Maybe. Be there around five-ish, unless you put more work on my plate. She could almost hear the growl in his words.
She smiled and typed, No, I’m good. I just finished at your mom’s.
Right. You can fill me in on how that’s going when I get there.
Immediately she got worried. Was it costing him too much? Because she really didn’t want to lose that money. But, at one point in time, all jobs came to an end. Millicent’s place didn’t need that much work anymore. Doreen could probably keep Mack’s mom’s yard looking good by just going every other week for the same money, which would save them some money but would cost her. Frowning, she pulled out the sandwich fixings and made herself a huge ham and cheese sandwich, with her usual lettuce and tomatoes. On a whim, she sliced zucchini and put the raw zucchini slices on it too.
She stared at it and wondered, “Maybe that’s a little bit too far.”
Then she cut a piece of zucchini into little pieces and put it in front of Thaddeus. He walked over and eyed it from all angles before he reached down and pecked a little piece of it. Doreen ate her sandwich with the zucchini slices on it, then shrugged. “It’s not that bad,” she said to Mugs.
He sat there at attention, looking up at her. Seeing a little bit of ham and cheese sticking out of her sandwich, she broke off a little piece of both and gave it to him.
Immediately Goliath glided forward, took up a seat in the chair beside her, and stared at her intently. She groaned. “You guys, you have your own food.”
And she knew that they did because she had fed them herself, but she gave Goliath a little bit of cheese anyway.
As soon as her sandwich was gone, she got up and made a pot of tea and then brought out the jewels. She should have done this first. She laid them all out and took some photographs, wondering just how this would work. Millicent had a good suggestion about the six little diamonds. Give Mack two. Maybe Doreen could keep two as well, and Aretha could have the other two. She might just sell them for outright cash, given her financial situation.
Doreen didn’t know what she would do with the loose gems. Mack probably didn’t want his allotment, but she had yet to corner him on this issue. Doreen felt like her two should go to Aretha as well. After all, Doreen’s situation had greatly improved since she had first arrived in Kelowna. When Nan’s antiques sold at Christie’s, Doreen would have plenty. It was still hard to imagine that. Still, she needed to get these jewels appraised by somebody she could entrust with them. Then sell the emerald to Zachary. But didn’t he already pay for this once, some forty years ago?
Almost as if he knew what she had been thinking about, the phone rang. It was Zachary.
“I hear you had quite the fun,” he said in a jovial voice.
“Yes,” she said. “Mystery solved.”
“And I can’t believe it,” he said. “I heard bits and pieces of it.”
“Well, until the court determines the case,” Doreen said, “nobody can confirm anything.”
“And does that leave the emerald available for sale?”
“Potentially it does,” she said drily. “I still haven’t gotten anything appraised.”
“Of course not,” he said. “And you don’t want to use my appraiser, do you?” His voice held a note of humor, as if understanding full well why she wouldn’t trust them ever again.
“No,” she said. “Secrecy and privacy are everything in this business, and they have lost my vote.”
“Good enough,” he said. “It was a deviance from their usual handlings of such matters, what with the extenuating circumstances, but I understand how you feel. Could I possibly have a copy of the appraisal?”
“Why would I do that?” she asked suspiciously.
“Because I still want to buy the emerald for my wife,” he said.
“Wasn’t it already paid for way back when?”
“Yes, but my insurance covered the loss back then too,” he said. “Too bad the emerald isn’t the same value today that it was back then.”
“True enough,” she said, not understanding how any of that worked. “Amazing that you got your insurance to pay out, yet Aretha and her husband didn’t.”
“But I was big on insurance,” he said. “And I had already paid for the gem, and I had a valid receipt, so that loss was covered.”
“Fine,” she said, “but, like I said, I still have to get the jewels appraised, and then I have to figure out what a good selling price is.”
“What will you do with the money?”
“That’s still up for discussion right now,” she said. “Potentially a charity because a lot of fingers are in this pot, but nobody seems to have a legal claim to these other jewels.”
“Understood,” he said. “Any chance we could wrap this up soon though?”
“If I could find a trustworthy jeweler who can do the appraisal, maybe,” she said.
“The diamond exchange,” he said. “They’re coming through town in a couple weeks. You might get someone there to do an appraisal right on the spot.”
She asked, “What is that?”
And he explained about a trade show that came into the city once a year. As soon as she got off the phone, she looked it up. And, sure enough, they were coming to Kelowna in two weeks. She sent them a message, wondering if anybody could do an honest appraisal on some diamonds and an emerald as well as a single ruby. She hoped for an answer that day, but, chances were, it wouldn’t be that fast. It never seemed to be that fast.
Just then, a knock came at the front door. She hopped up and walked to the living room, then opened the door, Mugs barking like a crazy man. Grabbing his collar, she tried to pull him back as she opened the screen door.
A tall, lean man with short-cropped hair stood there with his
