Page 29 of Family Jewels

“Are those garnets?” I asked.

“Nope. Those are genuine rubies. The real kind, not the lab-created ones.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

He pulled a little lens out of his jeans pocket and held it up to his eye. “A lab-created ruby is pretty near perfect, but a natural one has flaws. See that line?” He handed me the lens and I cautiously held it up to my eye and looked down at the stone he was pointing to. Sure enough, there was a tiny line within it.

Neely Kate reached for the lens and spent a good twenty seconds looking over the stones. She handed the lens back to Wagner and asked, “How much?”

“Five hundred.”

Neely Kate started laughing. “You gotta be kiddin’ me.”

“Why would I be kiddin’ ya?”

Putting a hand on her hip, Neely Kate shook her head. “That brooch is worth a hundred tops.”

I looked up at him. “Would you take a hundred fifty?”

Neely Kate shot me a look that told me I was crazy.

He grimaced. “Aww . . . I don’t know . . . I can’t—”

“Okay. Thanks anyway. Let’s go, Nancy.” Then I spun around and started for the door.

“Oh, dammit,” he grumbled. “Come back, little lady. Maybe we can work something out.”

I turned around to face him. “One twenty-five. Not a penny more.”

“But you just said—” He groaned. “Fine. One twenty-five. I’ll ring it up.” He picked up the pin and headed to the end of the counter to write up a paper sales slip.

Neely Kate leaned her head toward mine. “What are you doin’?”

“You know this brooch is Raddy’s,” I whispered. “So why doesn’t he want itback?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Maybe he’s focusing on the necklace because he knows it’s worth more.”

“But he specifically said the only thing missing was the necklace. Why wouldn’t he ask for the owl? Does he even know it’s gone?”

“He probably doesn’t give a rat’s petunia about any of it. He probably only wants the necklace because someone’s willin’ to pay him five thousand dollars for it.”

I was about to say more, but Hugh ripped off the sheet, then walked back toward me. “At that discount, darlin’, you’re gonna have to pay me in cash.”

Paying him with my debit card would have raised too many issues anyway—including the fact that my name wasn’t Beth Ann. Besides, we still had four hundred dollars of Raddy’s retainer left. I turned to Neely Kate.

“You’re holding my money, remember, Nancy?” I looked her square in the eye, and even though I could see that she wasn’t one hundred percent on board with this decision, she still reached into her purse. As she handed over the money, I wondered if I’d made the right decision. I suspected Raddy wasn’t going to reimburse us, and brooches weren’t exactly my style. Still, it was evidence, and it seemed important for us to collect any we found.

“You didn’t see anything you liked?” Hugh asked Neely Kate.

She shook her head with a frown. “No, but would you give me a call if somethin’ good comes in?” For a terrifying moment, I thought she was going to give him a business card, but she grabbed the pad of sales receipts and wrote down a phone number I didn’t recognize along with the name Nancy. “I really have my heart set on a necklace with clear stones, and I’m willing to pay for it.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said with a grin.

“Here’s your pin,” he said to me, holding out a tiny bag.

I realized I hadn’t had a vision yet. However awkward it was going to be, I needed to make sure it happened before we left the store. Hugh Wagner—James’ arch nemesis—was throwing me for a loop, and I needed to make sure James would survive to the weekend. I shot a quick glance to Neely Kate, then pretended to stumble as I took the bag from Hugh.

As soon as my hand met his arm, I struggled to force a vision of what Hugh would be doing on Friday night. I felt Neely Kate’s hand on my shoulder just before the world around me fell away. I found myself looking at . . . well, myself. Vision Rose was sitting in the kitchen at my farmhouse with a serious look on her face. She was wearing dark clothes and checking her gun. Her mouth was moving, but I didn’t hear my voice. Instead, I heard male voices that didn’t fit with the scene in front of me.