Jewels in the Juniper (Lovely Lethal Gardens Book 10)

by Dale Mayer

  With that, she simply smiled at them all and, ignoring the shocked look on Aretha’s face, said, “Have a great day, ladies!” She pushed her cart forward, and, as she walked past them, she could see some men who worked at the store looking at her with their jaws open. She gave them both a bright sunny smile and said, “Remember to never lower yourself to the level of those you can’t stand.”

  And, with a laugh, she carried on to the checkout stand.

  Chapter 6

  Saturday Morning …

  Still chuckling, and having seen the wide-eyed gazes of the cashiers and everybody around them, Doreen pushed her cart out to her car and loaded the few groceries she had bought, including her single banana. She never was one to have many bananas around because they ripened so fast. Not that she was an expert on them, and maybe there was a way to stop it, but it seemed like bananas went from green to black in split seconds, particularly during the heat. The last thing she wanted was a whole pile of black bananas that she didn’t know what to do with.

  On the other hand, the incident had been very eye-opening in terms of Aretha’s personality. But Doreen had met many women like her. Doreen’s previous life had been fraught with women who were all so much better than she was. Or at least they wanted to be. In her case, her husband had been an all-powerful figure, and many times those women, in particular, wanted nothing more than to be her.

  As she got back into the vehicle, she really wanted to chuckle because Aretha would be so surprised to know about the jewels Doreen was taking to get appraised right now. Inside the vehicle Doreen drove to the largest of the jewelry stores in town. It was located inside the mall, which was not her favorite place, but, if that was where they were, that was where Doreen was going.

  As she walked inside the mall, she headed toward the jewelry store and asked to speak to the manager. The clerk looked at her in surprise, then shrugged and went into the small back room. Very quickly, two women came out. The older of the two smiled.

  “Hello. What can I do for you?”

  “I’d like to get some jewels appraised, please.”

  “For insurance purposes?” the woman asked, pulling her glasses off the top of her head.

  “That’s part of it, yes,” Doreen said, as she glanced around. “I would really prefer not to have everybody know what I’ve got.”

  “Of course,” the woman said. She lifted a portion of the counter. “Come with me.”

  Together, they went into the back of the store, where a small table was in an office area. As soon as Doreen was seated, she pulled out the little bag and handed it over. “I’ve obviously photographed everything at home,” Doreen said, “but for insurance purposes and identification, we need more detail.”

  The woman nodded and carefully poured the jewels into a small sparkling heap on the table. She didn’t make a comment, just studied them carefully. “I’ll have to get these off to a specialist,” she murmured.

  “You don’t have anybody here?”

  “Not for some of these,” she said. “Hmm.” She frowned. “Although, we do have a couple dealers here for a convention,” she said. “I might be able to get one of them to have a look this weekend. I’ll just send off a quick text, checking on availability.”

  That complete, with her finger she gently spread out the jewels so she could itemize what there was. She separated off the ruby, several emeralds—one larger than the others—and a small pile of diamonds, including a yellow diamond. “These are quite lovely,” she said.

  “I know,” Doreen said. “Is there any way to identify them beyond taking a photograph? Are there any certificates or anything like that for jewelry?”

  The woman shrugged. “Some have identification. Some have marks, and others come with a certificate of authenticity.” She glanced over her glasses at Doreen. “Do you have any of those?”

  Doreen shook her head.

  The woman frowned. “So, I have to ask. Where did you get these?”

  Doreen felt defensive. “You don’t have to ask,” she said smoothly. “And I’m not telling you right now.”

  The woman tapped her fingers.

  “They’re not stolen, if that’s what you’re asking,” Doreen said, “and feel free to talk to Corporal Mack Moreau from the RCMP detachment.”

  The woman’s eyebrows shot up at that. “So, the police know you’ve brought them in?”

  She nodded. “Yes, it was their suggestion that I get them appraised, as well as checking to see if there is any way to identify each piece.”

  Frowning, obviously curious, and wanting more information, the woman picked up one of the larger jewels and, with her special loupe, examined it. “It is a rather spectacular piece,” she admitted. She set it back down and frowned as she stared at the collection.

  “When you say, spectacular piece,” Doreen said cautiously, “about how much money would something like that be worth?”

  “Well,” the woman said, “I can’t say for sure, but I feel confident saying this piece alone would be over twenty thousand dollars.”

  Doreen nodded quietly. She wasn’t surprised, as she’d seen some very expensive jewelry of her husband’s—although it still seemed like that jewelry should have been hers. “Okay, so I’d like a receipt for these, so I know everything is accounted for,” she said, standing up.

  “Of course, we can do that,” she said. The woman brought a pad of paper toward her to make notes and then took photos, moving the images to the digital receipt she wrote up.

  Doreen looked at her and frowned. “So you are insured for this if I leave them behind. Correct?”

  The woman nodded. “Yes, of course, although we don’t have a value established yet.”

  “So then how long for the appraisal?” Doreen asked, not liking the idea of leaving the pieces behind if they couldn’t ascertain a value for insurance purposes.

  The woman looked at her just as her phone rang. She picked it up and answered, identifying herself as Mindy Karsten. Doreen half listened to the conversation as she separated the jewels a little more so she could count them.

  Doreen took more photos of the jewels in front of her. She finally realized they were talking about somebody coming back to the store to look at these very jewels.

  When she was off the phone, the woman looked up. “You’re in luck. He’s coming over anyway and will be here in a few minutes, if you want to wait.” Reaching for her pad and pen, again she said, “It’ll take that long for me to wrap up this receipt anyway.”

  “That sounds great,” Doreen said, then sat quietly in her seat, watching the woman carefully as she took several photos of each of the pieces and carefully added them to the digital receipt.

  When a commotion at the front counter occurred, the woman looked up and smiled as a man walked around the corner and into her office. “Jeremy, how lovely to see you,” she said, reaching up and shaking his hand.

  He just smiled as she introduced Doreen, who immediately stood and shook his hand.

  “So, what’s this, my dear? You have some interesting jewelry? Is that what I’m hearing?”

  “Jewels,” Doreen corrected. “Cut but not set.”

  His brows came together. Mindy, the woman she’d been dealing with, stepped to the side. He sat down, pulled out his loupe, and looked at the jewels, picking out the biggest emerald. “Excellent quality,” he said. “Obviously we’re not talking the top tier, but these are very, very nice gems.” He looked over at her. “Where did you get them?”

  Doreen gave him a bright smile. “I don’t wish to disclose that at the moment. What I’m looking for is an appraisal on the pieces. And to ascertain if there is any identification for them.”

  “You do, of course, have proof of purchase and possibly certificates, don’t you?”

  His tone was starting to grate on her nerves. She smiled and said, “Again, that’s none of your concern. I was just speaking with Mindy about some aspects of this process. I don’t know you from Adam.”

&nb
sp; He frowned, shaking his head.

  “Don’t frown at me. You might be a pro in your field, but I don’t know you. I came here looking for an appraisal on these gems. Can you provide that or not?” she asked, getting irate.

  His fingers went down to almost cup the jewels with some reverence.

  A possessive reverence she didn’t like. “I don’t think you’re the right people to handle this appraisal,” she said. “Obviously, this is probably too sophisticated for you.”

  “What are you talking about?” he blustered. “But I do want to make sure they are your property.”

  “That is not within your mandate,” she said smoothly.

  He stared at her in outrage as she placed her hand over the jewels. She grabbed the jewelry bag and very carefully scooped them in, counting them as they went in. With all of them now secured, she looked back at Mindy. “Obviously the receipt won’t be required.” She looked over at the two of them and said, “You weren’t very much help. So if you don’t mind, I’ll be leaving.”

  “You can’t just walk out with those,” he said, standing.

  She stared at him and very quietly asked, “Why not?” She pulled out her phone and held it in front of her, as if she would make a phone call. Instead she put it on video.

  “Because they’re very valuable.”

  “Says you,” she scoffed. “You certainly couldn’t give me an appraisal on them.”

  “I need time,” he said.

  “Maybe so,” she said, “but I don’t like that you feel you have the right to question me. And I don’t like your attitude. I’ll find somebody else who can appraise these.”

  “We’re the best in town,” Mindy said. “I’m sure we can help you.”

  “All you’ve done so far,” Doreen said quietly, “is covet what I brought in. And that makes me uneasy. So excuse me, but no thank you.”

  “Would you want to sell them?” the man asked.

  Doreen looked him straight in the eye. “No, they are not for sale.” And, with that, she turned and walked out.

  Still inside the mall, but away from the jewelry store, she could feel the tremors starting to move outward. They’d started when he’d arrived and had gotten much worse when she realized how much he really wanted those gems. It didn’t matter how good they were, there was something about them that she could see he wasn’t happy about. Something was very wrong here, and she exited the mall and headed for her vehicle. Feeling somebody watching her, she kept looking around.

  As soon as she got to her car, she walked past it and pulled up to another vehicle, then crouched, as if to get inside. Then she peered around the corner of the vehicle beside her, and, sure enough, there was the man from the jewelry store.

  She waited, watching as he came toward her. Then she raced around several vehicles farther away and brought up her phone again, taking another video. He got down to the edge of the vehicle she had supposedly gotten into, and he realized nobody was there.

  Frowning, he stopped, then stood with his hands on his hips and looked around. She caught him on the video nice and clear, but, since he wasn’t doing anything wrong, he would likely just say he’d come to give her another chance in a different environment to not feel so threatened and to possibly sell him the jewels. Then he pulled out his phone and talked to somebody at the other end.

  That made her frown too. Why was he calling somebody else? It had to be about her and the jewels. She was outside of the mall now but presumed security’s jurisdiction included the parking lot as well.

  She needed Jeremy to get a long way from her vehicle, so she could leave. He slowly walked back to the mall, still talking on a cell phone. As soon as it was clear, she dashed to her vehicle, started it up, and pulled away, going in the opposite direction of where he was, even though it was closer to go home the other way.

  This time she headed straight home. There were other things on her list to do, but this one had been unnerving enough.

  In her driveway, she pulled into the open garage. Using the fancy-schmancy door closer Mack had given her, she waited until the garage door closed completely. As soon as she got out, she snatched up the jewels and her purse, then headed inside.

  Mugs dashed around her, like she’d been gone for days. Goliath sat in the corner and yawned. She crouched and gave Mugs a really good greeting. “I should have taken you with me,” she murmured. “He wouldn’t have appeared so threatening if you were there to defend me.”

  With Mugs finally calming down, she put down her purse and the jewels, then went out to her car to get the few groceries she had just bought. It didn’t take long for her to put those away, now wondering what her next step would be. Obviously, something about these jewels had caused a bit of a ruckus. She pulled out her phone, and, while she made coffee, she dialed Mack’s number. It rang and rang while she ground beans and filled the coffeemaker with water.

  When he finally answered, his voice was distracted, and noise was in the background. “Doreen, what’s up?”

  “You on a case?”

  He sighed. “I’m a cop, Doreen. I’m on all kinds of cases. Is everything okay? Why did you call?”

  “Because something weird happened at the mall today.” She proceeded to tell him about the appraisal, or nonappraisal as it were.

  “Interesting,” he muttered. “His reaction wasn’t normal though?”

  “No. There was a certain adversarial nature to his gaze, and I know this sounds ridiculous but an almost possessiveness to his fingers. I didn’t like it one bit, so I snatched up all the jewels, and I left as soon as I could. But get this. He followed me out to the parking lot, all the way down to the end, to where I’d pretended to go. Luckily I had ducked, so had come up a few rows away,” she said, “but there’s no doubt he stopped right where he thought I would be.”

  “Did he threaten you in any way?” Mack’s voice deepened sharply.

  “No,” she said, “not directly. He just didn’t like that I walked out with the jewels.”

  “Do you have his name?” She gave it to him, and he nodded. “When I get back to the office, I can take a look.”

  “Sure,” she said, “I know you’re busy.”

  “I am.” And again his voice had that distracted note.

  In the background she could hear somebody calling his name. “Oh, you have to go,” she said hurriedly. “I didn’t mean to take you away from work.” With that, she hung up.

  Pocketing her phone, she poured herself a cup of coffee and stepped out onto her little deck. Her tiny little short-term deck, soon to be replaced by one that was big and beautiful. If she sold any of the jewels, she would have enough money to redo the whole house probably.

  But they weren’t hers either. She understood how Millicent felt about them. Just because something was in your hands doesn’t mean it was yours to do something with. She was certainly glad Mack knew about them.

  Chapter 7

  Saturday Midmorning …

  Speaking of Mack, Doreen should have asked him to look into the old files on the break-in from the jewelry store from way back when. There might have been an inventory, and maybe these jewels were listed. But that didn’t make sense because, when Millicent had turned the jewels into the police, they should have run it against any jewels they had listed as stolen from the jewelry heist or other crimes anyway.

  Still, she wanted to check for herself. She didn’t want to think that maybe the cops hadn’t done their due diligence back then, but things happened. Just because Millicent said she had turned them in, was it her or her husband who went? She hated to think either of them could have said they had done something but hadn’t. People did all kinds of stuff, though she knew she was walking a thin line because these were Mack’s parents.

  She sat here with a notepad, idly doodling and looking in her garden, trying to figure out what plants to put where, hoping maybe she could collect flowers and transplants from all different places, instead of having to buy them. Not only were mature p
lants so much more stable and easier to grow if you got offshoots from them but the nursery plants were often delicate and didn’t handle transplanting that well.

  She wasn’t sure what the soil was like here in her own backyard, and, sure, a truckload or two of topsoil would be lovely, but it wouldn’t happen anytime soon. As it was, she wanted stepping stones instead of a worn-down path all the way to the end of the backyard. She needed to cut the grass again too.

  As she looked in that direction, she sighed unhappily and started a work list. Finish digging up the garden, weeding to the right side of the house, mow the lawn, trim around the new garden area, lay down tarps. At that, she brightened because she did have the tarps, so she could get those down now.

  With that, she bolted upright. She was getting hungry; after all, she only had coffee for breakfast. But the thought of making another sandwich, after just going to the grocery store, didn’t sound good to her. I’ll fix something in a bit, she thought, as she sat outside, looking over the area where she would put down the tarps. That shouldn’t be too hard to get done today. And, of course, it was so much more interesting than doing the weeding.

  She glanced back to the side of the house, and her shoulders sagged. “That’s the problem with doing stuff yourself. It doesn’t get done unless you do it.” If she had her slew of gardeners, it would have all been done in a couple days. Then she could have gone along and been superpicky about weeds still growing in the center of the plants.

  But she was much less critical nowadays. It wasn’t that she’d wanted to be critical back then, but, when you had a whole army of gardeners to keep busy, it seemed like the thing to do. Now she knew so much better.

  She wondered about Aretha and how her wealthy lifestyle was working out for her. Doreen knew firsthand just how cold and empty it could be. Aretha had to be closer to Nan’s age. But regardless of her age she still didn’t look happy. That pinched look to her lips and the sallow, hollow cheeks that went along with that highfalutin skinny lifestyle didn’t reveal any kind of rosy glow or inner joy on her face. Doreen wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out the woman was extremely unhappy and depressed most of the time. A part of Doreen said she should reach out and try to be a little nicer, but another part said to forget it because the woman deserved everything she got. But that wasn’t Doreen’s way, unfortunately.