Page 20 of Family Jewels

The woman nodded. “I need to head to the back. It was good seeing you again, Neely Kate.”

“You too. Take care of yourself.”

“Yeah, I’m trying,” she said absently, then walked to the end of the aisle.

When she disappeared from view, I grabbed the cart and started pushing it toward the front of the store.

“You had a vision about Rayna gettin’ revenge?” Neely Kate asked.

“Yes,” I said, trying to focus on what I’d seen. “She’s gonna cook up a plan with her blonde friend. They were in a hot tub.”

“But she didn’t say anything specific about her plan?” Neely Kate asked.

“Nothing other than that Rayna and this other woman wanted to get rid of the garbage in their lives.”

“I can’t say I blame them.”

“Yeah, neither can I,” I said. “Do you believe Rayna gave all the jewelry to his mother?”

“Yeah. But the non-ruby brooch doesn’t fit with the necklace being real.”

“We need to talk to Alberto at the pawn shop.”

She nodded. “Agreed.”

But first I needed to figure out an excuse to go see James in an hour.

Chapter 5

It occurredto me that I had the perfect excuse for heading home early. “I should get food for tonight’s dinner while we’re here,” I said. If I got groceries now, they’d need to be refrigerated sooner or later. It would give me an excuse to slip away without having to answer too many questions.

Neely Kate cast me a questioning look.

“It’s like you said. Seein’ as how we’re already here, we might as well make the most of it.”

“At least you won’t think of some excuse to work late again tonight. I know we’re busy, but you work too much.”

“I’m a business owner,” I said a little defensively as I steered the cart toward the food section of the store. “Besides, I like what I do.”

“You like paperwork?”

She had a point, but the work needed to be done, and it kept me distracted . . . something I desperately needed.

Neely Kate must have sensed my inner turmoil and let it go. “Okay. What do you want to get?”

I pulled out my phone and opened my Pinterest app. “I found a recipe for this Tuscan chicken dish I’d like to try. How about that?”

“Sure.”

We gathered the ingredients we didn’t have at the farmhouse and checked out at the register. There were two pawn shops in town, and Rainy Day Pawn was the nicer of the two. Rayna wasn’t high-class, but Ripper Pawn seemed a little too rough for her. As we walked toward the truck, I called Rainy Day Pawn and asked to speak to Alberto.

“He won’t be in until four,” the woman on the other end said. “He’s getting another tattoo.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

I was relieved—this would give me time to meet James and then come back—but I tried not to show it as I relayed the information to Neely Kate. “So we’ll need to wait until four to head over there.”

“We could go talk to Mable Dyer—Raddy’s momma.”

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