Already Gone

– 37 –



Diane turns off the main road and takes side streets through town. She seems to know the way, but I’m completely lost.

I ask her where we’re going.

“To a house in the canyon. I want to get off the street until we can figure out our next move.”

I look at my watch.

“How long would it take to get to Flagstaff?”

“Not long. Why?”

I tell her about Gabby’s friend with the plane. “He agreed to fly me into Nogales tonight. He can take us both, but we have to be there by midnight.”

“Mexico? What are we going to do in Mexico?”

“Stay out of prison, for one thing. And if we’re lucky, not get shot by your old boss.”

Diane shakes her head. “Hold on, let’s think about this for a minute.”

“I have money, and Gabby said he’d wire more. We can figure out the rest once we’re down there.”

“How much do you have?”

“About eight hundred.”

“That’s not enough.”

“It has to be. We can’t stay here.”

“Eight hundred dollars isn’t going to do us any good.”

“Then what do you want to do?” I can hear the impatient edge in my voice, and I make an effort to stay calm. “What’s your plan?”

Diane taps her fingers on the steering wheel. “We keep going to the house in the canyon. My bags are there, we grab them, then go pick up Lisa. She can drive us up to Flagstaff and—”

“There’s no time for that. Leave the bags, we’ll buy what we need in Nogales.”

“With eight hundred dollars? I don’t think so.”

I start to argue, but she stops me, says, “I have money. Not a lot, but enough to get us wherever we want to go, and we won’t have to be in debt to Gabby.”

I start to tell her it’s too late, that I’m already in debt to Gabby, but I change my mind and don’t say a word.

Diane looks at me. “All I have to do is run in, grab the bag. Five minutes, tops.”

“If we’re not there by midnight—”

“We’ll be there,” she says. “I’ll be quick, I promise.”

I’m not convinced, but the way she smiles at me is enough to make me give in.





The road into the canyon is dark, and Diane slows through the sharp turns. Once we get to the bottom, she looks over at me and says, “It’s just up here a ways.”

I look out the window, but all I see is darkness.

“Butch Cassidy hid out here,” Diane says. “A lot of those old outlaws came here to hide from the law.”

I mumble a reply.

Diane frowns. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t like this, any of it.”

“I told you, I’ll just be a minute.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what?”

“How long did you work with my father?”

“Not long. He delivered paintings to a few clients from time to time.”

“Stolen paintings?”

Diane hesitates. “Not always.”

“Why would he turn on you this time?”

“He didn’t turn on me. It was a bad plan from the start, and no one expected him to die.”

“What was the plan?”

“Wentworth wanted there to be a chain,” she says. “He wanted each of us to be responsible for the person under us. No one knew who else was involved.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Wentworth brought me in. He gave me the shipping information, where the truck was headed, when it would arrive. It was my job to hire someone to stop the truck and steal the cargo.”

“My father.”

“It was his job to put together a crew to hijack the truck. Wentworth didn’t know who I hired, and I didn’t know who your father hired. This way if one of us was caught, there would be no way to connect it back to the company unless everyone talked.”

“But if someone did, it would be like dominoes.”

“Like I said, it was a bad plan. All we could do was hire people we trusted. This was how Wentworth wanted it, and he was in charge.”

“And you trusted my father?”

“He never gave me a reason not to,” she says. “He’d never let me down before. Even after he was arrested, he didn’t talk to the police. He didn’t talk to anyone at all.”

“So, when you went to see him in prison, it was to find out where they took the diamonds?”

“His crew stored them somewhere, and he was the only one who knew where.” She shakes her head. “I panicked. Wentworth was pressuring me, and I knew we were running out of time. It was a stupid mistake.”

“That’s when you came to me. You thought I’d know?”

Diane’s quiet for a moment, then says, “At first, yes, but that changed after we met.” She reaches over and touches the back of my hand. “When I said you gave me the courage to start over, I wasn’t lying.”

“Why didn’t you tell me the rest?”

“I couldn’t.”

“You could’ve told me anything.”

“I didn’t think you’d believe me, and I didn’t want to risk losing you. You were so set on not asking questions, leaving the past in the past.”

She’s right, and for a moment I can’t think of anything to say. All I can do is wonder how things might’ve been different.

“I’m asking now.”

“And I’m answering.”

We’re both quiet.

“If his crew has the diamonds, what’s to stop them from keeping them for themselves now that he’s gone?”

“They don’t know what they have,” Diane says. “I told your father they were stealing a shipment of rare statues for a private collector. He didn’t know the truth, so his crew wouldn’t have known either.”

“Don’t you think he checked?”

“If they did, all they found were crates filled with small statues, just like I told them. They’re worthless, of course. The diamonds are packed inside.”

“Inside the statues?”

“That’s how they were brought into the country.”

I lean back in the seat. “So, there are a bunch of statues sitting in a storage locker somewhere, and no one has any idea that they’re worth—”

“Millions.”

I look at her. “Millions?”

“Which is why we have to leave. Briggs has no intention of letting me go, especially if he doesn’t get the diamonds back.”

I don’t say anything right away. I keep thinking about my father’s crew sitting on millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds and not having any idea.

Diane asks what I’m thinking.

“How many are there?”

“Sixty,” she says. “Ten crates, six in each.”

“What do they look like?”

Diane holds her hands about two feet apart and says, “They’re about this big, white porcelain, shaped like birds. The diamonds are in velvet pouches, packed inside.”

“Birds?”

“Doves.”

For a second, I can’t find my voice.

Diane hesitates. “Why?”

I smile. “Because I think I know where they are.”