Page 129 of Family Jewels

I swallowed my fear. It wouldn’t help me accomplish anything. “Thanks for your help, Hugh,” I said. “If you think of anything else, will you give us a call?”

“Sorry. My part is done.” Then he hung up.

Neely Kate and I sat in silence for several seconds. “What do we do now?” I asked, wondering if this was hopeless. Could the two of us really stop a war?

“I think we should try to talk to Leah,” Neely Kate said. “What do we have to lose?”

“Does it even matter?” I asked. “Buck thinks James has it. Even if we bring it to him, he’ll think James had it all along. That he was playing him.”

“But at leastwe’llhave it. I say we keep trying.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You’re right.”

Neely Kate’s phone rang, and she grimaced when she looked at the screen. “Hey, Joe,” she said, picking up the call. “Are you back in town?” She paused and listened for several seconds before she said, “Now’s not a good time. Can you come over later?” She glanced at me. “Okay. Give me a call before you come.” She gave me a grave look as she hung up. “Joe’s back in town, and he wants to talk.”

How had I forgotten about Joe?

“Did he say what he wanted to talk about?” I asked carefully, trying to hide my anxiety. I could only think of one reason why Joe would insist on talking to Neely Kate as soon as possible, and while I wanted to know what he’d discovered in New Orleans, I could only handle one crisis at a time.

She shook her head. “No, he was totally evasive, but he said we needed to stay home tonight and he’ll be over later to talk to me.”

I wondered if we should tell Joe what was going on. Would I prevent more bloodshed, or be the cause of it? It was more likely to stir things up even more and potentially add to the evidence that James was weak. Besides, Neely Kate couldn’t handle losing Joe, and he’d definitely be in the thick of it.

No Joe.

“Let’s find Leah.”

Neely Kate made a few phone calls to find out where Leah was living now. I almost teased her about not knowing off the top of her head, but I was too nervous.

Several cars were parked in front of Leah’s, and when we knocked on the front door, a young woman opened it. “We don’t need any Avon or Mary Kay, or whatever the hell it is you’re selling.”

Neely Kate’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What on earth makes you think we’re selling makeup?”

She pointed from Neely Kate to me. “You’re like before and after pics, right? You’re the pretty one, and she’s the one who gets the makeover.”

I gasped.

“What?” Neely Kate screeched. “No! We’re here to see Leah.”

“Leah?”

“Leah Dyer. Is she here?”

“Hold on.” Then she shut the door in our faces. Nearly a full minute passed, and I was about to knock again when Leah opened the door.

The look she gave us suggested we were as welcome as rotten eggs. “You got a hell of a lot of nerve showing up here, Neely Kate Colson. What do you want?”

“We want to ask you about the necklace.”

“What necklace?”

“The one Raddy hired us to find,” Neely Kate said.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know nothing about it.”

“Did you see it in your mother’s drawer?” Neely Kate asked.

“I never saw nothin’.”

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