Family Jewels (Dix Dodd Mystery #2)

He left that hanging.

“What?” I asked innocently.

“Noel Almond? First it was Noel Nuts, for about ten seconds. Then it was No Nuts.”

“Th-they actually called you that?”

“Dumb, huh?”

“Oh,” I said, feeling the heat rush into my face. “Some people can just be so … immature.”

“They were just dumb. Dumb, showing off. Rude. No class. People who don’t know any better than to —”

“Okay, I get it!”

Geez, Mr. Chip on the shoulder or what? Just a name, dude! Chill! Then again, I’d sworn my mother to secrecy years ago (pinkie swear over cupcakes and Mountain Dew) as to keeping my real name a secret.

“But with Isabella I didn’t feel so alone,” Noel continued. He was staring into the candle now as if lost in his drifting thoughts. “She never teased about the way I looked. She just saw what a lonely kid I was and kind of took me under her wing. Isabella’s mother owned this place back then, and Isabella and I had free reign after school before it opened for the dinner rush. We did our homework together on a table out back. We danced on the dance floor.”

“Sounds like a good friendship.”

“It was for years and years. She was the only friend I ever had. The only one I ever needed in this lonely world of mine. Then she died. On her sixteenth birthday, Isabella was killed in a car accident.”

“I’m so sorry.”

And I was.

Buttttttttttt … I was sorry in a what-the-fuck, red flag way. My intuition was starting to niggle. I sat up straight. Something was going on here. I didn’t have a grasp on it yet, but it was near. The feeling had been fleeting, but it was real. I didn’t know what I was yet to clue in to, but holy hell, it was there. I stored that in my memory for later.

Noel did the man-tear wiping thing — the fingers to the bridge of the nose. Something-in-the-eye BS thing. He did the give-me-a-minute snort.

Oh, I’d give him a minute all right.

But if he expected a warm-fuzzy moment, well, to tell you the truth, I just don’t have it in me.

And if he was looking for consoling words … does suck it up count?

Yes, of course, I did feel bad about his lost friend. I’m not that hard-hearted. But I just wasn’t the right one if he was looking for someone to reach over and grab his hand. If he were looking for words or wisdom to make him feel better … well that waiter had seemed pretty sensitive. I was just about to excuse myself to the bathroom (I’d wait it out in there) when Noel shook his head.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’ve been talking all night about me. I want to hear more about you.”

“Shouldn’t we be discussing the case?”

He smiled. “We’ve got plenty of time. The night is young. And I promise you, we’ll discuss the case. I just want to get to know you a little bit better. I’ve talked on and on about me. Tell me something about yourself.”

Damn. He’d hit upon my favorite subject. But still….

“Come on,” he coaxed. “One thing.”

“Okay,” I said. “I hate crosswords.”

“Now there’s an intimate detail! Does Mrs. P try to get you to yell phallic euphemisms too?”

I snorted a laugh. “Yep.” So the good deputy did know what Mrs. P had been up to.

“Seriously,” Noel’s voice lowered. “Tell me something about Dix Dodd.”

“What do you want to know?”

He shrugged. “Did you always want to be a private investigator?”

“God, yes. I was the kid who looked for every lost puppy. Taped half my parents’ conversations. If a friend or a boyfriend told a lie, I could catch them in it quick as a spider traps a fly. I remember when I first heard there was such a thing as a private investigator. I knew that was for me. Growing up when and where I did, that career choice wasn’t easy. Things were changing, sure, but it was still rare to see women in some professions. Private investigators were almost exclusively men. Society just wasn’t used to seeing women in that role.”

My mind drifted a moment to Jones and Associates. I was the first women they hired. I’d been flattered to be offered an apprenticeship there. Flattered and proud as hell. I really had thought I had a future there. Had worked my ass off. But I never got the real cases. Never got the juicy things, no matter how hard I worked. At the end of the day, I was never more than the office girl. As much success as I’d had since the Case of the Flashing Fashion Queen, the way I was treated at Jones and Associates still stung.

Someday, I’d sting back.

The ice clinked in the glass as I raised it to take a drink. A long one.

“But that didn’t stop you right? The fact that the field was dominated by men? That didn’t stop you from jumping in feet first.”

“Truthfully? It did stop me for a while. It’d be nice to say I went after my dreams right away, but life doesn’t always work that way. I second-guessed myself. Questioned whether or not I had what it took. Questioned whether it was worth it. Sometimes there’s a detour or two along the way in life.”

“Did your parents support your decision?”

I was leaning back in the chair at this time. Not leaning back with feet up on the table kind of thing. But leaning back comfortably. Noel crossed his arms and leaned back himself.

“Dad had passed on by this time—”

“I’m sorry.”

I waved him off with … well, a wave. Damned if I wasn’t warding off a teary-eyed moment of my own.

“Mother was fully supportive. Hell, half of what I learned … half of what I know … I probably picked up from her.”

“Was she a fingerprint expert?” Noel joked.

“No,” I chuckled. “Actually mother had an unusual career path herself.” I told Noel about Mother’s time on the road, about her being a magician’s assistant. Told him everything I’d told Dylan, except I didn’t make him think she was a stripper.

Dylan.

Wouldn’t have even thought of saying something like that to Noel. Kidding around like that with Noel.

“Your mother must have been a hoot to grow up with?”

“All of Peach’s and my friends liked her. Our birthday parties were the best. Oh, and when we got Mother in on a game of hide and seek — hell, more like when she got us in on a game — well, she always won. Hands down. Our yard wasn’t all that big. Not all that complicated. Peaches and I could never figure it out how she’d always manage to run back to the front step and yell ‘home free’ before we found her. A master of the disappearing — that was Mom.”

I was smiling as I reflected. As zany as she could and did get sometimes, it had been fun growing up with Katt Dodd for a mother. Even with Dad so sick, she’d made life fun.

That thought served to propel me back to saving her ass, as I’d come to Florida to do. “So about this case,” I began. “I’m thinking that Harriet Appleton has a gigantic stick—”

“From the sounds of it, your mother knows a lot of tricks.” The tone of Noel’s voice had noticeably changed as he interrupted. “A lot about pulling rabbits out of hats and flowers out of pockets. What about jewels from safes? Rings from jewelry boxes? What about breaking and entering?”

What the fuck? “Wait a minute. What I said was—”

“What you said was most of what you learned you learned from her. PI skills. I’m assuming you meant surveillance of empty properties, getting into and out of places other people couldn’t necessarily get into. And of course anyone who knew what to look for on a trail wouldn’t be likely to leave one behind now, would they?”

Okay, now I was pissed.

“Listen!” I snapped. “What I said, you slow-witted prick, was that Katt Dodd had been a great mother. That’s it!”

“A great mother with the skills needed to commit numerous thefts at the Wildoh and get away with them.