Caribbean Hustle (A Nick Teffinger Thriller / Read in Any Order) by R.J. Jagger, Jack Rain

too. From what I could figure out, two locals came to rob the place. They almost made it out before getting discovered. There was a shootout and everyone ended up dead, two guys from the villa, the two robbers and May-May. Next to one of the robber’s bodies were two large black bags with leather handles, sort of like a doctor’s bag, only bigger. I shouldn’t have done what I did, but I opened one of them up. Inside were bars of gold. I took both bags and left. I shouldn’t have done it but they were right there in my hands. No one knew I’d been there. I figured that they would think there had been three robbers and that the third one made off with the stuff.”
    Teffinger shook his head.
    “That was a mistake.”
    “Yeah, I know,” she said. “When I got home I found a small leather case at the bottom of one of the bags, about the size of a book. Inside that case were six leather pouches that had old American movie star names on them.”
    “Movie stars?”
    She nodded.
    “Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Ava Gardner, Jean Harlow, Rita Hayworth and Lauren Bacall. Each of the pouches had a very large diamond inside.”
    “So you had gold and diamonds—”
    “Yes. Months went by and everything was silent. No one came my way looking for anything. Then, on my latest flight, my friend Constance, who checks my apartment for me every now and then when I’m gone, called and said the place had been broken into. She thought it was just the usual, mostly because the food had also been taken. Still, I was a little nervous and brought you home for protection, just in case. When we got there, I was 99% sure it was just the usual locals looking for whatever they could steal. Then those two men showed up outside and I knew that someone had somehow traced things to me.”
    “So you think they work for Johnnie Rail? He’s trying to get his stuff back?”
    She nodded.
    “That would be my best guess,” she said. “On the other hand, they could be associated with the robbers. There’s one more possibility. They could be with the police, if Rail made a police report as to anything missing. I’m not sure if he did or not. The coins might be black market stuff so he might not have mentioned them. But they might be legitimate and now the police are looking for them on the side, for their own little retirement plan, not to return to Rail.”
    “So where’s all this stuff now?”
    “The bars, I cut up and sold in New York,” she said. “I put the money—just over a million, actually—in a bank account in the Caymans.”
    “What about the movie stars?”
    “I still have them; Constance is storing them for me at her place. I don’t know how to sell them and was afraid to start asking questions.”
    Teffinger exhaled.
    “When you sold the bars, that’s how your involvement got back to Johnnie Rail. That’s a lot of gold to liquidate. Give him back all the money you got, that’s my advice. Give him the movie stars too.”
    “I can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because the money’s in a safe bank account in my name,” she said. “Do you have any idea how that feels? Besides, Johnnie Rail doesn’t need it. He’s doing just fine without it.”
    “I’ll bet he’d disagree.”
    “Maybe but I don’t care,” she said. “I’m taking the first flight out of here in the morning and I’m never coming back. I’m the world’s newest ghost. I’m gone, disappeared, vanished.”
    “He’ll find you, sooner or later he’ll find you.”
    “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
     
    Teffinger glanced over his shoulder.
    The guy in the white T was still back there. Another man was with him now. They looked intense, as if they were about to bite a rattlesnake.
     

    26
    Day Four
    June 7
    Saturday Afternoon
     
    Teffinger didn’t wait long to check the two guys behind him again, five seconds or thereabouts, maybe less. To his astonishment they had closed the gap with an absolute silence and were now two deadly shapes