My lunch plans were clearly not going to happen.
According to my captors, recovering stolen property might take a bit of time, what with Dmitri Krushnic, a.k.a. Jimmy Novak, an uncertain element in this process. So, under close supervision, I texted my sisters saying I had an upset stomach from too much wine last night. That wasn’t even technically a lie, because all the alcohol from the prior evening was not currently sitting well. I just omitted the part about helping to apprehend a jewel thief before another jewel thief showed up to steal the stuff that had already been stolen. No way I could have texted that with any clarity. That sort of thing definitely demanded a phone call.
Leo, Gina, and I made an interesting threesome, trudging toward Dmitri’s house. As we made our way down Cahill Road toward Southville, I thought about taking them on an extra-long trek through the woods, maybe making a break for it or at least ensuring that their walk was a little extra miserable because God knew they deserved it. Especially Leo. But Gina’s warning about Mick getting to Dmitri first had me worried.
Then I thought about what it might mean if I convinced them to let me call my dad. He could have deputies watch the boat dock and arrest Mick as soon as he landed. He’d broken parole, after all, and we didn’t need him to lead us to Jimmy Novak. We already had Jimmy Novak, but calling my dad would mean telling him everything, and in the back of my mind, I was trying to create the least amount of collateral damage. If Dmitri gave the leftover jewels to Leo and Gina, he’d be broke, but at least he wouldn’t be in jail. Gina had promised to go along with Leo when it came to not doing anything about recently sold items. It seemed their only priority was returning the stolen items to the Wellington family so they could collect their payment for services rendered. Anything above and beyond that was not their concern. This job was just a paycheck, not some assignment with a higher moral purpose. I guess that made me glad for Dmitri’s sake but also a little sad, because I’d thought Leo was more principled than that.
Apparently, he wasn’t.
Damn it. We were so over.
“Is this entire island uphill?” Gina muttered.
“Oh, sorry, sweetheart,” I answered. “I guess you should have worn more practical boots.” I heard a tiny snort of amusement, and if I didn’t know better, I might say she was starting to like me. The feeling was not mutual. I couldn’t wait to get this over with and send these two douche-canoes back to wherever with their freshly confiscated jewelry.
It was nearly noon when we stood on the front step of Dmitri’s modest cabin. The sun was still shining, the wind was still calm, but a storm raged inside me. How was I going to admit to him that this was my fault? I’d promised to keep his secret, but I guess loyalty was in short supply around here. Betrayal seemed to be the soup of the day. I’d betrayed Dmitri. Leo had betrayed me, and when it got right down to it, Dmitri had betrayed everybody. We were all karma’s bitch today.
I tapped lightly on the door, and then tapped again. I finally heard some movement inside, and Dmitri opened the door. He looked surprised and then nervous, and no doubt he was, seeing me there with Leo on one side and Goth-Barbie Intimidatrix on the other side.
“Brooke?” he said slowly and carefully. “Um, sorry, honey, but now’s not really a good time. I’m sort of in the middle of something.”
“This won’t take long,” Gina said, pushing open the door so fast that it bumped against him. She plowed past, and Leo and I followed. I mouthed the words I’m sorry, and Dmitri’s face fell. Even without knowing the full truth about Leo, Dmitri surely knew this wasn’t a friendly social call.
“What can I do for you folks?” he asked, his eyes never quite landing on any of us and his distress evident. As my grandmother might say, he was as nervous as a whore in church.
“We’ll keep this simple, Mr. Krushnic,” Gina said, pronouncing his name with a hint of drama. “We’d like the Wellington jewels and any other contraband you’ve stolen over the years. Hand it over without any fuss and we’ll keep the police out of it.”
A breath escaped Dmitri, and he grasped the back of a kitchen chair for support. My heart twisted.
“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re referring to . . . miss?”
“I’m Gina Gonzales. I believe you’ve met my partner, Leo Walker? We’ve been retained by the family of Marian Singer Wellington to retrieve the items you stole from her on the night of July seventeenth, 1987, and any other items still in your possession. We have at least two sources who can verify that you are indeed James Novak, but if you want us to publicly prove that, we can, and we will.”
Dmitri’s eyes finally flickered over me and landed on Leo. “Is that so, kid?”
Leo’s face flushed as he gave a single nod. “I’m afraid so, sir. For what it’s worth, I enjoyed our fishing trip.”
Dmitri offered up a rueful chuckle. “Yeah, me too, but life is like that sometimes, I guess. You think you know a person . . .” He paused as if waiting for us to respond. We didn’t, so he added, “But, you see, here’s the fascinating part. I don’t have anything left. It’s all gone.”
“Mr. Novak,” Gina said, dropping the name pretense and frowning, “we know that’s not true. Do you want us to contact Chief Callaghan about this matter? And then he’ll have to contact Judge Murphy to get a search warrant? And then we’ll have to tear up your whole house before we finally find what we’re looking for in your bee houses.”
Damn, she was harsh.
Dmitri’s face filled with pain and disappointment as she mentioned the bee houses, and I felt awful because I was the one who knew about that. I was the one who’d told Leo last night about Dmitri’s awesome hiding spot. Obviously, Leo had told Gina.
“Dmitri, I’m so sorry,” I said. “I didn’t have any idea who Leo was when I told him those things. He promised to keep it to himself, but he lied.” I cast a scathing glance Leo’s way, but since I’d been glaring at him for the past hour, he’d become somewhat desensitized.
“Don’t beat yourself up over this, honey,” Dmitri responded. “I know a thing or two about lying. It starts out simple and then it gets complicated. But Miss Gonzales, something tells me you might know my old friend Mick O’Malley? He was here just yesterday and demanded his loot. He had a gun, so naturally I felt I had no choice but to give him all the jewels I had left.”
Her smile was patently insincere. “Thirty years of living a false life has given you a very convincing manner, Mr. Novak,” Gina said. “But you’re right. I do know Mr. O’Malley. I also know he couldn’t have been here yesterday because he didn’t arrive in Michigan until very late last night. Well after the ferry service stopped running. He’s in Michlimac City now, or at least he was this morning. It’s quite likely he’s on his way here now, and if we see him, we’ll have no choice but to turn him in to the police for parole violation. My guess is he’ll have some things to tell us about you if that happens. So how about you just give us what we want and we’ll leave?”
Dmitri’s expression was strained. He spoke slowly, enunciating each word. “Please believe me when I say that Mick O’Malley has the jewels.” He held a hand up to his chest and very subtly aimed his index finger toward a closed bedroom door. Then he lifted his thumb . . . like a gun, and pointed it up toward his temple.
I glanced between Leo and Gina, and the realization was unanimous. Mick O’Malley was in the other room. With a gun. That was not good news. My heart thumped wildly in my chest as Leo started to slowly make his way across the room while she continued talking.
“I think that’s very convenient timing, Jimmy. I mean, here we are to collect, and you say that somebody beat us to it? Doesn’t your old partner realize that if he gets caught this time, and he’s sure as hell going to get caught, his ass will go straight back to prison for a very, very long time? If he had any sense at all, he’d stay far away from you and far away from any stolen merchandise.”
As she talked, we all watched Leo ease his way toward the closed bedroom door. Gina motioned for us to move over by the windows, maybe so if Mick started shooting we’d be out of the path of the bullets? What the actual fuck? Was I about to be shot at? Was Leo about to be shot at? I was still mad at him. Very mad, but that didn’t mean I wanted him to get shot. Punched? Sure. Kicked in the groin? Maybe. But definitely not shot.
Mesmerized, I observed as he slowly reached his hand down to carefully wrap his fingers around the doorknob.
“Are you going to stick to that story, Jimmy?” Gina said, motioning for Dmitri to say something in response.
“Uh . . . I can see why you don’t believe me,” he said as Gina also started moving toward the door. “I mean, I have been known to tell a tall tale or two, but you have to understand about Mick and me. I owed him those jewels. Sure, he gave my name to the cops, but I don’t blame him for that. I’m sure the cops tricked him into telling them more. I never held any hard feelings against him.”
Ten seconds stretched into an eternity, and I stopped listening to Dmitri’s words. He was rambling, anyway. Just killing time. My brain flinched at the cliché. Killing anything right now seemed like a lousy idea. I heard the faint sound of a horse taxi traveling past the house and caught the scent of bacon and coffee. Dmitri’s breakfast. Just a normal Saturday morning for Trillium Bay, the town I was the mayor of, and yet my world had been reduced to these four walls, and whatever was about to happen next. I reached over and clasped Dmitri’s hand.
Gina had reached the doorframe by now, and she pressed her back against the wall. Leo made eye contact with her and nodded once before suddenly twisting the knob and throwing the full weight of his body against the door. I heard a bam and slam and the sound of Mick’s body making contact with the wood.
“Ow!” he howled like a kid getting hit with a baseball.
Dmitri and I jumped in tandem as Leo rushed into the room, followed by Gina, but a millisecond later, they both backed out of the room with their hands raised.
“You could have broken my nose, you bastard,” Mick said, pointing a handgun right at Leo’s chest. My heart skittered to a halt, then jump-started into an erratic pounding against my rib cage.
“I’m sorry I didn’t,” Leo answered. “A broken nose would be the least of your problems.”
“Well, that’s not a very nice thing to say,” Mick answered. “And it looks like you’re the one with the problem. Because I’m the one with the gun.” He smiled his dingy-toothed grin, and I thought about fainting. I always hoped I’d be extra brave in the face of danger, but it turned out that even the hint of bodily harm was enough to make me want to cry and pee my pants.
“Don’t do this, Mickey,” Dmitri said. “No amount of money is worth going back to prison for, is it? You heard what they said to me. If we give them the jewels, you and I are both in the clear.”
Mick scowled at him for a second before returning his gaze, and the barrel of the gun, to Leo. “I don’t think that’s what they said, Jimmy. And anyway, what would you know about prison? I’m the one who spent half my life in there. I’m not going back. Fortunately, those shiny stones you were foolish enough to save are just what I need to get my new life started.”
“Don’t be a fool, O’Malley,” Leo said. “There’s no way off this island. The police know you’re here.”
Leo was bluffing, but Mick stared at him hard, then looked to Gina. “You just told Jimmy you hadn’t called them yet. So, which is it?”
“I called them,” I said, not at all certain I should be saying anything but choosing to follow Leo’s lead. “I texted my father before we got here so he’d know we were coming for Dmitri.” A total lie. I had just told a total lie to the convict with the gun—which was now pointed at me. I was in no way a fan of that. I definitely should have kept my mouth shut.
“You, little girl. I’ve met you. You come over here by me.”
“Leave her out of it, Mick. She doesn’t have anything to do with this,” Dmitri said.
I stayed frozen to the spot, not out of bravery or defiance. Quite the opposite, in fact. I was essentially paralyzed with fear. I was about to start hyperventilating. I needed a paper bag, but now hardly seemed like the time to ask for one.
“Nothing to do with this? Sure she does. She’s my insurance policy.”
He crooked a finger at me. I took a reluctant step forward, and Mick grabbed my arm and twisted me around, pointing the gun at my midsection, poking me with it a little. Time moved in surreal slow motion. I was not brave. Not by any stretch of the imagination, but falling apart right now would only make matters worse. And I had two soldiers with me. Surely, they’d figure out something? Something that included Mick being knocked unconscious and me walking away with no extra ventilation? My eyes met Leo’s, and he was calm in a way that gave me strength. He was going to fix this.
“You are making an epic mistake,” Leo said, his voice low and gravelly.
“No, you’re making a mistake if you think I’m leaving here without my payoff.” Mick’s voice had gone from friendly to threatening, and he poked me again.
“Whether we called the police or not, you’ll never make it off the island,” Gina said.
“I will if I take this pretty little mayor with me. You might think I don’t have an escape plan, but I do. I’m smarter than I look.”
“You’d have to be,” Gina muttered.
“Take me instead,” Leo said. “Think about it, Mick. She is the police chief’s daughter. You think he’s going to let that rest? No, he’s going to want revenge. You’ll be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life.”
Mick’s chuckle lacked humor. “I’m going to be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life anyway, buddy.”
“Sure, but speaking of looking over your shoulder . . . what’s that?” Leo exclaimed and abruptly pointed behind us.
Mick twisted to see, and the next thing I knew Leo’s body had slammed into us both. I went flying from the impact and landed with a woof on the floor, with Leo half on top of me and Mick half underneath. I coiled reflexively as I heard the sounds of punches being thrown and a gun skittering across a hardwood floor. At least, I think it was a gun skittering across the floor. That’s not a sound I’d ever heard before, but I dared to open my eyes just in time to see Gina stomping a black-booted foot down on the top of—sure enough—the gun.
“Oh my God,” Gina said, glaring over at a now-incapacitated Mick. “I can’t believe you fell for that. You are so not smarter than you look.”