“What can I say?” Holmes clapped his hands. “He claimed he had inside support from the company. Either he was lying or something went bad. Because the relationship turned hostile and he went after VerHauten. Like a gnat going against a lion. Sooner or later, a quick swat was bound to squish him.”

“Arik was squished?” Marge said.

Again, Holmes chuckled. “VerHauten simply has the resources, and they don’t appreciate being bad-mouthed. You can’t buck city hall.” He paused. “Perhaps I should paraphrase that. You can’t buck two hundred years of experience and four billion dollars in assets.”

Decker closed the driver’s door to the Plymouth, slipped the key in the ignition but didn’t start the car. “Someone should inform Shaul Gold that it’s against the law to impersonate a police officer.”

Marge said, “You think it was Gold?”

“I know it was Gold. He used his cowboy accent.”

“The case has been high-profile, Pete,” Marge said. “It could have been a lackey for VerHauten. Perhaps they had a vested interest in seeing Yalom and his wife…terminated.”

“They’re a multibillion-dollar company. Why would they bother with small potatoes like Yalom? No, VerHauten didn’t call. Gold did. He knows Arik’s been doing some funny business in Africa. He’s tracking down our leads. He’s traveling the same road we are. In this case, he questioned Holmes before we did. I don’t like that, Margie. He’s fouling up our element of surprise. The man needs a few guidelines.”

“Should we pay him a visit?”

Decker nodded and called up his number from the car radio. The phone rang and rang. Cutting the line, Decker tried him at the office. Again, no one picked up. He slammed down the mike. “Now what?”

Marge said, “I like your truism about money as a motive for murder. There was a lot of angry correspondence exchanged between Yalom and VerHauten. Let’s pay the giant a visit. I’m sure they have a local office.”

“And do what?” Decker answered.

“Wing a line of questioning. Find out why the letters turned so hostile.”

“Marge, I’m sure Yalom was hostile so VerHauten answered him aggressively. I’m sure VerHauten couldn’t give a solitary hoot about Yalom.”

“They obviously cared enough to correspond with him over several years.”

Decker thought about that. He reached into his pocket and took out the stock ownership pilfered from the safe-deposit box—Southwest Mines. He showed it to Marge. “We could use this as an entrée maybe. Say we’re investigating the company. Wondered if they had any information on it.”

“Good idea.”

Decker paged through his notes. “A woman by the name of Kate Milligan signed this letter to Yalom—Damn. The letter was postmarked from Belgium.”

“VerHauten must have a local listing somewhere near the diamond center.”