Florence hesitated, indecision crossing her face. She bit her lip and hovered uncertainly by my side. “I do love opals—and diamonds.”
Who didn’t? I glanced at a row of truly stunning emerald earrings. “This is none of my business, but as a lawyer, I can assure you that a gift is a gift, and it’s all yours. You’re under no obligation to put the ring into Lawrence’s estate.” I paused. “Did he have a will?” It was a question I should’ve already asked, frankly. My brain had to get off Aiden Devlin and my personal life.
Florence nodded. “Yes. The reading is tomorrow at noon.” She fluttered her hands together. “I’ve just been dreading it, so I pushed the entire situation to the back of my mind. Anna, would you come with me? I’m supposed to attend, and I really didn’t think about why, unless Lawrence left me something, which would probably anger Hoyt. I don’t want to make him mad or hurt him any more than he’s been harmed by the loss of his father.”
“Of course,” I said smoothly. There was nothing I’d like better, actually. The more I knew about Lawrence, the more I could help Bernie, who I truly didn’t think had killed anybody. “Although, you said that Lawrence spent all of his funds on your ring.”
She nodded, and almost-melted snow flew off her gray hair. “As far as I understand, he did spend all of his savings. However, he owns the bait and tackle shop, his house, some coins, guns, and other personal items. I hope he left everything to Hoyt, but I don’t know what he decided.”
If Florence was invited to the reading, she had inherited something, whether she wanted it or not. I wouldn’t mind protecting her from Hoyt in case he got out of hand, and the more I knew about this case, the better.
Her phone rang, and she pulled it from her monstrous purse to look at the face. Then she sighed.
I peered over her shoulder, having no problem being nosy. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s that Jolene O’Sullivan from the paper. She somehow got my number and won’t stop calling me about Lawrence’s murder and the fact that I formerly was married to Bernie, the prime suspect.” Florence shoved the phone back into her bag with enough force that it clanked against a glass display case. “I told her I didn’t have a comment.”
“Good.” I patted her arm. “That’s great and keep saying that. Jolene can’t be trusted, and she’ll expand any story for more reads. Trust me.” I had personal experience with that very situation.
“No problem.” Florence tucked her bag tighter against her wool coat and moved toward the estate sale counter. “Since we’re already here, it wouldn’t hurt to look at some jewelry, I guess.”
I turned to survey a series of large crosses in yellow and white gold that sparkled beautifully. Aiden’s Grams had been Catholic, and that’s how she’d raised him, but I had no idea if he practiced or even wanted a cross. He could use some cover while he worked such dangerous jobs, but it might not be my place to suggest that. Not right now, anyway.
Earl moved toward me, standing only about an inch taller than my five-foot-four. His gray pants were pressed and his loafers polished. “Those are lovely,” he said. “Are you shopping for a present for your significant other?” His keys jangled as he drew them out of his pocket. “I can pull those out if you’d like to look at any.”
Significant other? Was that what Aiden was to me? We were exclusive, although we’d never fully had that conversation. Aiden had pretty much said that he didn’t share, and I’d said the same thing, so…
I sighed.
Earl’s bushy eyebrows rose. “It’s like that, huh? What about a nice watch? We have some very manly and yet elegant timepieces over here.”
A watch? Aiden was usually running out of exploding buildings and wore a military type of watch. “I don’t think so,” I murmured. Of course, many men had fancier watches to wear when they weren’t at work or were attending events—usually weddings in my expansive family. Would Aiden still be around during the next family wedding season?
I swallowed. We should probably have that talk when he was home, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I wasn’t looking for a commitment, but it’d be nice to have a path to a commitment if that’s what we both decided.
“Well, you were drawn to the crosses. Here’s a lovely one.” Earl opened the cabinet to show a gorgeous and somehow still manly silver cross that would look amazing against Aiden’s toned chest.
I gently took the jewelry. “It’s beautiful.” Okay. Yeah. “Love it. I’ll take it.”
“Wonderful.” Earl took the necklace and set it in a blue felt box. The ring of a phone—an actual landline—twittered through the quiet store.
“Excuse me.” He hustled toward a desk area behind the counter. “Earl’s Jewelry Store—Spokane’s longest standing jeweler,” he answered. Then he paused. “Uh, yes. Please hold on for a moment.” He set the receiver next to the cradle. “Ms. Albertini? It’s for you.”
I cocked my head. “For me?” The trip to Spokane with Florence had been spur of the moment. My throat went dry, but I moved around the counter to reach for the handset. Nobody knew where I was right now, so this didn’t make sense. My hand shook, and I tightened my grip around cold polymer resin. “Hello?”
Silence met my words. A weighted, thick, heavy silence.
Irritation caught me and I straightened my shoulders. My breath quickened, but I forced myself to sound almost bored. If the caller wanted to scare me, I wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction. Even so, this was creepy as heck. “Hello? Who is this?”
The click of a phone hanging up was quick and loud enough that I knew somebody had been there. My hand shook as I replaced the phone in the cradle, turning to Earl. Had somebody followed us to Spokane? I hadn’t noticed anybody on the way in, but I hadn’t been really watching. “What did the person sound like?”
Earl pushed his glasses farther up his nose. “It was a man with no accent that I could discern.” He frowned. “Did you tell anybody you were coming here today?”
“No,” I said quietly, looking through the barred windows at the rapidly increasing snowfall. “Not a soul.”
Chapter 7
Ifinished up my day after having left Florence’s sparkling ring at Earl’s so he could catalog it before fetching the funds to repay her. I wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t spend some of the money on new jewelry after having spent time looking through the lovely sparkles. I’d purchased a silver cross for my sister Tessa and a gold bracelet with small emeralds for my sister, Donna.
