Ketchem and Del Toro gathered their things and made ready to go. “Sorry to have disturbed you and your family, Ms. DuBois,” the lanky insurance investigator said, looking a little sheepish. “Of course you do understand, don’t you? It really looked like your uncle might have hidden the King’s Curse around here somewhere.”
Looking remorseful, Agent Del Toro also attempted a weak apology. “I felt that way at first, but I kinda believe the old gent now. I really think he meant no harm. And as for your assistant and housekeeper, at this time I believe what they said. So all that’s left now is to talk to your son and niece and Mr. Diamond. Hopefully my men didn’t leave much of a mess.”
“Not with us watching over them, they didn’t.” Ricky flashed a smile at Godiva. “Gotta watch out for my special friends here, if you know what I mean.”
Ricky showed Del Toro and Ketchem to the door.
When he came back into the room, Goldie was fussing over Sterling while Godiva sat on the sofa with her arm around her mother. It looked like the aged magicians didn’t even have the strength left to pull a rabbit out of a hat. She gave a subtle signal to Ricky.
“Come on,” Ricky said, “I’ll walk you two back to your cottages. I’ll bet you’re ready to catch some zzz’s.” He gave a little salute to Goldie and Godiva before he carefully guided the two old folks into the foyer.
For a few moments, everyone was silent, trying to make some sense of the bizarre events of the past few days. Angel broke the silence. “You know, Boss, with all of Dexter’s expertise, I’m a little surprised he didn’t recognize that the brooch was real. I mean—”
“You might actually be right. That is Dexter’s business, and he is an expert, but look at the circumstances. He probably couldn’t imagine that something Unk had on his gaudy costume was a priceless piece of jewelry. Sometimes we believe what circumstances dictate, right?”
“Absolutely,” Goldie added. “Circumstances do flavor what we think. My goodness, you wouldn’t even believe some of the things we see in Juneau. Take my mother-in-law Belle for instance. If you just met her and didn’t know anything about her, would you assume she was a millionaire?”
Angel held her hand over her mouth trying to mask a chuckle. “Point made. I met her once when she was in L.A. with you, Goldie. A lot of things went through my mind, but I never would have guessed that she was worth millions.”
Sterling smiled for the first time that day. “Goes to show you, you can’t judge a book by its cover.”
“Well, I’ve gotta head out. Nathan will be wondering where I am. We’re supposed to go to Genghis Cohen for dinner tonight.”
Goldie said, “Then you’d better not keep him waiting.” She did a double-take. “Wait a minute. What’s the name of that restaurant?”
“Genghis Cohen. It’s on Fairfax, right near your old high school.”
“Yeah, Sis, isn’t that a great name for a Chinese restaurant in a Jewish neighborhood? My mouth is watering just thinking about their Mabu Beef in a Basket. It’s this chewy, crunchy beef in a basket made out of noodles. Yum!”
“Yeah, it’s one of my favorites, too.”
After a light dinner of Cobb Salad, the twins gobbled down large pieces cherry pie topped with vanilla ice cream. Feeling stuffed, they went upstairs to change into comfortable clothes. Goldie padded back into the family room wearing flannel pajamas featuring a smiling moose that covered most of the front, his rear and tail spread across the back. Fuzzy green slippers completed her outfit. Godiva waltzed into the room wearing beautiful black silk lounging pajamas, a matching robe and mid-heeled slippers.
Her sister took one look and said, “You call that comfortable? You look like you’re ready to step out on a runway.” She wiggled one fuzzy green slipper. “This, my dear sister, is comfortable.” With that she produced her yellow lined pad.
“Okay, let’s recap what we know—”
“Which is next to nothing. Frankly, I’m at a bit of a loss. If Unk wasn’t such a sucker for fancy costumes, none of this would have happened.”
“True, but here’s what we have so far.” Goldie ticked off the bulleted information on her notepad. “The fellow Mom and Unk saw running away from the murder is in custody, but the brooch he was probably trying to steal has gone missing after Uncle Sterling threw it in the dumpster. Apparently this Ketchem guy has been hot on the trail of the Black King’s Curse, as well as other jewels stolen from the same client. It was a very clever heist, and I get the feeling he might know more than he’s telling us. And, who knows, maybe even more than he’s telling Agent Del Toro.”
“Yeah, I trust the FBI agent, but Ketchem kind of gives me the creeps.”
As if they were of one mind, the twins got up and headed into the kitchen for some of Martina’s chocolate chip brownies.
***
Manny the Bull, otherwise known as FBI Agent Manuel Del Toro, and Canadian insurance investigator Ken Ketchem, stopped for coffee and pie at a greasy spoon near the jail. “Just so you understand, Ketchem, my principal assignment is to investigate the shipboard murder of Sheik Ali Kazaam. Now it’s been extended to look into the disappearance of your stolen jewelry.”
“You know, Manny—can I call you Manny—I really appreciate any help your agency can give us. My company will have to dish out a lot of money if I can’t find those jewels.”
“You can call me Agent Del Toro, and I don’t care how much Kover Age Insurance has to pay your client, I just want to get to the bottom of this sketchy business.” Del Toro ate his last forkful of soggy peach pie.
“Can you give the killer a deal if he fingers the people he was working with, eh?”
“I might be able to get something out of him if he’s offered a deal. It sounds like it was actually an accident, at least the way he explained it. Maybe the charges can be dropped to manslaughter if he gives us some names.”
Ketchem shrugged before taking a sip of his coffee. He narrowed his eyes and said, “Ugh. This stuff is sludge,” and pushed the cup to the edge of the table. “Well, it might be worth a shot if you think it will help to figure out who stole the brooch in the first place.”
Ketchem waved over their waitress. “Could you get me some fresh coffee, eh? This tastes like it’s been sitting in the pot for hours.”
She smacked her gum and gave him a bored look. “No problem.” Then she grabbed the cup from the table and turned to Del Toro. “How about you? Do you want fresh coffee, too?”
He nodded and she sauntered off. Del Toro lowered his voice. “Mr. Cunning hasn’t hooked up with an attorney yet, so I’ll see what we can offer him.”
“Yeah, that might loosen his lips.” Ketchem pulled at his collar and cleared his throat. “Then, again, he might try to run a scam on you. Take manslaughter, but not give you information worth anything.”
A little flare of anger tightened Del Toro’s lips. “Do you take me for a fool, man? Of course the information he gives would have to be good enough to warrant the reduction of the charges. Why would you even say that to an FBI agent? By the way, I need you to back off and let me do my job, okay.”
The waitress chose just that moment to plunk down two cups of fresh coffee. “Here ya go, gents. Just made fresh.” She tossed her hair and flounced away.
Del Toro took a few sips of the watery brew and pushed his chair out, “Look, I gotta go interrogate this guy.” He tossed a few bills down on the table without inviting Ketchem to go to the jail with him. “This should cover it. Get some rest, Ketchem, all of a sudden you look like Hell.”