Hoarded to Death (A Jamie Brodie Mystery) (17 page)

Gillian sighed. "I want to see what they have, but I certainly don't want to join you."

I told Gillian, "I'll call you afterward, let you know what happens. Unless it'll be too late."

"Oh, no, it won't be too late. I won't be able to sleep until I've heard."

Eckhoff rubbed his hands together. “Okay, cool. So, it’s a date for tomorrow. I'll meet you all at the front doors of this building at 10:00 pm." He grinned at me. "Now I have to go try to get another date."

I laughed. "First office to the left. Good luck."

"Thanks." He waved and disappeared in the direction of Liz's office.

Tuesday took forever to pass. Liz had made a date with Eckhoff for the coming weekend and spent our reference shift grilling me about what I knew about him. Which was almost nothing. At the end of the day I went home, ate, changed clothes, listened to Pete’s exhortations to be careful, and assured him I would. I drove back to campus and got there around 9:50.

I met Eckhoff and the second cop, the decoy for Conrad, at the door of the library. The second cop’s name was Todd Smith. He didn’t look anything like Conrad up close, but from a distance, in the dark, he’d do fine. He was tall and thin like Conrad, and had a similar amount of hair. Eckhoff was dressed casually, but still as if he could be the representative of a wealthy philanthropist. I was wearing jeans and running shoes. I wanted to be able to run if I had to.

Eckhoff rubbed his hands together. "Okay, Jamie, you're going to have to start the conversation. How it goes depends on whether they bring the paper or not. Todd, you’ll stay by the car until we find out if they have something for you, as Dr. Huffstetler, to see. And," he gave me a sly grin, "I think you should call me Jon. It'll save confusion in names, and since I have a date on Friday night with one of your best friends, we might as well get on less formal terms."

"Hey, that's great." I gave him a grin back. "Liz is awesome. But be aware, Kevin knows Liz and thinks she's awesome too. So don't mess her over or you'll have both of us to deal with."

He laughed softly. "Believe me, I intend to treat Liz very well."

"Good to hear."

"Okay. Back to business. Jamie, I think we're just gonna have to play it by ear, in terms of how we start the conversation. What we'd like to do, of course, is to see the paper and see if it's worth discussion, then get out of there. I'll say that I have to confer with our anonymous donor before we start any kind of negotiations. So our main goal is to establish whether they have the paper, and if so we'll have to meet with them again. But we still won't have to expose Dr. Huffstetler to the situation when we meet with them the second time, because that's when we'll be arresting them. We'll have planned backup in place at that meet."

I was ready to get the show on the road. "Sounds good to me. Will LAPD or the sheriff's department do the arrest?"

Jon shrugged. "Depends on where the second meet is. If it's in the same place, we'll ask the sheriff to make the arrest, then turn over custody to us."

I couldn't see a telltale bulge under Jon's coat. "You do have a weapon stashed somewhere, right?"

"Yep." He winked at me. "Okay. You guys ready?"

"More than ready."

"All right. Let's go."

Todd went to his unmarked; he was going to follow us. I went with Jon to his Civic and we got in. We drove to the tennis courts and pulled around behind them. Jon turned off the engine and sat for a minute, looking. The area was not well lit. There was a streetlight at each end of the alley, but nothing in between. But it was the heart of the city; it wasn't completely dark. I didn't see anything threatening.

After we'd sat there for about thirty seconds, a couple of figures detached themselves from the wall of the building next to the courts and walked toward us. Jon said, "Okay, here we go. Jamie, as we're talking to them, get as much of a description of them in your mind as you can. Anything that might help in identification."

"Yes, sir." We got out of the car and closed the doors. Todd hung back as instructed. Jon and I walked toward the two people. As we got closer, it became clear that it was two women. Or, it might have been more correct to say two girls. They looked very young. One was tall and thin, one was short and plumper.

The two girls approached. They didn't seem to be carrying anything with them, although they were both wearing hoodies. The taller one spoke. "You're the UCLA guys?"

I said, "Yeah. I'm the one you talked to on the phone. This..." I pointed to Jon. "...is our donor's representative, and our expert is back at his car."

"Why's he back there?"

"Because we weren't sure you'd have anything to show us."

The girl sneered. "Oh, we've got something to show you." She waved her friend forward. The friend reached inside her jacket, and Jon's hand went to his jacket as well. I prepared to hit the deck, but the friend pulled a sheet of paper out of her jacket and handed it over.

I took it. It wasn't the section of the torn page we were looking for. It was torn from something, though. It looked like it had come from a very large, fancy Bible. Not an illuminated manuscript, but a Bible that had been printed to look like one.

I handed it to Jon. He turned it over a couple of times, then said, "Where did you get this?"

"Never mind where we got it. How much will you pay for it?"

"Nothing." He handed it back to her.

"
What?
"

The shorter girl whined, "I
told
you."

Tall Girl hissed, "Shut up." She waved the paper at us. "This is the paper you're looking for. The rest of the one you were showing around."

I said, "No, it's not. That's not even a genuine illuminated manuscript. You tore that out of the altar Bible of some church."

Short Girl huffed and rolled her eyes at her friend. "I
told
you. These guys are experts. I told you they wouldn't go for it."

"Shut.
Up
." Tall Girl turned back to us. "Fine. You don't want to buy it, we can find someone else."

"Sure. Good luck with that." I backed off, and Todd came forward. Jon, in one smooth move, whipped out his cuffs and grabbed the arm of Tall Girl. "You're under arrest."

"What?! You're cops?!"

Short Girl was stunned just long enough that Todd was able to grab her too. Tall Girl was squirming and tried to kick Jon. Todd said, "I think we can add resisting arrest to the charges."

Short Girl was livid. "You stupid
bitch!
I told you this was a stupid plan! But noooo, you thought you could fool the guys with Ph.D.s. You're a
moron
. And so is your friend Paulie."

Jon gave me an "aha" look. "Paulie?"

"Yeah. The guy that works for that creep."

Tall Girl was furious. She was now trying to kick her friend. "
Shut! Up!
"

Short Girl was having none of it. "My dad's a lawyer. I'm gonna tell these guys everything, and then my dad'll get me out of this."

Tall Girl sneered. "Your dad's an entertainment lawyer. He doesn't know anything about criminal stuff."

"He went to law school, he knows enough. And he's not lifting a finger to help
you
, you stupid bitch."

"You
slut!
As soon as I get my one phone call, I'm gonna call Dakota Freeman and tell him how you've been cheating on him with half the basketball team, and he's gonna know what a fuckin' slut you are..."

Short Girl screeched and lunged at Tall Girl. Jon dragged Tall Girl out of range. "Ladies, enough. Let's go." He hauled Tall Girl to the back of Todd’s car and tossed her in. Todd was laughing and shaking his head. He wrangled Short Girl to the other side of his car and secured her. We reconvened at the front of Jon's car. Jon put his hands on his hips. "Well, so much for that lead."

"Are you gonna pick up Paulo?"

“Not yet. If all he did was suggest the idea to the girls, he hasn't done anything worth arresting him for. We'll see what Shorty has to tell us. I'm thinking the only one that'll end up with charges is the mastermind there.”

I laughed. "Some mastermind."

"Yeah. Her friend's right, she is a moron." Jon grinned at me. "Thanks for your assistance in this police matter, sir. We appreciate the efforts of our citizens to help us stop crime."

I laughed. "Yeah, yeah, give me a commendation. Todd, good to meet you."

Todd said, "Good to meet you, too." He got in his car; the girls were still bitching at each other in the back seat. Todd shook his head. Jon laughed. “Try not to shoot them before you get them back to the station.”

Todd waved and drove off in the direction of Pacific Division. Jon drove me back to campus and my car. "I'll call you soon, let you know how this unfolds."

"Okay, sounds good." I got in my car, waved and drove home.

The next evening, Pete picked Gillian and me up after work and we drove up into Brentwood to the office of Anderson & Hayes. Hayes was Melanie Hayes, one of my childhood friends. Anderson was Neil Anderson, my dad's buddy from the Marines. Neil and my dad had met at Camp Pendleton as 18-year-old recruits and had been fast friends since basic training. After their two tours in Vietnam, Neil took his discharge from the Marines and went to law school. After graduation, he set up a practice specializing in GLBT issues. When Mel graduated from law school with the same idea, Neil took her on as a partner. The two of them had a hugely successful practice, with two paralegals and a couple of legal secretaries. One of the paralegals was Neil’s partner, Mark. Their office was not far from Neil and Mark’s home, in an old Craftsman house that they'd converted into office space.

When we got to the office, I stuck my head in the door of Mel's office and waved to her, then guided Gillian down the hall to the conference room. Pete stayed behind to talk to Mel. Jennifer was already in the conference room, and she’d brought her boyfriend, the guy whom she’d started seeing back in the fall. He was a pretty good-looking guy, with brown hair and eyes, and rail-thin. He looked young. I knew Jennifer was Kevin’s age, 33, and I was betting this guy was in his mid-20s. Jennifer was getting started on cougaring at a young age.

Jennifer introduced us to the guy. His name was Kurt Luby. We all shook hands. I sat at the far end of the table; I was really just here to observe. Neil, Gillian, and Jennifer grouped together at the head of the table. Kurt hung back a little, sitting near me. I guessed he was just here to observe, too.

Jennifer seemed nervous, continuously wringing her hands in her lap. I wondered what was going on with her.

Neil started the proceedings, speaking to Gillian. “I’ve read the contract that Trinity College has proposed in regard to the handling of the manuscript page, and I’ve gone over the terms with Jennifer. I feel that the contract is very fair, and Jennifer agrees. We understand that Trinity won’t be able to offer a dollar amount for the contract until authentication is complete. We would like to know what kind of timeline you’re anticipating for the authentication process.”

Gillian nodded. “It will take about a month, maybe a bit less. There are several experts that have to evaluate it – one for the vellum, one for the pigment, one for the script, and so on. Once they’ve done that, and submitted their reports to the curator, he will make the final determination. But if all the experts agree that the manuscript is genuine, the curator won’t disagree, I’m sure.” She smiled at Jennifer. “As you can imagine, they’re all quite keen to have a look at it.”

Jennifer smiled tightly. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Neil said, “I also had a conversation with Detective Belardo of LAPD, just to make sure that there is no conflict with sending this page of manuscript to Ireland. He assured me that their investigation didn’t require the use of this intact page as evidence, and we were free to proceed.” He opened a file folder. “I have three copies of the contract to be signed – one for Trinity, one for Jennifer, and one for my files. Jamie, Kurt, if you’d be willing to serve as witnesses?”

The three copies of the contract got passed around, and we all signed. Gillian tucked her copy into her briefcase. “Wonderful. I fly back to Dublin tomorrow. The curator is meeting me at the library when I arrive, and we’ll secure the manuscript page. The studies will begin the next day. I’ll be in touch with you, Mr. Anderson, throughout the process.”

“That’s great. I appreciate it.” We all stood up, and shook hands all around. Neil saw Jennifer and Kurt out, then came back to say goodbye to us. I collected Pete from Mel’s office. He and I were going to take Gillian to dinner for her last night in California.

Gillian wanted American pizza, so we took her to 800 Degrees in Westwood. We got in line and ordered, then got our drinks. Gillian was impressed with the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine and its 104 potential flavor combinations. Once we found a table and got seated, Gillian said, “Jennifer seemed nervous to me. Is that normal for her?”

I shook my head. “She’s high strung, but I did notice that she seemed more nervous than usual. I thought she’d rub the skin off her hands, the way she was wringing them.”

Pete said, “Huh. Wonder what that was about?”

I took a sip of my Coca-Cola Lime. “She’s probably anxious to know if she’s getting any money or not. She has big credit card bills she needs to pay off.”

Gillian was drinking a seltzer water-lemonade combo. “Well, she’ll find out soon, one way or the other. Everyone involved in the authentication is dropping whatever they’re working on now to examine the page. It might not even take as long as I anticipated.”

We had a nice evening. I said goodbye to Gillian; Conrad was taking her to the airport the next day. Gillian promised to stay in touch and invited us to visit in Dublin. We said we’d take her up on that sometime.

While we were at Neil’s office, I’d made arrangements with Jennifer to take her up to Cloak and Dagger Books to sell her books. The next afternoon, I cut out of work after my reference shift, and Jennifer picked me up for the drive to Pasadena, with the boxes of books in the back of her car.