22: Pink Diamond Heist – Pt. 1

“What do we know?” Mason asked as he sat in on the debriefing. Mike lifted the clipboard from the table and began reading over the highlighted facts of the case. 

“At approximately 10pm on the night of September 27^th, four armed men entered the Museum of Natural History through the rear service dock. There were two guards on duty in the southern quadrant, two in the northern and one at the main gates. Guards C and D at the dock entrance were subdued, gagged and bound using industrial strength duct tape while guards A and B were handcuffed to one another with their own set of restraints.”

“The perpetrators then moved to the display on loan from the National Museum of Ireland. Using a glass cutter, they gained access to the Eyes of Celt and the crown jewels of the old monarch. Once the display was opened, a silent alarm alerted the last remaining guard at the gate who then called the police before heading inside himself to see what was going on.”

“His presence alerted one of the gunmen who immediately fired upon the guard wounding him in the left shoulder. The guard was able to locate guards A and B and remove their cuffs. They entered the gunfight where guard B was shot twice, once in the neck and once in his right cheek. He died on the scene. Guard A believes he injured one of the perps and a trail of blood leading to the dock confirms it; the blood didn’t belong to a guard or the fallen perp.”

“What was the take?”

“The perps got away with a small fortune with just one item,” Victoria responded and slid a picture in front of her captain of the stolen jewel. “The Heart of Bríd, also known as Bríghid – the most famous female saint of Ireland. The 73-carat pink diamond is one of the world’s most illustrious and worth an estimated $13 million.”

“Do we have any information or possible leads on who these men were?”

“Not yet. But from the way they seemed organized we believe they were possibly hired by an outside benefactor who had interest in obtaining the jewel either for resale or a private collection. We’re looking into known jewel thieves as well as art collectors who would have interest in the gem.” Mike looked down at the clipboard clutched within his hands and ran his thumb over the top name on the piece of paper slipped into the holder. “Baker, Clive Baker.”

“The cat burglar?” Mason asked leaning forward. “He’s doing a dime at Rikers for the 2009 Bell’s Crossing home invasions. Why is his name on that list?”

“Because his daughter is in the game and seems to be taking pointers from dear old dad,” Victoria offered.

“Sounds like a promising lead,” Mason groaned and pulled up from his seat. “Get started on this. The Chief is already taking it from the Mayor by Ireland officials which means I’m not sleeping well these days. I like sleep. So I assured him I had my two best detectives on it and that you would have results promptly. Get this thing solved!”

“Great, sounds like a long night ahead of us,” Victoria grumbled and stretched against the table.

“Chinese?”

“Mmm Chicken Lo Mein please. Oh and get an order of the Wonton too!” Victoria started down to her desk to grab the remaining files and stopped as she saw her older sister Lynn approaching from the break room. 

With a smile in her direction she greeted her, cautiously accepting the hug she threw around her shoulders with a pat on her back. “Um, hey Lynn, this is a surprise.”

“I know! I should have called but this was something that needed a face-to-face.” Almost instantly Victoria tensed and drew in a sharp breath.

Her fingers slipped over the file in her hand as her thoughts turned to the worst as years as a homicide detective taught her. “What is it? What’s wrong? Is Mom…?”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that,” Lynn quickly waved her off casually. “Mom just called and told me you wanted some old photo albums or something and since I was passing through town heading to New York for a book signing, she asked that I drop them off to you.”

Victoria exhaled in aggravation as her sister dropped the books to the desk. “Geez Lynn! Next time start with that instead! I’m a homicide detective for crying out loud. You never visit here! And in the middle of the night, it scared the crap out of me!”

“I’m sorry, ok? Relax. Mom just wanted to make sure you got these and like I said I should have called. But anyway, you have them now and I gotta run. I have a late meeting with my publisher in an hour and I don’t want to miss the teleconference.” She gave her baby sister a quick kiss on the cheek and started for the exit. “I love you! See you later!”

“Yeah,” Victoria frowned and looked down at the stack of books. At Derrick’s constant hassling she’d called her Mom concerning the closed room at the cabin to ask her about their possible underworld connection. And although her mother hadn’t directly answered any of the thousands of questions she threw her way, Victoria got the idea she knew more than she was telling her. 

Thinking quickly Victoria redirected the conversation away from the cabin and the witchcraft to put her mother at ease again before starting a conversation about her grandmother; someone she hadn’t seen since she was ten. It had become her goal to find her.

Tucking the albums under her desk for now, she scooped up the files on the possible suspects and started up to meet Mike again. With a sigh she took her seat and dove into the paperwork. “10 minutes the food should be here,” Mike spoke as he joined her again. “Let’s see how much we can get through before then.”

Hours passed and they were no closer to narrowing down the suspect list than they were when the crime first started. With a clock looming over their heads they knew they would need to go balls to the wall if they wanted to have something tangible to take to the Captain. 

“I can’t watch this again,” Victoria sighed and rubbed her eyes wearily as Mike hit the rewind on the video of the robbery. “We’ve seen it over a dozen times now and nothing new has popped out at me.”

“Yeah, my eyes feel like they are ready to fall out of the socket and run away. The only thing I noticed is how precise these guys were. Every single event was synchronized and timed right down to the second. Step one, enter through docks and take out guards A and B, deploy gas – three minutes. Step two, round up the hostages into the ladies bathroom, third floor – four minutes. It took six minutes to get the glass cover removed from the display case on the second floor which alerted the front gate guard who came in guns blazing two minutes later. Fifteen minutes to perfect the heist and two people dead.”

“Well we know guard B was killed by one of the armed perpetrators in the shootout on the first floor. What I believe and what forensics is confirming now is that the gunman we found on the back docks was murdered by a member of his team. The question is why?”

“Greed; the less people left standing the more money the surviving members of the team can line their pockets with. It also reduces the chance of getting caught if one of them starts talking.”

“But then that begs the questions are they all going to kill one another now to increase that amount or was this particular team member shot for a reason beyond greed?”

“You mean a hit?”

Victoria nodded and slid a picture of the gunman’s body towards him to analyze. “He was shot point blank range in the back of the head once and two more rounds to the chest once his body hit the ground; that’s a professional double tap. IAFIS still has not been able to ID him through prints, his dental work is nowhere to be found and he has no unique identifiers on his body such as tattoos or childhood scars. Technically, this man doesn’t exist.”

“Normal means of identification are useless, you should call your buddy in on this one then.”

“Cole?”

Mike nodded as he stood from his seat, rearranging the papers in the manila folder in front of him. “He has access to the FBI’s facial recognition software. Maybe he would be able to get a hit off the vic’s face and put a name to him. At this point that’s our only hope.”

“You’re right. I’ll give him a call…tomorrow morning,” Victoria groaned as she looked at the time on the clock above the door. It was ten minutes past one a.m. and her only thought was getting home and passing out. “See you bright and early partner.”

Dropping her bags and the books of pictures on her kitchen counter, Victoria poured herself a glass of water and removed her shoes allowing the cool tiled floor to bring her to life. The hot water of her shower was a nice welcomed experience and her eyes drifted closed as she let the soothing waters pour over her body. “Normal means of identification are useless,” she repeated Mike’s words. Something about the way he said it sparked a notion in her and she instantly turned off the shower and dried quickly.

Hastily dressing in her night garments, she took the stairs two at a time and hurried into her garage and the items she’d removed from her family’s cabin in Cedar Grove. “Come on I know you’re in here somewhere,” she growled tossing the books around the box before finally uncovering the one she browsed before. “Ah-ha!” 

She closed her garage down and started back to the house. A fast moving black object fluttered in front of her and she jumped back as he agitatedly flapped his wings in her face. “Vex, what’s your problem?” He floated over her for a moment before joining her in the den where she promptly turned to the page that had her attention on the drive back from the cabin.

“What do you think about testing something Vex? Just a little magic just to see if I have it in me.” She walked into the kitchen to gather the herbs the spell required and pulled a pot from beneath her sink.

Reading the list a few times she exhaled, turned the stove on to boil and started reading. “Here goes nothing.”

“Halls of Echoes, Halls of Light
make visible what’s hidden; bring them to sight
reveal secrets unveiled so that I may see
things as they truly should be.”

The pot boiled over, fizzled on the surface of the stove and evaporated quickly. Victoria backed away and with a disgruntled frown closed the book and turned towards Vex sitting on the counter behind her. “Well that was a bust. I guess I need to work on my magic to get these things right?”

Heading upstairs to finally get some shut eye, she placed the book on her dresser, opened her bedroom window for Vex and turned off the lights. The chilly gust of wind that blew through the glass hit her like a ton of bricks and she instantly dove into the bed beneath the covers. The temperature seemed to drop even lower and as she shivered, she could see her breath in front of her face. 

Preparing herself to get up and shut the window again, Victoria paused in her tracks as a shadowy visage appeared behind her in the mirror. She gasped and quickly turned to look behind her but found nothing. “Ok, that was not my imagination,” she spoke in a light tremble and back pedaled from the bed. Her body met with the cool wooden surface of the bedroom wall and shaky fingers fumbled around to find the light switch.

But before Victoria had a chance to flip them on, the ghostly form of a man reappeared again in front of her and her eyes widened in shock as she looked him over. “Ok this cannot be happening.” Vex flew over towards her and in a manner of protection, circled over her head waiting to see what the man’s intentions would be.

He opened his mouth to speak, and as he did a shrill and eerie sound escaped his lips. Victoria’s hands went over her ears quickly and she pressed herself deeper into the wall. When finally the noise ceased she looked up and the man, who now appeared corporeal, smiled warmly as he spoke two words. “Brad Devereux.” And just as smoothly as it had appeared, the apparition vanished and with it the cold that had overcome her.

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