Blue Smoke and Murder

Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell Page B

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Authors: Elizabeth Lowell
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Compressors on refrigerator trucks rumbled, waiting for drivers to bust out at the tables or stop hitting on waitresses. Some of the RVs had lights on inside, either night-lights or a beacon for bleary gamblers to stumble toward when they got tired of losing.
    The guard’s golf cart was idling at the entrance to the parking lot. A low conversation came on the wind, the guard telling a newbie where the overnight RV parking was. The mercury-vapor lamps cast a ghastly orange glow over everything, changing colors dramatically. If Jill hadn’t known exactly where she was parked, she never would have recognized her vehicle. She cut through ranks of monster pickup trucks and SUVs the size of railroad cars. Finally she could see her own modest rig. It looker even smaller than she remembered.
    Then she realized that the left front tire was flat.
    So was the left back tire.
    She froze, listening for any sound, searching for any movement.All that came was the wind and the sound of voices headed toward the casino, away from her. Warily, keeping other vehicles between herself and her own car, she circled the SUV.
    Four flat tires.
    Front door ajar.
    I locked it. I know I did.
    When Jill was sure she was alone, she stood back and dug a tiny, powerful penlight from her waist pack. She sent the narrow beam over the interior of the car.
    Nothing moved.
    No one was inside, sleeping off a drunk or waiting for a victim.
    The seats had been ripped apart. The dome light was broken. There was a piece of paper stuck under the windshield wiper. What looked like ripped, coarse cloth jammed the open glove compartment.
    She used the beam on nearby cars. Empty. Locked. Tires intact. No ads tucked under the windshield wipers. Whoever had trashed her ride had left the others alone.
    Adrenaline lit up her blood like fireworks.
    Gee, I feel really special.
    Pissed off, too.
    She looked around again, listened, heard nothing but wind and the growl of compressors keeping lettuce cold while drivers gambled the night away.
    Quickly she closed the distance to her mutilated SUV. Nothing looked better up close. It looked worse.
    She jerked the piece of paper out from under the windshield wiper. Block letters leaped into focus.
     
    STAY OUT OF IT OR DIE
     
    Adrenaline twisted into nausea.
    She looked around the SUV again. Still alone. Still quiet. Theguard was quartering a different part of the parking lot. She thought of calling him over, then thought of all the questions that the local cops would ask. Questions she really didn’t want to answer.
    With a hissing curse she went to the passenger side, opened the door, and reached under the seat. To her surprise her satellite phone was still there. She pulled it out and stashed it in her belly bag. Then she grabbed a fistful of whatever was choking the glove compartment.
    As soon as her fingers touched the material, she knew.
    Canvas.
    Oil.
    Anger burned away the faint nausea of fear.
    That slime-sucking son of a bitch. The threat wasn’t enough to make his point. He had to cut the missing painting to rags.
    And it could just as easily have been her.

13
    MANHATTAN
SEPTEMBER 14
2:21 A.M.
    A s usual, Dwayne Taylor had night duty. He liked it that way. The calls were more interesting and the view from Ambassador Steele’s office was one of the best in the city. Two of the office’s six walls overlooked Manhattan. The odd sheen of the bulletproof glass only added to the dramatic color-and-black view of skyscrapers. Three other walls held screens with satellite views of places where St. Kilda had operatives and/or things were going to hell. The final wall held a door and various reference books.
    Ambassador Steele sat in his high-tech wheelchair, talking through a headset, debriefing someone in Paraguay. Mission accomplished. International executive returned largely unharmed to his worried family.
    The “hot” phone rang.
    Steele covered his microphone. “Get that, will you?”
    Dwayne switched the channel on his

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