The Diamond Affair (20 page)

Ruby chose the
sports car for its speed. The keys were hard to find but eventually she located
a set high up in a kitchen cupboard. Then she found one of Jake's guns in his
belongings. She placed it down the band of her shorts and chose a looser
T-shirt to hide it.

All she had to do
now was find her courage and she'd be ready.

***

Jake sat in the
car around the corner from Beauvoir's house and listened in to a conversation
between father and daughter. He didn't want to confront Beauvoir with Penny
around, but he'd do it if she didn't leave soon. Time was precious and running
out.

"Do you like
it?" Beauvoir asked. He must have handed Penny something.

"Did you pay
for it?" she sneered. "Or was it a freebie from one of your contacts?"

"Darling, of
course I paid for it. It cost a lot of money."

"You're
pathetic if you think you can buy me with a few diamonds. The way you bought
Sonya and my mother."

"Penny! How
can you say that?" For a man with a reputation for being a ferocious
negotiator and tough businessman, Beauvoir was doing a very good impression of
a kitten. He must love his daughter a great deal. "I loved your mother."

"You kept
her out of her mind on cocaine! How is that love?"

Jake shifted in
his seat. He shouldn't be listening to this. It wasn't his business and it had
nothing to do with the Florentine and Ruby. But he needed to keep listening. He'd
give it five minutes—if the conversation was still going after that time, he'd
go in.

"That's not
true!" Beauvoir yelled. "She chose cocaine. She chose it over me, and
you, Penny. Never forget that."

Silence then a
high wail.

"Darling, I'm
sorry," Beauvoir said. "I shouldn't have said that. But we need to
stick together, you and me. We need to—"

"Don't touch
me!" Penny screamed. "It is not you and me! It's you and Sonya. Although
she probably won't be around much longer."

"What have
you heard?" Beauvoir sounded harder. The placating tones of earlier were completely
gone. Maybe he'd realized his daughter wasn't going to suddenly turn all warm
and fuzzy on him.

"God, Dad,
you're pathetic. You can't even keep a wife. Hey, I know, why don't you drug
her? That way she can't leave."

The sharp crack
of skin slapping skin ripped through the airwaves. Jake turned off the
equipment and jumped into the front seat. Time to go.

A minute later,
he parked in Beauvoir's driveway and banged on the door. No one answered. He
tried the handle. Locked. He jogged around to the back of the house. The
sliding doors leading out to the pool area was open. He stepped through and
followed the sounds of Penny's shouting. The harsh whine of her voice was at
least an octave above her father's stumbling apology.

"I'm just
worried about you," Beauvoir said.

"You hit me
because you're worried about me?" Penny yelled. "You think I'm dumb
enough to believe that?"

Jake didn't have
to creep along the hallway. No one would have heard him above the shouting.

"I know you're
under pressure with your final year," Beauvoir said, "and I know that
boyfriend you're seeing isn't helping."

"He's the
only one who
is
helping! He's there for me. He listens to me."

"He's taking
advantage of you, Darling."

"What?"

"Trust me, I
know what guys want and it's got nothing to do with listening."

"You don't
know anything, Dad! Not when it comes to women and relationships. He does."

"I doubt
that. Darling, boys your age—."

"He's not my
age," she said with a take-that attitude.

The room at the
end of the hall fell oddly silent. Jake didn't like it. He didn't trust Beauvoir.
The man was capable of great violence. Would he turn that on his daughter?

"Who is he?"
Beauvoir said. Menace dripped from every word. Penny said nothing. "Who. Is.
He?"

"I'm not
telling." Penny sounded much less sure of herself than she had moments
before.

"Give me
your phone. I'm going to call him."

"No!"

"I said,
give it to me."

Jake broke into a
run. Penny screamed and the sound of shattering glass split the air. He arrived
in the lounge room to see a tearful Penny on the floor surrounded by the shards
of a broken glass-top coffee table. Her father stood over her, a pink phone in
his hand. His concentration was on the phone, not his daughter and definitely
not on the door or Jake.

Jake went
straight to Penny. She gasped when she saw him but allowed herself to be picked
up out of the mess. She had a few cuts but there was no major damage from her
fall.

Finally Beauvoir
looked up, a grim set to his mouth and confusion in his eyes. "Who the
hell are you?" he said to Jake. "You look familiar."

"I'm a
friend of Penny's."

Beauvoir turned a
confused stare onto his daughter. "I know this number," he said,
holding up the phone. "I don't understand. What are you doing calling
him
?"

"He's my
boyfriend." Far from sounding scared, Penny spoke with absolute
confidence. She thrust out her chin. "We're in love. I'm going away with
him just as soon as he finalizes a deal he's got going."

"Deal?"
Her father's frown deepened. "What deal?"

She shook her
head, a smile on her lips. "That's for us to know and you to find out."

Cold tentacles of
dread wrapped around Jake's gut. He snatched the phone off Beauvoir and looked
at the number on screen.

He recognized it.

The tentacles
squeezed.

Ruby!

CHAPTER 17

Penny took back
the phone from Jake's loose grasp. "I believe that's mine," she said.

"Actually,
it's mine," Beauvoir said. "I pay the bills."

Penny rolled her
eyes and pocketed the phone.

"Frankie?"
her father asked. "What can you possibly see in him? He's an overweight
moron—."

"He listens
to me. He's kind and generous and—"

"He's using
you, Penny!"

Jake didn't have
time for this. Ruby was in danger. Frankie wasn't working for Beauvoir anymore.

"No,"
he said, "he's using
you
. They both are. Frankie stole the
Florentine. He used you to get the information he needed then ambushed the
transportation crew. It wasn't Ruby. Isn't that right, Penny?"

Penny crossed her
arms over her chest and said nothing.

"Wh, what?"
Beauvoir stared wide-eyed at Jake. "You're the man Ruby Jones hired to
protect her. How the hell did you get into my house?"

"Back door. You
really should keep it locked." And just because he felt like it, he raised
his fist and hit Beauvoir in the nose.

Beauvoir fell
backwards, knocking over a tall lamp that in turn knocked over a vase that
crashed to the floor.

"Frankie
stole the Florentine, not Ruby," Jake ground out. "And he did it with
your daughter's full knowledge." He stood over Beauvoir, trying to decide
whether to hit him again. It wasn't necessary but it sure would make him feel
better.

"What's
going on here?" Sonya teetered in on perilously high heels, stopping when
she saw the carnage. "Has there been another gas leak?"

"
That's
where I've seen you before," Beauvoir said, getting up. He sat back on the
floor again when Jake curled his hand into a fist.

"You're all
pathetic," Penny spat and stormed past her stepmother.

"Where are
you going, young lady?" Beauvoir shouted.

"My room. To
pack. As soon as Frankie gives me the word, I'm leaving. And you," she
said over her shoulder to her father, "can't stop me."

"B, but...your
studies! School!"

"Screw
school. And screw you. Both of you," she said with a sneer at Sonya. Then
she strode out and up the stairs.

"Can someone
fill me in, please?" Sonya said, feet planted on the floor and hands on
hips.

"He's duped
her," Beauvoir said to Jake, ignoring his wife. "She doesn't know what
she's doing. Frankie's been telling her lies and stringing her along, making
her think he's going to take her away. He didn't steal the diamond. Ruby did."
But he didn't look entirely convinced by his own words.

"Frankie
who?" Sonya asked.

"You're a bigger
fool than your daughter thinks you are," Jake said.

"He works
for me!" Beauvoir said. "I pay him exceptionally well."

"Not well
enough. Ever been to his apartment? It's bare. The guy's obviously in some kind
of financial strife. That's why he stole the diamond."

"Who stole
my diamond?" Sonya asked, looking from one to the other. "Will
someone please tell me what's going on?"

"
My
diamond," Beauvoir said. "The one Ruby Jones stole."

"
Frankie
stole it," Jake said. Now he was really getting mad, and impatient to get
back to Ruby. The longer he was gone, the more chance there was of Frankie
calling her and giving her the details of a meeting time and place. And if he
did that, Jake couldn't be absolutely certain she wouldn't go there by herself.
If she went, Frankie would kill her, somehow leaving enough evidence so
everyone would think she definitely stole the Florentine. Only then could
Frankie leave knowing his boss wouldn't go after him. It all made sense now. Sickening
sense.

He had to get
back to Ruby.

"Neither of
you leave this house," he said.

Only Sonya
nodded, rubbing her arms as if she were cold. Beauvoir said nothing as he
reached for his phone.

***

She was gone. Jake
sensed it as soon as he drove into the drive of the Brighton house. He ran inside,
checked every room, including the garage. One of the cars was missing.

He threw a punch
at the wall but pulled back at the last moment. Now wasn't the time for
mindless violence. That would come when he had Frankie at the end of his fist. Now
he needed to remain cool and think.

But the only
clear thought was that Ruby was in danger. Frankie had no reason to keep her
alive once she showed up.

Wherever the hell
that was.

Jake pulled out
his phone and called Beauvoir's number. "Where would Frankie take someone
he wanted to get rid of? Somewhere out of the way?"

"Who does he
want to get rid of?"

"Just answer
the fucking question."

Beauvoir
hesitated then said, "There's a cabin up near Bendigo. He probably went
there."

"I want
exact directions. NOW!" he yelled when Beauvoir hesitated again.

"Only if I
come with you."

In the time it
took Jake to pace the length of the garage, he realized he had no other choice.
"I'll pick you up in ten."

***

Ruby thanked her
lucky stars that she had a good memory and a fast car. She didn't get lost and
the journey was much quicker than when Frankie had driven her to the isolated
cabin the first time.

Frankie. He had
Evie and he was going to kill her.

She swallowed a
sob as she stopped the car. This was no time for tears. If she was to get out
of this alive, with Evie, she had to think without emotions getting in the way.

She had to be
like Jake.

The element of
surprise is the greatest weapon you can have.

She got out of
the car and walked along a rough path leading to the back of the cabin. Without
a flashlight to aid her, it wasn't easy. Thick scrub and low tree branches
scratched her legs and arms and she hoped like hell she didn't step on a
sleeping snake. Dry leaves scrunched underfoot but gave way to quieter stones
closer to the cabin. She edged around to the back, the cloudy night offering
coverage once she was out of the shadows. The cloying air held the possibility
of rain.

She removed the
gun from the waistband of her shorts. Its weight felt unnatural in her palm. She
hoped she wouldn't need it because she had no idea how to use it.

A dim light shone
through the single window on that side of the cabin. She crept up to it and
peered through.

The first person
she saw was Frankie, his back to her as he sat in a chair. One elbow rested on
the rickety table, his fisted hand holding up his head. He looked like he was
asleep.

Ruby's heart
leapt into her throat. If he was asleep, her job just got a whole lot easier.

But he suddenly
stood up, stretched. His changed position revealed the barrel of a gun gleaming
in his right hand and, beyond him, a figure curled up in the corner.