Justice Delayed (Memphis Cold Case #1)(89)

He forgot Carl was a total city boy. Will pulled up a website on his tablet that showed photos of uncut diamonds and their cost. After converting the size to millimeters, he said, “According to this, eighteen to twenty carats.”

“But you won’t know until you weigh it,” the tech added.

And that was his problem. He’d promised Andi he wouldn’t destroy the horse. He found a comparable rough diamond on the website and scrolled down to the price.

Forty to fifty thousand dollars? That couldn’t be right. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the screen again.

Carl looked over his shoulder. “Are you kidding me? The stone we’re looking at in that horse might be worth forty-five thousand dollars?”

“I don’t know.” Will dialed a gemologist he knew and described the rough stone. “I believe it was smuggled into the country.”

“The shape sounds like an octahedron, and it’s probably high grade, since no one would go to the risk and trouble of smuggling inferior diamonds,” his friend said. “You say it’s about twenty carats?”

“I can’t weigh it, but according to the dimension we’re getting from the scanner, it should weigh about that. And there’s two more, half that size.”

“I really need to see them, but a ball park figure—if the clarity is good and the right shape—it could easily be worth around forty-fifty grand, twenty-five for the smaller ones. Maybe more, depending on their quality.”

“What would they have been worth in the late nineties?”

“All three of them . . . Again, this is just a rough guess, probably in the neighborhood of seventy or eighty thousand.”

Will thanked his friend and hung up. Money like that could easily get someone killed. He rewrapped the horse in bubble wrap and locked it in the property room, hoping it wouldn’t get broken. Andi was already furious with him, and if anything happened to the sculpture, she’d never forgive him. Might not anyway.

He checked his watch. Eleven. He’d have to hurry to catch the insurance investigator.

He was approaching the I-240 split when his phone rang, and he pressed the answer button on the steering wheel. “Hello.”

“Will, it’s Treece. I’m at the hospital with Chloe, and she just told me she set us up Wednesday night.”

“What? Never mind, I heard you. Did she say who was behind it?”

“She doesn’t know. Her pimp had Chloe call and get Andi to meet her that night. Chloe didn’t know they were going to attack us.”

He flipped on his right signal and took the loop that would take him by the hospital. “I’ll stop on my way out of town. Call Brad and get him to meet us there,” he said. “But do me a favor. Don’t say anything about the diamonds and Stephanie. I want more information before I tell him.”

“Brad’s on his way, and I won’t say anything.”

Fifteen minutes later, he pulled into the hospital parking lot and hurried inside. Brad and the marshal were already in Chloe’s room when Will walked through the door. The fifteen-year-old’s face was ashen.

“Am I in trouble?” she asked in a small voice.

“Of course not,” Brad said. “We just need to ask you a few questions.”

“I don’t know anything except I heard Jason talking to somebody on the phone, and then he made me call this number and talk to Andi. He told me if I’d do it, he wouldn’t sell me to this other guy.” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I didn’t know anyone would get hurt.”

“It’s okay.” Treece wrapped her arms around the girl.

“Where can I find this Jason?”

“I don’t know,” she wailed. “I don’t know where anything is in Memphis. I got off the bus somewhere downtown, and Jason kind of protected me when this other guy harassed me.”

And the next thing the poor kid knows, she’s hustling. Will turned to the marshal. “What time is Chloe supposed to be transferred to the safe house?”

“Late this afternoon.”

Brad spoke up. “I’ll get Reggie to bring mug shots of local pimps and see if she can identify Jason from any of them.”

“Good. One of you call Andi and let her know. I’m meeting a TBI agent on the other side of Jackson about Larry Ray Johnson’s pickup.”

Brad gave him a curious glance. “I’ll walk out with you.”

“Sure.”

As they rode the elevator to the lobby, Brad asked, “Do you have time to run by the studio? David is already there, and the crime scene unit should be through by now.”

“I don’t have time. I’m meeting the TBI agent at one. Besides, Andi is the person you want—she spent a lot of time in the studio, and she might know where Stephanie kept things she didn’t want others to see.”

“Andi’s on her way to Doskie, Tennessee, wherever that is.” Out on the sidewalk, Brad stopped him. “What’s going on with you and Andi?”

“What do you mean?”

“There could be only one reason you’d ask me to talk to Andi for you—there’s a problem between the two of you. What gives?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, I’ve been watching you two. You’re obviously falling for her, and I think she feels the same way. What happened?”