The prostitutes ball

Chapter 38

The truck was empty.

No third guard in the back, an interesting development.

"So the third guard probably did the deed," Hitch reasoned. "He jumped his buddies and made off with the fifteen mil in gold bullion."

He was visibly relieved a third skeleton wasn't lying around in the truck like some gruesome special effect from Pirates of the Caribbean.

"We need to get the identities of all three Brinks guards from the old case file and compare dental charts so we can identify the missing one," Jeb said. "That should tell us which one of these guys was the potential doer."

He turned to Ray Tsu. "You can remove the two guys from the front compartment now."

We were just getting set to let the CSIs eome in to do a trace evidence sweep when I noticed four closed strongboxes pushed up next to the bench at the front of the compartment.

"I wonder why they didn't take those," I said. "Be easier to carry."

"Because you'd need a forklift to move fifteen million in gold bullion. The killer probably took it out in individual bricks," Hitch replied. "What would that much gold weigh anyway?" He reached down with a gloved hand and opened the top of the nearest box.

That's when we got the first big surprise.

Resting inside the strongbox were at least twenty-five gold bricks. They glittered brilliantly in the fluorescent light.

"Get the fuck outta here," Hitch whispered.

We opened the second box and, like the first, it was also filled to the top with bullion. So were the last two.

"Let's back out of here and think this over," 1 said.

We jumped down and told Jeb, Alexa, and Dahlia what we had just found. After they had all looked at the gold, everyone stood behind the truck talking at once.

The question was, why steal an armored car, kill at least two of the guards, and then leave fifteen million in bullion behind, parked with two skeletons in a concrete well house for over twenty-five years?

"Unless this gold is bogus," I offered. "Maybe somebody switched it out with painted lead or something."

"I'll get a metallurgist out here right away and find out," Alexa said. "The Jewelry Mart should have somebody who can assay this. I'll get someone who's bonded and sworn to secrecy."

While she was working on that, the rest of us tried to come to grips with this new find. It changed all my theories.

"What is going on here?" Dahlia said. It was the second time in two days I'd seen her off balance. "Was this a gold bullion heist or not?"

"We'll know more once these bars are tested," Jeb told her.

Ten minutes later I saw Hitch getting some coffee from a portable urn one of the CSIs had brought in. He carried an extra cup over to me behind the armored car. We stood, blowing steam across the cup rims, considering the new developments.

"I think you're wrong," I finally told him, pointing at the gold. "That's our Act Two complication."

He smiled widely at me. "You're absolutely right, dawg, and since we have Act One in place and this kick-ass complication in Act Two, now it's all about…"