Triple Diamonds (Mystic Nights Book 2) (22 page)

Tawny interjected. “On the tapes we think we have one of the guys. He must be the one scoping out the patrons and then he tells the others when and where to go.” This information made sense. They had to choose their marks somehow. He had suspected perhaps it was an insider. Someone who knew who was coming to the casino and that they had expensive jewelry. Someone who knew what was being kept up in their rooms.

“You got an ID?” He looked up at this revelation and was met with blank stares. He gazed first at his mother who looked nervous, then his brother whose mask was still in place.

“It’s blurry, but we might have something. Security is working on that. But we can definitely determine, height and build.”

“That’s a start.” He murmured, fear still clutching at him.

Again, he noticed his mother’s eyes quickly dart to Jonathan’s.

“What are you not telling me?”

The elevator doors opened swiftly, and Tawny led the way down the dimly lit corridor to the black doors purposefully not labelled security. Jonathan used his key card to gain quick access and they all walked into the large room with a wall of monitors that were being viewed by four security personal. Tom was coming out of his office as they entered.

He nodded at them and made his way towards one of the guards who had the tapes cued up on one of the monitors. These must be the tapes his mother wanted him to see.

“This is the tape from
The Mohegan’s
.”

He glanced towards the screen showing the corridor of one of their competitor’s hotel floors. There was just one lone person. A slight figure. Slender. In black. A moment later another figure could be discerned, slightly taller and they entered one of the rooms. He was confused. They were not tall at all like the last tapes. It couldn’t be the boys. He felt momentarily relieved. Unless there were four people working together, or more. A gang, and they took turns being lookouts. Just a minute later he watched as the suspects came out and entered the room across the hall. The other figure was stockier. A man. But the first figure could be a younger boy, or a woman, he thought morosely. They made their way down the hall and disappeared from view. His stomach rolled. The figure he saw was definitely a woman. The curve of the hips was a dead giveaway.

“It’s a woman,” Tom voiced his own fears, and Joseph swallowed the lump that began to form. All were also wearing masks. Clear plastic ones, but they were enough to distort their faces. “Now watch this tape. It is the robbery from ten thirty.” This time the two figures were larger. Much taller, but sinewy. It had to be a gang then. These were not the same figures for the eight thirty robbery.

“That is two different sets of people.” Jonathan explained although he didn’t need to.

Tom interjected. “We think they are taking turns, being the lookout. Or we have a much bigger operation on our hands. But we have the lobby tapes too. Look at this.” Another clip was showing. He saw himself leaving the hotel with Jewel. Jewel nodded at a stockier man on the way out, and he was just a bit taller than her five foot four inches. Joseph recognized him from the restaurant where he had seen the boys. The same young man Lesley and Wesley had played basketball with that morning. He hadn’t noticed him as he lead Jewel out. But she knew him, had greeted him inconspicuously. A ball of lead formed in his stomach.
What in the hell was going on? What did it mean? Was he a member of this gang? Was she?

He glanced at his mother. “What? What are you thinking?” His tone came out sharply.

“Do you know that young man?” she asked. He heard the tremor in her voice.

“No. I don’t know him. But yes, I recognize him. I don’t know who he is.” He answered truthfully.

Tom cleared his voice. “It seems like Jewel knows him.”

“So? Why is he important?” He wanted to hear them say it.
What were they suspecting?

It was Jonathan who spoke next. “He showed up on our tapes an hour later. Here at
The Mystic
.” Joseph cut over to his brother. The ball of lead was getting larger. He was in actual physical pain.

“And?”

Jonathan nodded at the security guard, the technician operating the tapes. Once again Joseph was watching the man from the
Mohegan
enter
The Mystic
, but from the parking garage. Beside him were Lesley and Wesley. Something in his gut twisted. He saw dangling from Lesley’s hand what looked to be a key card, one only employees had. It had to be Jewel’s.

Another tape was cued up immediately. It was the hallway on the eighth floor. Two tall figures in dark clothing were surreptitiously entering one of the rooms. One carried a duffel bag. They came out of the room, and then entered another before heading out of view. They took the stairwell. Another tape was cued up. The time stamp showed it was shortly after midnight. The boys were leaving with the stocky younger man from the lobby.

“Are those Jewel’s brothers?” Jonathan asked. “They used her card.”

“It doesn’t mean it was the boys.” His words didn’t even ring true to himself.

He felt his mother’s hand on his arm. “True. We are having Harry look at the other tapes to see if the boys can be spotted anywhere else on the grounds of
The Mystic
. But we haven’t had any luck so far.”

Clearing his throat, Jonathan spoke. “It looks bad, Joseph, but we want to be sure before we make any accusations. But seeing all three on tape at both places looks suspicious. Do you think you can find out who this other man is? If he is involved we can follow him, or do some digging into his activities.”

Joseph’s mind was spinning. Running his hands through his coarse dark hair, he spoke. “I’ll try. Yeah, I’ll find out.” He’d point blank ask Jewel who the guy was that she nodded at. She didn’t know he hadn’t seen the exchange at the
Mohegan
. If she seemed suspicious, he’d mention he’d seen the young man several times with her brothers, and just wanted to have a name with the face. His mind worked a mile a minute. He wanted, no needed, answers.

“Can I see the tapes from
The Mohegan
’s again?” he asked Harry. Harry quickly cued them up, as his mother and Joseph stepped back to speak with Tom.

He watched the tape closely. The one showing the female and male breaking into two rooms came on. He was sure it was a woman. His stomach rolled. He just hoped Lesley and Wesley weren’t involved. And he hoped to God that wasn’t Jewel dressed all in black. She had on a pink sweater that evening, but had worn black leggings with it.

Lesley and Wesley were supposed to be studying for an AP exam after the fights. He knew they didn’t do the break in at the
Mohegan
’s, but they sure did match the height of the break in at
The Mystic.
And they had an employee key card with them. It was Jewel’s.
What were they doing with it? Did Jewel know they borrowed it?

God, if she were involved, he knew it would break him. He had gotten too close. He had let her seep into his heart.

As he turned to face his mother and brother, he masked his own emotions. This was about business and family. The casino’s reputation for safety and security was on the line, and if things like this kept recurring then that reputation would be tarnished, and the whole reservation would lose. These thieves had to be caught. No matter who they were and why they were doing it.

Joining the threesome in the corner, he asked Tom, “What’s the next step? Where do we go from here?”

“Once we ID the guy, we do a little digging. I have a friend in Tampa, a guy I went to the police academy with, name is Gio, he does PI work now and I put in a call to him. We can get him to look into bank accounts, do some tracking. Your mom doesn’t want this to leak here with the exception of the reservation PD that have been helping us so far, so we thought using outsiders might help.”

Joseph nodded his agreement.

“And . . .,” Tom paused before continuing. He saw his mother nod her approval before he spoke. “We think we should tail the twins to be sure . . .” Tom let his words trail off. Joseph looked ill.

Joseph’s head was spinning. But he knew it was the right call. Glumly, he nodded his assent. One way or the other, the truth had to come out, and the criminals exposed.

His heart told him not to believe she was involved, but his eyes, and brain, and everything he saw tonight, coupled with his earlier suspicions about her brothers, told him something wasn’t right. He couldn’t wrap his mind around it all.

His instincts about people had betrayed him before. He just hoped this time it wasn’t true.

“Jewel and I are going out tomorrow. I’ll get you the information you need. Keep me informed. I’ll text you where the boys are so you can put a tail on them.”

“When I put in that call to Gio, he offered to come up. He is bringing up one of his brother’s to help with the investigation. We can use them without getting any higher ups in the police department involved. Although we did file the reports so the guests can have that for insurance purposes. But the police won’t be able to do the digging we can with these outside sources.”

The police would need warrants, but these guys, well, it sounded like had methods of their own. “When will they be here, this Gio and his brother?”

“They should be here early tomorrow morning.”

“Good, I’ll come in early to meet them. Then I’ll head over to Jewel’s.”

He turned on his heel and left. Heading to the elevators, and instead of going home, he headed up. He needed to be here if any more Intel came in. But he also needed to think. And going home, with the scent of Jewel still on his sheets, he knew he wouldn’t have a clear head. And he needed that tonight.

*

Tawny watched as
her youngest son left the security room. And her heart broke for him. He’d always been sensitive, caring. Trusting. Like his father. And like his father, she also knew he would do the right thing even if his heart was breaking. For his people, for his family, he would deny his heart and risk losing the love of his life.

Sadly, she swallowed past the lump forming in her throat, knowing the apple did not fall far from the tree. Her Joseph would have his heart broken, again, it seemed. No. Not seemed. His heart would be broken. He had already fallen hard for the girl. She could tell that by his grim expression when he’d left. And right now, it looked to her that he suspected the girl might be neck deep in this crime spree. She hoped it wasn’t the case. For Joseph.

‡

O
n Sunday morning,
Joseph sat in his office with Tom, Jonathan and two massive men. Their names were Gio and Nikko Marino.

And it seemed that Tom was not the only one who knew them. Jonathan, after being informed of their last name, knew of them fairly well. It seemed their eldest brother, Andreas, a former NYPD detective, had once been engaged to his new wife, Aliya.

Introductions were made, and they quickly got down to business.

Gio spoke. “Nikko here is our tech expert. We rented a surveillance van and had it waiting for us at the airport. Once you get us an ID on the fourth suspect, we can get his information and track him via his GPS on his cell phone.”

“We can also listen in if we want to,” Nikko smiled charmingly. “We will help you get to the bottom of this.”

Jonathan spoke next. “We have to keep this under wraps. If wind gets out about this to the press, it could really hurt the casino.”

“Don’t worry. This isn’t our first rodeo, and we all were former police officers, but this, well, we have been doing this kind of thing for five years now.”

Jonathan nodded curtly. Yes, he knew of these men from his wife. Her ex fiancé, Andreas, ran the company.

“I’m meeting Jewel in about an hour,” Joseph glanced at his watch. “I’m having lunch with her and the boys.”

“Feel like wearing a wire? It might help,” the younger of the two men suggested.

He didn’t want to, but he also didn’t feel like he could say no either. Acid coiled like a snake in his stomach. “Sure. Why the hell not,” he stated trying to keep the bitterness from his voice. He avoided Jonathan’s sympathetic glance.