by Kaye George
The shipping company manned their phones 24-7 and had been quick to come pick up the shipment and get it to its destination after the crash and the botched hijack attempt.
“That’s just awful,” Yolanda said. “All of that over some stones.”
“Those aren’t just stones.” Mrs. Gerg cleared her throat. “It’s the best jade in the world, most people say. Burmese Jade.”
“Blood Jade,” Tally added. She was impressed that Mrs. Gerg knew so much about the subject. “Have you seen any before?” she asked.
“I found a small carved Buddha a few years ago at a church basement sale. After I looked it up, I had to keep it for myself. It’s in my top dresser drawer. I’m glad those awful men didn’t find it.” She shook her head. “To think, I thought Walter was a nice man.”
“He was nicer than Thet and Arlen. And Win,” Tally said. “Walter was a small-time thief, not an international one.”
“At first, Walter thought Thet was a friend,” Mrs. Gerg said. “When Thet first approached him, he asked Walter a lot of questions about the problem at Yolanda’s basket shop, the broken window and the stolen fake candies, and he learned about the thieves that were pretending to be Crime Fritzers to explain why they were on the streets at night. I never imagined Walter was part of that. But Walter thought that was what Thet wanted in on. At least at first.”
“Did you know those men were not from Fredericksburg? Thet and Arlen and the other one, Mr. Win?” Tally asked.
“I didn’t ask Thet where they were from. He seemed nice at first, but he started acting mean after a few days. I just thought they wanted in on the things Walter stole from the houses. Thet was threatening Walter, but I didn’t know what that was about, exactly. Now I can see that he knew about Walter being there when the jade was taken from Yolanda’s. When he saw that Walter had been there when the window was broken, Thet and Arlen thought Walter had the missing jade. They had terrible arguments about it. Walter didn’t know anything about it, but they kept badgering him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you were in trouble?” Tally asked.
“Arlen said he would kill Walter if I said anything to anyone.” She fished a hanky from her sleeve and wiped a tear. “Then he went and killed him anyway.” She buried her face in the hankie she held in her left hand and Tally reached over to pat her on the shoulder. “No matter what Walter said, it wasn’t good enough. Even after Arlen and Thet got the jade from the motel, there was some missing and Thet thought Walter had hidden it somewhere. I don’t think Walter was such a bad man.”
Tally would let her believe that. It wouldn’t hurt anything. But to think, they had all that jade, piles of it, worth thousands and thousands. And they wanted the few little pieces Yolanda had stuck in her cupboard. Greed was a form of envy, Tally decided. As green-eyed as its fellow Deadly Sin.
“I don’t know about any of you, but I didn’t get much sleep last night,” Jackson Rogers said. “Tally, I’m grateful you found out it was Arlen Snead who killed Sutton. We would never have matched the prints from Sutton’s motel room if we hadn’t caught all of them and known to match them to Snead. I’ll drive all of you home, if you’d like, then I’m going home, too.”
“My car’s here,” Yolanda said. “I’ll go check on Raul at the shop. Thanks for everything, Detective.” She gave him a brilliant smile and left with a flounce of her bright peasant skirt, looking as fresh as if she had gotten a good night’s sleep and hadn’t been wearing the same clothes for two days.
Jackson dropped Mrs. Gerg off first. Tally and Jackson went inside with her to make sure she would be all right and had everything she needed. They did a walk-through to make sure the house was in good shape. The miscreants hadn’t trashed her place, anyway. Tally made sure the basement window was closed and latched.
“I’ll be fine. Now, don’t fuss. I’ve lived alone for a long time.” She walked them to the door, then stopped. “Wait. I have to show you something.” She went to the back of the house and returned to them carrying a small, beautiful, carved jade Buddha, about four inches high.
“It’s jadeite, all right,” Jackson said, reverentially, reaching out and touching it with one finger. It was so pale it looked like ice, with faint streaks of green. The jolly fat figure had a wide smile on his shiny green face and a huge belly above his crossed legs. “It would have to be worth several thousand dollars.” He stroked it one last time.
Mrs. Gerg smiled, keeping hold of the statue. “I’ll remember that in case I need the money.”
After they left Mrs. Gerg safe and snug in her house, Jackson took Tally to her home. On the way, she finally asked the question that had been nagging her. “Do the fire chief and Thet Thura know each other?”
“I don’t think so. Why would they?”
“You mentioned once that they both came from Dallas, so I wondered if they were connected in any of this.”
He nodded. “I did wonder about that at one point. But Thura isn’t from Dallas. He has a business there and visits it. He was just here trying to retrieve his contraband. The fact that Mann’s son was involved in a totally different criminal enterprise muddied the water, I’ll admit.”
“Okay, that makes sense. The crime watchers who were breaking into the houses had nothing to do with the smuggling.”
“No, they didn’t. But Thura and Snead thought they might. He was confused when he learned that Wright was there when the window got smashed and the jade got taken from Yolanda’s shop. Wright knew nothing about the jade, but saw a smashed window and decided to try to help himself to something. He said he was trying to catch the thief. I believe he was trying to steal from the thief and got beat up for that.”
“No wonder they were confused. Walter wasn’t a good person, but I’m sorry he paid for his sins with his life. He didn’t deserve that. No one does.” She snapped her eyes shut to block out the memories of hearing him die.
“Here we are.” Jackson pulled into her driveway.
“Do you want to come in and say hi to Nigel?” she asked. That wasn’t exactly what she had in mind, though.
Jackson’s smile told her he was on to her. He knew what she had in mind.
Early the next morning, Tally was startled awake by pounding on her door.
“What day is it?” she muttered to Jackson.
He was turned toward her. “Friday. I have to work in a couple of hours.”
“Who could that be so early?” Tally grabbed her robe and stumbled to the front of her house. She peeked through the window beside the door. Her brother, Cole, stood on the porch. She opened the door and gave him a tentative smile.
“Hey, Sis. Sorry to come here so early. I took a red-eye and landed an hour ago.” A cab was pulling away and disappeared around the corner.
“You didn’t drive? Where’s your car?”
“It kind of got wrecked in a sandstorm. I’ll have to get a new one anyway.”
It was good he was done with Tuscon. She worried about how he managed his money sometimes, but he seemed to have plenty. Huge sculptures brought in a lot of money and people seemed to like his. Okay, people seemed to love them. They were becoming more and more popular and he was more and more sought after. He’d had to turn down two jobs in the last few months.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
Tally realized she was blocking the doorway. “Sure. Come on.”
Nigel, probably drawn by Cole’s familiar voice, trotted up to him and arched his back so Cole could reach it and pet it easily. Which he did.
Cole raised his head suddenly and stared at the hallway. Tally looked and saw that Jackson was emerging from the bedroom.
“Uh, hi,” Cole said.
“Hi, Cole.” Jackson was fully dressed. Tally was thankful for that. Nigel trotted up the hallway and got into his path, so Jackson bent to rub his ears. Cool as could be, the detective straightened
up and edged past the two of them. “I’ll see you later, Tally,” he said, and went out the door. He turned on the porch. “Tally, do you want me to take you to get your car later?”
“Sure.” She couldn’t very well do it right now. She wasn’t dressed.
Jackson sauntered down the sidewalk, got into his car, and left.
Cole stood looking, first at the departing car, then at Tally.
“So,” he said.
“Yeah,” she answered.
“It’s about time.”
The siblings stood exchanging goofy smiles for a minute before Tally put together a quick breakfast for them. Then Cole said he wanted a nap on the couch, so Tally readied herself for the day and called Jackson for a ride to pick up her car.
Bob Holt called Tally before she left the house and told her that he and Nancy were booked for a month at a large club in Sydney. Tally and Cole were both relieved to hear that.
One less thing to worry about, Tally thought. She would start worrying again in a month.
Tally opened the front door when she got to the shop and turned to go to the kitchen. Behind her the door chime jangled and she turned to see Molly rushing in.
“Am I late?” she asked, breathless.
Tally glanced at the clock. The little fat baker’s hands were a teensy bit past ten o’clock. “Kind of. But you’re not usually late. It’s fine.” She smiled at Molly to reassure her.
Outside, she saw a truck driving away. On the door it said Howie’s Garage. From Molly’s flushed, glowing face, she surmised their relationship was progressing and they had just spent the night together. She was glad for Molly. And glad for herself that she had at least one employee with a healthy relationship.
“Any news on your dad’s interview?”
Molly stopped in the middle of the room and her face flushed bright red. “Yes. I’m so happy. He interviewed and they hired him! He starts in the next school term, for summer school. He doesn’t even have to wait for fall, like he thought he would.”
“Wonderful!” Tally hugged Molly and the young woman hugged her back.
“Mom’s so happy. We all are.”
Molly put her purse away and tied on her smock, her face shiny with the news of her dad’s job, and probably from spending the night with Howie, too. Tally was so happy that Molly’s life was going well. She deserved it.
Working on her own relationship glow, Tally floated through the day on the remnants of the night she had spent with Detective Jackson Rogers. Cole was right. It was about time. It felt exactly right.
In the early afternoon, Cole showed up at the shop looking rested.
“You need some sweets?” Dorella asked him, adding a flirty uplift on the last word.
He and Dorella conversed quietly in the corner for quite a while. Tally waited on other customers, sneaking glances at the two, wanting to be a fly on the shelf next to them. Cole turned on his dimples when he gave Dorella a smile just before leaving.
Tally hoped that meant the two of them were back together. This time, they should stay together.
Before closing, Lily asked to talk to Tally in her office. Tally realized that Lily had been acting distracted all day, but Tally hadn’t been paying much attention to anything but the glow she felt inside.
She made it back to the office as soon as she could, hoping Lily didn’t have any bad news.
“Ms. Holt, I have to tell you something.”
Tally saw from the shine in her eyes that the news was, indeed, good news. She took the chair behind her desk and Lily stood next to her, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
“First of all, my cousin Amy, the one I’ve been living with, took a job overseas. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Good for her,” Tally said, not quite seeing that this was good news, as it left Lily without a roommate. Tally wished she could pay her a lot more so she could better afford a place of her own.
“Yes, she’s excited about it. She’s leading English-speaking tours in Spain. She’s studied a lot of Spanish and she’ll do fine over there.”
“When does she start?”
“In a couple of weeks, July. Although they say their big season is in August. She’ll be able to settle in and learn the ropes and be ready for August.”
Tally nodded, waiting for the shoe to drop.
Lily paused, breaking into an even bigger grin. “So I need a new place to live, right?”
Tally nodded again. And waited.
“And guess what?”
Tally chuckled. “I can’t guess. You’ll have to tell me.”
“Well, Raul and I—you know we’ve been seeing each other, right? A lot.”
“I knew you were dating. Didn’t know how much.”
“Almost every day. Ms. Holt, I love him and he loves me. We’re moving in together. We found a place within walking distance from here, so we can both walk to work. We won’t even need a car. Until we can save up and get one.”
“I’m happy for you, Lily. This sounds good for both of you.” Tally crossed her fingers behind her back for them as she said this.
“If it all works out, we want to get married in a few months.”
Tally tried to cross two more fingers at that news. She envisioned having to look for a new employee in the future, but for now, Lily would need to keep working.
“You’re moving in July? Will you need some days off to move in?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe. I haven’t thought about that.”
“Let me know if you do.”
Lily swooped down and hugged Tally. “You’re the best.”
26
Yolanda and Tally were giggling like two young schoolgirls when Kevin and Jackson carried the drinks over to the table. It was a velvety, warm evening in September and they had taken the opportunity to drive out to one of the more scenic wineries in the Hill Country. They sat on the balcony overlooking the lush vineyard below. The vines were disappearing into the twilight as the lights that were strung above their heads came on, twinkling and casting reflections in the wine.
“What’s so funny?” Jackson asked, sitting next to Tally and scooping a handful of the nut mix in the center of the round table.
“Not funny, exactly,” said Tally.
“Then what?” Kevin said, following Jackson’s lead and helping himself to the mixture, too.
“Didn’t we just finish dinner?” Tally looked that the two men, their mouths full of the salty mixture.
“What’s your point?” Jackson grinned. “So, the funny thing?”
“Things, really,” Yolanda said. “My sister’s wedding and Lily and Raul’s.”
Kevin sipped his wine, then frowned. “That’s funny?”
“I said, not funny.” Tally decided she might as well have some of the nuts, too. The mixture looked like it had lots of cashews and she had a weakness for those. “It’s just that, they’ve both kept putting things off for months now. Then all of a sudden, decided to set the date.”
“Dates,” Yolanda said. “Well, you’re right. The date.”
“You don’t mean…?” Kevin said, realizing what they were saying.
“Yes!” Tally said. “They’ve picked the same date.”
“That could save you some money on gifts,” Jackson said. When both women stared at him, he added, “If you can only go to one of the weddings.”
“You have to buy gifts, even if you’re not going,” Tally explained patiently. “There are wedding rules, you know. I couldn’t not buy for either one of them. The sister of my best friend and my faithful employee—the only one who never gives me any problems. She’s also become a friend.”
“Do you have any ideas?” Yolanda asked Tally, and they started talking about wedding gifts.
The attention of the men wandered while they two women discussed what the couple
s were registered for and where, and they talked about a fishing expedition they’d been planning for October. They wanted to fish the San Saba River, a little ways north of Fredericksburg. Kevin had gone there since he was a boy and he wanted to show it to Jackson.
“I usually stay in Menard,” Kevin said. “We can do an all-day float and bring back a bunch of bass.”
“Largemouth?”
“And white, too.”
Tally listened to the men with half an ear while she and Yolanda rejected one idea after another.
“What about jade?” Yolanda asked.
“I thought you had to turn it all in.”
“I did, but we could buy something jade.”
“For both of them? Do you think they’d like that?” Tally wondered if anyone wanted to be reminded of everything they’d gone through in June.
“Yeah, maybe not.”
The evening wore on with the four friends chatting, their tummies full of a dinner they’d had in town, their minds at ease since the criminals and miscreants had all been rounded up and the trials and sentencing were over.
Tally felt bad that Ira Mann had to serve a term, but she would probably not feel bad about it at all if he had broken into her own house. Ira’s father, Armand Mann, had resigned as fire chief and moved out of town. The ranch he had bought still had a For Sale sign in front of the house. Dorella hadn’t said a thing about Ira’s arrest and sentencing. She had seen Cole a few times. Tally wasn’t sure if they would get back together or not. She hoped so.
The two Asian men had been held for a few weeks here, but it was decided, eventually, to ship them back to Myanmar, where they had not only exploited the jade mines, but had murdered at least two of the factory workers who had threatened to expose their smuggling operation. Tally wondered if conditions were worse in a prison over there. She thought they might be.
Arlen Snead, however, was awaiting his trial for the two murders. Tally hoped someone was feeding the fish at Arlen’s Aqua Shop.
She was seeing Mrs. Gerg often, while the older woman got over the traumas of being attracted to Walter, his murder, and her own ordeal. The woman’s natural good nature was reemerging and she was beginning to walk around to yard sales and church basements again, after a hiatus of three months. Tally didn’t even object when the woman brought her “finds” from her expeditions. She even bought a new shelving unit to put them on. The latest theme was animal sculptures. Tally was surprised how many Mrs. Gerg could find. The woman was resilient. Tally hoped to be a lot like her when she reached that age.