Key Lime Blues (6 page)

I was pretty sure no matter what I did, Bob would be thinking about how much pain he could inflict upon Destiny and me before killing us. All I could hope to do was buy a little time, get the diamonds from Destiny, and deliver them to Frankie. If we were lucky, he’d be willing to trade the stones for our lives.

“You calling from a cell phone?” I asked.

“Yeah, a course. You think you can find a telephone on every corner anymore?”

“All right, I’ll call you back in a few minutes. I’ve got to talk to the girl.”

There was a moment’s silence. “You got fifteen minutes,” he said. “I don’t hear back from you, I come a
huntin
’. By the way, Frankie has arrived in town and my brother’s still around. You cross me, you cross them. It’s not just me you got to worry about.”

“I’ll get back to you,” I said, and hung up the phone.

“What does he want?” Destiny asked.

“You know what he wants.”

“I don’t have ‘em.”

“Frankie seems pretty sure you took them,” I said.

“So maybe I did. The bastard thought because he was paying for my services, he could rough me up anytime he wanted to. I figured the diamonds were my way out. The thing is—I don’t have them anymore.”

I raised an eyebrow and gave her a disbelieving look. “Are you telling me you lost Frankie’s diamonds?”

She shook her head. “No. I didn’t know how to get rid of a bag of diamonds so I found someone who could help me.”

“And how does a girl go about locating a fence to sell stolen diamonds in Key West?”

“I asked Elvis.”

“Elvis?”

She laughed. “You’re going to love this,” she said. “He’s my psychic.”

Chapter 6

I studied her face while trying to figure out if she was kidding. “Do you mean to tell me you gave the diamonds to a guy named Elvis who reads palms for a living?”

Her body stiffened and she pressed her lips into a scowl. “When you say it that way it sounds sort of stupid.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I mean doesn’t everyone go to a psychic when they want to fence stolen diamonds?”

“I’ve known Elvis for a long time and I trust him. It was a business transaction. He gets twenty percent. Besides, he doesn’t read palms. He doesn’t like to touch people. He’s got some kind of phobia about it.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Let me get this straight. You didn’t give them to an everyday run-of-the-mill psychic. You chose a phobic psychic. It makes much more sense when you explain it that way.”

“You’re starting to piss me off, Darling. Stop treating me like a ditzy redhead.”

“Why would you go to a psychic to sell diamonds? It’s not the first place I’d think of. Why not a jeweler or a pawn broker?”

“What are you, nuts?” She asked. “You ever dealt with a pawn broker?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“Pawn brokers are crooks. You go in for a loan and they give you like nothing for whatever you bring in. I figured this was my one chance to make a big score.”

“How many diamonds are we talking about?”

Destiny hesitated, and then shrugged. “Twenty-five in all. The smallest is two carats; the largest is maybe three carats. They’re beautiful, and they’re mine. Tell you what, Darling. I’ll cut you in for ten percent if you can keep Frankie away from me. I’ll need your help for a couple of days. Just until I can get the damn things sold. After that, I’ll get my sweet ass out of Key West and he’ll never find me.”

I didn’t believe she was so naive as to think she could keep the diamonds, but I kept my thoughts to myself. I’d found her without any trouble. No matter where she went, Frankie would hire someone else to chase her down. In this day and age it’s almost impossible to stay hidden from someone who really wants to find you unless you’ve got the help of the government. Even that was no guarantee.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Do you really not get it? There are a couple of angry guys running around out there who will kill you if you don’t give Frankie his diamonds back.”

“Maybe Bob was bluffing?”

“Did you see the teardrop tattoo on Bob’s neck?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t looking at tattoos.”

“Well I did. It was a prison tattoo and the teardrop means he killed someone. That’s the one he brags about—it wouldn’t surprise me to learn there are more. And while we’re talking about what people will and won’t do, what makes you think Elvis won’t take off with your diamonds?”

 
“I trust him. I was raised on this island and I’ve been going to Elvis for advice six, maybe seven years now.” A smirk appeared on her face. “Besides, I told him I’d cut his balls off if he even thought about stealing from me.”

“You’re a real man-eater, aren’t you?”

“He believed me, I could tell.”

My fight with Bob had given me a headache, and I could feel it spreading to the back of my skull. I was having trouble concentrating, which is not a good thing when someone is trying to chase you down and kill you. “Do you have any aspirin?” I asked.

Without answering, Destiny reached into her purse and brought out a small green plastic bottle. “Two or three?” she asked, while she used her thumb to lever the cap off.

“Three.” As I took the pills from her, my phone went off. I popped the aspirin into my mouth and dry swallowed them, making a face when they stuck briefly in my throat.

“I never could do that,” she said. “I can’t swallow pills without water.”

“One of my many talents. Go ahead with your story, please.”

She looked down at my hip. “Aren’t you going to answer your phone?”

I considered answering and giving up Destiny. I was pretty certain getting rid of her would take away my headache, but when I reached down and touched the phone with the palm of my hand it stopped ringing. I took a deep breath and said, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea—do you? There’s only one person who would be calling me at this time of night.”

“Bob’s going to be pissed you didn’t answer it,” she said.

I reached behind my back and touched the gun. It offered a little security, but if Willie was lurking around in the area it might not be enough. The odds were Bob was armed again.

“Bob’s going to be more than a little pissed off if I tell him you gave Frankie’s diamonds to a psychic named Elvis.”

“Might be a good thing you didn’t answer it, huh?”

“You can bet on it,” I said. “Now we’d better get a move on. I thought I saw headlights down the street. We’ll talk to Bob after we get the diamonds from Elvis.” I looked over at her and added, “You do realize you’re going to have to give Frankie the diamonds, don’t you?”

Destiny picked up her pace and glanced in my direction. “He’s going to try to kill me if I don’t, isn’t he?”

“Have I been talking to myself all this time? Your only chance of getting out of this alive is if you give up the diamonds. Elvis hasn’t sold them yet, has he?”

“He still had them when I spoke with him this afternoon.”

I considered the implications while glancing up and down the street to make sure we were still alone. “So finish telling me why you decided to take the diamonds to a con man like Elvis.”

“You’re being an asshole again, Darling.” Destiny stopped and turned toward me. Her face was grim and I suspected her eyes were shooting death rays in my direction.

I placed a hand on her arm and urged her forward. “I’m sorry,” I said in an effort to keep the peace. “If you’ll tell me why you chose Elvis, I’ll be good.” I was anxious to keep her moving, and curious about why she’d done what she had.

“One time after I went to see Elvis, he got sort of chatty. Guys tend to get nervous and over-talkative with me. Anyway, he told me about some of his other clients. He mentioned one guy he sees who’s a mobster up in Miami and another who’s a drug dealer. There are also a couple of politicians who come down to see him from Tallahassee on a regular basis. I figured the mobster could tell Elvis where to go to sell a few diamonds.”

The pitch of Destiny’s voice, the click of her heels on the sidewalk, and Key West itself was beginning to wear on my psyche. I’m sure when Nick flew to Key West he expected it would be a simple job, like I’d expected when I agreed to help my mother. Now Nick was dead and I was being plunged deeper into a situation I wanted no part of. I had no idea who had killed Nick. I didn’t even know if his death had anything to do with the case.

To top it off, I’d been threatened, almost shot, and come close to being emasculated by a beautiful stripper on a dark street in the middle of the night.

Once again I was overwhelmed by the temptation to leave Destiny to her own devices, but I knew Bob was pissed enough to come after me anyway. I also was awash with the same sick feeling I’d felt when I screwed up with Celine. At this point I was pretty sure that if I didn’t help her, Destiny was going to end up dead too. I found it ironic. Despite my resolve, here I was right back where I swore I’d never go again. Paradise was turning into a jokester’s version of hell, and I wasn’t happy about it.

“If Elvis knows he’s dealing with a mobster or a drug dealer,” I asked, “why doesn’t he go to the police about them? It would be the responsible thing for him to do.”

“Don’t be silly. He’s like a priest. When someone tells him something it’s in confidence. I’d never discuss anything with him if I thought he’d blab everything we talked about to someone else. He’d be run right out of business.”

“He’s a psychic,” I reminded her. “Not a priest. Not a counselor. Not a psychiatrist. Most people would consider him a con man. If he’s legit he’d go to the cops with this information. Besides, he must not think it’s important to keep things confidential. I mean think about it— he told you about the mobster and the drug dealer and the politicians.”

“But he never used any names, Wes. And you don’t know him so you have no right to criticize. Elvis is a professional and behaves like one.”

“Well Bob’s a professional too,” I reminded her. “The thing is—professionals in his field kill people for a living. Focus on staying alive, will you? If we want to keep breathing, we need to return those diamonds to Frankie—sooner rather than later. In fact, I think we should go see Elvis tonight. I don’t care what time it is.”

Destiny shook her head. “We’ll have to wait for morning. Elvis has—let me think—he called it
noctiphobia
.”

“As in nocturnal?” I asked. “You trying to tell me he’s afraid of the night?”

“I am. He locks up the house at six o’clock and doesn’t open the door until the sun comes up.”

“And this doesn’t strike you as being a little odd?”

She tilted her head back, looked up at the dark sky, and appeared lost in thought. She might be nuts, but she was also gorgeous, so I stood there watching her and waiting. After several moments of silence, she spoke. “I’m not afraid of the dark, but because Elvis is, it doesn’t make him crazy does it? And I think all of us fear germs a little.” She let out a sigh and looked in my direction, waiting for me to agree with her.

“Fearing germs or even the dark is not very unusual,” I admitted. “Obsessing over those things is an illness.”

“So what if he’s a little strange?” she said. “He’s got a real gift and he has never been wrong in any of the prophecies he’s made for me.”

I stared into her blue eyes. They reminded me of a cat I’d owned when I was a child. She wore the same look the cat possessed while playing with a catnip toy, wild and uncontrolled.

“Okay,” I said. I didn’t want to argue with her anymore, so I changed the subject. “Let’s find a place to stay. Any hotels or motels you can think of where they might have a vacancy?”

“At this time of the year? I kind of doubt it.”

“We’ve passed half a dozen small rooming houses with vacancy signs on them,” I pointed out.

“Those places aren’t like the big hotels. It’s four in the morning. It’s not like they have someone on duty twenty-four hours a day.” She stopped, reached into her purse and pulled out a cell phone. “I’ll call Tanya. Maybe we can crash at her place for the night.”

She hit a single button and waited. “Her phone is ringing now.”

All I could think of at the moment was how tired I was, and how surprised I was when I realized Destiny’s phone was still working. I would have thought after the way she’d been slamming her purse around all night, anything inside would have been reduced to rubble.

I looked up and down the street, then wandered away from Destiny and sat down on an open piece of curb. While I waited, I reached up and caressed my temples. Across the street the fronds of a small palm tree danced in the shadows and the early morning breeze carried the scent of the ocean inland. For the first time since leaving the bar I began to relax, and my headache had almost disappeared by the time Destiny got off the phone.

She walked over and stood next to me. “We’re all set. Tanya said come on over. She said we could use the spare room.”

“What did she say when you told her I was with you?”

She sat down next to me on the curb, stretched her long legs out into the street and took a deep breath. I watched her breasts rise and fall, and rubbed my fingers a little more furiously along the side of my head.