Page 58 of Gem Warfare

Except I knew he hadn’t.

Somehow he had turned to a life of crime… and it had paid off.

Gideon Black. Ben Rafferty. Tom Benedict. Could they really all be the same person? How many more aliases did he have?

I searched for each name and then in various conjunctions with each other and found nothing. That didn’t deter me. The man had to live somewhere. He had to pay some kind of property tax or utilities. He couldn’t just not exist in between targets.

“Have you been waiting long?” A shadow fell over me and I jumped, my heart thumping. “Sorry for startling you!” said Garrett.

I pressed a hand to my heart, willing it to slow to a morereasonable speed as my brother looked at me with concern. “I didn’t notice you coming towards me,” I said, then waggled my phone. “I was concentrating.”

“The case?”

I nodded and as I got up to join him to walk to the morgue, I filled him in on Maddox’s chat.

“I’ll expect a call from him,” said Garrett when I’d finished. “This case is getting weirder by the day but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I might pay Phoenix PD a courtesy call.”

“Any more news about the jewels?”

Garrett shook his head. “I’m waiting for something to come back in reference to the diamond serial numbers. If they weren’t registered, we might never know where they came from.”

“Surely, no one could write off that kind of cost?”

“We’re assuming all the jewels came from the same place. It’s possible they’re from several different places. It could even be that our body is the rightful owner.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Really?”

“Unlikely,” said Garrett. “I plugged Gideon Black into the missing persons database after your call but there weren’t any hits.”

“So no one reported missing him?”

“Apparently not, or at least not under his birth name. I pulled his birth records. Mother deceased when he was a child. Father listed as Charles Black. Known as Charlie. The search on him came back with a missing person as of twenty years ago. Last known address in Rhode Island. I checked and it was a rental that’s changed hands a bunch of times. I don’t need to tell you that’s easy driving distance to here or Boston. The missing person case file was thin and the detective on it passed a few years back so that’s a dead end.”

“Any sign of a sister?”

“I didn’t find any other kids registered to either parent, butthat doesn’t mean there aren’t unregistered siblings or half-siblings. I contacted the school too but no one remembers him, which isn’t surprising, given staff turnover. They could confirm his fees were paid in advance, covering until the end of his senior year, and he was a boarder. Tracking down classmates will take time and there’s no guarantee anyone will have remained in touch since our guy seems to have taken great measures to disappear. That’s if he really is connected to this case. Let’s find out what the ME has to say and circle back.”

We’d arrived at the entrance to the morgue and Garrett pressed the buzzer, announcing us both into the speaker. A moment later, a technician appeared and let us in.

“Dr. Barnes is waiting for you in the autopsy suite,” he said. “I’ll take you through.”

I’d been in the basement morgue’s office a few times, rarely by invitation. When we entered, the room was quiet, and only one metal table had a white cover on it. The room smelled of bleach and something unidentifiable and unpleasant. “Lieutenant Graves, nice to see you and your associate. It’s a slow day,” said Dr. Barnes as she entered via another door. She adjusted her big, round, spectacles and smiled. “But I’m sure it’ll perk up!”

“Let’s hope not,” said Garrett just as the implications of that hit me. “What have you got for us?”

“We don’t often get unauthorized burials like this so everyone was interested in taking a look,” she began, reaching for the sheet.

I recoiled as the skeletal remains were revealed and had a moment of indecision where I badly wanted to run out while my morbid curiosity made me want to stay.

“I thought I’d go ahead and get the bones all cleaned up before you dropped in,” she said. “Afraid there wasn’t anything useful for you there unless you want some extra worms.”

My stomach heaved.

“No, thanks,” said Garrett.

“Okay then. Well, cause of death was a bullet to the skull. See here and here?” she said, manipulating the skull and pointing with a gloved finger. “Entry wound here, exit wound here. Small caliber weapon. No bullet. The trajectory suggests he would have died instantly. Your shooter would have been no more than a few yards away when he or she fired. Make of that what you will.”

“Homicide,” stated Garrett.

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