D is for Diamond
Part 1 of 2
Disclaimers: Do not own the characters. I am not making a profit. I am barely making sense.
o.0
A slender, swarthy man descended the stairs outside the Los Angeles Federal Courthouse oozing smugness. He paused on the sidewalk to slide his sunglasses over his dark eyes and survey the street. He pointedly ignored the people coming out of the courthouse.
However, he didn't seem especially startled when one of the people he was ignoring came up behind him.
"You think you're pretty cute, don't you, Chavez?" the dark-haired, suited man snarled.
The swarthy man turned around with an exaggerated expression of surprise on what could be seen on his face. "Why, Agent Eppes, I didn't see you there." He smirked. "Must be because you look so much shorter without a leg to stand on!"
Eppes took a step closer and reached out. "You little…"
"Don Eppes!" shrieked a feminine voice. "Leave him alone… NOW!" A red-faced blonde barreled out of the halls of justice, sparks flying from her eye and from a glittering ring on her finger.
Don dropped his hand and backed away from the smirking Chavez. He turned just in time to take the palm of the blonde's hand across his face.
Chavez laughed uproariously as Eppes staggered back a step and put his hand up to his face. "Nadine!" he said.
"Haven't you mucked things up enough?" shrieked Nadine. "You spoiled my airtight case with your bumbling; now you intend to get us sued for harassment?" She swung her hand again, but Eppes caught her wrist.
"If you spent as much time preparing your case as you do fixing your face, then maybe scumbags like him…" Eppes thrust a finger towards Chavez. "Wouldn't walk free!"
Nadine jerked her hand free. "You don't like my face?" she shrieked. "Well, I don't like yours, either. Or your crummy tin-plated cubic zirconium ring!" she yanked her sparkling ring off her left hand and flung it at Eppes.
It bounced off his tie, but Eppes caught it on the fly. "Nadine," he said in exasperation.
"That's Counselor Hodges, to you, buster!"
"Oh, yeah?" Eppes shouted back. "Well, you need counseling!" Tucking the ring into his breast pocket, he turned on his heel and bumped into the sniggering Chavez.
"Watch it, Eppes, or I'll file an assault charge against you," Chavez said.
"You shut it," Eppes snarled.
Agent Eppes stormed off and Chavez turned towards Nadine Hodges.
"Oh, shut it," she snapped. She also turned on her heel and marched back into the courthouse.
A smiling Chavez shook his head and strolled away. He waited until he turned the corner before pausing to examine the sparkling ring in his hand. "You're mistaken, Counselor," he muttered to himself. "This is not cubic zirconium."
He continued down the street until he spotted a likely looking bar and disappeared into the cool depths. He allowed the waitress to show him to a back table. He slid off his tie and stuffed into an inside pocket before sitting down. He genuinely hated the things. That much at least was not acting.
He ordered a beer, but company arrived before his drink did.
"Dude!" a cheerful young blond man slid into the booth.
Chavez' eyes narrowed dangerously.
A dark haired man hovered at Chavez' elbow, apparently ready for trouble.
"What do you want?" Chavez growled.
"You lifted that Fed's ring like you were a pro penny weighter," the blond burbled. "Nicely done."
Chavez stiffened when he heard the slang term for a shoplifter who specialized in stealing from jewelry store counters. "What's it to you?" he asked.
"Well, it's worth twenty-five thousand dollars to you," the second man said casually.
Chavez shifted his weight and looked up at the other man. "Sit down," Chavez said in a low, gravelly tone. "I hate looking up at people."
The second man smirked and sat down. "Name's Jack," he said. "Jack Daniels." Before Chavez could react to that claim, "Jack" nodded at his companion. "This is my boss-man, Captain Morgan."
Chavez let out a woof of laughter.
"Captain Morgan" shrugged. "We didn't make up the names, Dude," he said. He nodded. "We came by them honestly."
Chavez raised an eyebrow and took a sip from his beer. "Honestly? You mean your mother named you 'Captain'?"
Captain Morgan shook his head. "Nah, the community tagged us with these monikers," he explained.
"Which community is that?" Chavez asked. He looked the two over carefully.
Morgan was older that he'd seemed at first glance. He was deeply tanned and the blond hair had been brown, before excess sun and salt water had bleached out the tips. His skin wasn't evenly brown; it had the blotches and wrinkles that came from many hours outside without sun block.
The other man had been born with dark skin and hair, but constant exposure to the elements had left its mark on him also.
"The surfing community?" Chavez hazarded before the other two had a chance to answer. He had these two pegged as overage surfers, now.
"Yep," Morgan said. "But we're not here to propose a surf board company to you."
"Not that we couldn't make a go of that," Jack added. "Now that Clark Foam has stopped making surfboard cores, the market is wide open."
"We just need a stake," Morgan said. "Then we can start our own company."
Chavez was feeling a little dizzy by this point. "Start making sense or get the hell out of my booth," he said.
Morgan held his hands up in a placating manner. "All right, all right, Dude," he said. "We have a job lined up. We can make two hundred grand, easy. All we need from you is to use your skills to nick a key from a guy for a few minutes."
"And you'll pay me twenty-five thousand dollars for this?" Chavez asked skeptically.
"Yeah, sure," Morgan said genially.
"And you'll trust some stranger you just met? How do you know I'm not a cop?"
Morgan and Jack laughed. "Man, we saw how you handled that fed!" Morgan hooted.
Chavez gave Morgan a dirty look. Jack took the more direct route and kicked his partner under the table.
"Sorry," Morgan said.
"You just beat some rap," Jack said. "And that Fed was ready to chew nails. We know you're all right."
"What were you busted for, anyway?" Morgan asked.
Chavez glowered.
Morgan held his hands up. "Never mind, forget I asked. Whatever, I assume you can use some extra money, right?"
The waitress came by before Chavez could answer. The two surfers ordered burgers and fries. Jack asked for a beer to wash his meal down with. Morgan went for a milkshake.
The other two men looked at him in surprise.
Morgan shrugged. "Obviously don't need any more today," was his explanation.
Chavez sighed, seeing his chance of meeting up with the gun runner fade, at least for the time being. He ordered a bowl of chili to go with his beer. It was neater; plus he could discard his spoon faster than he could discard a burger.
"So, what's this big score?" he asked resignedly.
"We're gonna kype the Jestana diamond," Morgan said casually, looking around the room with apparent boredom.
Chavez was glad that their food hadn't arrived, or he might have choked.
"You're going to waltz into the LA Gemological Institute and walk off with the biggest pink diamond in the western hemisphere?"
"Basically, yah," Jack said cheerfully. "Oh, yeah, and we're going to get the Wildfyre opal and the… what's that black sapphire, again?" He looked at Morgan.
"The Nocturne," Morgan said, nodding. "And the Marchand Emerald," he added, with a few more bobs of his head.
"That haul will be in the millions," Chavez hissed.
"Yup, yup," Morgan said. "At least one hundred million for the Jestana alone."
"And my take would only be twenty-five grand?" Chavez demanded.
Morgan actually rolled his eyes. "Dude, it's not like we can, y'know, sell the things!" he muttered. "Everybody who's anybody would recognize them immediately!"
Chavez frowned.
"We're gonna ransom'em," Jack explained. "We figure the museum will only be able to cough up a max of a hundred K for their goodies, so your take is one fourth of the ransom."
"If we can get more, your take'll go up," Morgan added.
"How do you expect to pull it off?" Chavez wanted to know.
"Meet us at the museum tomorrow and we'll show you," Morgan said. "If you don't like the set up, then you can walk."
"Yeah, we'll even pay for your lunch today, and, like, tomorrow we'll treat you to the absolute best cinnamon rolls in all of California," Jack added.
Chavez leaned back and stared at them both incredulously.
Some of Chavez' disbelief most have soaked into their skulls, because Morgan put one hand over his heart and held the other up like he was being sworn in. "I'm tellin' ya, the cinnamon rolls at Zube's are, like, the best there ever was."
Chavez decided the quickest way to get rid of these two was to agree. "Okay, I'll be there tomorrow, but if you're wasting my time, you'll regret it."
"Dude!" Morgan chortled. "I don't regret nothin', never."
Their food arrived then. Jack and Morgan took their lunch and headed to a better lit table in front. Chavez sighed.
He fingered the collar of his jacket and muttered. "Did you hear that?"
"Affirmative," Special Agent Colby Granger responded in his ear. "We've also confirmed that that pair is, um, legit?" Colby's voice faded as if he'd turned away from the microphone. "Legit isn't the word I want here, is it?"
"It'll have to do, Granger," came Special Agent Megan Reeves' voice. "Edgerton, those two are suspects in several jewel robberies. Don't let the surfer-dude veneer fool you."
"So, they're not really surfers?" Special Agent Ian Edgerton relaxed a trifle and scanned the room. His gunrunner had not shown up. Maybe it was just as well, under the circumstances.
"Oh, no," Megan said. "They're both champion surfers. It's just that they steal diamonds on the side."
Edgerton sighed. "Only in California," he muttered.