my breath, waiting to see him pop around the corner, but nothing. I risked peering out and saw him running in the opposite direction.

I had a plan.

He was going away from the road. I would go toward it. I sneaked around the backs of the houses, furtively zigzagging from one to the next. I felt a little like John Belushi in
Animal House
when he’s sneaking around the women’s sorority house.

When I got to the last house, I didn’t even stop. I made a mad dash around the fence and out the entrance and turned the corner. My car sat where I’d left it and Matthew.

He hadn’t even turned off the engine.

I didn’t have time to think. I had no idea where Matthew was, but I wasn’t going to check. I ran to the car, throwing open the driver’s door, and jumped in. No time for seat belts; I just slammed my foot on the clutch, threw it in first, and pressed down as hard as I could on the accelerator. The Mustang shot off onto the road like a Bullitt.

Chapter 56

Matthew was in the rearview mirror, getting smaller and smaller as I drove. I’d hung a U-ey and was now going toward downtown on Charleston.

About three miles later, my heart stopped pounding like it was going to come through my chest, and I managed to slip on my seat belt. My bag was on the floor in front of the passenger side, all its contents strewn about. It looked sort of like the way I felt: all discombobulated, shaken up.

He hadn’t had a gun. Or a knife. At least not one he’d shown me. His ultimate weapon was his size and how overpowering he was.

I was trembling, holding on to the steering wheel for dear life, because if I let go, I’d come apart.

For a second I thought about going up back to Red Rock, despite the heat, just to get a little of that chi balancing effect that it always managed to give me. I couldn’t risk it, though. Matthew was in that direction, and Red Rock would be a worse place to get stuck alone when a murderer was after you.

Asking about Kelly had brought out Matthew’s anger even more than when he’d been trying to get the diamond back.

The diamond.

I reached down under the seat belt and patted my pocket, feeling the rock’s sharp edge under the cotton material. At least I hadn’t lost it. Although I wasn’t quite sure just what to do with it. It seemed everyone was after it. Everyone except Elise, who’d gotten rid of it.

I got a little hostile thinking about that. She caused a lot of problems for me. For Ace. Maybe she didn’t deserve to get it back after all.

Thinking about Elise made me think about Kelly again, how she’d designed the eagle ink. She was talented; Jeff and Sylvia had trained her well. Too bad it wasn’t enough for her.

Why had she called Elise in Philadelphia? What had she said that lured Elise here?

Again, the link between the two women was Simon Chase. I kept coming back to him. Not that he wasn’t a nice place to visit, but it would’ve been nicer if we’d met under better circumstances.

Or if I didn’t have so many questions about him.

Twisting all this around in my head helped calm me slightly, distracting me.

The clock on the dashboard told me it was just after six. The gas gauge showed I needed some fuel, so I pulled into a Terrible’s. I also picked up a water while I was there. It was long overdue. As the tank filled, I went through the stuff from my bag. I didn’t have my cell phone, but I had Simon Chase’s BlackBerry. I punched in Tim’s number.

When he answered, I didn’t bother identifying myself. I just said, “Matthew Masters is walking along Charleston Boulevard, up near the exit for Red Rock, in Summerlin. He kidnapped me at the In-N-Out and took me up there, but I managed to get away.” The words jumbled together, like it was one big sentence.

“What?”

“I was at the In-N-Out burger. Matthew came in, grabbed me, took my car keys, drove up to Summerlin. I jumped out of the car and got away. You have to go get him.”

“Did he hurt you? Did he have a weapon?”

“I didn’t see one. He just grabbed me, pulled my hair.” My heart started its
rat-a-tat-tat
again. I took a couple of deep breaths.

“Are you all right? He didn’t hurt you?” The panic rose in Tim’s voice.

“I’m okay,” I said, trying to reassure myself as much as him. “But he must still be out there. He didn’t have a car or anything. I saw him walking as I drove away.”

“Tell me exactly what happened.”

I did.

“He kidnapped you?”

I didn’t want to get into the whole motorcycle thing, so I left that part out. “Yeah.”

“I’ll send a cruiser out there. Hold on.”

I waited a few minutes before he came back on the line.

“Where are you now?” he asked.

“Terrible’s. On Charleston. Heading back downtown.”

“You said you found something.” Tim reminded me that I’d started to tell him what before Matthew took my phone.

“I’ve got it,” I said. “I think it’s why he kidnapped me.”

“What is it?”

I pulled the ring out of my pocket. The stone flashed white, almost blinding me.

“It’s a diamond. Elise Lyon was wearing it when she came into the shop, but for some reason she stuck it in my orchid.”

“Excuse me?”

So now I had to explain about the plant. “This is what they’re looking for, I think. It’s got to be.”

He was quiet, then, “Bruce Manning said she stole it.”

“What? Wasn’t it her engagement ring?”

“There are things about this that the media doesn’t know. That you don’t know, Brett.” He paused. “We’ve been treating this as a missing persons case, but Manning’s convinced she took off with this other guy and planned to hock the ring. It’s worth two million.”

“Two million dollars?” I’d slipped the ring on my finger, and I stared at it. It was hypnotic. Even more so now that I knew how much it was worth. I needed to get rid of it before I lost it.

“Where is it now?”

“I’ve got it,” I said.

“With you?”

“Yeah. It was in my pocket. Matthew didn’t know I had it.” As I said it, I was struck by how stupid this was. I should’ve brought it to Tim from the get-go. I had another thought. “Is Elise missing because of this ring?” Or maybe she was still alive because she knew where it was and no one else did.

“We still don’t know why Kelly Masters called her in Philadelphia.”

The words hung between us.

“Or why she was using Kelly’s name when she was here,” I added. “You have to get Matthew Masters. He had her last night. I hope she’s okay.”

“He didn’t say anything to you?”

“He’s not exactly Mr. Sociable.”

“We’ve got a cruiser out now in that area, looking for him. I’ll let you know when we get him. In the meantime, bring me the ring.”

I bristled at that, not because I was getting comfortable wearing it, but because I had this crazy idea that if I kept it, I could find Elise and give it back to her. But Tim was right. I had to turn it in.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“Come to the station. We can file an official report, get a warrant. Put out a bulletin, find this guy, and arrest him.”

Sounded like a plan. But I hesitated.

“What?” he asked.

“I’m meeting Simon Chase at eight. I saw him with Matthew. A couple of times. I think they’re in on it together. Maybe you could wire me again, and I could see what I can find out.”

“You think Simon Chase wants to steal that ring? Why?”

He had me there. I had no clue. “He knows Matthew,” I repeated.

I heard him sigh. “I can’t wire you again. My boss wasn’t happy that we did that yesterday and nothing came of it. We’ve got cruisers out looking for Matthew. You come in here, file a report, we’ll arrest the guy. Forget about Chase. Stand him up.”

“But he—”

“Forget about him.”

Easy for him to say. I finished filling up the tank and put the gas hose back, hitting the button for a receipt. Something in his tone made me frown.

“Why? Do you know something I don’t?”

“No, no.”

He was lying. I grabbed the receipt and climbed into the car, turning over the engine while I still held the BlackBerry to my ear. “I’m going to start driving now. I’ll be there as soon as I get there.” I’d see what I could get out of him when I saw him. I put my hand on the steering wheel and watched the diamond glisten. I kept waffling between wanting to get rid of it and wanting to spend more time with it. Like a guy you should break up with, but you don’t want to end up alone on Saturday night, so you let him stick around.

We ended the call, and even though there were still too many questions, talking to my brother had calmed me down.

Until I saw the white Dodge Dakota behind me.

Chapter 57

This game had gotten so old. I drove slower than the speed limit, and I could see he was trying to force me to go slightly faster. After a few blocks, I couldn’t take it anymore. I slammed on the brakes; the Mustang skidded around, wedging itself perpendicular to the Dakota so the truck couldn’t move forward. I didn’t let myself think as I jumped out of the car.