Chapter 395

I got the phone call at 4PM. I am sure that the judge had been giving it some really deep thought all afternoon. I could check back, but I would bet that court was not in session that afternoon. No matter how it played out, he got one point for sheer balls. He wasn't hiding out and hoping it would just go away. Of course he knew it wouldn't, and then there was that good ole male ego. I could always count on male ego to make men act like teenage boys.

"Ms Stone this is Judge Timmons," the voice on my cell phone said. It was a number not everyone had, so the judge had connections to some of my friends. The number by no means was a deep dark secret, so it wasn't necessarily sinister that he had it. It just meant he could get to me. I suppose he wouldn't mind me thinking that way. He could issue a search warrant and have my place searched for dog turds, if he wanted. Before Jennifer could stop the cops, my blue barrels would be items on a police evidence list. Every bit of that ran through my head before I answered.

"What can I do for you Judge Timmons?" I asked.

"I would like to hire you," he said.

"We can discuss this after the current thing I am working on is over," I suggested.

"Actually, I need you to start on my problem immediately," he said.

"Judge you know that I am a private investigator and all my calls are recorded, so please be careful what you say. I would prefer you not incriminate yourself." I suggested.

"Thank you for the warning, but I really don't need it. Your employer knows that I am calling. She and I agreed to go by what you discovered. I want you to find who really beat my wife. It can only clear me, since I did not do it," he said.

"That charge really shouldn't be of great concern to you. If it was a first for the two of you, and I assume that it was, then let her have the divorce. She can't prove you are the one who gave there the matching set of shiners. So go do a little anger management and it's over," I said explaining the obvious to him. "Give her what she wants and it ends, unless there is more to it than meets the eye. I am sure Jennifer explained all this to you, so why do you need me?"

"Because her demands are unreasonable. She is a young woman her life will go on. There is no reason for me to give her half my wealth, half my future earning for life, and half my pension," he said.

"Surely you know a good divorce lawyer," was my reply. "Again she can't prove that you did the damage to her face. It is going to be a he said, she said unless there is more?" I made it a question.

"There is nothing else, I promise you that," he said.

"I don't understand what you think I can do?" I made that a question as well.

"You can prove I am not the one who beat her," he said.

To give him his due again, he had not even hinted at the bribes at all. Either he didn't know that she knew, or he didn't think that she has spilled the beans yet, or it just wasn't true and he didn't realize that he had bigger problems than her bruises.

"So you want me to investigate my client?" I suggested.

"Actually Jennifer is your client," he said. I was always surprised by the fact that everyone, friend and foe called her Jennifer. It was a very informal way to address an attorney.

"That is true enough. I will make you a deal. I will look into your past to see if there is a motive for you to harm her and in doing so, I may find out who assaulted her. But let me warn you, I will not hide what I find either way. It will all come out, if it is relevant to this case in any way."

"I see I will need some time to think it over." he said.

"That's fine, just call me when you have decided," I suggested.

After the call from the judge I drove the truck back to the bluebird house to take another look at the container. I made sure no one was following me and I made sure the house was not under surveillance as well. Then I called Jerrod from the driveway.

"Jerrod I have to get rid of those barrels. So here is the deal, I can hand over yours tonight or I can convert it to diamonds, when I do mine." We were standing inside the container when we spoke.

"What do you mean convert it to diamonds?" he asked.

"I have the name of a wholesale diamond merchant, who deals directly through the holy land. I am going to turn my barrel into something a little easier to store. I am sorry, but you have to decide today. I need to get them the hell out of my apartment today."

"I will need to convert them back, how do we do that?" he asked.

"Levi buys and sells," I assured him. "He is honest. He only works for the good guys. I have my money man's word for it. He knows that if he screws me, it will not be fun at all."

"Alright do it, but bring me some cash back please. At least enough to do something with those two leeches." He was at least smiling.

When I got back to the downtown house, I made sure it was not being watching, at least no more than usual. I used the burn phone to call Levi Goldman.

"I have been expecting your call. Our mutual friend said that I could trust you." he said in a heavily accented voice.

"Good, so I would like a meet and to make a deal." I said carefully.

"How large a deal?" he asked.

"I am not sure what you consider to be large sir, but what I need is two lots of almost one big one each," I suggested. "You will need a very large bag, something like an army duffel bag maybe."

It was at that moment that I put all the hints together. Levi was Mossad. Their 10% broker fee would go a long way to finance off the books operations. So even in Israel it was about the money. I felt a lot better about the operation after I came to that conclusion.

"So as I understand it, you provide me with an appraisal from the world diamond center in Antwerp?" I asked.