Family Jewels: Rose Gardner Investigations #1

by Denise Grover Swank

  So James had been right. Raddy had tried to see if Buck would give him a sweeter offer, and he’d died for it. Neely Kate and I exchanged a dark look.

  “What you want, Mr. Reynolds?” I asked.

  “I want my necklace back.”

  “Sorry. Our client was Raddy Dyer, and he’s no longer around. We’re done.”

  “You’re not done. You will bring me that necklace to the Trading Post by eight p.m., or you’ll be meetin’ Raddy sooner than you’d like.”

  I hesitated. Buck hadn’t straight out told me what Raddy had revealed to him. I didn’t want to tip him off, but I also needed to know what he knew. “If you believe what Raddy told you, then I would think that would be a very bad decision.”

  “Oh, that’s the beauty of it. Malcolm’s outrage and vindictiveness will be his downfall.”

  Neely Kate’s eyes looked as large as quarters. Maybe it was petty, but a part of me wanted to say I told you so. The rest of me was confused by why Buck didn’t just kill me and set James off now. If a turf war was what he wanted, it would be a sure way to get it. Maybe I was stupid, but I decided to call him on it. “How do I know you’re not gonna kill me and be done with it?”

  “Where’s the fun in that? Besides, before my ultimatum, I thought you were my best shot at recovering that necklace. With the added threat to you and your boyfriend, I’m sure of it. And make no mistake, Rose Gardner, I want that necklace.”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  He laughed. “Yeah, and I’m the king of France. See you at eight.”

  We were in big trouble.

  “How did Buck Reynolds have your number? What aren’t you telling me?” Neely Kate asked.

  Well, crap. I still hadn’t told her about going back to One Eyed Joes. “When I was on my way home last night, I got another call from Trixie. She asked me to meet her at One Eyed Joes. She wanted to see me right away, and I didn’t think there was time for you to come.”

  The fire in her eyes told me that she wasn’t buying it.

  “When I got there, Trixie had a black eye and Buck was sittin’ at the end of the bar. I’m still not sure why she called the earlier meeting, but apparently Buck found out and forced her to call me last night so we could have a chat. It was a setup.” I paused to gauge her reaction.

  “Go on.”

  “He said to skip the middleman and bring the necklace to him. That it was his. Then he asked how I was tied to James. I told him it was a coincidence, but I wasn’t sure he bought it. After James gave Raddy that deal to protect him, Raddy must have called Buck and offered to give him information about me and James, presumably in exchange for an extension on turning in the necklace.”

  She looked ticked. “You had quite the night.”

  “Neely Kate.”

  My phone rang. Jed. I could see him in his car, the phone lifted to his ear, but of course he couldn’t come out and confront us in person. I put him on speaker.

  “What the hell are you two doing?” he practically shouted. “I thought you had to be across town in thirty minutes.”

  “We’re chatting.”

  “Uh-huh,” he mumbled. “Why did you split up and Neely Kate came out on her own?”

  “Because I had to talk to Jonah in private.”

  “About what?”

  Neely Kate leaned closer to the phone. “Apparently you don’t know the definition of private.”

  I needed to tell James about my phone call with Buck, but I wasn’t sure how much to tell him. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t approve of me turning over the necklace to Buck, but at this point, I didn’t have anything to give the man. But what if I did manage to deliver it? Could I use it as leverage to at least delay Buck and Kip’s attempted coup?

  First things first.

  “Jed, you don’t have to follow us anymore,” I said.

  “Why not?”

  “Part of the reason we’ve been sitting here is because Buck Reynolds just called me.”

  “What?”

  “He wants us to finish our job of finding the necklace, and he won’t hurt us if we’re helpin’ him.”

  He responded in a gravelly voice. “You should have led with, ‘I got a call from Buck Reynolds.’”

  I glanced over at him in his car across the lot and lifted my shoulders in an apologetic shrug. “I was working my way up to it.”

  “If you think I’m going to leave just because—”

  “Jed,” I said quietly. “Buck knows. Raddy must have contacted him after he left me and James.”

  He cut himself off and listened in silence.

  “His phone call was a threat. He admitted to being responsible for Raddy’s murder. He said if I don’t deliver the necklace, he’s coming for me, and he’s counting on James to lose it.”

  “So he can pull off his takeover. We need to get you and Neely Kate into a safe house.”

  “No,” I said with more force than intended. “Wait.” I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. “What if we can avoid a war altogether?”

  “Whether you find the necklace or not, Reynolds and Wagner are determined to have a war. There’s no way in hell Skeeter or I will let you and Neely Kate get swept up into the middle of it.”

  “What if I can negotiate a peace treaty?”

  “What in the hell makes you think you can do that?”

  “I don’t know,” I said, brushing stray hairs from my face. “Everybody wants something. Buck Reynolds wants his missing necklace. What does Kip Wagner want?”

  “He wants Skeeter’s throne.”

  “Maybe. But he didn’t make a bid in the auction last November. Raddy said they’re upset because their income is down. That James has put a stranglehold on some of their business ventures. What if we can find a way for them to regain their income?”

  “Their income is none of our damn concern, Rose.”

  “But it is,” I said, grabbing the steering wheel. “If they’re making money, they’re happy.”

  “What do you plan to do?” he asked sarcastically. “Give them small business loans?”

  “No. But there has to be a way. What is Kip Wagner’s illegal business?”

  “He sells stolen goods through his pawn shop.”

  “And how has James cut his income?”

  “That’s just it, Rose, he hasn’t. What he’s done is curtailed it. Wagner wants to branch out into the sex industry.”

  “He wants prostitutes?”

  “Skeeter hasn’t been tolerant of the idea because most pimps treat their women like shit. He’s all for a woman making the call on what she does with her body, but in a lot of cases, once they start working for someone, they’re treated like dogs. Skeeter’s trying to put a stop to that.”

  He’d told me that he had rules for women and children. Here was the evidence.

  “What if he can find a new venture?” I paused. “Or maybe we can figure out something else he wants.”

  “Rose, the man is a ruthless, greedy bastard. Men in this world don’t negotiate.”

  “Isn’t it worth a try?”

  “Skeeter will never approve.”

  “Give me until tonight. Neely Kate and I will keep searching for the necklace—because if we don’t find it, I suspect this war’s goin’ down sooner rather than later. But if we can deliver it, maybe we’ll have the opportunity to negotiate.”

  “There’s no way in hell he’ll let you go.”

  “Jed,” I said in frustration. “Aren’t you both tired of the turmoil? Sure, James can squash them, but if they survive, he’s gained more enemies. If we can find a solution that appeals to their mercenary sensibilities, he’ll gain allies instead, even if they’re shaky. Can I at least give this a shot?”

  “You’re putting your lives at risk, Rose.”

  “Then you can come as backup when I meet Buck. Bring Merv and Miguel.” I paused. “I had a vision of James earlier in the week. It was a vision of tonight. I saw you both in the pool hall under heavy gunfire, and
then the place caught on fire. You and James were trapped behind the bar with the bartender. I can’t let that happen, Jed. You can try to lock me up somewhere, but I’ll figure a way out.”

  When he didn’t protest, I knew I had him.

  “Fine,” he said after a long pause. “But I’ll have to run this by Skeeter, and there’s no way in hell you two are going off on your own.”

  “Jed—”

  “No. If you’re gonna keep looking for the necklace, I’m gonna keep followin’ you. We’ll talk to Skeeter about the other. It’s the best you’re gonna get.”

  It wasn’t close to good enough. We could get so much more done if we lost our tail, and I was confident that Buck wouldn’t hurt us. He had too much riding on the possibility that we might succeed. Besides, Jed might not approve of the place I wanted to go next.

  “Fine,” I said. Neely Kate’s mouth dropped open in protest. “But first Neely Kate and I have to go inside to talk to Jonah about hiring a few of his guys for a job next week.”

  “Fine, but don’t be gone too long.”

  He hung up, and Neely Kate gave me a dubious look. “We’re not really goin’ with Jed, are we?”

  “No, we’re going to borrow Jessica’s car. I know she parks it at the back of the building. That way, we can escape sight unseen and keep investigating. We’ll save time if Jed isn’t trailing us. Besides, it’ll give us more freedom to question people.”

  “This is crazy.”

  “You can stay behind if you want,” I told her. “You can walk away right now.”

  “As if,” she scoffed. “I’m in this just as much as you are.”

  “Then let’s do this.”

  We both got out and walked into the church. Jessica was still at her desk, and she greeted us with a huge smile.

  “I really hate to ask this,” I said, “but is there any way I can borrow your car?”

  Her mouth parted in surprise, and she looked back and forth between the two of us. “My car’s in the shop.”

  My heart sank. We hadn’t come up with a plan B.

  “But,” she said, “the church just got Jonah a car and he hasn’t sold his old one yet. You can borrow it.”

  “Where’s it parked?” Neely Kate asked.

  Jessica’s forehead wrinkled. “In the back.”

  Perfect. “Thank you,” I said.

  “Are you having trouble with your truck? Do you need me to call a garage or a tow truck?”

  “No, I think it will be fine tomorrow.”

  She handed over the keys, and Neely Kate and I quickly snuck out the back door and drove through the neighborhood behind the church. We’d been gone ten minutes before Jed called.

  “Is everything okay in there?”

  “We’re fine.”

  “Then where the hell are you?”

  “Sorry, Jed. We have to find that necklace on our own.”

  “Rose!”

  “I’ll be in touch.” I hung up and glanced at Neely Kate. “Jed’s ticked.”

  She laughed. “I’d like to see his face right now.”

  Maybe she was happy about it, but I felt bad about duping him—although I didn’t have time to feel too bad. My phone rang again, and sure enough, the initials SM glowed on the screen.

  “Lady, what the hell are you doing?” James growled when I answered.

  “I’m doing what needs to be done.”

  “Like hell.”

  “Buck wants the necklace by eight. I’m gonna try my best to deliver.”

  “Why the hell would you want to help that man?”

  “To avoid a war, James Malcolm. To save your skin.”

  “That’s not your concern, Lady.”

  “Sorry. You don’t get to decide that. I’ll let you know what I find out.” Then I hung up.

  Neely Kate turned to me. “So we’re doing this?”

  “Yeah.” I’d been full of a lot of talk on the phone, but now I found the whole thing intimidating. Still, I couldn’t stand back and do nothing. But a second piece to this plan counted on James being on board, or at least Jed. Sure, I wanted to meet with Buck, but I really needed backup. However, it would all be for nothing without the necklace. “Where do we start?” I had an idea of my own but was curious if Neely Kate had thought of something.

  “Maybe we were onto something earlier. Leah could have it,” she said.

  “If Miss Mable had it in the first place,” I said. “We have to find out if Rayna gave it to her or not.”

  She gave me a solemn look. “Then we have to go back to Mable Dyer’s.”

  This day just got better and better.

  Chapter 25

  Part of me was already regretting the way we’d ditched Jed.

  “Okay,” I said, trying to steady my nerves. “We need a plan so that, one, Miss Mable will talk to us, and two, Homer Dyer doesn’t kill us.”

  “Maybe we could lure her away,” Neely Kate said. “You know, like when the police tell crooks they won a Sony PlayStation and they get arrested when they go to pick it up.”

  “What on earth would Miss Mable leave for? And even if we found something, she’d be ticked off enough she wouldn’t tell us a thing.” I shook my head. “Seems to me that we’re lurin’ away the wrong person. We’re afraid of Homer, not Mable.”

  “I ain’t afraid of Homer.”

  I shot her a frown. “Well, I am. What would that man run after?”

  “Money,” Neely Kate said. Then she grinned and shook her head. “No. The necklace. He was lookin’ for it at our office.”

  “We don’t have it.”

  “But he doesn’t know that,” she said, getting excited. “We’ll call and tell him we have it and Raddy wanted us to give it to him. Then we’ll set up a meetin’ to hand it over and go see Mable while he’s gone.”

  “He’s gonna be so pissed when we don’t show, Neely Kate.”

  “Do you want to try to stop this war or not? We’ll deal with him later.”

  “Okay,” I conceded. “Let’s do it. Do you have his number?”

  She glanced at me, then rolled her eyes. Pulling out her phone, she searched through her contacts list and then placed the call.

  “You really have Homer Dyer on your contact list?” I asked.

  She grinned. “Shoot, no. But I looked up their landline in the white pages the other day. Homer Dyer might pretend to live off the grid, but he’s too cheap to pay for a private number.”

  She had a point.

  I worried that no one was going to answer—which might not have been a bad thing—but then Neely Kate stiffened slightly and said, “Homer, this is Neely Kate Rivers. We have your necklace.”

  Leave it to Neely Kate to deliver news like that without preamble.

  “If you want it, meet us at the burned down Atchison plant in an hour.” Then she hung up, presumably before he had a chance to respond. “I’m starving, and you promised me Chuck and Cluck. Now we’ve got time.”

  Grabbing lunch on the go wasn’t a bad idea, but the thought of eating all that grease made me queasy. Still, I had promised.

  “Okay,” I said. “But then we head straight for the Dyer property.”

  “But it only takes fifteen minutes to get there.”

  “And it takes ten minutes to get to the plant from their house. When he gets there and we don’t show, he’s gonna come home angrier than a crocodile with dentures, so we need to be gone before he gets there.”

  “Good point,” Neely Kate said with a frown. “I should’ve picked somewhere farther away. It was the first thing that popped into my head.”

  “I’m not surprised since it was where our big showdown with J.R. Simmons and Kate happened.” I turned to her. “Any more letters from Kate?”

  “No.”

  “Well, we don’t need more than twenty minutes, so don’t worry about it. It’s not like we’re gonna search their land for the thing. We only need to figure out if Mable had it.”

  We rolled through the drive-through s
o Neely Kate could get her Chuck and Cluck three-piece chicken dinner, and I ordered a questionable wrap and a water. As we drove out to the Dyer property, Neely Kate began to devour her food.

  “Are you gonna eat yours?” she asked.

  “I’ll wait until we’re hiding out and watching for Homer to leave. I want to examine what’s in this thing first.”

  She gave me a look that said suit yourself and finished off the thigh she’d been working on.

  When I pulled onto County Road 110, I drove past the road to turn onto their property and drove another mile to the old Sinclair station.

  “Are you meeting Skeeter?” she asked in an odd voice.

  “No. But we can hide out of sight here and still see the traffic.”

  After I backed Jonah’s car behind the building, I turned off the engine and rolled down the windows. “We need to cancel our afternoon appointments.”

  She was quiet for a moment. “This is hurtin’ the business.”

  “We can reschedule.” But one of the clients had been insistent that we see her this afternoon. “Okay, this should take a half hour or less. We can still meet with the second client. We’ll just reschedule the first. And she was flexible, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Okay.”

  I turned to face her. “Neely Kate, I’m not sorry we’re doin’ this. I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that excited in the beginning, but I’m all in now.”

  “Because of Skeeter Malcolm,” she said, giving me a look.

  “Is that so bad?”

  “I know you trust him, but I’m not so sure. I still say he wants that necklace for himself. We still don’t know why he was with Raddy in the barn.”

  I shook my head. “Why would Skeeter want that necklace?”

  “Because it’s worth a fortune. And more importantly, he knows how much Buck Reynolds wants it.” She watched me for a moment. “You need to set aside what you know about Skeeter Malcolm and take a moment to think about what everyone else knows. Can’t you see that it’s a possibility?”

  My traitorous mind found something, and it must have shown on my face.

  “What?” she asked. “What is it?”

  I fought the panic rising in my chest. “James wouldn’t let me force a vision of Raddy. When I asked him why afterward, he said it would have been too dangerous. That since Raddy knew me, I couldn’t risk blurtin’ out some secret he didn’t want known. But I didn’t quite believe it. I wondered what he didn’t want me to see.” I was more relieved than I cared to admit that Buck had basically admitted to killing Raddy, but what was James hiding? Could Neely Kate be right?