Mike Jastrzebski - Key Lime Blues

I nodded, and I did understand. The boat was out. There are plenty of people who fear boats and the water, so I tried to soothe her worries. “We’ll find some place to hole up and…” My cell phone rang and I reached for it, but I thought I knew who was on the other end.

“I talked to Frankie,” Bob said, “and he’s not happy. Now that makes two of us. We’re the wrong two people to have pissed at you. So here’s the offer. Tell the broad to give me the diamonds and you give me back my gun and we forget all the bullshit. You live, she lives, and Frankie and I go home, done deal.”

I was pretty sure no matter what I did, Bob would be thinking about how much pain he could inflict upon Destiny and me before killing us. All I could hope to do was buy a little time, get the diamonds from Destiny, and deliver them to Frankie. If we were lucky, he’d be willing to trade the stones for our lives.

“You calling from a cell phone?” I asked.

“Yeah, a course. You think you can find a telephone on every corner anymore?”

“All right, I’ll call you back in a few minutes. I’ve got to talk to the girl.”

There was a moment’s silence. “You got fifteen minutes,” he said. “I don’t hear back from you, I come a huntin’. By the way, Frankie has arrived in town and my brother’s still around. You cross me, you cross them. It’s not just me you got to worry about.”

“I’ll get back to you,” I said, and hung up the phone.

“What does he want?” Destiny asked.

“You know what he wants.”

“I don’t have ‘em.”

“Frankie seems pretty sure you took them,” I said.

“So maybe I did. The bastard thought because he was paying for my services, he could rough me up anytime he wanted to. I figured the diamonds were my way out. The thing is-I don’t have them anymore.”

I raised an eyebrow and gave her a disbelieving look. “Are you telling me you lost Frankie’s diamonds?”

She shook her head. “No. I didn’t know how to get rid of a bag of diamonds so I found someone who could help me.”

“And how does a girl go about locating a fence to sell stolen diamonds in Key West?”

“I asked Elvis.”

“Elvis?”

She laughed. “You’re going to love this,” she said. “He’s my psychic.”

I studied her face while trying to figure out if she was kidding. “Do you mean to tell me you gave the diamonds to a guy named Elvis who reads palms for a living?”

Her body stiffened and she pressed her lips into a scowl. “When you say it that way it sounds sort of stupid.”

“Sorry,” I said. “I mean doesn’t everyone go to a psychic when they want to fence stolen diamonds?”

“I’ve known Elvis for a long time and I trust him. It was a business transaction. He gets twenty percent. Besides, he doesn’t read palms. He doesn’t like to touch people. He’s got some kind of phobia about it.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “Let me get this straight. You didn’t give them to an everyday run-of-the-mill psychic. You chose a phobic psychic. It makes much more sense when you explain it that way.”

“You’re starting to piss me off, Darling. Stop treating me like a ditzy redhead.”

“Why would you go to a psychic to sell diamonds? It’s not the first place I’d think of. Why not a jeweler or a pawn broker?”

“What are you, nuts?” She asked. “You ever dealt with a pawn broker?”

“Can’t say I have.”

“Pawn brokers are crooks. You go in for a loan and they give you like nothing for whatever you bring in. I figured this was my one chance to make a big score.”

“How many diamonds are we talking about?”

Destiny hesitated, and then shrugged. “Twenty-five in all. The smallest is two carats; the largest is maybe three carats. They’re beautiful, and they’re mine. Tell you what, Darling. I’ll cut you in for ten percent if you can keep Frankie away from me. I’ll need your help for a couple of days. Just until I can get the damn things sold. After that, I’ll get my sweet ass out of Key West and he’ll never find me.”

I didn’t believe she was so naive as to think she could keep the diamonds, but I kept my thoughts to myself. I’d found her without any trouble. No matter where she went, Frankie would hire someone else to chase her down. In this day and age it’s almost impossible to stay hidden from someone who really wants to find you unless you’ve got the help of the government. Even that was no guarantee.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “Do you really not get it? There are a couple of angry guys running around out there who will kill you if you don’t give Frankie his diamonds back.”

“Maybe Bob was bluffing?”

“Did you see the teardrop tattoo on Bob’s neck?”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t looking at tattoos.”

“Well I did. It was a prison tattoo and the teardrop means he killed someone. That’s the one he brags about-it wouldn’t surprise me to learn there are more. And while we’re talking about what people will and won’t do, what makes you think Elvis won’t take off with your diamonds?”

“I trust him. I was raised on this island and I’ve been going to Elvis for advice six, maybe seven years now.” A smirk appeared on her face. “Besides, I told him I’d cut his balls off if he even thought about stealing from me.”

“You’re a real man-eater, aren’t you?”

“He believed me, I could tell.”

My fight with Bob had given me a headache, and I could feel it spreading to the back of my skull. I was having trouble concentrating, which is not a good thing when someone is trying to chase you down and kill you. “Do you have any aspirin?” I asked.

Without answering, Destiny reached into her purse and brought out a small green plastic bottle. “Two or three?” she asked, while she used her thumb to lever the cap off.

“Three.” As I took the pills from her, my phone went off. I popped the aspirin into my mouth and dry swallowed them, making a face when they stuck briefly in my throat.

“I never could do that,” she said. “I can’t swallow pills without water.”

“One of my many talents. Go ahead with your story, please.”

She looked down at my hip. “Aren’t you going to answer your phone?”

I considered answering and giving up Destiny. I was pretty certain getting rid of her would take away my headache, but when I reached down and touched the phone with the palm of my hand it stopped ringing. I took a deep breath and said, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea-do you? There’s only one person who would be calling me at this time of night.”

“Bob’s going to be pissed you didn’t answer it,” she said.

I reached behind my back and touched the gun. It offered a little security, but if Willie was lurking around in the area it might not be enough. The odds were Bob was armed again.

“Bob’s going to be more than a little pissed off if I tell him you gave Frankie’s diamonds to a psychic named Elvis.”

“Might be a good thing you didn’t answer it, huh?”

“You can bet on it,” I said. “Now we’d better get a move on. I thought I saw headlights down the street. We’ll talk to Bob after we get the diamonds from Elvis.” I looked over at her and added, “You do realize you’re going to have to give Frankie the diamonds, don’t you?”

Destiny picked up her pace and glanced in my direction. “He’s going to try to kill me if I don’t, isn’t he?”

“Have I been talking to myself all this time? Your only chance of getting out of this alive is if you give up the diamonds. Elvis hasn’t sold them yet, has he?”

“He still had them when I spoke with him this afternoon.”