A Brilliant Plan

Chapter 40

"I am willing to sell it back to you. Tonight or tomorrow. Two hundred thousand dollars for this piece." My, my, was I getting cheap. But I wanted him to being able to buy it back without a credit problem. And for someone like Altward, 200K should be easy enough to organize quickly.

"Can I call you about the time?"

I coughed politely. "I will call you at noon. If you haven't decided by then, I will think of another buyer." And to twist the knife, "Perhaps Mr. Nakamoto is still around."

I stepped outside into the sunshine of the San Diego noon and walked back to the corner where Ron had left me. He popped the car door for me and I got in.

"Hook?"

"Line and sinker. I will call him at noon for details."

The Seaport Village Mall was one of the nicer shopping spots in the San Diego area. We took our post on one of the parking levels, Juanita and Fowler arrived and we all squeezed into the small unmarked Toyota. Juanita and Ron were in front, and we civilians were in the back. Fowler's and my non-aggression pact was still intact.

"Here we are, all together on a double date," Juanita said with her overflowing optimism.

"I wonder who goes with whom," I said, looking back and forth between Ron and Fowler.

I checked the time and called Altward from my mobile phone, the others listening in. He agreed on a meeting to hand over the money for the necklace. He named the food court of a suburb mall, tomorrow noon. I confirmed and hung up.

Juanita picked up the microphone of the radio and asked for a status report.

The radio crackled to life. "Topside One. Calder still in Haven."

"Roger, Topside Two."

I said, "Let me guess, Calder is Altward. And Haven is the gallery."

Two other teams gave their standby status and the radio was silent again.

Juanita nodded. "We have two teams, one in front and one in the backyard of the gallery. Altward hasn't left the gallery yet, made some phone calls, very suspicious—business stuff, lawyer, and his ex-wife."

"What's so suspicious about that?" Fowler asked.

"He didn't call the bank to arrange for the exchange money!" I said.

"Oh!" That shut Fowler up.

Ron explained, "There are two other teams who will support us nearby. Top Three is near Altward's San Diego penthouse. There is another Newport PD team near his other apartment. They will call-in as soon as there is any development."

We waited on the parking deck and killed time. Ron and Juanita had books to read, they had obviously done observations before. Since we might suddenly have to leave quickly, Fowler and I were not allowed to leave the car, so we were twiddling our thumbs and making small talk about the latest diamond prices and the new Christie's Auction catalogue. I made it a private joke to mention as many collectors' items as possible to Fowler. He was probably mentally writing down each and every item I mentioned in case it was stolen in the next 18 months. This was really fun.

Finally, the radio came to life. "Topside Two." The gallery team. "Calder leaving haven. Calder leaving haven."

It was like an espresso coffee on a dry stomach, the blood was rushing through my head. Was that Altward's move?

"Topside One. Calder going north. Lose trail." Juanita grabbed the city map from the backrest pocket of the driver seat and put her finger on it.

"Topside One. Calder on Congress Street."