The doorbell rang exactly at ten. A young man stood there, his dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, a diamond stud in one ear and thick, plastic-rimmed glasses covering what looked like gray eyes. He had on jeans and a T-shirt advertising a rock band Mary had never heard of. His appearance made the bulging traditional leather briefcase he held look slightly ridiculous. He seemed vaguely familiar but Mary couldn’t quite place him. Millie’s snarling bark didn’t help matters. She managed to pick up the dog and smiled, a little uncertainly, at the man.
‘I’m David Black. My uncle couldn’t come so he sent me. I hope that’s all right.’ His smile was a little unsure and he kept his eyes on a still-threatening Millie.
Mary heaved a sigh of relief. Of course. David. She’d never really met him before, just caught a glimpse, but he looked a lot like his uncle. She should have known. ‘Please, come in.’
She held the door open for him while she held onto a squirming Millie. ‘Come over and meet this noisy thing so she knows I approve of you being in the house.’ She closed the door with her foot and held onto Millie while she sniffed David’s fingers. When her barks had settled down to a low rumbling, Mary set her down and watched as she sniffed David’s shoes then, satisfied they weren’t under attack, walked away.
David grinned. ‘I guess she’s decided I’m not a threat.’
‘Next time she’ll greet you like a long-lost friend.’ Mary smiled. ‘Nice to finally meet you. I hope I didn’t put you out, coming today. The last few days have been hectic, to say the least.’
David nodded. ‘Our shop is still closed. Why, I don’t know, but I don’t have anything else to do so I might as well come here.’
Mary blinked. She hoped he hadn’t meant that statement quite like it sounded.
Before she could respond, he went on: ‘It hasn’t been much fun. Hard to believe anyone could have walked in and shot him like that. Or why. Jerry was … irascible but not a bad guy. I can’t imagine someone shooting him because he was grumpy. It must have been an attempted robbery.’
When she’d said ‘hectic’ she’d meant Jerry’s murder, but David’s response wasn’t quite what she’d expected. What had she expected? She didn’t know. ‘Where’s your uncle? Is he all right?’
David nodded. ‘He’s talking to the police. Again. Wilson never gives up.’ He looked around the living room. ‘I have some lesson plans for us to go over. Where are you set up?’
Mary could take a hint. The subjects of Jerry Lowell and certainly of Special Agent Wilson were now closed. ‘In here.’
He followed her and Millie into the bedroom, now office. The briefcase went on the day bed and out came a sheaf of papers. They began.
Toward the end of the hour, sweat stood out on her forehead. She’d learned a lot from Mo and thought he’d worked her hard. Compared to what David expected Mo had been incredibly kind. But when she logged out for the last time, she smiled. So did David.
‘You’re doing really well.’ He stuffed the papers back in the case. ‘Here.’ He laid a pile beside the computer tower. ‘These are the class sheets from today. These others are schedules for the classes we hold at the shop. You might be interested when we finish our last lesson next week.’ He looked at her and nodded. ‘You know, most people your age don’t do nearly as well. Most of them can hardly pull up Google yet and have no idea how to send an email. You’re doing great.’
Mary very much doubted that was true but was happy for the praise. It made her sore neck and tired brain a little more bearable. ‘Will you be coming back or will your uncle? I think we should probably schedule it today. It won’t be long before my calendar starts to fill up again.’
‘Have you learned how to post things on your calendar online?’
Mary thought so. She brought it up, they agreed on a date and she entered it.
David smiled. ‘I guess I’d better get going. If you get stuck, call.’ He snapped the case shut and started to pick it up but paused. ‘Mrs McGill, have you … ah … seen Tommy? Or Mrs Lowell? I’ve been kind of … ah … worried about them. They’re nice people.’
Suddenly the expert computer operator, the accomplished teacher, the confident man was gone. A young and uncertain person stood in front of her.
Mary smiled and nodded. ‘About as good as you can expect.’ She sounded like a hospital nurse. She could do a little better than that. ‘Marlene is really having a hard time. Tommy is trying to hold everything together for her.’
‘He’s a great guy. He asked me to help him computerize his inventory. That’s how I got to know him. I learned a lot about gems and gold and silver from him.’
Computerize the inventory? What inventory? Feeling she was missing something was beginning to become a habit. ‘What inventory? The store’s?’
‘No. Marlene has a program for that. Although I could come up with a better and easier one for her to use. Tommy wanted an easy way to catalog the gemstones he uses in his jewelry. You know, like the diamonds he’s got.’
Mary didn’t know. ‘How can you do that? They all look alike to me.’
‘You can tell a lot by the cut and the weight. If you had six diamonds all with the same cut and about the same weight, you probably couldn’t tell one from the other but at least you’d know how many of a certain category you had. He wanted to set up something like that. Say he had four diamonds on hand that were between three to four karats, two were modern-cut and less than four karats, one was also modern and a full four karats, one was rose-cut and three karats. That kind of thing,’
‘Rose-cut. That’s an old cut?’
‘Georgian.’ Saying the word seemed to fill David with pride. ‘There aren’t too many of them anymore.’
Mary’s brain was spinning. ‘Is this the same inventory Jerry worked with to make his jewelry?’
‘Oh, no.’ The statement and David’s shake of his head were emphatic. ‘After the fuss Jerry made when Tommy used “his” gems for that necklace, Tommy swore he’d never use his dad’s stuff again.’
Mary wasn’t surprised. Even though Jerry had indicated he’d been pleased his son had used those stones, she’d suspected that wasn’t true. ‘Where did Tommy get his supplies?’
‘From wholesalers, like most jewelers. The shop bought some but mostly he bought what he wanted, made his pieces and sold them to his mother. Same arrangement as Jerry had. But the gems were his. I always thought that was another reason he wanted the inventory. So his father could never say he was taking his.’
‘But the diamonds and the sapphire he put in the necklace that was in the window – those he got from Jerry?’
David nodded. ‘I guess all hell broke loose when ol’ Jerry saw what he’d done. He and Marlene had a big fight about it. Tommy told me that’s when he decided he was going to keep everything he did separate from his father and from the shop. He didn’t want to put his mother in that position ever again.’ He paused and shifted his weight; his eyes fastened on the wall behind Mary’s head. ‘He thinks a lot of his mother.’ His eyes dropped to his briefcase and his voice was hardly audible.
Mary had to strain to hear his next words.
‘Like I feel about Mo, probably.’
‘Your uncle?’
‘Yeah.’ He looked straight at her, a trace of defiance in his speech and eyes. ‘He’s a great guy. He’s treated me better than anyone else in my whole life. I graduated high school with honors because of him. My folks never cared if I even went to school. I’m taking classes at Cuesta and will start Cal Poly next quarter in computer science. I’ve got a good life ahead of me and it’s all because of him.’
Mary wasn’t sure what to say, or even if she should say anything. But he seemed to need to have her acknowledge his statement. ‘Yes. He told me about your parents …’
‘Occupation?’ His eyes blazed with what could only be resentment. ‘They thought they were so smart. Turns out they had no idea what they were doing. They ruined their own lives and did their damnedest to ruin mine. If it hadn’t been for my uncle … There’s a man who knows how to do things smart.’ He smiled. ‘And for their finale, they tried to rob Lowell’s. They deserved to get caught.’
It wasn’t the bitterness that shocked Mary, it was the mention of Lowell’s. ‘What are you talking about? Lowell’s was never robbed. We’ve never had a jewelry store robbery in this town.’
‘Oh, not here.’ The smile on David’s face reminded Mary of a wolf she’d seen in a documentary one time. ‘In their old store. The one in Sacramento. It was a much bigger store and much better alarmed. My parents never had a chance. That’s where Mo met the Lowells. He was working on robbery then and was one of the responding officers. He took himself off the case when he discovered who the thieves were. Wilson used my parents to force him out of his job.’ The bitterness melted away as fast as it had come. The smile David turned on Mary was sunny and bright. His voice light and satisfied. ‘But things have a way of turning out right sometimes. We ended up here.’ He picked up his briefcase, leaned down and gave Millie a pat on the head, nodded to Mary and was gone.
Mary sat where she was for some time. Her legs felt weak, somehow incapable of lifting her or holding her if she managed to get up. David had certainly spilled over with emotions – resentment at his parent’s treatment of him and admiration for his uncle and for Tommy. He was almost defensive about Tommy. Did he identify Jerry with his own parents, his treatment of Tommy similar to what he’d experienced? Almost certainly. She doubted Tommy needed a defender, though. Under that mild front he was tough. Tough and determined. And smart. That was what David said about his uncle, too. He was smart. Smart because he built a new life for them or smart because his parents got caught stealing and his uncle didn’t?
She gasped. What had brought that thought into her mind? A lot of things. Absently, she bent over to help Millie onto her lap. The dog sighed and stretched out over her knees. Mary started to run her fingers through Millie’s coat and scratch behind her ears. Mo Black and Jerry Lowell knew each other because Mo’s brother robbed Jerry’s store. Somehow Eric Wilson was able to push Mo Black off the police force. Why? Mo said Wilson always believed he had something to do with his brother but he’d never mentioned Lowell’s. The Blacks and the Lowells had relocated to Santa Louisa within a short time of each other. Coincidence? Mary didn’t believe in coincidences. At least not this kind. There was a connection there, but what kind? And was it connected somehow to the current robberies? And to Miller’s death? This was getting much too confusing. She needed information, lots of it. Only how …
She pushed Millie off her lap, pulled her chair back up to the desk and logged back into the computer. She typed in Lowell’s Jewelry, Sacramento, Ca, and waited to see what would happen.