On the other end of the line, Detective Dave Stanton drawled. “And what can the lowly NYPD do for a top-notch security ace like yourself?”
Stanton was a giant of a man with chocolate-brown skin, and his jovial teddy-bear exterior hid a tough cop. Jase had run into him on a case he’d been working six months ago and they’d since become friends. Stanton had also been assigned to the break-in and robbery at Eva Ware Designs.
“It’s about Eva Ware—the hit-and-run. I’ve been working a case out of the country for the past three weeks or so, and I just heard about her death. Can you check into it and call me back?”
“Won’t have to. I’ve been keeping tabs on the investigation. It’s stalled out but the file is still open.”
“What do you know?” Jase stopped pacing when Maddie slid off her stool and strode toward him. He switched his cell phone to speaker so that she could hear too.
“She was run down on her way home from the gym when she was crossing the street to her apartment,” Stanton explained. “It was part of her regular routine to visit the gym twice a week right after she left the Madison Avenue store. She walked home taking the same route. According to her doorman, she always crossed the street directly in front of her apartment instead of walking to the corner.”
“So someone could have been waiting for her?”
“That’s the bug I put in the ear of the two detectives assigned to the case. They followed up and someone in her building with a window facing the street remembers seeing a light-colored sedan parked across the street in a delivery zone. Says it was there for some time before it pulled out and clipped Ms. Ware.”
“There was a witness to the accident?”
“Several of them, including the doorman of her building. All agree that it was a light-colored car. One insisted it was a Mercedes. But no one got a plate number. That’s where things stand.”
“So Eva Ware’s death probably wasn’t an accident.”
“That’s my gut feeling.”
“You know a lot about a case you’re not working,” Jase said.
“I liked Eva Ware. She was a classy lady. So is her daughter Jordan. How’s she holding up?”
That’s exactly what Jase wanted to know. He still hadn’t been able to reach Jordan on her cell. “I haven’t had a chance to connect with her yet. Thanks, Dave.”
“No problem. Keep me in the loop if you find out anything.”
“Will do.”
As Jase closed his cell, Maddie shook her head. “Jordan never said a word about Eva’s death being anything other than an accident.”
Jase lifted the coffeepot and topped off both of their mugs. “That’s probably how the original report read. It sounds to me like Detective Stanton was the one to push looking into it more carefully. By that time Jordan was probably caught up in making funeral arrangements. I wish I’d been here.” It ate bitterly at him that Jordan had had to handle everything on her own.
“I wish that I could have been here for her too. I don’t know if I could have made it through my father’s death if Cash hadn’t been there for me.”
Tilting her head, Maddie studied Jase for a moment. “You believed that Eva’s death wasn’t an accident even before you called Detective Stanton. Why? Is there someone who would want to harm her?”
“Perhaps.” For a minute, Jase debated how much he wanted to tell Maddie and decided she’d have to know it all. Jordan too. “Have you been able to reach your sister? I tried her cell earlier with no luck.”
“Cell signals are seldom available at the ranch. And the land line seems to be out. I called before I showered. There was a nasty storm predicted last night. But she intends to go into Santa Fe today and visit the hotel where they’re holding the jewelry show tomorrow. Her cell should work there, and she’ll call. It’s our plan to keep in daily contact. And you must know how Jordan is about plans.”
Jase smiled. “A real stickler.”
Maddie set her coffee on the counter. “You haven’t answered my question. Why did you instantly suspect that our mother’s death might not be an accident?”
“Do you ever have gut feelings that something isn’t quite right?”
She met his eyes. “Yes. I get them sometimes when I’m designing a piece of jewelry. Then I know I’m going in the wrong direction.”
Jase leaned against the counter and crossed his legs at the ankles. Maddie Farrell was a good listener, astute too. Maybe it would help him to talk it out. “I got one the minute you told me that Eva had been run down. A few days before I left for South America, your mother’s store was broken into and approximately one hundred thousand dollars worth of jewelry was stolen.”
Maddie frowned. “Jordan told me about that. She said that they’d gotten past the security. Considering the kind of pieces I’ve seen on Eva Ware’s Web site, I’m surprised they didn’t steal more. Some of her individual pieces go for two or three times that.”
Smart girl, Jase thought. “The break-in occurred in the main salon. Most of the designs are kept in the safe and only brought out at a specific customer’s request. But there were more expensive pieces on display. The police thought that the thief or thieves purposely took small pieces that could easily be fenced. And they only took pieces with gems.”
“Which could be taken out and sold.”
“That was the thinking. Detective Stanton worked the case, but Eva asked me to look into it also. I would have anyway since I was the one who’d installed the security system. The robbery was a very slick job. Either the thief was a highly sophisticated pro, or he’d had help from the inside. I thought the latter and I told Eva. She hired me to look into it further when I got back from South America. I suggested that she let me turn the investigation over to my partner, Dino Angelis, but she refused.”
“Maybe she wanted a little time to gather information herself. Could be she suspected who the insider was and she wanted to be able to confront him or her.”
Jase studied her. “Yeah. That’s what I thought at the time, but how did you make that leap? You didn’t even know Eva.”
“I guess because if I were in her place, that’s how I’d want to handle it. Jordan tells me that the business meant the world to Eva, that she’d devoted her life to it. On a much smaller scale, I know how I feel about my own fledgling design business. And I can sympathize with Eva wanting to try to handle it herself. Maybe she didn’t even want the thief prosecuted.”
“Why not?”
“Perhaps she didn’t want a scandal. As I understand from Jordan, almost everyone there has been with her a long time.”
“Good point.”
Maddie climbed on a stool and folded her hands in front of her. “So. How are we going to find out who broke into Eva Ware Designs?”
He frowned at her.
