Flawless

He knew that Marleen had been genuinely worried about him. Too many casual relationships had lasted only until he was working around the clock again. Truth was, he had his own reasons for not pursuing a serious relationship. He’d actually begun to explain, but then he’d stopped.

They just don’t make them like the one I lost anymore.

He sat quickly and Mike did the same, and they picked up their folders, scanning the material.

“Jewelry store robberies?” Mike said. “I’ve been following this on the news, but—”

“There’s been a change,” Eagan said. “Two thefts in the past two days. And now, two dead.”

Craig glanced at him in surprise. The NYPD had been dealing with the rash of jewelry store robberies. Every one of the five thefts that had taken place during the previous weeks had been within the five boroughs of NYC and fallen under the jurisdiction of the city police. Even with the two deaths, it still seemed to be a situation the NYPD should be handling.

“They’re killing people now?” Mike asked. “I hadn’t seen that on the news.”

“It hasn’t been on TV yet. I’m having a press conference with the chiefs of police and the mayor in an hour. We’ve been holding off, pending notification of next of kin. And, of course, to coordinate efforts between agencies.”

“We’re in?” Mike asked.

“Yeah. State lines and all, since now New Jersey’s been hit, too. Twice. Anyway, it’s all hands on deck. You two will be lead, but you won’t be the only special agents involved. Hell, every law enforcement officer in New York and the tri-state area will be alerted and working on it. The last two robberies took place right over the bridge in Jersey City. The elderly gentleman who owned one of the stores was staying late, doing his books, when he was shot and killed.”

“You said there were two murders?” Craig asked, flipping through the folder he’d been given.

Eagan nodded gravely. “There was a murder at the next store that was hit, too. A night manager was there, and a cleaning woman was working in the showroom. She was abducted, then murdered in the alley behind the store.”

“What about the manager? Any idea why he was left alive? Did he see anything?” Craig asked.

“He was in a back office. When he came out, they grabbed the woman as a human shield and dragged her away. They shot at him and missed, and apparently were in too much of a hurry to care,” Eagan said.

“Video surveillance?” Mike asked.

“Yes, but the thieves wore hoodies and ski masks,” Eagan said.

“Are we sure that these thieves and the ones who hit the Diamond District are the same?” Craig asked.

“Same MO. Breaking in after closing time, they wear gloves, so no prints. And all the security footage shows the thieves wearing the same disguises,” Eagan said.

“But it’s not the same MO anymore,” Craig muttered.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean it’s changed,” Craig said. “Escalated. Five robberies with no one hurt. And now we have two dead. Seems odd to me that they’ve suddenly become violent.”

“Maybe they got desperate for some reason,” Mike suggested. “The pressure of time or whatever.”

Craig shrugged. “Maybe these are copycats. Copycats who kill.”

“Could be,” Eagan said. “Get up to speed, see what you can find. And let’s hope to hell we’re not looking for two different sets of thieves. Jewel heists are one thing, but murder...”

* * *

“What is the matter with you?” Kieran demanded. Her voice was harsh, even though her words were almost whispered.

She wasn’t meeting with her best friend and her miscreant youngest brother at Finnegan’s. No way could she have done that without Declan getting wind of it. Didn’t matter that he wasn’t at the bar right now. The customers, the servers, everyone—even the damned walls—seemed to have eyes and ears.

She’d met them at a nondescript chain coffee place down the street from Finnegan’s instead.

Daniel looked sheepishly at Kieran, turned to Julie, then back to Kieran. “Julie’s like a sister to me,” he said defensively. “And her scumbag husband deserves the worst. Kieran, he could’ve killed those poor dogs, not to mention the emotional crap he’s been putting Julie through!”

Daniel was obviously a Finnegan. Everyone in the family had some shade of red hair. Declan’s was a medium-reddish brown, Kieran and Kevin were a darker auburn, while Daniel had the lightest coloring among them. Her uncle had once said that visiting the hospital after the twins, and later Daniel, were born seemed pointless, since he’d gone to see Declan and they’d all looked like the same baby.

At the moment Kieran figured she really did resemble her youngest brother. Her expression was pretty much the same. She completely shared his indignation at the man who had hurt Julie in so many ways.

But she—unlike her brother and, apparently, Julie—had acquired some common sense.

Julie had an excuse; she was an emotional mess.

As for Daniel...

The diamond was still in his pocket. Kieran was aware that all three of them were now in on the theft of a flawless stone worth at least half a million dollars.

“Let me rephrase this. What the hell were you two thinking? You’re talking grand larceny!” Kieran said.

“But I don’t want the diamond!” Julie insisted. “I don’t intend to keep it. I just want to get him in trouble for stealing it. Or losing it, if his boss feels like giving him the benefit of the doubt.” Petite Julie, with her short blond hair and big brown eyes, looked as innocent as a newborn babe as she stared at Kieran. “You know how his store works. Each sales agent is responsible for a certain collection of diamonds and other stones. Any of the associates can show them, but the sales agent has to count and log them in at the end of the day. I just—I just wanted Gary to suffer for a while. I wanted him to sweat it out. When there’s a count, it won’t be there. He’ll be in major trouble. I couldn’t care less about the stone itself.”

“Oh, God!” Kieran said, sitting back and crossing her arms. “There’s been a rash of jewelry store holdups. Don’t you two idiots see? You’re in the same category now.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve never been armed,” Daniel protested. “I didn’t hold anyone up. I just pocketed the stone.”

“It has to go back right away—as in now,” Kieran said. She scowled at her brother. “How exactly did you manage to take it?”

He shrugged. “Well, I said I was there to see Julie’s scumbag almost ex—”

“You said that at his place of work?” Kieran asked.

“No, of course not,” Daniel said indignantly. “I knew he wasn’t in at the time, since he was here. At the pub, I mean. So I asked Neil Davis if I could see Gary’s stones in particular—after, of course, acting disappointed that he wasn’t there. I know Davis is the king of the lazy asses because Julie’s told me about him. He’d just want the sale, and he wouldn’t count until the end of the day. I said I’d heard Benton had some great stones that could be set in the design of my choosing and that I wanted to create the perfect ring for my fiancée. And he did the usual jeweler thing—displayed the unmounted stones on a velvet cloth on the counter. Then I told him he had a fleck of something on his chin, and when he turned to the mirror, I pocketed the stone.”

“You’ll be on a security tape filching that diamond,” Kieran said, her heart sinking. How the hell was she going to get him out of this one?

“Don’t be ridiculous. I made sure my back was to the camera and that my head blocked it.”

“They’ll still come after you. They’ll go through the security tapes and see that you’re the one hiding his face. Neil can describe you, and Gary will know exactly who you are,” Kieran said. “Give it to me. I have to get that stone back before they realize it’s missing.”

“No, Kieran. I’ll take it back there,” Julie told her.

“Don’t be a fool. You have no finesse when it comes to doing anything dishonest,” Daniel said. “You’ll look guilty as hell, and you’ll wind up confessing, saying you did it. Gary might have you arrested, not to mention what his boss might do.”

“I left the house, trying to give him space to screw anyone he wanted, and what did he do? He nearly killed my dogs!” Julie said, tears rising to her eyes.

“Asshole,” Daniel muttered, placing his arm around Julie. “He doesn’t deserve you. There are good guys out there, and you’ll find one, I swear.”

Kieran lowered her head, listening to the two of them. They just didn’t get it.

“You idiots,” she said. “This wasn’t just juvenile—it was criminal. Yes, Gary’s behaved like the worst and most despicable jerk on earth, but, Julie, if you want to get even, get over him! Finalize the divorce and learn to live a better life on your own. And, Daniel, how could you, you dunce? You’ve stayed out of trouble for years. You’re working. You have a life and a career ahead of you. Think. You’ve risked your whole future. Both of you have to think about yourselves. Forget about Gary. Do you understand?”

They both reddened, nodding their agreement.

“Give me the stone,” Kieran said to her brother.

“No, I’ll get it back where it belongs,” Daniel said.

“No! If something goes wrong, they’ll have you on tape twice. I’ll go. And you can’t go with me, Julie. If Scumbag’s there—” She cut herself off. “If Gary is there, I can say I’ve just come to ask him to start behaving civilly. If he’s not there, I’ll...I’ll let it fall on the floor when no one’s looking, pick it up and just hand it over. What you did is serious. I mean years-in-prison serious, grand-larceny serious, you—”

She stopped herself. She wasn’t going to call them idiots again.

Even though they were, she’d made her point.

Daniel very casually reached into his pocket and handed her the stone. Casual was the way to do it. She should know. They’d all been proficient at pilfering little things during those difficult early years. Gum, candy—small stuff. Now she understood that they’d been bitter and unable to handle the death of their mother, so they’d acted out.

They’d been good at it. What wasn’t good was that they’d never been caught. They hadn’t been hauled down to juvenile court, then threatened with their father’s wrath and whatever the system could do to them.

“I’m terrified that you don’t realize what you did. Grand larceny. You could be put away for years and years. Honestly, this is no joke. And no lie—sometimes the sentences for theft are longer than the ones for murder,” she said sternly.

They both looked contrite, but what scared her was that they still didn’t seem to comprehend just how foolish they’d been. How dangerously foolish.

She pointed a finger at her brother. “You promised me. No more stealing.”

“But I wasn’t stealing it. I was just...borrowing it for a while.”

“My company works with the police,” she retorted. “Aside from everything else, think about the position you’ve put me in.”

“You’re a psychologist who works with a bunch of doctors,” Daniel said.

“Who work with the police,” she finished. “You—”

Julie broke in. “It was my fault,” she said.

“Yes, in a way it was,” Kieran said. “And then again, no. Daniel is responsible for his own behavior. Daniel, I need you to promise me, once and for all, that you’ll never steal again.”

“Kieran...” he murmured, glancing away. “This was an exception. I did it for—”

“Daniel.”

“All right, I promise.” She could tell by the way he looked at her that he knew she doubted him. “Never again. I swear it on our parents’ grave.”

That, to her brother, was a solemn vow.

“I wonder if they’ll even miss it,” Julie said. “The diamond, I mean.”

“You wonder if they’ll miss it? A flawless stone worth a half a million or more?” Kieran asked incredulously.

“Like you said, there’s been a rash of jewelry store holdups in the city.”

“Yeah. Armed men come in and wipe out half a store. Do you think Gary’s boss and coworkers wouldn’t notice if they’d been held up by men with guns?”

She checked her watch. She had to leave now if she was going to make it before the store closed for the day.

“What do you want me to do now?” Daniel asked her.

“Cover for me at the pub.”

“I’ll help him,” Julie offered.

“No, you won’t. You’ll go home and walk your dogs. That way Daniel can say I’m dealing with something for you and it won’t be a complete lie. Declan will understand.” She stood. “And don’t you ever—ever—put me in this position again.” She stared at them hard. “I can’t believe what I’m about to do. I’m heading off to unsteal a diamond.”

She turned away. She had to hurry because time was against her now. Pretty soon the staff would be counting receipts and logging the day’s sales as well as inventorying the jewelry and stones they’d shown that day.

She prayed she could keep Daniel out of jail—and not land both of them in the arms of the law.

CHAPTER TWO

WALLY O’NEILL, a civilian tech employed by the FBI, was working with Craig and Mike, viewing the security footage from the jewelry stores. They could have looked at the videos alone, but Craig was glad they had Wally’s help. He was a whiz when it came to cameras, computers...anything digital.

The security footage showed that all the robberies had been carried out in much the same way.

Quickly, for one.

Three men—or they looked like men, anyway—in dark jeans, hoodies and ski masks suddenly converged on the door and entered the store. They burst in with guns out. Not one of the recording devices allowed for sound, but Craig was certain that the first man to break in roared that no one had better set off the alarm or someone would die.

No alarms had been set off, but in the last two robberies, people had died anyway.

“Okay,” Mike said, “since they’re dressed alike, maybe they come from different directions or time it so each one is slightly ahead of the next guy to avoid calling attention to themselves. I mean, half the kids in America walk around wearing hoodies with their heads down and hands shoved in their pockets, but the ski masks are a real attention getter. I’m betting they don’t put those on till the last minute.”

Mike was probably right about that, Craig thought. In New York City, with crowds everywhere and people walking in every direction, their own agendas in their heads, there would be no particular reason to notice someone dressed like that. And Jersey? Pretty much the same story.

“They don’t split up when they leave, though,” Craig pointed out.

“There’s gotta be a getaway car idling somewhere nearby.”

“They committed the murders in Jersey. They’re either getting bolder—or they’re not the same crew.”

“That again,” Mike muttered.

“I might be right.”

“You might be wrong.”

“Yeah, I might be. In fact, I hope I am,” Craig said.

Wally cleared his throat. “Uh, guys? What do you want me to do now?”

“Roll the last two,” Craig told him.

Wally hit a key and brought up the crime-scene photo from the alley. He quickly apologized. “Sorry, pushed the wrong button.”

“It’s all right. We’re going to have to go over that, too,” Mike said.

They all stared grimly at the photo. The woman was dark haired and wearing a cover-up over her clothing—her way of staying clean while she swept and dusted, Craig thought.

She was lying on her side, almost as if she were sleeping. Except that a pool of blood billowed out from beneath her hair.

Mike looked at his folder. “Ana Katrina Martinez, forty-seven. Small-caliber bullet fired at point-blank range right through her forehead. Cartridge not found and the bullet is still in her brain. The ME will supply it to ballistics right after the autopsy.”

Craig felt a swell of emotion. Ana Katrina Martinez wouldn’t care what kind of bullet had killed her, and neither would her family. They would only care that her killer was caught. Even dead in a pool of blood, she had a kind face. Craig thought she had smiled frequently in life. “Why her?” he muttered angrily.

“Because someone was a grade-A sociopath with no concern for anyone other than himself,” Mike said. “You’d have to be,” he added gruffly, “to kill someone just because she was no longer useful. Hell, they were probably still in their ski masks—she couldn’t have identified them.”

Wally cleared his throat. “Stay with this image or roll the footage?”

“Roll the footage,” Mike said.

“So in the city they leave everyone alive,” Craig said. “Then they go to Jersey and leave a woman dead in an alley.”

“And a man dead at his desk,” Mike added.

“I can’t help but think it’s different perps.”

“Just different states. I’ll bet you a twenty. No, I’ll go a hundred.”

“It’s a bet I hope I lose,” Craig said.

“What are your thoughts on the matter, Wally?” Mike asked.

Wally looked up at them with surprise. Craig figured that his expertise was often sought, but not his opinion.

“I’ve enhanced the footage as much as possible. If they’re copycats, they have the clothing and the ski masks down perfectly,” he said. “I don’t know—I just don’t know.”

“Let’s watch again—then we can start with the interviews,” Mike said.

“Whatever you want,” Wally said.

“What about the murdered jeweler?” Craig asked.

“You’ll see that on the footage,” Wally said.

They didn’t see the death of Ana Katrina Martinez on the computer screen; no camera had captured that.

They did see the death of the elderly owner of the first store. He looked up, said something and appeared to be willing to do whatever the men wanted.

Then he was shot, and he crumpled over.

Mike looked at the files again. “Arthur Kempler, eighty-four. He owned and managed Kempler’s Fine Jewelry for over fifty years. Never had so much as a parking ticket.”

“They didn’t need to kill him,” Wally muttered.

Neither Mike nor Craig disagreed with him.

“Go back to the first robberies,” Craig told Wally.

Wally nodded. “Right away.”

In the earlier heists, they saw the thieves exit by way of the front door, the same way they had come in.

Only in New Jersey had they used the rear exits, at least so far.

“In those first five robberies—as the cameras show—they went back out into the street,” Mike said. “And they were casual about it. I figure within a few steps they had their ski masks off, and in another few steps the hoodies were gone and no one would have known they’d been wearing them at all. They didn’t hide from people—they used them. They melted in with the crowd until they got to their getaway car or the subway and left the area.”

Craig shook his head. “Okay, let’s look at all the footage again. I’m telling you, these aren’t the same thieves.”

“How can you be so sure?” Mike asked. “Look at the New York footage. Three of them each time. Walking in and making it all happen fast. Then New Jersey. Same outfits, same number of guys—except in the first one, the bastards shoot the owner, and in the second, one of them grabs that poor woman and drags her out the back door.”

“No, go back—go back and look at the height differences. There—look at the first tape. Two the same height, one shorter. Now go to the first store that was hit in New Jersey. None of them are the same height,” Craig said. He looked at Wally. “Wally, sorry, run them again. Slow them down.”

Wally obliged, and they watched the footage again.

Mike sighed. “How the hell are you seeing that? Maybe they’re the same size—or maybe they’re not. They could be wearing different shoes, for all you know. The perspective’s so crazy there’s no way to know for sure.”

“I just don’t think they’re the same. I think the second group are copycats. Except that they kill.”

“What’s the likelihood of two sets of thieves with virtually identical MOs starting up at the same time?” Mike asked, exasperated.

“Why not? Some criminal opportunist sees what the first guys are getting away with and figures he’ll give it a shot himself. Only he doesn’t give a damn about human life.”

“Let’s watch them one more time, then start interviewing the first cops on the scene, and the staff and customers who were there,” Mike said. “Wally?”

“Yeah, yeah, one more time,” Wally said. “And I can do comparison ratios—tell you who was and wasn’t the same height.”

“Great. For now, freeze both of the shots I’m talking about, please,” Craig said. “Can you show them to us side by side, split screen?”

As Wally brought up the two shots, Craig heard Mike’s phone buzzing. Mike picked it up, and Craig watched his partner’s features tighten.

“On our way,” Mike said. “Wally, hold tight to that footage. Craig, looks like they’re at it again. We have a chance to catch them red-handed and learn the truth. Let’s go.”

Craig stood quickly, thanking Wally again, and the two men headed out to their car.

“Where’s it going down?” Craig demanded as they walked. “What’s going on? Did someone trigger an alarm this time?”

“No. No alarm. People are just getting more nervous and, thankfully, more vigilant. They’re watching for men in hoodies near jewelry stores. And the thieves are right in the Diamond District this time. Sonny Burke from Atlantis Gems just called in to say he saw three men in black hoodies heading down Forty-Seventh Street. That place is a smorgasbord for diamond thieves. Damn, they’re getting bold!”

“I’ll drive,” Craig said.

“I’m back, Craig. I’m good. Honestly. I’ve got it.”

“You drive like an old woman. Give me the keys.”

Mike didn’t argue. Craig was the better driver and Mike knew it. He tossed over the keys.

* * *

This will all be over soon. It will be fixed. Everything will be okay, Kieran told herself.

She had the diamond; she was appropriately dressed to shop in a jewelry store of the stature of Flawless. The store was in the Diamond District, up on Forty-Seventh, so she’d had a ways to go to get there. She would have chosen a cab with the diamond now in her keeping, but she’d been afraid of getting caught in traffic, so she’d headed for the subway.

She’d been lucky enough to get some traveling in when her father had been alive, but she’d spent the majority of her life in New York City, even attending NYU. She’d taken the subway system all her life.

Today she found herself looking suspiciously at everyone who boarded her subway car. She shifted and moved to a new spot at each stop. If she lost the diamond to a casual pickpocket, all her efforts to save her brother would be doomed. And with technology being what it was, she wasn’t certain that there still wasn’t some way to prove that he had taken it.

I’m not his keeper, she thought to herself.

But, in a way, she was. She’d been the one girl in the family. Her father had been a wonderful man, as proud of his daughter as he was of his sons—and quite ready to open a can of tuna for himself without help. But she had taken on a certain role in the house—different with Declan, of course, because he had her by two years. Like it not, she felt responsible for both her younger brothers, even though she was older than Kevin by a mere seven minutes and her baby brother by only a year.

She’d been “the girl.” Spoiled shamelessly, according to her brothers, but...

It seemed girls really did mature more quickly than boys, and continued doing so even as adults.

Nope. She couldn’t go by that. After all, Julie had helped develop the idiotic and dangerous scheme.

She arrived at her stop and made it to street level with absolutely no trouble—other than the usual rush of people. New Yorkers weren’t rude, despite their reputation, and most of the time they were actually quite pleasant and happy to help anyone who looked lost. There were just a lot of them, and it seemed that everyone was in a hurry to get where she was going. Several people said “excuse me” as they jostled past, and she said the same to several other people in turn.