Triple Diamonds (Mystic Nights Book 2) (24 page)

Justin? Who was that?
“I wasn’t criticizing, Jewel. Just making conversation. You know I work at the youth center, and you also know, I’m sure, too many of our young people commit errors, youthful blunders,” he enunciated the last words, to drive his point home, “that have cost them their futures. Your bothers are nearly eighteen, and again, I’m not trying to insinuate anything, just sharing some wisdom from a man who has seen a lot and lived it.”

He saw Jewel was still upset at what she perceived to be a slight. She obviously wasn’t happy with their turn in their conversation, but she began to relax with his words. But he wondered at her over-reaction and defensiveness.
Guilt perhaps?

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take it personally. It’s just I have had three years of people giving me their advice where my brothers are concerned. But I’m sorry.” She let out a frustrated sigh, then added, “I know it’s because you care.”

He cleared his throat. But her words were true. He did care. About her. Them. But with the things going on at the casino, and the things he was seeing with his own eyes—her brother’s actions, well, things weren’t adding up and it was scaring the hell out of him. And he wondered what she meant about friends they shouldn’t be associating with. He’d never heard her mention these concerns before. All of that weighed heavily on his mind, plus the fact that he had already misjudged a person whom he thought he loved. He just didn’t want to go down that road again. His trust issues ran too deep to do that again. “I do care. A lot.” His admission came after a long moment of silence as all those thoughts swirled in his mind.

Her sprinkle of laughter as he pulled into the Sea Shack Diner did wonders to lighten the mood. “I love this place,” she clapped her hands in delight and then made quick work of her seatbelt. The tiny shack served great seafood and also had amazing views of the Mystic River. It wasn’t fancy but the atmosphere was charming and rustic, very relaxed. And that was the mood he had been going for. He still was trying to ponder a way to bring up the rash of thefts that was going on at the Casinos. And he needed to ask her about the guy at the Mohegan’s.
Was he the Justin she had just mentioned?

“I don’t see your brothers’ truck,” he commented.

She reached inside her purse for her cell phone to call them. “Oh, I have a text from the now.” Her eyes scanned her phone. “It seems Justin showed up to help them unload and he brought them lunch. They are going to eat with him and then finish moving the rest of the stuff.”

She looked up to him.
Justin. Who was Justin?
He had just been about to ask her about the man they had seen when they left the Mohegan’s.
Was it the same guy?
If he asked now, it might set a red flag up. He would need to wait.

By the time lunch was served and he hadn’t thought of a way to bring up those topics, he felt lost and like he was running out of time. His nerves were wreaking havoc on him. He thought about the two investigators, the Marinos, sitting in a truck outside getting nothing. He made his choice. He was going to point blank ask her. He was tired of playing cat and mouse. He wasn’t a detective either. “Hey, I wanted to ask you about that guy we saw on our way out of
The
Mohegan
’s the other night. I’ve seen that man before with your brothers at the youth center, but I don’t know his name.”

He saw her tiny fist clutch her napkin and she quickly moved it under the table. “Oh. Him. That’s Justin Sock. The friend I don’t much like.” Her brow was creased.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring that up. I just didn’t want to say hi to the boys and not include him, you know. And they never seem to get around to making introductions.” He tried to pass it off as manners.

“I didn’t think they hung out with him as much anymore. He got the boys into some trouble last year. Drinking. They bought some booze from a bootlegger.”

He reached for his own napkin. “Not good.” He wondered what other kind of trouble Justin had gotten the boys into. But at least Gio and Nikko had a name now. He hoped they get that off of the pen wire he still had in his pocket.

“Yeah, I know. They . . .,” she paused before finishing her statement, “got arrested.” She was clearly embarrassed by this admission.

Arrested?
“I hate to break it to you, but I’ve seen them together a lot lately.” He watched her reaction.

Jewel shook her head in derision. “Justin’s mom lives in Lantern Hill, but his dad is Western Pequot, so he comes to the reserve a lot. They lived here for a while when the boys were younger. But Justin, they say has cleaned up his act. Still, I don’t like the influence he has over them.”

“I can understand why.” He cleared his throat, he was about to go in for the kill. “Drinking is one thing, and bootlegging can be serious, but . . .,” he paused to make sure he had her full attention, “I also kind of wanted to know because, after I drove you home, I was called to the Casino. Something happened last night.”

There was confusion on her face. He surged ahead. “We had some more break-ins at
The Mystic
.
The Mohegan’s
security called earlier too, they had a few that night, too. And, well, Justin was spotted on tape at both places.” He didn’t tell her that her brothers were at
Mystic Nights
. He wanted to see her reaction to that first.

Jewel’s hand flew to her mouth. She could not hide her gasp, “You don’t think?”

He interrupted her. “The tapes don’t show who it is. But after you told me what you did about his character, and I recognized him from both places, I don’t know, I’m just trying to put two and two together.” Her reaction was one of complete shock. And that soothed him somewhat. He was reluctant to admit that her brothers were there too, at
Mystic Nights
, but felt in his heart she deserved the truth. He also hoped that the two PIs listening in didn’t think that he was giving too much away.

“The tapes we have show or indicate it is some kind of ring doing the thefts. And Jewel, I hate to say it, but after your brothers left us, they went to
Mystic Nights
. They were on the tapes too.”

Her voice was shrill when she spoke. She was shaking her head in denial. “No. No way! Joseph, whatever you are thinking, it isn’t true. They had nothing to do with the break-ins. They wouldn’t dare.” Her anger and fury were swift. She blanched, threw her crumpled napkin on the table, and stood abruptly. “I’ll be in the car.” And with that she stormed out.

Joseph knew the morning was a bust. If she knew about it she wasn’t giving anything away. But her answers and her reactions hadn’t given him much more to go on. He didn’t know if her anger was righteous, or put on. But he did know that Justin was someone they needed to look into. He quickly paid the bill, and after leaving a generous tip on the table, he followed Jewel’s same path to the car.

At the car, he saw her sad expression. “Jewel, I’m just trying to be honest with you. You know my feelings, and good or bad, I just thought you had the right to know.” He saw her nod, but she remained quiet.

Joseph drove her home in silence, but after fifteen minutes he had to speak again. “Jewel, I know you are upset right now. But if you know or suspect anything, you need to tell me.” She remained stonily quiet for another minute. “Jewel, are you sure they were studying last night.”

She snapped then. “You tell me. You seem to know a lot more than your saying.”

He didn’t respond. He wanted her to talk. And he didn’t want to voice his concerns about her possibly being involved. It would destroy them if she wasn’t. And he wasn’t prepared for that yet, wasn’t sure he’d ever be.

Her voice sounded pained when she finally did speak as he pulled into her driveway. Again, no sign of the boys was present. “If you saw them on the tapes, then they were there. I don’t know why, but I’ll find out.” When she looked at him he saw the stark pain in her face. He also saw fear. That scared him.

She opened her car door then and made to get out. He stopped her by placing his hand on her knee. “Jewel. Please let me know. I . . . I need to know the truth. Maybe I can do something . . .”

Her eyes cut to him, and he saw they were brimming with tears. “They can’t be involved. But, if they are,” she looked so shocked, so confused, “I’m sorry,” she murmured quickly and then got out of the car rushing towards the door of the trailer.

Joseph let her go. There wasn’t much he could do now, not until the PIs had a chance to do a little digging. He turned the car back on and backed out, and headed back to
The Mystic
. Something in him still refused to believe she was involved. Her expression had been so bleak. He couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something still missing. A piece of the puzzle that had yet to fall in place.

Joseph was nearly back at the casino, when he made a quick U-turn. He was just so confused. And when that happened, he knew the only thing that helped him clear his head was talking it out. And the only person he could think to help him clear away the confusion was his mother. He felt like a lost teenager once more. Jewel just couldn’t be involved in this.
Her brothers?
He didn’t know. But her, well, he couldn’t be that wrong about someone. He just couldn’t.

Checking the clock on the dashboard, he knew his mom would be home. On Sundays she always went to church with his grandmother, and then she cooked for whatever family was coming over later, and the girls. He knew if he hurried, he’d be able to get her alone for a bit, and he needed that right now whether he wanted to admit it or not.

‡

T
awny went directly
to the kitchen on Monday afternoon. She wanted to spend some time with Jewel. She knew her son was falling in love with this woman. But not until yesterday had she realized how deeply he had already fallen. It was when seeing her youngest son looking so torn about what was going on at the Casino and his love for this woman that was ripping him apart that she had made the decision to go see Jewel herself. Surely, her son hadn’t misjudged this woman so badly. Not after he told her all about the young lady. His impressions of her had to be correct. But to be sure, she needed to get to know her. The two investigators they had hired out of Tampa were good. Efficient. And fast. Intel, new Intel, had already come in. They were reporting in every few hours. And so far their investigation didn’t reveal a corrupt woman.

Last night they had reported in with Tom and he had updated her this morning. Justin Sock was sitting on a pile of money. His account had over eighty grand. But the Diamantes were nearly broke. The twins had a little over five hundred each. And Jewel’s bank account had about eight thousand. It wasn’t a large enough sum, and they had been able to report by looking at her records that it was what had been left over from an insurance policy she had received upon her parents’ deaths. Gio and Nikko had told Tom they still weren’t sure if the Diamantes were involved, and they definitely didn’t have anything concrete to link them. They were tailing Justin now. So far he seemed the best bet to find the mastermind behind the operation, unless he was it. But they were thinking this went deeper than a twenty year old.

The Marinos had also gotten ahold of Wesley’s phone and gotten the code from someone who worked for their internet provider, so they could keep track of their whereabouts. But they hadn’t gone anywhere that seemed out of character for what normal teenaged boys did. She didn’t know how the Marinos got their information, and she didn’t ask. She was sure it wasn’t above board. But she was willing to look the other way so they could get to the bottom of these thefts.

Doing her regular checks on the staff, Tawny paused longer than was her norm with each of the sous chefs before she went over to Jewel’s work station. She didn’t want the girl to sense anything other than a concerned mother during her visit, or pick up on any signals, red flags so to speak that they suspected she was involved as well. Joseph had been sorely disappointed that Jewel had not called him either. Yesterday, she had remained strangely silent despite his repeated calls that went to voicemail and his texts to call him. So, she was going to keep it casual. Keep this about Joseph.

Approaching the young woman’s station, Tawny noted Jewel appeared calm and was definitely good at her job. She was running the kitchen that afternoon, and her requests were made politely as she gave directions to several of the staff members to prepare for the evening’s menu. She was good. And if she was involved, her coming to work tonight was either extreme bravado, or her way of trying to appear innocent. Or she was just plain innocent. Tawny hoped that was the case.

Tawny opened with the usual compliments. “Everything looks good, Jewel. Just checking on the staff today, and then I’ll spend a little time looking over the books.”

“Very good, Mrs. Sassacus,” came Jewel’s polite retort. When she had seen Mrs. Sassacus enter the kitchen she had carried on with her duties. She usually walked through at least once a week, and Jewel didn’t want her boss, or employees to know how upset she was by her ordeal with Joseph.