Quarry in the Quince Read online

  Wendy stopped and frowned. “It’s dangerous,” she replied. “And I don’t even know how dangerous.”

  “Another reason to let me get involved,” Doreen added. “Maybe we can defuse this before it gets any uglier.”

  “I don’t think so,” she argued. “They’re looking for something. Something they say was dropped off by accident, and they think I have it.”

  At that, Doreen stared at her in surprise. “How do you drop something off by accident?”

  “Yeah, that’s the problem. Somebody assumed that I was operating more like a pawnshop, came in here, and asked if I could buy something off her for cash right now. I didn’t like anything about the scenario, and I told her no. She left, but apparently the item didn’t go with her,” she explained. “I don’t know what happened to it.”

  “And you’ve told these people?”

  “I have, but they don’t believe me, and it was a piece supposedly worth a lot of money.”

  “So why you, and why not like a jewelry store?”

  “I don’t know. I think because she thought I could give her cash.”

  “So she was in trouble?”

  At that, Wendy slowly nodded.

  “Great,” Doreen murmured. “Do you have any idea who it was? Was it somebody you know?”

  “The woman?” Wendy asked and then shook her head. “No, I’ve never seen her before. I figured that maybe she was just in town visiting and took an opportunity to make some quick money.”

  “And do you think the item was stolen?”

  She winced. “I don’t know that. I guess I worry that that is a possibility. She didn’t say it was stolen. Those guys bothering me didn’t say it was stolen. I don’t … I just don’t know.” She shook her head. “But now these guys seem to think that I have it, and they keep threatening me.”

  “And you haven’t contacted the police, have you?”

  Wendy shook her head again. “No,” she replied in a small voice.

  “And you know that’ll just make the local authorities angry too.”

  “I know. I know it’ll make the police angry. It’ll make these guys angry,” she added. “I just don’t know what to do anymore. I was hoping these guys would go away and leave me alone.”

  “Why would they?” she asked. “If for no other reason, they probably think that you’re a big score for them somehow now.”

  “Why? I run a secondhand store.” Wendy threw her arms wide to encompass the merchandise on the hangers behind her. “I’m hardly making more than a living here.”

  “That’s a good point too,” Doreen noted thoughtfully.

  Once again the doorknob on the rear exit rattled, with whomever trying to get in.

  Making a determined move toward it, Doreen said, “Let me talk to them. I at least want to see their faces.”

  “What good will that do?” Wendy cried out, trailing slowly behind Doreen.

  “Do you have them on camera?”

  “They broke it,” she replied. “Almost the first day that they were here, they snapped it. And no, I haven’t done anything about it.”

  “Of course. And you don’t have the money to fix it, do you?”

  At that, Wendy shook her head.

  Doreen nodded thoughtfully. “Don’t let these guys see you.” She walked with Mugs to the back, opening the door just when it started rattling again, surprising the men. She braced herself to have somebody jump forward and push their way inside, only to have the two men stop and stare at her. “May I help you?” she asked. “Wendy’s not in today. I’m here to look after the store.”

  Immediately one man frowned.

  She frowned right back, giving him a hard look. “And why aren’t you using the front door?” she asked. “Everybody knows that the back isn’t for customers.”

  “I’m not a customer,” he snarled.

  She studied him, one eyebrow raised. She looked him up and down and frowned. “So I’m not sure what you’re here for then. Are you looking to buy your wife a present?”

  He flushed. “Get out of my way,” he demanded. As he went to shove her away, Mugs growled deep and long.

  He backed up, looked down at the dog, and asked, “Why is a dog here?”

  “Well, since her security system isn’t working anymore—and I’m not exactly sure what happened there—I decided to bring my dog into work to help keep out the riffraff.”

  He stiffened at that. “Did you just call me riffraff?”

  “I’m not sure what to call you,” she noted curiously. “What is your name?”

  He stared at her, backed up, and replied, “It doesn’t matter what my name is. Tell Wendy that she can’t hide. I’ll be back.” And, with that, he grabbed his buddy—who had remained silent this whole time—and pulled him along, and they stormed away.

  She followed, so she could see their vehicle and luckily was fast enough to grab a photo. She didn’t know that it would have caught the license plate, but it was good enough for her to at least see part of it.

  With them gone, she returned to the store and faced Wendy. “Now, you should be okay for today. But they will be back.”

  Wendy paled and nodded. “What will you do with that picture?”

  “I’ll go talk to Mack,” she said gently. “So you can expect to hear from him later today.”

  Wendy started to wring her hands.

  “Have you done anything wrong?” Doreen asked immediately.

  Wendy shook her head. “No, no, of course not.”

  “Then don’t worry about it,” she stated. “We can’t have these guys coming back here to give you a shakedown over and over.” As she walked to the front door with her animals, ready to leave, she turned back, looked at Wendy, and asked, “By the way, what was the item that the woman was trying to sell?”

  An odd look crossed Wendy’s face. “It was a ring, with a big yellow stone. I thought it was fake at first, and, while I … I kind of admired it, it was truly awful, big, and gaudy. Then she said she wanted ten grand for it.” Wendy laughed. “And whether it was fake or not, that woman clearly thought it real, and she had to be nuts to think I had that kind of money lying around.”

  “A real or fake what though?”

  “A yellow diamond,” she replied. “Supposedly one of the biggest yellow diamonds in the world. She said something about having heard that I’d found and sold a similar one about ten years ago.”

  “And did you?”

  “No way. I don’t handle jewelry, other than some occasional costume pieces that may come in. Besides, I don’t have anything like that kind of money to be even paying for an appraisal, much less buying expensive diamonds like that. And it certainly wasn’t my personal style.”

  The thing about rings was, they were very personal. Doreen had seen many rings that she would have called fake and gaudy looking on the hands of women who were millionaires. “And what happened to the ring this woman brought with her?”

  “She disappeared with it,” Wendy told Doreen, raising both hands. “And I don’t even know who she was.”

  “Do you remember what she looks like?”

  She shook her head. “No. Sunglasses, big hat, a big coat, collar turned up, said she had laryngitis, so she spoke in a whisper,” she explained. “I didn’t even consider all that as suspicious, until I saw the ring. I was thinking, you know, costume jewelry. And this woman was thinking I was a millionaire.” Wendy gave a bitter laugh. “I should have just told her not to bother even walking through my store. But I didn’t. Now look what happened.”

  Chapter 3

  Doreen walked slowly home, realizing another disadvantage of having her pets with her was she couldn’t get into the bank with them all either. But she had managed to get to the machine and put the check in. Something she wasn’t terribly comfortable with still, but, because Doreen knew that Wendy was likely good for it—although who knew for sure, given what she’d just gone through—Doreen would be on tenterhooks for the next two days, waiting for t
he check to clear.

  Once back home again she put on another piece of toast, checked out the fridge, and winced. The last little bit of cheese could go on her toast, and the last tomato would probably be sliced up for lunch, and maybe peanut butter would be her dinner, if … And she walked over to her pantry, opened up the door, and spied the last of her peanut butter. “Wow, we got paid just in time.”

  She checked on the animals’ food supply, and they all had plenty. But she was concerned that there wasn’t a whole lot left for her. If Mack saw how empty her fridge was, he’d get quite angry with her again. And she hadn’t been paid for the gardening yet that she’d done on Sunday, but she knew that, as soon as she saw him again, he would pay her. And there’d be enough for some basics for her, but it sure wouldn’t be more than that.

  She left Mack a message to call her, so she could update him on Wendy’s problem and also to share her photo of the goons’ big white van. Yet she missed his return call, and he left her a message, not saying a whole lot. She figured he had his head in a case—and so did she. Doreen headed out with the animals for another walk. Several things bothered her about those thugs at Wendy’s store. Where had the vehicle gone? Why had they focused on Wendy? And what could possibly have happened to that ring?

  If any security cameras were on the nearby streets, then maybe Mack could follow the goons’ exit pathway, possibly trailing the guys home even. But, according to Wendy, the guys bothering her stated the woman didn’t have the yellow diamond when they found her. So what were the chances that this woman had stashed it somewhere between Wendy’s store and wherever she was going? Or, considering the number of items in Wendy’s store, what were the chances that maybe the unknown woman had stashed the ring in some clothing on display? Many of those garments in Wendy’s store had pockets. Plus, Wendy carried a good selection of purses too.

  On impulse, Doreen picked up her phone and called Wendy.

  When Wendy heard her voice, she asked, “Did you talk to Mack?”

  “I’ve left messages,” she replied. “Is there any chance that woman hid that item in your inventory as she left?”

  “I don’t think so,” she noted. “Yet I remember how she went out the back door.”

  “Why would she have done that?”

  “Because people were coming in the front. I thought she went out the front door initially, but I realized then, after you left, that I’m pretty sure she went out the rear door. I don’t know where she went after that.”

  “And you had cameras back then?”

  “Yes, but I hadn’t downloaded anything from them, and, when the guys showed up, they destroyed the cameras anyway. I … I can’t get anything off them.”

  “Right.” Doreen nodded. “Maybe I’ll take a walk around the back of your store soon and just see if she could have stashed it somewhere outside.”

  “Do you think she did?” Wendy asked hopefully.

  “I’m not sure,” Doreen admitted. “We should be prepared for the fact that the ring was possibly stolen and that she may have stolen it from the thieves or that she’s the thief and that those goons were the ones who owned it—or, more likely, they were all involved in stealing it together, and she’s now stolen it from them. Or alternatively,” she added, “and I do have personal experience with this, she’s a woman trying to leave her husband, and that’s the only thing she could take to start a new life.”

  At that, Wendy snorted. “You know what? You should start writing fiction because most of what you just suggested is what nobody would have thought of.”

  “Ha,” Doreen muttered. “Anyway, don’t be surprised if you see me down and around the back today. I’ll … I’m coming your direction anyway. I had planned to check the front of the store, but if you say she went out the back …”

  “I think she did,” Wendy repeated. “She darted out, saw customers coming, darted back in, and asked if she could go out the back, so went out that way.”

  “Right. How are you feeling right now?”

  “Nervous,” Wendy admitted. “I don’t know quite what’s going on.”

  “Got it,” Doreen agreed. “Let me take a look, and we’ll see what we can come up with.”

  And, with that, she gathered her animals again, and all of them headed to Wendy’s alleyway. Mugs acted like it had been forever since she had taken him for a walk. “Hey, we were just outside, walking the whole way to Wendy’s, not ninety minutes ago. Sheesh.” Even Goliath gave her a glare. “Stop your complaining. We are all outside. Again. You act like I’m mistreating you.”

  Thaddeus chimed in. “Thaddeus loves Doreen. Thaddeus loves Doreen.”

  “Ah, thank you, Thaddeus. It’s nice to know you appreciate and love me. I love you too.” With a flick of Goliath’s tail and a tug from Mugs for Doreen to hurry up, she sighed. “And I love Mugs and Goliath too, even though they are acting snippy today for some reason.”

  Once they all arrived at Wendy’s shop, Doreen wandered up and down the alleyway, as her mind tried to figure out exactly what somebody would do back here—who didn’t want to be caught—yet was hanging on to a large diamond. If there was a chance that woman would get caught by those goons, then surely she would want to hide the ring close by, so she could return and retrieve it again.

  But what if you were trying to get away from these people and didn’t think that those goons would let you live? At that thought, she winced because, of course, now she sounded like she was writing a thriller. But, at the same time, she definitely noted some validity to her hypothesis.

  She wandered from the top of the alley all the way down the back, passing by some dumpsters, considering how those wouldn’t make it easy for retrieval either. Chances are the woman—if she had put something like that ring in a dumpster—would have expected to come right back or was trying to get rid of the ring permanently, so that nobody would have it.

  Pondering that, Doreen headed to the little parking space behind Wendy’s and searched. On the other side of the alley was a large fence and a bunch of fruit trees and maple trees and evergreens. It’s possible that the woman had tossed the diamond over the fence, but again she’d have to remember where it was in order to pick it up again.

  Something that valuable wasn’t something you wanted to take a chance of losing. However, if she feared that the goons were closing in on her, and she would soon be caught, and thinking for sure that they would never let her keep it, and maybe how she didn’t want it to fall into the wrong hands, well, she might have just tossed it over a fence, thinking it was better to come back and even not find it than to get caught with it. Particularly if nobody knew or could prove that she had had it to begin with.

  With all these different things running around in her head, Doreen walked up and down the alleyway several times, and finally, when she turned and walked back, she found Wendy, standing at her open back door.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Doreen shrugged. “I’m not sure that I see anything suspicious at all. Yet I do see so many options but nothing concrete.”

  “That’s what I thought too,” Wendy agreed.

  Just then a murder of crows came and landed on the dumpster beside her. “How long have the crows been around here?” Doreen asked.

  When a crow cawed at her, Thaddeus poked his head out from under Doreen’s long hair and cawed back. That set up a cacophony of conversation that was so loud, it was almost impossible to hear herself think, since Thaddeus sat on her neck by her right ear. Finally she calmed him down, and the crows took off.

  She looked at Thaddeus. “Well, the least you could have done was ask them if they had seen something shiny and yellow,” she muttered.

  “Thaddeus loves Doreen,” Thaddeus replied.

  “Yeah, I get that.” She chuckled. “Still doesn’t mean that you can’t be a help too.”

  Wendy stared in fascination. “He really does talk, doesn’t he?”

  “He really does,” she replied. “Sometimes too much. And he doe
s definitely like to see other birds around.” Doreen sighed. “I never realized that he may be missing his feathered friends.”

  “But crows don’t talk.”

  “Well, I’m not so sure about that,” Doreen stated. “I have heard that, besides being incredibly intelligent, some crows have learned to mimic sounds.”

  “And yet Thaddeus seems to do more than mimicking sounds.”

  She nodded. “I would say he’s definitely communicating. Whether he theoretically understands what he’s saying, that, of course, is up for debate.” She gently rubbed her head back and forth along Thaddeus’s feathers, cuddling the bird that she was so attached to.

  “It is pretty fascinating how quickly the two of you have developed a bond.”

  “And I think maybe that’s because Nan had already approved me as the replacement Thaddeus slave,” she explained, with a chuckle.

  Wendy laughed. “No, I think you share a real bond there. Maybe being the slave to a bird is how it might have started, but he cares about you.”

  “I know he does,” she murmured, gently stroking his beak. “He’s very special.” Then she looked back to where the crows had been at the dumpster. She asked, “When’s the garbage picked up?”

  “Every Monday,” Wendy stated. “Why?”

  “And how long ago was this woman here?”

  “Ah, you mean, has the dumpster been emptied since that woman was here? Yes. She was here a couple weeks ago.”

  “And how often do the goons come by and visit?”

  “Too often,” she stated. “I don’t know what they think they can do.”

  “Well, that’d be one of the questions that we get to ask them,” she noted. “The fact of the matter is, you don’t have the ring, and they need to let that go.”

  “I think it’s too much money for them to let go of the idea of finding that ring,” she admitted quietly.

  “Yeah, I bet you’re right, and the question is whether or not the money or the ring is actually theirs.”

  Chapter 4