Page 148 of To Catch a Latte Thick as Thieves

“Lucy, we’re in big trouble,” she said. “Come on, let’s go see Jess.”

Cat stuffed the necklace back into the box and raced out to her SUV. She opened the passenger side door and waited for Lucy to jump up. Lucy didn’t budge.

“Come on, Lucy,” she said. “We’re going for a ride. Up! Hop up!”

Lucy growled at the interior of the car and still refused to move.

“Sweetie,” Cat said as she put the box on the floor of the car and wrapped her arms around the dog. “I don’t have time for this right now.”

With a groan, Cat hefted the dog into the passenger’s seat and clipped her in. She hurried around the front of the car. She climbed into the driver’s seat and fastened her seat belt. Lucy was still growling so Cat turned on the ignition and pushed the button to roll down her window.

“It’s all right, girl,” she said and patted the dog on the head. Lucy ignored her.

Cat frowned and put the SUV into Reverse. She was halfway down her driveway when a head popped up from behind her seat. Cat screamed and stomped on the brake pedal. It was Fly! Her arm shot across the seat to protect Lucy. Fly wasn’t so lucky and smashed his nose against the back of her seat.

A string of curses flew out of his mouth but Cat wasn’t listening. She tried to release Lucy’s collar and opened her door, planning to make a run for it.

“Don’t try it,” a voice instructed. Cat glanced around to see Mabel pop up on the seat next to Fly. She was holding a gun and it was pointed right at Cat. “It seems you’ve found our property.”

“I’m sure there’s been some mistake,” Cat said.

“Yeah, trying to steal our goods was a big mistake on your part,” Mabel agreed. “It took us a few days to get your name and address from the place you rented that moving van from, but as you can see persistence pays. Give it here.”

“Give what?” Cat asked, rendered stupid by the sight of the gun.

“The necklace,” Mabel waved the weapon impatiently. “Give me the necklace.”

Cat grabbed the box off the floor and handed it to Mabel.

Mabel kept the gun trained on Cat while she unfastened the lid and examined the necklace.

“Ah,” she purred. “You have no idea what I went through to get this.”

“I’m sure I don’t,” Cat said, her fingers flexing around the door handle. If she could just distract them maybe she could get away.

“Six months I spent scrubbing toilets, polishing glass and cleaning up little kids’ vomit in that stinking New England Heirloom Museum just so I could get my hands on this beauty.”

“It wasn’t all you, dumpling,” Fly protested. “I had to work security for six months, too.”

“Security?” Mabel scoffed. “All you boys did was drink coffee, eat donuts and watch daytime TV. No, I had to do the hard part, sugarplum. And don’t you forget it.”

“I got you the codes, didn’t I, dearest?” Fly asked. “You couldn’t have broken in without me.”

“All right, pudding,” Mabel said. “You helped a little. But I’m the one who cut the glass and managed to lift out the necklace without setting off the laser alarm. These fingers might be old, but they’re as steady as a twenty-year-old’s.”

“Just as pretty, too,” Fly said. “See. You young folk don’t pay us old folk no mind. You think we’re just washed-up old has-beens sitting around in our wrinkled skin waiting to die. Well, phooey! Me and the missus have the lightest fingers in the fifty states and we’ve got the Swiss bank account to prove it.”

“Oh, my God! You’re the jewel thieves we heard about on the radio. But I don’t understand,” Cat said. “How did that necklace end up in my boxes unless...”

“We put it there,” Fly said. “The heat was on us. The cops almost nailed us in Massachusetts. We had to keep switching vehicles to lose them, and we didn’t want to risk them catching us with the goods. It’s a lot easier to play the senile senior citizen with a stolen vehicle than it is with a necklace worth three million. We broke into your hotel room back in New Mexico to get it back but we couldn’t find it. Still, with that ‘AZ or Bust’ sign we decided to use you to transport our latest acquisition since we’re meeting our buyer in Arizona.”

“Come on, we’ve got a meeting to get to,” Mabel said with a wave of the gun.

“What about her?” Fly asked.

“She’s driving us,” Mabel said. “And we’re bringing her little dog, too. Put it in drive, kiddo.”

Cat blanched but did as she was told. How was she going to get out of this one? She tried to think but her brain was clenched with fear and her thoughts were nothing but white noise.