Read Online Death Before Diamonds (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 10) by Mary Maxwell - Free Book Online Page A

they?”
    “Not much to it,” Dina answered.
“The owner is a man named Raymond Block. He moved from Philly to Denver about
eight months ago.”
    “Sounds like he missed the
ninety-day rule, huh?”
    Dina laughed. “It wasn’t the first time,”
she said. “And I bet that it won’t be the last. He claimed that he hadn’t
registered and tagged the car yet due to some financial issues.”
    “Okay, so I guess learning that
he’d have to pay a late registration fee was like adding insult to injury after
the car was stolen.”
    “More or less,” she agreed. “According
to Trent’s contact at the Denver PD, Mr. Block also told the responding officers
that he knew who took the car.”
    “Well, that’s helpful. Who was it?”
    “Rex Greer,” said Dina. “Isn’t that
the guy you told Trent about?”
    “One and the same. What’s the
latest on the car?”
    “Stephen Castle was driving past
Java & Juice,” Dina said. “He’d heard the BOLO and recognized the tags.”
    I nodded. “And did you guys tow
it?”
    “We did indeed,” she answered. “Which
means more bad news for Raymond Block. Not only does he have to pay the late
registration fee and the cost of buying tags for his car, but he now also owes
the Crescent Creek Police Department two-hundred and fifty dollars to get it
out of the impound lot.”
    “Poor guy.”
    Dina scoffed. “I don’t know about
poor,” she said, “but he’s not very smart.”
    “Because he didn’t register it within
the first three months?”
    “No,” she answered. “Because he loaned
it to someone with a conviction for car theft.”
    “Rex Greer?”
    “One and the same,” she said again with
a faint laugh. “Based on the information that Mr. Block provided to the Denver
PD, his buddy has been in and out of hot water since he was fifteen. The
responding officers also confirmed Rex’s history with the authorities in Philadelphia.”
    “Did you see his arrest record?” I
asked.
    “I haven’t actually seen it, but I
heard a few of the highlights,” Dina said. “Beginning with the fact that Greer recently
spent time behind bars for grand theft auto in Pennsylvania.”
    “How long has he been out?” I
asked.
    “Maybe a few weeks.”
    “And now he’s gone right back to
his old ways.”
    “It sure looks like it,” she
agreed. “But we won’t know for certain until we find the little goofball and
get his side of the story.”

CHAPTER
13
     
     
    Zack and I were curled up on his
sofa beneath a down comforter by nine o’clock that night. After the
mouthwatering meal he’d prepared and two glasses of merlot, my eyes were
starting to droop when I heard the unmistakable bray of my phone in the
kitchen.
    “Want me to go?” Zack mumbled.
    “No, handsome,” I said, shimmying
out from the warm cocoon. “I’ll be right back.”
    I went into the next room and checked
the display on the screen.
    “Hmmm,” I said, reading Trent’s
name and mobile number. “Maybe I should let this go to—”
    The phone vibrated as Dina Kincaid
called on the second line. If they were both trying to reach me at the same
time, it was obviously important. I decided to talk to Trent first, and check
in with Dina later.
    “What took you so long?” he barked
as soon as I answered.
    “Well, good evening to you, too,” I
said with as much cheerfulness as I could manage. “To what do I owe the honor
of your call?”
    “We found a friend of yours
downtown earlier tonight,” he said quickly. “He had a pretty nasty gash on the
back of his head and a deep laceration to his torso. Looks like he sustained both
injuries when he fell into the decorative wrought iron fence in front of the post
office.”
    The unexpected announcement left me
flabbergasted. Trent took the opportunity to answer a few of the more obvious
questions.
    “On second thought,” he said,
“‘friend’ is probably the wrong word. I should’ve said that we found someone
bleeding and semi-conscious on the