Page 25 of Family Jewels

“Alberto?” I asked, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice. He definitely wasn’t what I’d expected, especially after what the woman had said about his tattoo. But the black plastic taped to his forearm suggested he’d followed through.

“Yeah, that’s me.” He stopped and placed his hand on top of the case. I couldn’t help thinking what a pain it had to be to have to clean that thick pane of glass every night. But then, judging by all the smudged glass, I suspected the glass was lucky to get cleaned once a week.

“Hi,” I said, giving him my sweetest smile. “I’m Rose and this is Neely Kate. We’re looking for a necklace.” I glanced at Neely Kate, who needed no further prompting to pull out her phone and find the image she’d captured of Raddy’s photograph.

His brow furrowed as he glanced down at it. “You’re looking for that piece of junk?”

“Have you seen it before?” Neely Kate asked, shifting the phone so it was in front of the skeptical older woman next to Alberto.

He shook his head. “Nope.”

“Me neither,” the woman said.

Neely Kate held his gaze. “A little while back, a woman brought in an owl brooch. Her name was Rayna Dyer. The owl had ruby eyes.”

He tried to look confused, but his fingers tapped out a rapid pattern on the glass. “You don’t say . . .”

Neely Kate pulled out her notebook and pen, holding the pen so the tip hovered over the paper. “Are you saying you don’t remember her?”

“Don’t recall the name.”

“Do you remember the brooch?” I asked.

“Hmm . . .”

“We ain’t got any brooches in ages,” the woman grunted with a look of disgust. “Nobody’s buying brooches. Can’t move ’em. If you’re looking for jewelry, you should head over to Ripper. They have all kinds of gaudy jewelry like the necklace in that picture.”

I studied Alberto. “So if you don’t get many brooches, I would think you’d remember the one Rayna brought in.”

He cringed, his head shrinking into his shoulders. “Well, Imightremember something.”

Neely Kate placed a hand on the glass and leaned closer. I was going to have to give her a generous amount of hand sanitizer when we left. “And whatmightyou remember?”

“Some woman brought in an ugly-as-sin owl. It was gold, but it looked dirty. And it had red eyes.”

“She says you told her it wasn’t worth much. That the eyes were cut glass.”

The woman gave him a look of disbelief. “When did you become a gemologist?”

His eyes widened with fear. She was clearly the one in charge, and the vibe between them suggested she might be his mother. “A what?”

The woman whacked him in the arm.

“I didn’t tell her that!” he protested. “I told her we weren’t buyin’ jewelry and she should take it to Ripper.”

“Did she?” Neely Kate asked.

He pouted and rubbed his upper arm. “How should I know? She just left.”

Neely Kate wrote something in her notebook, then pulled out a copy of her business card. “If you remember anything else, be sure to give me a call.”

He picked it up, took a long look at it, then scratched his head. “This says you’re a landscaping specialist.”

“So?” she asked in a challenge.

“What does that have to do with looking for a brooch?”

She tucked her notebook and pen into her purse. “We use gold owl brooches to scare off the bugs.”