Page 62 of The Rainbow Recipe
Pris shook her head at Dante when he started to question. “Don’t ask. I’ll tell you later, but you won’t like it. Let’s stick to here and now. How do we approach Matt and Rhonda?”
“Inventory,” Jax said gloomily. “I tell them if they want the insurance money, they need to come here and verify the inventory lists against items on the shelf and sign off on it.”
“That will take all of two minutes. The place was practically empty when I saw it.” Evie shoved curls out of her eyes.
“Now who’s the naïf?” Jax tapped her on the head. “They’ll sneak in to fill the shelves with damaged goods or damp boxes or whatever it takes. Just give them enough time to hang themselves—ifthey’re the thieves you think.”
“Plotting, I love it,” Evie cried. “I’ll get Dante into the sheriff’s office tomorrow. Jax can entice Rhonda and Matthew into insurance fraud. And R&R can film it all!”
“While you’re at it, spring Jane so she can burn down the rest of the building,” Pris said dryly. “I’m putting the kids to bed before you figure out how to raise Lucia from the dead.”
“Sarcasm, lowest form of humor,” Evie shouted after her.
“Do not do anything that will return Vincent to these shores,” Dante warned. “The man apparently has no conscience.”
Thirty-one: Dante
Dante tried notto feel like a fool fingering the ornate multi-pendant gold necklace while hoping for recent impressions of KK. He could at least offer his professional opinion aloud. “It is definitely Etruscan, probably 5thcentury BC, one of the best pieces I’ve ever seen. It belongs in a museum.”
Little of KK clung to the gold. Dante had the feeling she was too weak to leave her mark on real life and certainly not on a piece this rich in history.
Sheriff Troy nodded with interest. “But as a motive for murder?”
Dante shook his head. “Selling it would require knowing people willing to acquire ancient artifacts under the table. That, I cannot tell you. I do have colleagues making inquiries.”
“What about Jane?” Evie asked. “She saw it. She was angry. She might know about gold but not museum pieces. Is that motive enough?”
Dante knew she asked the last for the sheriff’s purpose, but she was reminding him to look for impressions from a woman he scarcely knew. Dante shook his head to let her know there was nothing of Jane on it.
“We’ll ask the others who were with Katherine at the time of her death. It’s all we can do. From all reports, the boutiques were losing money. How could the owner afford priceless jewelry?” The sheriff returned the necklace to its bag and pushed the limoncello bottle across the desk. “The bottle has been fingerprinted. Everyone touched it. Can you differentiate types of limoncello?”
Dante brushed his fingers over the writing, as if inspecting that, just in case this was being filmed or watched. He shook his head again. “This is a fairly common brand, perhaps a little more alcoholic content than others. More sugar than lemon, which may be why she preferred it.”
But Vincent’s vengeful anger had touched it.There were other impressions as well. Vincent just came through loudest.
Dante rose when Evie did, shaking the sheriff’s hand and thanking him for his time.
Evie had one last parting question. “Did y’all look to see how much insurance KK’s policy paid to the company? Do they still get paid if she was murdered?”
Troy frowned at her. “Not your business, Evangeline, but Jax will tell you that a murderer can’t benefit from his crime.”
“But a company can’t commit a crime,” Evie replied, before sashaying out.
So, if any one of their suspects killed KK, the others would benefit? Because any insurance money sure the hell wasn’t paying company bills from everything they’d seen.
“Yes, of course.”Talking to Matthew Gladwell, Jax tried to sound reassuring over the phone. “Nicholas is in town. I assume he can open up the store, but he says he’s not competent to create an inventory. The insurance payment has to be based on physical evidence. Videos, receipts, actual counts, all go toward proving the value.”
His career in criminal fraud had taught him how to deal with higher end crooks than Rhonda and Matthew. They had the brains of petty smash-and-grab thieves and none of the financial skills that would have set up off-shore accounts, or even set up the company itself. KK and Lucia had probably been the brains there.
Murder didn’t take brains. It took luck. Selling artifacts? That had to be Lucia, but if she was dead...
Or maybe Lucia was the killer, hiding safely on some Caribbean island. Maybe her spirit didn’t need to be dead. He was living the Twilight Zone here.
He only knew he had to clear this up so Dante could go home with his children, R&R could claim their reward, and he could relax knowing Evie was safe and not looking for trouble. Well, that last part was iffy even if he solved all crime everywhere.
Jax got Matt’s agreement to meet him tomorrow at the boutique. He repeated the conversation with Rhonda, who refused until reminded her lack of cooperation could be construed as evidence against her should the sheriff decide he had to make arrests in KK’s death and/or the arson.
Out of an abundance of caution, he called the hospital to talk to Jane the Blogger. They informed him she’d been released. Jax grimaced and checked online, but the blog hadn’t been updated since she’d insulted Larraine.
