Death Before Diamonds (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 10) (7 page)

CHAPTER
13

Zack and I were curled up on his
sofa beneath a down comforter by nine o’clock that night. After the
mouthwatering meal he’d prepared and two glasses of merlot, my eyes were
starting to droop when I heard the unmistakable bray of my phone in the
kitchen.

“Want me to go?” Zack mumbled.

“No, handsome,” I said, shimmying
out from the warm cocoon. “I’ll be right back.”

I went into the next room and checked
the display on the screen.

“Hmmm,” I said, reading Trent’s
name and mobile number. “Maybe I should let this go to—”

The phone vibrated as Dina Kincaid
called on the second line. If they were both trying to reach me at the same
time, it was obviously important. I decided to talk to Trent first, and check
in with Dina later.

“What took you so long?” he barked
as soon as I answered.

“Well, good evening to you, too,” I
said with as much cheerfulness as I could manage. “To what do I owe the honor
of your call?”

“We found a friend of yours
downtown earlier tonight,” he said quickly. “He had a pretty nasty gash on the
back of his head and a deep laceration to his torso. Looks like he sustained both
injuries when he fell into the decorative wrought iron fence in front of the post
office.”

The unexpected announcement left me
flabbergasted. Trent took the opportunity to answer a few of the more obvious
questions.

“On second thought,” he said,
“‘friend’ is probably the wrong word. I should’ve said that we found someone
bleeding and semi-conscious on the sidewalk with your phone number written on
the palm of his hand.”

“Who is it?” I asked, feeling almost
certain that I already knew the answer.

“That Rex guy,” answered Trent.
“Besides the loss of blood, he seemed pretty confused. Amanda Crane was first
on the scene. She said Greer claimed someone tried to electrocute him with a plastic
gun before he started asking for you.”

“Electrocute him?”

Trent laughed. “Taser, Katie. The
guy got zapped pretty good.”

“Where is he now?”

“Regional Med Center,” Trent said.
“He’s doing okay, but Dr. Lansing wants him to stay for a couple of days just
to make sure there are no complications from the surgery.”

“He had surgery?”

Trent grunted. “Your ears working
okay, Katie? The injury to his midsection was pretty deep. They had to go in
and do a little housekeeping.”

“Okay, thanks. I was just trying
to—”

“What?” he rumbled. “Give me grief?”

“No,” I said, ignoring his
self-indulgent snit. “I wanted to make sure that I was getting it right.”

“Okay, sure,” Trent said. “And I’m
sorry for my grouchiness. I was doing some work on the bathroom remodel at home
this afternoon and mistook my thumb for a nail.”

“How bad is it?”

“Nothing I can’t handle, but I
shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“It’s okay, big guy. I accept the
apology.”

He laughed. “Well, that’s a
relief.”

“Okay, so…Rex Greer? Do you know
what happened?”

“Not yet,” Trent said. “They pumped
him full of silly sauce for the pain. I’ve got Stephen Castle parked outside
Greer’s hospital room for the night. Just to make sure that we cover all the
bases.”

“You think someone’s out to get
him?”

“I’m not taking any chances,” Trent
answered. “Some of what the guy was mumbling in the ambulance sounded pretty
wacko, but he’s in protective custody just to be on the safe side. He was
talking about a diamond heist and blackmail scheme along with a bunch of random
nonsense about his brother.”

“I’ve heard a few things about Theo,”
I said. “But all the rest is new.”

Trent grunted. “New? Old? It’s all
a jumble until he’s able to speak in complete sentences.”

“The same can be said for me some
days,” I teased.

“Yeah, I know,” Trent said. “But,
anyway, he asked us to call you.”

“Rex did?”

“He wants to see you,” Trent said.
“But it’s getting late and I’m sure you had a long day. Don’t feel bad if you
want to skip it.”

“That’s okay. I can go by for a few
minutes on the way home.”

“You still at Zack’s?” Trent asked.

“I am.”

“How was dinner?” he said.

I hesitated for a moment. “How’d
you know that I was coming over for dinner?”

“Julia told me,” Trent said. “I was
at the drug store buying hydrogen peroxide and bandages for my thumb.”

“Gotcha. It’s good to know that
you’re taking care of that injury instead of leaving it to fate.”

“Oh, I didn’t take care of it,” he
said. “When she saw the damage, Julia offered to fix me up right there in the
parking lot.”

“How lovely,” I said. “I’m glad
that her membership in the Florence Nightingale League is still valid.”

He chuckled. “Is that a real thing?”

“It is in my mind,” I said.

He grunted like a caveman again,
but didn’t follow it up with anything intelligible.

“Okay, then,” I said after a few
moments of silence. “I’ll swing by in a little while and see if Rex is awake.”

“Sounds good. Let me know if he
gives you anything that we can use.”

“What do you have so far?” I asked.

“I’ve pretty much told you
already,” Trent said. “We got a 911 call a few minutes after seven about an
injured man on the sidewalk in front of the post office. Amanda Crane was a
couple of blocks away, so she drove over and found Greer propped against the
side of the building with blood everywhere and your number written on his hand.”

“Did he have his backpack?”

Trent mumbled something.

“What was that?” I asked.

“How well do you know this guy,
Katie?”

“He came by Sky High yesterday and
again this morning,” I explained. “There was a blue backpack over his shoulder
both times.”

“Do you know where he’s from?” Trent
asked.

“I’m thinking Philadelphia,” I
answered. “He’s here in Colorado trying to find his missing brother.”

“Does Rex think he was in Crescent
Creek?”

“He doesn’t
think
it,” I
said. “He
knows
it. Rex’s brother took a selfie last week on the front
porch at Sky High.”

“I hate that word,” Trent grumbled.

“Which one—selfie?”

“Yeah. It makes me think of all
those self-obsessed Hollywood types.”

“Or my sister,” I said. “And
Blanche Speltzer. And Homer Figg. And about ten gazillion other people in
town.”

“Are you telling me that they go
around taking pictures of themselves?”

“Yes, but so do a lot of people all
around the world. It’s not just a celebrity thing.”

“Well, I still hate the word,” he
said.

“Duly noted,” I offered. “Now, can
we get back to Rex Greer? You said that Amanda found him with a couple of
lacerations, but his backpack was gone?”

“I don’t know about the bag,” Trent
said. “And he didn’t tell her much because the paramedics got there about five
seconds later and started treating his injuries.”

“Is that it?”

“That’s all I know so far, Katie.
If you do go by the hospital, make sure—”

“I know, I know! Make sure I pass
along anything relevant that Rex says.”

Trent laughed. “Yeah, that’d be
nice,” he said. “But I was going to say that you should definitely check out
the butterscotch squares in the cafeteria. I grabbed a couple earlier and they’re
delicious!”

“Thanks for the tip,” I said. “And
take care—”

The phone squealed as Trent hung
up.

“—of that thumb,” I said, finishing
the thought.

CHAPTER
14

Rex Greer was propped up in bed against
a mountain of pillows when I peeked into his hospital room around ten o’clock. He was sipping from a white cup and staring blankly at the television mounted
on the wall. I knocked gingerly on the door and waited.

“Hey, it’s you,” he said with a
drowsy twang. “What are you doing here?”

I took a few tentative steps
closer. Stephen Castle from the Crescent Creek PD was just outside the door,
but I still wanted to approach Rex carefully. He’d been agitated when we talked
at Sky High earlier in the day, and I had no idea what the medication and
post-surgery haze might do to the raging thoughts about his brother.

“I heard that you wanted me to stop
by,” I said.

“Oh, yeah.” Rex’s voice was garbled
and soggy. “That’s right.”

I motioned at the plastic chair
beside his bed. “Do you mind if I sit?”

“Sure,” he said. “Make yourself at
home. I’m going to be here for a couple of days, so I’m pretending it’s my new
apartment.”

I smiled and nodded at the flat screen
on the wall. “Looks like the guy was already by to install your cable.”

The limp joke was lost on Rex. His
mouth squirmed left and then right as he tried to understand the meaning. When
he finally asked me to explain, I apologized for the weak attempt at humor.

“Oh, that was supposed to be
funny?” he said.

I shrugged, moved the chair so I
would have an unobstructed view of his face and sat down.

“It was, but let’s not worry about
it.”

“Then I don’t understand,” he said.
“The TV was here when I woke up.”

“I know, Rex. It’s my fault; the
joke related to your comment about pretending this is your new apartment.”

His eyes slowly expanded and a
smile appeared. “Oh,
now
I get it!” He laughed for a few seconds, but
then winced and reached for his left side. “But don’t tell me anything else
funny. It hurts too much.”

“Then maybe I should go,” I
suggested. “I can come back tomorrow afternoon.”

“That’s okay,” Rex said. “I really
just wanted to see a friendly face.”

“I hope you mean me,” I said with a
light smile.

He rolled his eyes. “Who else?”

“Well, I can see that you’re
hurting quite a lot. I won’t stay but a minute.”

He nodded slowly. “It just feels
like someone’s pushing and pulling on my side all at once. The doctor and
nurses said it’s only a matter of time before I’m back to normal.”

“Do you mind if we talk about what
happened?” I asked.

Rex blinked. “You mean when they tried
to electrocute me?”

“It was more than one person?”

“Yes,” he answered. “Two women,
including Arlene. I finally got her address. I thought maybe she could help me
find him. And when I went there, I didn’t do anything wrong. I just knocked on
her door and asked if she’d seen my brother.”

“And then she pulled out a Taser
and attacked you?”

“I don’t know what it was.” His
eyelids sagged and his head bobbed. “But she didn’t zap me until we were back
downtown.”

“Did she drive you there?”

Rex nodded. “She wasn’t happy to
see me,” he said. “But after we talked about things for a while at her place,
she suggested we go and have something to eat. We were walking down the street
and this other woman came out of nowhere. She had this little plastic gun in
her hand—bright yellow with some black on the sides—and she tried to
electrocute me with it. She kept zapping me while Arlene yelled at me for showing
up at her house. She threatened to kill me if I ever do it again.”

“What else do you remember?” I asked.

The sides of his mouth crawled into
a sleepy smile. “I remember a nice man in the front seat and me in the back.”

“What happened to your car?” I asked.
“Did you take a taxi to her house?”

He winced. “Man, this hurts.” He
reached for the back of his head, but the IV stopped his arm about half way up.
“I need more pain pills.”

“Do you want me to get the nurse?”

His eyes dropped to the remote
control on the bed. “Push the big button,” he said. “The red one.”

After I alerted the staff, I
repeated my question about the blue sedan.

Rex squinted. “The blue what?”

“The car,” I said. “The one you—”

“The battery died. Stupid piece of
crap wouldn’t start.”

“Is that why you left it at Java
& Juice?”

He stared at the images pulsing on
the television.

“Rex?” I said after a few seconds.

“What?” His gaze slowly rotated until
our eyes locked.

“The car?” I said. “The battery
died so you abandoned it?”

He nodded, but the grimace on his
face deepened from the pain. “Yeah, it died,” he said, lowering his voice to a sodden
rasp. “That’s why I took a taxi to see Arlene. I figured that would be better
than trying to find my way around. I don’t do so good with following directions.”

“That makes sense. What happened
when you arrived at her house?”

His eyelids lowered again as he
yawned. “When you arrived where?”

“No,” I said. “When
you
got
to Arlene’s. What happened?”

His head rolled to one side and his
lips moved silently. “I think she was surprised,” he said finally. “She knew
who I was. And she remembered my brother telling her things about me.” He
paused and blinked a few times. “And that thing hurt
bad
when it zapped
me! I mean
really
bad! I stumbled on something and tried to reach for a
tree, but it was too far away.”

“That’s when you fell into the
fence,” I said. “You must’ve blacked out after the wrought iron punctured your
side.”

“I don’t know,” he mumbled.

“How long were you with Arlene?” I
asked. “From the time you arrived at her house until she drove you downtown?”

He blinked.

“Was it ten minutes?” I suggested. “Or
twenty?”

He thought for a moment before
estimating that two or three hours had elapsed between his knock on the woman’s
front door and the glint of the yellow plastic gadget beneath a streetlamp.

“Did you get a good look at it?” I
asked. “Have you seen a Taser before?”

Rex winced again. “It was…” His
head dropped back onto the pillows. “…um, sorry, Miss Reed. This is hurting a
lot more than before.”

I got up from the chair and went
toward the hallway.

“You leaving now?” he called in a
gravelly croak.

“I’ll be back in a flash,” I said.
“I just want to let someone know that you’re having a lot of discomfort.”

He smiled, closed his eyes and
moaned softly. “Thank you. I’ll be right here when you get back.”

By the time I returned a few
minutes later with one of the nurses, Rex was snoring loudly.

“I’ll check on him again in a half
hour,” she promised.

“That would be great,” I said.
“I’ll probably stop by tomorrow to see how he’s doing.”

“Are you a friend?” the woman said.
“Or a family member?”

“We just met the other day,” I told
her. “He’s in town trying to find his brother.”

She nodded. “Are you Kate?”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m Kate Reed.”

The woman smiled. “He told me to give
you something if you came by.” She walked over to the bedside table, opened the
top drawer and removed a large white envelope. “I could probably get fired for
doing this,” she said, holding the package in my direction. “But he seems like
a really sweet guy. He asked me to give these to you.”

I accepted the package and asked about
the contents.

“It’s his phone,” she said. “And a
bunch of photographs that he had in his pockets.”

“And he wanted me to have them
while he’s in here?” I asked with a doubtful smile.

The woman shrugged. “What can I
tell you? He kept repeating it over and over: ‘Give everything to Kate Reed. Give
everything to Kate Reed.’ You must’ve made a strong impression on him if you
two just met.”

I smiled again, but didn’t comment
on her remark. Instead, I asked why the police hadn’t confiscated the items
after Rex was found downtown.

She shook her head. “I guess the
paramedics scooped them up first,” she said. “They were on the ground
underneath a bag.”

I’d forgotten about the backpack
Rex had over his shoulder when he came to see me at Sky High.

“Where is the bag?” I said.

She pointed at the bottom drawer in
the table. “It was empty when they brought him in.” She smiled and reached for
the handle. “Do you want that, too? He didn’t mention it, but he was very
adamant about giving the phone and those snapshots to you. The guy’s obviously
been through some pretty rough times lately. I didn’t see any harm in doing one
small kindness for him.”

I smiled at the woman. “I’ll take
the phone and pictures,” I said. “But why don’t we leave the bag where it is
for now. Does that sound okay?”

“Works for me,” she answered.