The Rescuer (24 page)

Kate looked over at Dave then back at him. "Give me the CliffsNotes first then."

Stephen touched her determined chin, smiled, and pointed to the barn. "Come on in; I'l show you. I didn't fix anything inside yet, figuring you'd want to see it for yourself. My guest was looking for something."

He reached around her and turned on lights as she entered the barn.

"What a mess," Dave said.

"I'l say." Stephen walked over to look at one of the deepest strikes against the wal . "He punched holes but didn't come back around to try and pry off the drywal . I'm guessing he was pretty drunk or high, maybe both, and I interrupted him."

"Any idea who it was?"

Stephen shrugged. "Male, medium height, medium build. He hadn't had a bath recently. I never got a good look at him. There were beer cans and a whisky bottle left tossed about so there may be prints." Stephen pointed to the box he'd put them into.

215

"I'l have the lab take a look. Does it seem like he found anything?" Kate asked.

Stephen looked around at the dozen or so holes. "Not that I can tel ."

"I'm glad he wasn't swinging that sledgehammer at you."

"The rake handle was enough. He ran, and I heard a car start shortly thereafter down by the east pasture, but in the rain I never got a look at the make or model."

"I'l go check the area," Dave suggested. "If he was drinking here, he may have been also drinking and pitching beer bottles while he waited for it to get late enough to start snooping. Maybe he left more trash behind that wil help us identify him."

"Good idea."

Dave left the barn.

Kate settled on the stool by Stephen's workbench.

"Where did you find the pouch with the ring?"

Stephen pointed. "That floorboard was pried up. He either knew about that spot or saw where I'd recently pul ed it up."

"The ring was stolen."

"As I nursed my aching jaw last night, I figured that was probably the case," Stephen agreed. "Who was it stolen from? And when?"

"Five years ago a lady was having her ring cleaned before her thirty-fifth anniversary. She found out then that it was a fake. A real y good counterfeit of the piece you handed me. When and where the swap had been made?" Kate shook her head. "It could have been years before. We've got no good way to tel ."

"Was it a ring she wore often?"

"Yes. What are you thinking?"

"So the fake was durable." Stephen rested a boot against the stacked lumber. "I've heard about the fake pieces Neil displayed in the front of his store while he kept the real pieces in the safe. They're so good that Meghan had to bring in two appraisers to 216

help with the store inventory to figure out what is real and what's a bril iant copy."

"I pul ed Neil's records and he's clean," Kate said.

"Nothing shows up for receiving or dealing stolen property. There were no financial or tax problems, no suggestions of anything criminal."

"He wouldn't get to be an old thief by making mistakes."

9f

"Have you found any more pieces?" Kate asked.

"No."

"Any indication more pieces were hidden here that Neil removed before he sold this place? Maybe he simply forgot the piece you found in the barn?"

Stephen started to shake his head then stopped.

"What?"

"Before I started ripping into the house and barn, I did a pretty thorough assessment of what needed to be repaired or replaced. The attic insulation in the house was disturbed. 1 remember wondering if a squirrel had gotten trapped up there and panicked before finding a way out."

"Could something stil be hidden up there that you didn't find?"

"Most of the insulation came up when 1 looked at the wiring. I would have found something."

"Show me," Kate said.

"The trapdoor to the attic is in the utility room. You don't need to be crawling around up there pregnant. I'l show Dave and he can check it out."

"That's fine with me. Let's walk up to the house now I could use a drink and a chance to stretch my legs."

He closed up the barn and slipped on the padlock.

They walked to the house.

"You need security out here," Kate said. "Word gets out that there is a treasure hunt underway and you'l have more than just one unwanted guest."

217

"That's one of the reasons I didn't cal the sheriff-nothing in this town stays quiet. Word may already be out for al 1 know. The guy was drunk enough he probably talked about it before he came out here. At least it shouldn't be that hard to find who around town has an eye to match mine. What we need to do is talk with Meghan. If Neil has more pieces hidden, the probable place he put them isn't here but at the store or the apartment over it. She's the one most likely to find something."

"I agree it's better we keep this quiet. I'm afraid you may be sitting on a cache site, Stephen, and that more pieces are here even more valuable than that ring. I don't want to add more worry but you need to know this could get complex fast. Dave had a case that could factor in: A mob boss kil ed his wife when he found out she was having an affair. Since he went at her in the master bedroom and bashed in her head, it was open and shut. But one of the things that turned up was that some of her rather priceless jewelry were elegant fakes. If one of those stolen pieces shows up here..."

"A thief that messed with a mob boss? Now living in Silverton?" Stephen shook his head. "I thought I left behind big city crime when I got out of Chicago. You just described it being in my backyard."

"We need to figure out what's going on here. If there are more pieces found, if word leaks back to the jail system... In that scenario, we don't catch a thief; we end up finding a body."

"Miss Delhart, there's a Stephen O'Mal ey to see you,"

the security guard said. Meghan leaned back from her intense focus tracing numbers through the inventory books. She was not in any shape for company, but it wasn't polite to say no. "Please send him back."

She heard footsteps coming and keyed the software to record

218

her place on the page, then turned on her stool. "Hi, Stephen."

"I brought along a surprise guest."

"Hi, Meg."

"Kate!" Meghan spun her stool the rest of the way around. "Stephen, find her a chair somewhere."

Kate laughed and Meghan heard rol ers on a chair move. "I brought Dave along too."**

"Hey, Meghan."

"Oh, it's great to see you both." She struggled to sort out sounds as the three of them came into the room.

"How are you feeling Kate? You're at.. .six months?"

"I'm doing lovely. I'm stil sick every morning, tired in the afternoon, and walking on swol en ankles-"

"Fussing at being pampered, craving pickles and black walnut ice cream, already rearranging the house to start nesting-" Dave added.

Meghan laughed. She loved it. "Oh, I'm so glad you came for a visit."

"I heard about your project," Kate said. "It looks like you are making good progress."

Meghan gestured to her worktable. "JoAnne and I have cataloged every piece of jewelry in the store and had them appraised. Now it's a matter of tracking down every piece here through Neil's paperwork so I know every piece here through Neil's paperwork so I know what he owns and what was on consignment. So far his paperwork is holding up."

"No surprises?"

"Only one. Would you like to see what a mil ion dol ars in jewelry looks like?" She stood and crossed over to the walk-in vault. She had changed the combination so it stopped on only major digits, and on the old huge dial it was easy to check by touch. She centered the last number and pul ed open the large door.

The jewelry pieces, numbered and sealed in plastic bags, rested on platters lined in velvet. She counted down to the fourth

219

tray and pul ed it out. "These are a few of the expensive pieces he had col ected."

"Wow," Stephen breathed to her left. His reaction made her smile. She couldn't see the pieces, but she'd noted JoAnne's reaction, the appraisers', and her touch told her a lot.

"May I?" Dave asked.

She stepped back to let him access the pieces.

Kate beside her hadn't said anything. "What do you think, Dave?"

"The pieces he bought-he was a col ector. That explains a lot."

"What do you mean?"

"They're al chokers or necklaces, al emeralds, rubies, or diamonds. He liked a particular look. I wish you could see them, Meg. They are quite spectacular."

"I've got a good imagination."

"How much progress have you made identifying these pieces?" Kate asked.

"The bags that have red tags on them have been located in the paperwork. Neil kept a registry. When he bought a piece he wrote down a line in the book. When he sold a piece he wrote it in the book and made a notation back on the purchase line to show that the piece had passed out of his inventory. It's pretty basic, but it matches up-one line in, one line out throughout the book."

"Is the registry complete?"

Meghan shook her head. "I'm not sure yet, Dave. I know Neil handled a few pieces for which I haven't been able to find a record: JoAnne's brooch for example. Neil bought a piece from JoAnne a few years back; it's what let them be able to afford a vacation cruise. Ken and JoAnne had found a brooch and a locket in an old music box stored in their attic. They kept the locket and sold Neil the brooch. We didn't find the brooch in his inventory, and I can't find lines in the registry recording its purchase or sale. It's possible he handled a few pieces like those as favors and was 220

buying them out of his own pocket."

"I hate to ask this question so bluntly, but I'l explain in a moment. Was Neil honest?" Kate asked.

Meghan frowned. She had been Kate's friend for a very long time. It sounded like the cop in Kate asking the question. She was looking for something. "I've found no indication he cheated in his cash flow or on his taxes. Nor are there*more pieces here than he has records for. The value he placed on pieces is in line with what the other appraisers judged them to be. The repair shop records are more nebulous, for he often bought gold and silver, even loose stones, to repair another piece. There are some records where a piece was taken apart and its diamonds reused. What's going on, Kate?"

"Stephen found a ring hidden under the floor of Neil's barn. It's a diamond ring, and we've confirmed it was stolen."

Stolen. Meghan leaned against the wal , absorbing that hurt. The suggestion that Neil had handled stolen gems didn't fit what she knew about him. "There's no indication within the store that any stolen goods flowed through here, either in the inventory or the records."

"Was the business in the black? Was it generating good cash flow?"

"It was generating more cash than he could spend. The checking account and savings accounts for the business are very healthy."

"How wel have you searched this store to locate any pieces that might be here?" Stephen asked.

She looked his direction. "We weren't trying to find something hidden, but we've been through every display case, drawer, box, and file cabinet while doing the inventory. JoAnne put white dots on the furniture as we went through them."

"Has security been here every day since Neil's death?"

Kate asked.

221

"Around the clock. It was part of the arrangements Neil had made in his wil and with his attorney. It's a good security firm." Meghan hated where this was leading.

"What do you want to do, Kate?"

"Find out if that ring recovered in the barn was a one-of-a- kind incident or the first of several stolen items.

We need to do another search of Neil's possessions with an eye toward finding something concealed. Have you started working through his personal belongings upstairs?"

"Just the basics of disposing of perishables, finding paperwork to close out bil s, and the like." Meghan rubbed her forehead. "I don't believe he could have been involved in something like you're suggesting, Kate. So let's prove it one way or the other. I'm responsible for everything in this building, and Stephen owns Neil's former land. You've got ful access. How do you want to start the search?"

"I'm not interested in trashing Neil's reputation. We can do the search ourselves, and there's no time like the present to get started," Kate suggested.

"You don't want to bring in the sheriff?"

"Not yet, Meghan. We're worried that this might be bigger than just Neil. Someone tried to search Stephen's barn last night and took a sledgehammer to the wal s and floors. Someone local is involved in this, and we'd rather not tip him off until we know who that is."

Meghan spun toward Stephen.

"I had a bit of a tussle and acquired a black eye that I'm very glad you are not able to see," Stephen said, answering her unspoken question.

"You should tel the sheriff."

"No. Its important that word not get out and trigger the start of a treasure hunt," Stephen replied. "We know there's one person out there to worry about-the guy who searched the barn.

222

I'd rather not add a layer of idiots trying to find jewelry we only suspect might be out there."

"What about your place, Stephen? Who's watching it while you're in town?"

"Marcus is coming to help out," Kate replied for him.

"He's what?" Stephen protested.

"Marcus and Shari wil be here Monday ShJri's going to assist with your new kitchen while Marcus helps us conduct a complete search."

"When was this decided?"

"A 2 a.m. phone cal ," Kate said.

Before Stephen could protest the fact his family was stepping in, Meghan settled her hand on his arm.

"Kate, I suggest we divide and conquer. Why don't you and I work down here, and Dave and Stephen can take the upstairs."

Jonathan tugged out another of Craig's dresser drawers and rifled through it. This place was a dump.

Craig hadn't been seen this weekend, and Jonathan had run out of patience tracking him down. The man was likely bingeing somewhere on drugs, booze, or both, assuming he had scrounged up enough cash or stolen anything of value. The barkeeper told him Craig had been rambling on about cobwebs, bugs, and barns. There was enough truth in that drunken babbling to suggest Craig had been exploring for the jewelry on his own since Neil's death.