Jem Diamond's office was as bejeweled as the man himself with many wall portraits of fine gems, a golden lamp and a desk with even more pictures of jewels. It seemed he either didn't have children or jewels WERE his babies.
His desk had been cleared of all paperwork or anything else suspicious and Mina was well aware that dirty detective was to blame. He has truly cleaned them out of house and home and left nothing but croissant crumbs on the desk.
"Drat rats!" Mina growled. "He's doing our work for us."
"Knowing a guy like him," Raven rubbed his goatee with a sly expression. "Against us is more likely."
Mina scoured the whole desk, even lifting up some of the desktop photo of the gems. There was an odd trail of slime too, but Mina realized it had come from a stray piece of escargot that had managed to survive the French baking process. She carefully placed the snail on a nearby ficus so the little mollusk could live happily ever after.
She was about to throw in the proverbial towel, but right by the potted plant, there was a card. And not just any card...it was a driver's license.
Holding it up to the light, she beheld a strangely beautiful ID. The woman, named Monica Montero was 27, dark skinned with a flowing locks of chocolate hair down to her shoulders. Compared to her vacant eyes and nervous grin on her own driver's license, Mina believed this woman could easily be a model. But what kind of profession was professional poser on driver's IDs? And what was it doing in here?
Raven's eyes bulged as Mina held the card to his face. "Yow! Whose that Mamacita?"
"I actually wanted to ask the same question!" Mina asked, and she giggled. "Hehe, at least we know her address!"
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Raven shrugged his shoulders. "Either Mr. Diamond is a sugar daddy or this woman might have something to do with this case. We might have to ask the police about this."
The two of them walked back out through the hallway into the main exhibit. They passed enormous slabs of limestone and marble until Mina bumped straight into Sparky.
"Oof!" the deputy shouted and he quickly pulled his gun out. "You're under arrest!" he shouted.
Raven and Mina both threw up their hands.
"Take it easy with the heat, Spanky!" Raven shouted before the deputy realized who he was sticking up.
"I'm gonna forget you misnamed me!" Sparky answered, putting his handgun back in his holster. "My apologies. I'm a bit on edge. That detective is really disciplining me and no offense to French Canadians men, but they can't make me cry and beg like the chief."
Mina rolled her eyes. "If I have to hear more about your mamamatrix interest, I'm gonna lose it. Please can you just tell us if you know who this woman is."
She thrusted the card forward and Sparky grabbed it. "Montero....hmm...She could be related to our suspect. His name is Ricki Montero."
Mina's eyes bulged open and her mouth dropped. "You mean the guy who says he's Maria Santiago?!"
"Yeppers!" Sparky nodded. "We were about to go investigate his apartment!"
Suddenly, a smirk curled over Mina's face and her eyes glistened like sparks in the dimly lit museum. "Monica Montero was a very comely young woman and her features were looking more familiar by the second. Mina gazed again at the driver's license. She pictured a large floppy purple fedora, an elegant mask and a confident veneer on her face and she began to grin like a maniac.
They weren't just going to anyone's apartment. They were going to Maria Santiago's apartment. Her lair, her inner sanctum. Mina would finally get a glimpse of what laid beneath the mask.
"Oi!" a French voice accosted them. "Deputy. Get over here, you lout!"
It shook Mina out of her stupor. Inspector Croix-Saint was standing at the entrance. "Stop being slower than moi's escargot! We need to get to zee apartment of zee suspect before zee pissants!"
Mina thrust a finger forward. Her face was illuminated with the same kind of confidence she imagined the senorita displaying. "You're on, Inspector Croissant! Just to let you know, there's nobody better than running red lights than we Americans!"
The deputy narrowed his eyes at Mina. She grinned sheepishly and put her hand behind her head. "Yellow lights I mean!"