The Seattle Cipher, page 9
“Got any spare change?” a voice asked.
“What?” Paulie turned around and looked back into the dark alley he and Wilson had just passed. He saw a shadow step out from behind a dumpster, aim a gun into the rain—a gun that had a silencer attached to the barrel—and fire off four shots. Paulie felt two bullets enter his chest—and then darkness as his body hit a hard sidewalk. Wilson entered the same darkness soon after.
“Guess not.” A man with a bad leg quickly limped to Paulie’s dead body, found the man’s cell phone, and limped back into the alley. The tough street thugs outside the dirty bars didn’t realize two men had been gunned down. They were too drunk or too drugged up to notice or care.
Patricia, unaware that Paulie and Wilson were dead, called Rachel. “We’re on track,” she explained.
Rachel was drinking coffee nervously. “Patricia, maybe we should call the police,” she suggested, sitting in a small kitchen, her hands shaking. “I’ve been up all night thinking about everything. I’m so confused.”
“You’re not the only one,” Patricia promised Rachel. “But listen, Rachel, I do believe that Eva Vinovich was telling me the truth. My mind is still replaying her words repeatedly and I’ve come to the conclusion that the poor woman was telling me the truth.”
“So why don’t we just call the police?” Rachel pleaded. “Why are you insisting on going to Northern Lights? Levi’s life is in danger.”
“Henry Green will kill Levi, Rachel,” Patricia assured her nervous friend. “The little runt told me he has a plane to catch by midnight. He’s not going to leave behind any loose ends.”
“That’s even more reason to call the police.”
“Sure, and the police will find Levi’s dead body,” Patricia stated. “And what evidence will we have that Henry Green killed Levi? Even if the police do arrest the rat, he might make bail and then split the scene—leave the country—and Levi will never receive justice. If we’re smart, we’ll be able to save Levi and take down the bad guys.”
“I know you’re right, Patricia. I know we have to save Levi’s life. But this is all so overwhelming. I still cannot—and refuse to—accept the fact that my parents were unfaithful to each other.” Rachel drained her coffee. “In time, maybe this storm will end and blue skies will appear. In the meantime, I guess I’m on your team. I’ll swing by your hotel and pick you up.”
“I’ll be ready in half an hour,” Patricia promised, deciding to cut the small talk. Rachel was obviously too upset to have a logical conversation that involved questioning her emotional memories.
“Half an hour,” Rachel agreed. She put down her cell phone and looked around the small, cozy kitchen she was sitting in. “This can’t be. I refuse to accept what Patricia told me. But what if she’s right? What if Patricia is telling me the truth?” Rachel lifted a pair of shaky hands. “3, 9, and 7—Levi couldn’t have known that Northern Lights Academy was located at 397 Pine Rain Street. And Patricia, what if she is telling me the truth?” Rachel started to refill her coffee cup but stopped when her cell phone rang. “Hello?”
“Yes, Ms. Greenstone?” a sleepy voice asked.
“Yes.”
“This is Margaret Hudson. I work for Mr. Hayes’s law firm. Sorry to be calling so early, Mr. Hayes told me your message seemed very urgent.” Margaret Hudson yawned as she sat down behind a tired desk. “Mr. Hayes called me and asked me to help you.”
“Oh, good,” Rachel exclaimed. “I wasn’t sure Mr. Hayes got my message.”
Margaret fought back a yawn and then grabbed a green coffee cup. “My father-in-law is an excellent attorney,” she told Rachel, taking down some coffee and then bringing the computer that was sitting on her cluttered desk to life.
“Mr. Hayes has been my attorney for many years.” Rachel cut the small talk. “Ms. Hudson, what did you find out?” she asked, cutting to the chase.
Margaret put down her coffee and began attacking a gray keyboard with her fingers. “You wanted to know who the original owner was of the land you own in Northern Lights, right?”
“Right.”
Margaret nodded. “I made a call and had a friend dig up the information for me. I owe her for making her pull an early morning. She sent me a file about twenty minutes ago. Let’s see.” Margaret searched the file her friend sent her. “Okay, the original owner was a man named Brannon Handorf. Mr. Handorf sold the land to Mr. Greenstone before leaving the country. Let’s see…wait, there was an owner before Brannon Handorf. A man named Matthew Stewart owned the land. Matthew Stewart built a private school called Northern Lights Academy there. The school became a private boarding school. Brannon Handorf bought the land after Matthew Stewart died. Wow, Melissa really did her homework. My sister-in-law is awesome.”
Rachel sighed. Patricia was telling the truth. “Thank you, Ms. Hudson, and tell Mr. Hayes, and your sister-in-law, thank you. I’m very grateful.”
“I can email you the file I have.”
“Please do.” Rachel gave Margaret her email address. “Can you find out who Matthew Stewart was?”
“I can try, but I’ll need a few hours.”
“I would be grateful,” Rachel told Margaret, thanked the woman again, and then ended the call with a heavy sigh. “All of this over a stolen diamond. My sister—full sister or half-sister—was killed over a stolen diamond!” Rachel felt anger flush into her heart. “Okay, Patricia, I’m on your team. You seem to have a mind for—murder.”
At the agreed upon time, Rachel threw some coffee into a travel mug, tossed on a green raincoat, and then hurried out into a rainy back alley where a blue SUV was parked. Rachel jumped into the driver’s seat and sped to Patricia’s hotel. Patricia was waiting outside when Rachel pulled up.
“Get in,” Rachel called.
Patricia ran around to the passenger side of the SUV. “It’s raining cats and dogs,” she complained, climbing into the passenger seat while closing her umbrella.
“You were right,” Rachel told Patricia, staring into the woman’s brilliant eyes. “I received a call from Margaret Hudson earlier.”
Patricia placed her umbrella and purse down onto her lap. She had changed into a gray dress and a pair of hiking boots—an outfit ready for battle. Well, kinda. Patricia didn’t exactly have war clothes packed in her suitcase. Rachel, on the other hand, although the woman was wearing a green rain jacket, was still dressed in the same clothes she had been wearing the day before. Patricia spotted the end of Rachel’s dress sticking out from under the woman’s rain jacket, noticed the style, and sighed. She hasn’t had any sleep. Her eyes are bloodshot. Her mind is exhausted. Her emotions are at their breaking point.
“Maybe I better drive?”
“Huh? Oh, well, I am a little tired,” Rachel confessed and then gratefully exchanged places with Patricia. Once Patricia was behind the steering wheel, Rachel continued to talk. “Drive north.”
Patricia nodded and pulled away from the hotel. Her eyes glanced up at the Space Needle as the blue SUV eased out into heavy morning traffic. “I’ve been thinking about Tori Greenstone.”
“So have I,” Rachel said, watching heavy traffic flow past the SUV. “Patricia, I spent all night last night hating you. Calling you a liar over and over in my heart, but you’re not a liar. You told me the truth.”
Patricia stopped behind a UPS truck, glanced over at Rachel, and sighed. “I know this is hard on you.”
“How would you feel if every truth that you once held dear to your heart turned out to be a lie?”
“Well, not everything is a lie,” Patricia offered in a soothing voice.
“But everything is also not the truth.” Rachel locked eyes with Patricia. “Margaret Hudson called me, and this is what she had to say.” Rachel relayed to Patricia everything Margaret Hudson had shared with her. Patricia listened with careful, skilled ears as her mind awoke. “I asked Margaret to find out who Matthew Stewart was for me.”
This is going to be a lengthy and interesting day, Patricia thought, and then began honking at the UPS truck. “Get moving, pal. We have a case to solve!”
Chapter Twelve
Henry Green checked his watch as he paced back and forth in front of Levi, smoking a fancy cigar. “Where are they?” he fussed, feeling a lengthy night catching up to him.
Levi eyed Henry with careful attention. Henry had drunk some expensive brandy around three o’clock in the morning. The man was somewhat on the tipsy side, and very irritable. “Mr. Green—”
“Shut up!” Henry barked at Levi. He lifted an ugly gun into the air. “I don’t want to kill you, Levi—not yet.”
Levi felt Rachel’s gun still sitting in the pocket of his rain jacket. Why Henry or his two thugs hadn’t patted him down was beyond him. Stupidity? Possibly. Levi knew that Henry and his two circus clowns were not very smart guys; “imbeciles” seemed to befit the three rats. But imbeciles or not, Paulie had tied Levi up really good, and he was unable to reach into his jacket pocket. “Mr. Green, if you would calm down, perhaps we could talk?”
Henry eyed Levi with sour eyes. “You think you’re so smart, don’t you? Well, you’re not! I’m the only one who has any brains, do you hear me?” he snapped at Levi in a proud, arrogant tone, and then eyed the large theater Levi had turned into his office. “I give you junk—my junk! The real treasures are hidden away, Levi. I’ve stolen them all. There is nothing but replicas in the Seattle Arts Museum. After I get my diamond, I’m leaving the country a rich, powerful man.”
“So it appears,” Levi stated, pretending to defer to Henry. “I’m just confused as to why you are demanding ownership of the diamond? You’ve spent the night bragging to me about the priceless treasures you have stolen. Why—”
“The diamond is mine!” Henry yelled at Levi. “I’ve spent my life hunting the missing diamond—I’m so close!” Henry narrowed his devious, soulless eyes. “I’m the winner, Levi! Me! Henry Green! I outsmarted everyone!”
Levi started to reply but stopped when he saw movement in the shadows. He squinted his eyes and looked toward a stack of wooden crates. A shadow stepped out from behind the crates, aimed a gun at Henry, and fired off a single, silent shot. All Henry felt was a sharp pain strike his shoulder blades—and then it was lights out. Levi watched Henry fall to the floor and lay still. “Well, that takes care of him, now doesn’t it?” the shadow asked Levi. “As a matter of fact, that takes care of all our enemies.”
“Who are you?” Levi asked, hearing a man speaking. Levi guessed the voice to be around fifty, maybe sixty? He couldn’t tell.
Stephen Stewart stepped out of the shadows. “I’m the grandson of the very late Matthew Stewart, and I’ve come to take what is rightfully mine.”
Levi stared at a man with a thin, bony face. Attached were two bulging eyes that reminded him of a grasshopper. “I’m afraid I don’t know who Matthew Stewart is,” he told Stephen, forcing his voice to remain calm. Henry Green was certainly dead. Whoever else Stephen Stewart was, the man was clearly a cold-blooded killer.
Stephen approached the chair holding Levi hostage, favoring his right leg with a noticeable limp. “You’re not my enemy. I’ve been watching for a long time,” he spoke in a careful voice. “I don’t want to kill you. But I will unless you do what I order you to do.”
“What do you want?” Levi asked, forcing his mind to remain alert even though he was suffering from sleep deprivation.
“Drive to Northern Lights and talk to your friend,” Stephen explained in a direct voice that told Levi that if he dared to object, he was a dead man. “Eva Vinovich is dead, but before she died, the woman spoke with your friend, the travel writer. I’m certain Eva confessed the location of the diamond to your friend. I want to know where the diamond is. It’s that simple.”
“What if Eva didn’t—”
“She did,” Stephen growled as his eyes wildly pulsated back and forth. “Eva was dying. She wanted to return the diamond to Rachel Greenstone, but she decided to play a clever game. A silly game that caused a great deal of confusion.”
“The numbers?”
“Yes,” Stephen said, nodding. “The old woman knew. Maybe she told your friend about me, about Henry Green? Whatever the case may or may not have been, she created the numbers to protect Rachel Greenstone. However, my friend, the game is over. The time has come for the diamond to return to my hands.”
“Yes, it certainly seems that way,” Levi said and nodded, understanding that he was talking to a killer.
“Brannon Handorf killed my grandfather in order to steal his land. They were partners in crime,” Stephen told Levi. “My grandfather was a brilliant criminal. He taught Brannon Handorf all he knew. Trained the traitor to become a skilled thief. Brannon Handorf turned on my grandfather, killed him, and then continued to use the private school on my grandfather’s land to hide his stolen treasures while pretending to act like an upstanding citizen.” Stephen looked down at Henry’s dead body. “In time, Brannon Handorf’s crime against my grandfather was repaid. Brannon Handorf adopted a student himself—Paul Vinovich.”
Levi felt his mouth open a little. “I see.”
“Paul Vinovich was a master thief. He shot Brannon Handorf and then stole the diamond that Brannon had stolen from my grandfather and fled the country.” Stephen narrowed his bulging eyes. “Brannon Handorf didn’t die, Mr. Edelstein. The man lived, and he began hunting down Paul Vinovich.”
“I see,” Levi replied in a curious tone.
“I’ll stop there and let your mind imagine the rest,” Stephen informed Levi. “All I want is the diamond. I’m certain Eva revealed the location to your friend. Tell her to talk to me, or you will all die. I will spend the rest of my life hunting you, and as you can see, Mr. Edelstein, I’m an expert hunter.”
“Yes, you are,” Levi agreed and then asked a question: “But, sir,” he stated, “certainly you know about the numbers 3, 9, and 7 if you are aware that Eva Vinovich created the numbers, right?”
“I’m aware of the numbers, and I assume the Northern Lights Academy has those numbers attached,” Stephen admitted. “But the school sits on over one hundred and twenty-four acres of land—lush land filled with thick woods. The diamond is the size of a baseball. I don’t have time to dig up every inch of land. You are a smart man. You can understand how long it would take me to search.”
“Impossible.”
“Exactly.” Stephen shook his head, allowing a patch of thin, stringy, gray hair to move back and forth over his bony forehead. “All I ask is that the diamond be returned to me,” he continued and then nodded down at Henry’s body. “I did Rachel Greenstone a favor. She’s innocent in this mess, and now her enemies are dead. All I want is the diamond.”
“Because you’re dying?” Levi asked, studying Stephen’s bony face.
“Cancer, yes.” Stephen nodded. “I promised my father that I would find the diamond as he was dying. I promised to return the diamond to Norway—that’s where my grandfather stole the diamond from. The diamond was stolen from a home that belonged to the woman my grandfather loved. My grandfather betrayed the woman. Now, as unreasonable as it may sound to you, Mr. Edelstein, before I die, I want my grandmother’s family to be at peace.”
“Grandmother?”
“The woman my grandfather betrayed had a son, my father,” Stephen explained in a voice that became tainted with pain. “I’m dying, Mr. Edelstein. I’m not going to pretend that I’m a man going to his deathbed with innocent hands. I have lived a hard life, and as you can see, I am a man who doesn’t have much of a soul left to him. I simply want to fulfill a promise to my father. Even a man like myself desires to die somewhat at peace.”
Levi stared into Stephen’s eyes for a lengthy time. Stephen, he realized, was speaking the truth. “Alright, Mr. Stewart, I will do as you ask. I will drive to Northern Lights and speak with Patricia. But please, don’t harm her. Patricia didn’t ask to get involved. She’s an innocent woman.”
“As long as I get the diamond—” Stephen stopped when he heard police sirens in the distance. “What? Cops?”
“I didn’t call the cops,” Levi promised. “I’m handcuffed to this chair.”
Stephen dropped to his knees and pushed Henry’s body over. “No!” he yelled, spotting Henry’s cell phone lying halfway out of the man’s right jacket pocket. A voice pressed: “Sir, are you okay? Help is on the way. Sir, can you hear me?”
“No!” he yelled, throwing the cell phone into the shadows of the large room.
Levi listened as the police sirens grew closer and closer. “Mr. Stewart—”
“Go to Northern Lights,” Stephen ordered and then began limping toward the back door of the large room. The back door opened up into a rainy alley. Stephen knew he had to escape, and fast. Only, his leg was a problem. He couldn’t run. Dragging his bad leg was the only option.
Levi watched Stephen limp away, his right leg clearly paining him but not preventing his movement. The man made it as far as the back door before two police officers burst into the large room with their guns drawn.
“Freeze!” the cops yelled, spotting Stephen near the back door. Stephen spun around, preparing to shoot, but then froze. The cops had the upper hand. Stephen knew if he raised his gun into the air, he would be shot dead. “Drop the gun. Hands in the air, now!”
Stephen let out a silent hiss, dropped his gun, and then raised his hands up into the air. As he did, he made direct eye contact with Levi. “My diamond,” he whispered in a voice that made Levi’s blood turn cold. Levi closed his eyes and waited for the two cops to handcuff Stephen and drag the man away. An hour later, after speaking to a snotty young detective who thought he was every woman’s dream, Levi called Patricia.
Patricia was driving down a silent street lined with cozy stores when Levi called. They were surrounded by thick, lush woods that truly amplified the beauty of the northwestern part of the United States; woods that had yet been untamed by the hands of man. Large concrete cities made people feel as if they had conquered the world, but when a person truly returned to the heart of nature and became swallowed up, it didn’t take long to realize just how weak and vulnerable mankind was. “Goodness, Levi. I don’t know what to say…”
