Page 130 of Family Jewels

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“I’m gonna tell you the same damn thing I told my father and that guy who showed up at One Eyed Joes yesterday asking questions. I don’t know where it is.”

My mouth gaped open before I came to my senses and asked, “A man asked you questions at One Eyed Joes?”

“Yeah, right after you left, and I’m gonna tell you the same damn thing I told him—go to hell.” Then she slammed the door in our faces.

Neely Kate gave me a fierce look. “I can make her tell us more.”

I frowned. “You need to work on some of your people skills. No. She’s not going to tell us anything. What I really want to know is who approached her, and I suspect she doesn’t know. She called him ‘that guy.’ If she knew him, she’d have used his name, and we don’t know Buck’s guys well enough to recognize them by description.”

“Unless it was one of Skeeter’s guys.”

I shot her a glare, and she gave me a half shrug.

“Now what?” she asked. “We’re back to square one.”

It sure felt like it. “Let’s go to the office and see if we can come up with something.”

It seemed unlikely at best, but I didn’t have a better idea. I only hoped Jed wasn’t there, although at this point, it might not matter.

We were silent the entire way there. It was close to six when I drove around the now-quiet square to make sure Jed wasn’t watching before I parked in front of the office. Even if Jed drove by, he wouldn’t recognize the car and put it together that we were in the office.

I put the key in the door and was surprised to find it unlocked. “We locked up this morning, didn’t we?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Neely Kate said. “I did. Maybe it’s Marci again.” But she looked as queasy as I felt.

Just to be safe, I pulled my pepper spray out of my purse as we walked into the office, which was completely undisturbed.

“Maybe we just thought we locked up,” I said, not quite believing it.

“Or Jed came in lookin’ for us,” Neely Kate said. “Andheforgot to lock up.”

That seemed even less likely.

I set my purse on my desk and was so engrossed in checking the back door, I wasn’t prepared for the man standing behind the screen I’d set up for Jed earlier that day. And I definitely wasn’t prepared for the gun in his hand. But I shouldn’t have been surprised at the face.

“Rose Gardner,” Homer Dyer snarled. “You owe me a necklace.”

Chapter 28

Well, crap. We didn’t have time for this.

“Homer,” I said, closing my hand around my can of pepper spray. I tried to sound nonchalant. “Hey.”

He took a step toward me. “Don’t hey me. I want my necklace.”

Had he seen Neely Kate? Maybe she could escape. But he stepped around the screen and pointed the gun at her. He’d caught her with her hand in her purse.

“Take your hand out of the purse—slowly.”

She stared at me with fear in her eyes.

We really were in trouble.

Neely Kate did as he said, putting her hands in the air. “What do you want, Homer?”

“You damn well know what I want, and now I’m good and pissed that you stood me up. Hand over the necklace.”

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