Page 61 of Gem Warfare

“And then I’m going to focus on the rental records and Lucas’s findings.”

“What are the odds that we have two thieves already in the mix? One who steals jewels, one with a pocketful of ‘em?”

“I don’t know, but it’s starting to sound like the family business is a dangerous one.”

Garrett and I walked outside and after he retrieved me a bottle of water and a candy bar from a vending machine, and checked several more times that I was okay to be by myself, he left for the police station with a promise to call me as soon as he had an update.

Since I had time to kill, I decided to walk back to the office so I could gather my thoughts. More than once as I tried to separate my thoughts about Gideon and his father, I found them sliding together, only to struggle to wrench them apart.

It had to be a coincidence that these cases had droppedonto my lap. Charlie Black had been dead for around twenty years. Yet now I had a solid connection between this town and Gideon Black, I had to wonder if swindling rich women and theft were the only reasons he came here under his Ben Rafferty guise? Or had he also come to search for his father? Gideon had been the one to register his father missing all those years ago so that implied they had regular contact until the older man’s disappearance and premature death. That contact had to be regular enough for Gideon to find his father’s absence concerning. Did he know his father lived under an alias? Was that how he knew how to assume identities too?

If the forger, Owen Weaver, hadn’t been imprisoned for so long, I would have asked him if he gave family referral discounts.

I had more questions than I had answers and by the time I reached the agency, I was deeply frustrated.

Lucas hadn’t sent any information to my inbox or left me any messages, which was disappointing.

I called the Dugans, leaving a message on their voicemail that there was nothing alarming to report, but that there had been developments on the case and that the evidence strongly suggested they had nothing to do with the death or burial. I asked them to return the call so we could discuss the next steps, feeling certain that they wouldn’t want to invest any more of their money. The thought was disappointing. Not the agency’s fee but if they terminated our contract, once I’d sent them my report, I would have no reason to continue digging and I really,reallywanted to.

Garrett might be a lot less sharing if he knew I didn’t have a finger in the pie, and I doubted Solomon would want me stuck in if the agency weren’t being paid. I could take the occasional pro-bono case but that involved having a client in need. The Dugans weren’t in need, they were simply inconvenienced.

Despite using every database I had at my disposal, I couldn’tfind any variation of Gideon Black’s names with the ages and variables in active use in the area, or any historic references for Charlie Black or his aliases, and there were far too many hits across the States to feasibly check every one. That made me sit back and assess the case.

I had wondered if we were looking at this all wrong.

What if I’d been right when I said to Garrett we should look into the middle ground. What if it weren’t the people that could crack the case open but the jewels?

We had initially assumed all the jewels came from the same place but the jewelers and Garrett had cast a shadow over that. What if the jewels were a hoard made up of multiple thefts and deceptions? The smaller jewels would be the most marketable as desirable stones for all manner of jewelry but it was the large ruby that was by far the most valuable.

There couldn’t be many rubies like that.

It had been hidden for near twenty years so that was where I started searching.

That the jewels were in Charlie Black’s pocket felt significant. Had they recently come into his possession? Or was he preparing to offload them at the time of his death? Otherwise, why not hide them in a safe place?

A search for jewel thefts in the state returned a handful of articles. Broadening my search to nearby states offered a few more pages but none referenced anything as valuable as the ruby. Was that because there was nothing to find? I doubted it. I just hadn’t hit on the right lead yet.

I closed my laptop and headed over to Lily’s bar, determined to clear my head with another walk. Plus, I wanted to check in on her after our unfortunate sprinkler jetwash and maybe avail myself of some nice snacks to appease my empty stomach.

When I arrived, the bar was quiet with just a handful of patrons dotted around the booths and tables furthest from thebar. Lily was serving a couple while her employee, but also our friend, Ruby Kalouza, was polishing stemware. The music was low and upbeat, soft conversation easily flowing over the top, and the scent of leather and polish hung in the air.

“I thought you’d be out chasing bad guys,” said Lily as she returned to the bar. Her hair had been washed and her curls freshly set. Yesterday, she’d been drenched, her curls plastered to her face. “Or did you catch them already?”

I slid onto a bar stool and hooked my bag under the bar. “I’m at an impasse,” I said.

“That doesn’t sound ideal,” said Ruby. Dark-haired, pretty, and with an hourglass figure, Ruby was more trendy than elegant in her crew-neck Lily’s Bar t-shirt and apron. She personified exactly the kind of customer Lily wanted to attract: cool. “Would wine help?”

I shook my head and my stomach gurgled. My mouth tasted gritty and my day’s calorie intake was at the morgue. “Maybe a soft drink and snacks,” I decided.

“Coming up,” said Lily. “If I throw in ice and a lemon slice, will that help?”

“Supremely.”

“What’s the impasse?” asked Ruby.

“My dead thief is related to my arch nemesis and I can’t figure out if he’s committed a crime or was the victim of one.” I let out a sigh.

“Your arch nemesis committed a crime?” asked Ruby, frowning.

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