Page 21 of Family Jewels

I pondered it for a second. “Let’s talk to Alberto first and find out if the brooch really was a fake. It would be good to have confirmation of that before we approach her.”

“So what should we do in the meantime?”

I glanced at the time on my phone. “How about I drop you off at the office and you can work on those proposals? I’ll grab Muffy and take her and the food to the house. Then we can head to the pawn shop together.”

She gave me a look that said she knew I was up to something, but she didn’t call me on it. Like I’d told Joe, Neely Kate and I both had our secrets. “Good idea, but you don’t have to take Muffy.”

“It looks like the rain’s let up for a bit. I can let her run around the yard while I’m putting things away,” I said. “And we won’t have to worry about her if we want to stop by Raddy’s mother’s house after we talk to Alberto.”

“Good idea.”

While I drove to the office, Neely Kate pulled out her notebook and the pink fluff-ball pen. She cast me a defensive look. “This is how they do it on all those cop shows. They interview people and write down what they say.”

“You should give some serious thought to becoming a Henryetta police officer, Neely Kate. Lord knows you’ve got more brains than most of those boneheads put together.”

She snorted. “No way. Black isnotmy color, and those uniforms have no shape at all.”

“So become a detective,” I said. “Detective Taylor never wears a uniform.”

She glanced up at me, and something flickered in her eyes before she grinned and said, “I like what I’m doin’ just fine.”

But that reminded me of what she’d told Raddy at the hardware store. “Since when do we have a name for our nonexistent investigation company?”

She grimaced slightly and kept looking down at her notebook. “Wehaveto have a name if we’re gonna be taken seriously.”

“Sparkle? You think people are gonna takethatseriously?” I shook my head. “If we were to have an investigation agency—and I’m not sayin’ we are—it wouldnotbe named Sparkle.”

“Have you got a better idea?”

“No. Because we don’t have an investigation agency.”

She didn’t have a retort, but even a blind bat could see she was biding her time with this one.

Maybe this whole necklace thing was a mistake after all.

Anna was in the office when we got there, and thankfully she’d picked up all the files and arranged them into stacks. I was proud to see how many folders we’d accumulated already. Not every folder had yielded a job, of course, but a good half of them had.

Muffy jumped up on my legs when we walked in, and I scooped her into my arms. “How’s it goin’, Anna?”

Anna, who was sitting in the middle of the wood floor, looked up at us with her warm dark eyes. “She really did a number on these files.”

Neely Kate cringed. “But it’s not that bad,” Anna said, smiling at her. “I’ve almost gotten everything back into order. I just need to return them to the cabinets.”

“Thanks so much for doin’ this,” I said. “You’re helping more than you know.”

Anna pushed a skinny ringlet of her black hair behind her ear. “It’s kind of nice to have an office job.”

I tried not to show a reaction. Anna had been invaluable at the nursery while my sister was gone. Was she considering leaving us for an office job somewhere? “Have you and Bruce Wayne settled into your new house?” I asked.

She gave me a shy grin. She and Bruce Wayne had been seeing each other for four months and had recently rented a house together. They were a cute couple, and I was thrilled Bruce Wayne had found someone who appreciated him. “We’re still unpacking.”

“It takes a bit to get settled,” Neely Kate said as she sat at her desk, not making eye contact. “You’ll get it done.”

I couldn’t help but wonder if she was thinking about moving in with Ronnie last summer after her wedding. While she’d brought most of her clothes to my house, all of her furniture and other belongings were still at the house they’d shared.

“I better get goin’,” I said, moving closer to the door. “I need to get these groceries to the house. I’ll be back in time to head out to take care of our errand.” It was probably best for us to keep our investigating to ourselves.

Neely Kate nodded, but she didn’t look up from her computer screen.