Page 23 of Gem Warfare

“It feels personal to have a body in our yard,” said Carrie.

“It pre-dates us buying the house,” her husband countered. “So it’s notpersonalpersonal. There’s no way this body is connected to either of us. I’d like our neighbors to know we had nothing to do with it. It’s bad enough what our house will be known as without our names attached to it with suspicion.”

“Let me get you the paperwork,” I said, standing so I could reach over to the console where the paperwork was stashed in trays. I grabbed a pen and slid it across the table with the form. “If you can fill this in, and pay our retainer, we can get started.”

“Is this going to be expensive?” asked Carrie. She glanced at her husband. I was sure this expense hadn’t factored into their reno costs either.

“All cases have the potential to be,” I said, since I wanted to be as honest as possible, “but we can assign limitations. The retainer will ensure I can make all the preliminary inquiries. Once I have that, we can meet again and go from there. If we’re lucky, the police will be able to make a positive identification quickly and share their information, making the process quicker to rule you out. If there aren’t any pertinent leads, I’ll inform you and you can decide whether to continue or stop.”

The Dugans exchanged another glance.

“Is there anything else you’d like to know?” I asked.

“Well…” Carrie paused, and glanced at her husband. A small flash of guilt seemed to pass across her face. Then she took a deep breath. “Lieutenant Graves said something valuable was found with the body.”

“I’m aware of that,” I said.

“He showed us the jewels,” said Pete, leaning in now, his eyes widening. “Just to confirm they weren’t ours and that we didn’t recognize them.Obviously,they’re not, and I’m sure he knew that, but…”

“Could they be?” Carrie continued, leaning forwards, then seeming to correct her eagerness. “They were found onourproperty and Petedidfind the body so does that make them ours? If no one else claims them?”

“Ahh,” I said, leaning back in my chair to consider that. “I don’t know what the laws are in regard to finding items like that so I’ll look into it. I’m sure Lieutenant Graves told you they need to be authenticated. They might not be worth anything.”

“It was just a thought,” said Pete. “We don’t think they’ll be rightly ours but I figured we should check what with the discovery being on our property and all.” His shrug was so carefully indifferent, I was sure he was more interested than he was trying to let on.

“I’ll keep you updated,” I said, standing as soon as Carrie finished writing out the paperwork, and passing it to her husband to co-sign. Then Pete handed me a check.

“Hardly ever use these things anymore,” he said, flapping the checkbook. “I’m not sure I even know how to balance it. Everything is tap here, bank transfer there.”

“I’ll see you out,” I said, “and call you as soon as I have any information.”

“Thanks, we appreciate it.”

“Are you staying at the hotel tonight too?” I asked as I walked them to the elevator.

“We thought it prudent to book another night,” said Carrie. “You can call us on our cellphones anytime. I don’t have mine on me at the hospital but you can leave a message or call Pete.”

I agreed I would and once the doors had closed behind them and the elevator was descending, I headed back up to the PI’s office.

“Where is everyone?” I asked Delgado when I found the office empty except for us. Delgado stood at the coffee machine, flicking a packet of sugar while he waited for the fresh pot to heat.

“They got called out to a case,” he said. “Something new. How was your interview?”

“Good, the Dugans want us on the case. At first, I wasn’t sure why they wanted our help when they could just wait for the police but then I figured they were nervous about getting accused of a crime.”

“Do you think they did it?”

“No, it’s unlikely, but people do like peace of mind and having their innocence proved unequivocally to themselves and everyone else.”

Delgado narrowed his eyes. “But now you think it’s something else?” he asked, shrewdly. “You don’t think they want to simply clear their names?”

“I think they definitely want that but I think it mostly has something to do with the jewels found on the corpse,” I said, filling him in on the scant details. “If they’re real, they could be worth thousands. Maybe even more. I think the Dugans think they might have accidentally dug up a terrific payday.”

“So the corpse is now the least of their worries?”

I thought about Pete’s pretense at indifference, about Carrie’s bright eyes as she casually tossed out the question. “I think its significance paled once they were shown the jewels.”

“I’m not sure whether to admire their forward thinking or begrossed out by their avariciousness.”

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