‘Marlene is the third generation to own Lowell’s Jewelry. It used to be Capitol Jewelry but she changed the name to Lowell’s after she married Jerry and her parents passed away. It was one of the oldest and most successful stores in California. Why would she move to a small town like Santa Louisa to start over?’
Mary, Dan and Ellen sat around the glass table on the Dunhams’ covered patio, watching Millie and Morgan lie on the grass, panting and happy after a spirited game of chase. It was only early afternoon but Ellen had no more appointments and declared she was working from home for the rest of the day. Dan had come home for lunch because Mary wanted to talk to him. It was easier to eat lunch and talk at home, he’d said. The remains of The Yum Yum sandwiches lay in front of them.
‘Don’t know.’ Dan set his Coke can on the table, leaned forward so his arms rested on it and stared at Mary. ‘You’ve got something on your mind. What is it?’
Mary held her glass of iced tea, twisting it a little as she watched the ice rock back and forth. She was having a hard time putting her bits and pieces of thoughts into words. Words that made some sense. ‘Lots of things that have happened seem to tie together only I can’t understand how. The newspaper article said the Blacks were caught in the store before they were able to actually get away with anything. But Jerry Lowell claimed a lot of jewelry was missing. He said they had an accomplice. Only one never showed up. Wilson was certain Mo Black was implicated somehow and managed to get him removed from the special forces even though there was no evidence connecting him to the robbery.’
‘Wait a minute.’ Dan sat up straight and stared at Mary. He set the Coke he’d just reclaimed back on the table. ‘Mo Black was with the California Bureau Special Forces? Are you sure?’
‘Positive. David told me and it was in the newspaper articles I found online this afternoon.’
‘Are you saying he might have been his brother’s accomplice?’
Mary shook her head vigorously. ‘No. I’m not sure there was any missing jewelry. Marlene keeps saying Jerry was such an honest man, but what if he wasn’t? What if he either claimed jewelry that never existed or, more likely, stole his own jewelry and blamed it on Mo Black? He’d know how to melt down the pieces and what to do with the gemstones. He’d also know what to do with the items from this latest string of jewelry store robberies. He buys gold then takes it to a smelter, or rather Heath Grady does. Maybe he had a deal worked out with Mo and David Black. Maybe they do the robberies. They’d sure know how to turn off the alarms, then he turned the jewelry into cash. Maybe Marlene suspected something and that’s why she was so upset and called Tommy home.’ Mary stopped fiddling with her glass and looked directly at Dan. ‘Did you get a chance to look at the jewelry Jerry Lowell had ready for Heath to take to the smelter?’
Dan had a look on his face Mary had seen before. ‘How you do it is … No. They’re sending someone down from Sacramento to go through all Jerry’s receipts, all the jewelry in that bag and our records, and I’m not to touch it. Neither is Heath. Which has made Mr Grady a tad testy, to say the least.’
Mary laughed. She imagined Heath was furious with the police but mostly with Jerry. If Jerry had been cheating him, Heath would be boiling mad for a couple of reasons. He wasn’t a man who would tolerate being made a fool of.
Ellen hadn’t said a word. She stared at her aunt, her iced tea glass in her hand, her mouth slightly open, then shook her head. ‘You think Jerry Lowell was receiving stolen jewelry, mixing it with his legally purchased stock and taking it to the smelter?’
‘I think it’s possible.’
‘Then who killed Jerry?’
‘I don’t know but he was acting scared. Maybe he thought he was about to be found out. Marlene said he was increasingly nervous – distraught, actually. She really did think he might have committed suicide.’
Ellen blinked then took a quick sip. ‘OK. That might make sense. It also might account for Miller. If he’d found out something that connected Black and Lowell …’
Dan set his Coke back on the table with a bang. ‘You two are forgetting something. First, it wasn’t Ian Miller hounding Mo Black all these years. According to Emma, that was Eric Wilson.’
‘True,’ Mary acknowledged, ‘but Wilson and Miller were partners. Miller must have known all about Mo Black’s brother and about Mo losing his position with the Bureau. He’d know why. There had to be a reason other than whatever Wilson said.’
Dan started to say something but Mary put up her hand. ‘One other thing. David said he helped Tommy set up an inventory.’
‘An inventory of what?’ The puzzled look on Ellen’s face was nothing compared to the incredulity in her voice.
‘An inventory of the jewels, or gemstones he had in stock. His father had some but they didn’t include those, or I don’t think they did.’
‘How do you inventory a bunch of loose stones you can’t identify?’ Dan sounded as incredulous as Ellen. ‘That doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Actually, it does. Sort of.’ Mary couldn’t keep from smiling at the unbelieving looks they both gave her. This did make a funny kind of sense. Now if only she could explain it. ‘They might not be able to identify every individual gem but they can classify them. For instance, three diamonds, standard cut, between one and two karats. Four diamonds, between three to four karats and one some other kind of cut.’
‘Or perhaps two rose-cut diamonds, each two karats?’
Mary beamed at him. ‘Exactly. I have no idea what kind of gemstones are on Tommy’s inventory but it does show that weight and especially cut could get someone’s attention.’
‘Especially if that someone was an expert in the retrieval of stolen jewelry.’ Dan sat back, picked up what remained of his Coke and stared at his aunt. ‘Why I pay detectives …’
‘You mean if Mr Miller knew there were old rose-cut diamonds of about the size, or weight, as ones listed as stolen it would have attracted his interest in the necklace Tommy made when he saw it in the window.’ Ellen stared from Dan to her aunt and looked for a second as if things were at last starting to make sense. Then puzzlement settled back on her face and she threw herself back against the sofa cushions. ‘It still doesn’t tell us who killed Ian Miller. Tommy? I doubt it. Mo Black? Why? Jerry Lowell? Maybe. If he thought Miller could identify stolen gems. But he couldn’t. The best he could do is wonder. Besides, didn’t Jerry have a receipt of some kind for those diamonds? The sapphire, too?’
‘If they came from jewelry he bought through the We Buy Gold shop, he did.’
‘Oh? How do you know that?’ Ellen cocked her head to one side as she turned toward her husband. There was a trace of a smile on her face but doubt in her voice.
‘Because by California state law he has to give a receipt with a description of every piece he buys to the seller and keep that receipt for three years. He also has to get the seller to sign a declaration of ownership and give proof of who they are – drivers’ license or something – and he has to take a fingerprint. Then a copy of that goes to us and another copy goes to the state. He’s not a licensed diamond dealer, just a licensed second-hand shop, so he’d buy the gems and describe where he got them and from who.’
‘He would?’ She was looking at Dan as if she wasn’t quite sure what he’d just said.
Mary had an easier time following. ‘I had to give him my fingerprint when I sold him mother’s ring. He wanted it on four forms. He said he’d fill them in later but I had to sign two of them.’
‘What were the other two for?’ Ellen turned her attention to her aunt. Forms she understood.
‘I have no idea. I think he said one was for his records and he had to keep it for I don’t know how long. What the other one was for, I don’t know.’ She turned her attention to Dan. ‘One of those went to you? Or your office. Did he have to do that for all his sales?’
Dan nodded. ‘There has to be some way to prove ownership of the jewelry and other things people sell. That diamond ring could be your great aunt Judy’s but it also could be stolen from the house down the street. Most people don’t have any proof of ownership for a lot of things. Who can find a receipt of purchase for your grandmother’s sterling silver set for twelve? So the law was designed to build in some accountability, in both the seller and the shopkeeper who buys them. We check the lists of stolen items we have, then if there is nothing that looks like a match, we just file it. After thirty days the shop owner is free to do whatever he wants with it. Resell it, send it to the smelter, take it apart, whatever.’
Mary had been following this with interest. What Jerry had her do had seemed excessive for one small ring. Besides, he knew her. But she could understand the need for the rather elaborate procedure. However, there was one thing she didn’t know. ‘What happens when the shop owner takes the jewelry to the smelter? Does he have to show them paperwork on each piece of jewelry?’
Dan folded his fingers together to make a tent and looked at Mary over the top of them. ‘That’s a very good question. I have no idea. We comply with the law at our end but have never had any need to go further. The We Buy Gold shop is the only one in town that is a licensed second-hand shop dealing with items that fall under the law and we’ve never come up with a single piece they’ve sent us a description of that was suspicious. It’s almost become one of those routine tasks you have to do but don’t pay much attention to. The state tells us they’re working on an electronic filing system to handle all this but it isn’t up and running yet and none of us care much. Debbie Turner comes in a couple of afternoons a week, does all the filing and inputs what we need into the computer that’s not an arrest or crime report. The Lowell stuff is included in that and we never hear any more about it. As I said, we’ve never had a match.’
‘Agnes doesn’t do your filing?’ There was a very broad smile on Ellen’s face and a lot of fake innocence in her voice. She got a snort for an answer and laughed. ‘Why do you keep Agnes if she can’t do much of anything?’
‘I wish I knew.’ Dan’s sigh was long and heavy. ‘She’s been there a long time, for one thing. Since before I came back to town to take this job. But she’s kind. Great with the kids who get dragged in for whatever reason, good with parents whose kids are missing or worse, not one bit intimidated when we bring in a belligerent drunk, and she can take accurate messages. Besides, we all like her. God knows why, but we do.’
Ellen laughed hard enough that Morgan picked up his head. Evidently satisfied all was well, he dropped it again.
Their little exchange barely registered on Mary. Her mind was still on the stolen jewelry. ‘Dan, do you have a list of the pieces stolen from the string of robberies?’
He shook his head. ‘Just the local ones. We might get some from other parts of the state but not always. Out of state, almost never. We wouldn’t have known anything about Miller’s investigation if he hadn’t come to town, told me what he was doing and then gotten himself killed.’
Mary shuddered a little at that. ‘Do you have a list of the robberies, the dates, where they were located, that kind of thing?’
‘No. Same reason.’ His eyes narrowed as he examined her. He leaned forward. ‘What are you getting at? You’re on to something. What is it?’
Mary shook her head. ‘No. I’m not. It’s just that all kinds of things are running through my head. It’s like a puzzle where nothing fits. It should but nothing seems to.’
‘When something does, you come tell me, hear? The last thing I need is you going off half-cocked and getting yourself into trouble.’
‘Why ever would you think I’d do a thing like that?’ Mary did her best to look innocent but it didn’t seem to work.
‘Past events, that’s why.’
‘You have nothing to worry about. I’m clutching at straws, same as you.’ She paused. ‘Even if Jerry was guilty of receiving stolen jewelry, we’re still left with one big question, aren’t we?’
The smile Dan gave her was rueful. ‘Yes, we are. Who committed the robberies?’
Finally Mary asked the question that had been most on her mind. ‘You don’t think Mo Black and his nephew are responsible?’
‘Mary, right now I don’t have any evidence to suppose they are. I also don’t have anything that says they’re not. That goes for just about everyone involved in all this.’
No one said anything for a moment, then Mary set her glass on the table beside Dan’s Coke and got to her feet. ‘Millie and I had better get going. Thanks for the tea and for listening to me. I’ll see you both tomorrow?’
‘Of course.’ Ellen looked at her aunt speculatively. ‘What are you going to do now?’
‘I took a lasagna out of the freezer this morning. I told Marlene and Tommy I’d bring dinner. I’m sure they’re still in no mood to cook anything but they have to eat. I have some French rolls, too, and some things to make a salad. That should hold them for a day or so.’
‘You’re giving them my lasagna?’ Dan looked like a little boy who’d just lost his ice cream.
Mary laughed. ‘I’ll make you another one. Besides, this is a small one. Just enough for two meals for two not-very-hungry people.’ She leaned down to snap the leash on Millie, who had appeared beside Mary before she had completely gotten to her feet. She straightened and looked around for her purse.
‘Let us know how Marlene is doing, will you?’
Mary nodded at the concern in Ellen’s voice but turned toward Dan. ‘Did Tommy ever get to talk to you? He wanted to know how long the shop needs to stay closed, among other things. If you have a message for him, I’ll deliver it.’
‘We should be finished there by tomorrow. He already knows that. But you might tell him that Heath wants the We Buy Gold shop back in business asap. He wants to talk to Tommy. He asked if I knew where he was, if he’d come back to the jewelry store yet.’
Ellen gasped. ‘He wants Tommy to open that shop where his father was killed? Isn’t that a bit insensitive?’
‘He didn’t say he wanted Tommy to do it, just that he needed to talk to him.’ He turned to face Mary. ‘If he’s there, could you tell him?’
Mary didn’t say anything for a minute. The very idea that Tommy would try to take his father’s place in that shop made her skin crawl. But maybe that wasn’t what Heath wanted. Maybe they were jumping to conclusions. She nodded. ‘Of course.’