Chapter 5
"When you arrive in Cairo look for this gentleman," Gary had told him, holding up a photo. "His name is Jonathan Johnson; he will update you on the latest developments and give you all of the information we have up until that point. Talk to no one else, and update me regularly."
Bobby stepped off of the plane, looked around, and immediately saw the gentleman Gary had told him to look for.
"Mr. Johnson," he said, holding out a hand.
"Please, call me Johnny. We have found Valdez's hiding spot here in the city and we think he has the Sapphire with him. I will take you there if you like, but I cannot stay with you. This is Julia, she has been helping me; she will go with you."
Bobby gave a boyish grin at the medium height (and build) woman before him. She had rich chocolate hair and deep green eyes. Her bone structure wasn't extraordinary, but she was still extremely pretty inher plain yellow dress. "Nice to meet you," he said. Julia just smiled.
"Well," said Johnny, interrupting the silence. I'll have you two off then.
Bobby looked back to him for a moment. "Gary said it was just supposed to be you. Where did she come from?"
"Johnny found me through the local police. I'm a detective, and I understand you are as well," she said in a beautiful accent.
He smiled again. "Yes, I am, Major Case," he said, totally forgetting the rules. "You remind me a lot of my partner."
"Oh, really? All brains and no beauty?" she joked.
"Hardly," Bobby managed to breathe. "I mean, I'm sure you're smart as well... shit." He slapped his forehead.
"It's alright, Detective," she laughed, throwing back her deep brown hair.
"Call me Robert."
Johnny coughed. "Shall we?"
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The small car pulled up outside of a small brownstone building. "That's from the Expedition article in May's magazine," Bobby said.
"Correct," Johnny said. "We have been watching it for sometime. Only yesterday did we see Marjorie go into it, we were afraid it was a decoy."
"Who's Marjorie?" Julia asked.
"Marjorie Toulenc; she's Valdez's mistress- and a very smart one at that," Bobby said, returning his focus to the building. "She orchestrated the last job he did. Managed to run me in circles before I figured her out. She's very good."
"Figured her out?"
"Her pathology," he said as if it Julia were someone he had been working with for the past 5 years. But Julia wasn't the person he had been working with for the past 5 years, and she looked confused.
"Well, my dear friends, this is where I must leave you. I will drive us a few blocks away, first." He drove the car down the street to the local cafe, where he exited and disappeared into the crowd.
"So, Robert. What now?"
"I'm not sure. I think we should wait until we see Marjorie leave, then sneak in and see if the Sapphire is there. If all goes smoothly, we should be able to grab it and run."
"You're not going to attempt to catch Valdez?" Julia asked, adjusting the calf-length skirt portion of her plain dress.
"Not yet. If we make off with the Sapphire, he'll definitely come after us, and then we can have him chase us all the way back to the arms of the authorities, who we would contact through you, I'm assuming."
"Well, I could call my captain I suppose, but... don't you think it's a little risky?" she asked, peering through the car window down the street at the brownstone.
"I love risky," he said, giving her a hungry look.
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Gary sat down at his desk and clicked an application open on his computer. Suddenly, a cell phone rang, but it wasn't his. It was Goren's. He had exchanged it for a prepaid that couldn't be traced.
Gary looked at the display screen and saw that it read, "AEames." Knowing that it was Goren's partner he let it ring out to voice mail. She could not have any idea what was going on. It would be a liability.
The ringing stopped, and about a minute later it beeped, indicating that there was a new message waiting. Gary turned the cell phone off and put it in his desk drawer.
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Alex flipped her phone shut in annoyance. It had taken her less time than expected to read through her pile of Smithsonians, and while she was annoyed at Bobby for running off like that and forcing her to have some alone time with the magazines, a small part of her actually enjoyed reading the magazines, though you would never hear her admit it. As far as she was concerned, her partner was and would always be a nerd- even if she kinda liked it.
She looked at the chart she had drawn, showing every instance of reference to the Margo Sapphire, anyone named Valdez, and anyone named Gary.
She concluded that of all the Gary's mentioned, Bobby's must be the director of the museum, who was listed in the front. She still wasn't sure who Valdez was, but he was always mentioned in articles that were about foreign expeditions, artifacts, and precious stones.
The article about the Margo Sapphire was pretty straightforward: where it was mined, it's history of previous owners, how it came to be at the museum, and things like that. There was nothing that flagged it as a potential item of interest apart from its amazing beauty and it's amazing price tag.
Feeling rather impressed with herself, and annoyed with Bobby, she flipped open her phone again and dialed his number. "Come on, Bobby, pick up the phone," she mumbled…
