“Don’t worry about a thing, Biz. You know I always make you pay in other ways.”
“Now that I can take to the bank.”
Jasper leads us into a linoleum-tiled room with stainless counters and far too many stainless drawers and trolleys to ever be comfortable. Just the thought of what might be lurking in those drawers has my stomach doing a sharp roll, and suddenly I’m rethinking the lox and bagels I had this morning for breakfast.
A man steps out from a pair of folding doors that leads into a far more invasive room, I’m guessing. He’s tall, baby-faced, and clean-cut with short brown hair and pale green eyes. He sheds a warm smile once he sees us, and I swear on all that is holy Macy just groaned like a dying woman.
Good Lord, here we go.
“Detective Wilder.” His smile broadens as he takes the three of us in. “I didn’t realize you were traveling with an entourage these days. New coworkers down at the sheriff’s department?”
“My fiancée and her sister.” He nods my way. “Rob, this is Bizzy, my soon-to-be bride, and her sister, Macy. Bizzy, Macy, meet the keeper of the crypt.”
Rob chuckles as he nods my way then to my sister.
Jasper’s got himself a catch. And this girl? I can spot a man-eater a mile away. Looks like every ex I’ve ever had rolled into one barrel of fun. She is hot. I’ll give her that. Those eyes, those lips, those—
I clear my throat. “Jasper says you’ve got a rundown on the deceased’s personal belongings?”
“I do.” He disappears a moment into the back room before reappearing with a silver basket. He plucks a dark cloth from it and lays it over the counter, revealing the same gold chunky piece of jewelry I saw earlier on Thomas.
“Jasper, that’s the same ring,” I say.
Macy bats her lashes seductively at the poor man before us.
She leans in, forcing her bosom to blossom right out of her top. “How about you give me a tour of the place, big boy?”
Jasper’s eyes widen my way. Did she just say big boy?
My lips twitch in lieu of a nod.
Rob perks up as if he were just asked out on a date by the popular, albeit snobby and mean, girl in school. And in the event he’s not aware, that would be true.
“It would be my pleasure.” A shifty smile curls on his lips. “Step this way. I’ll introduce you to the residents.”
Gross.
I watch as Macy is led behind closed doors before looking to Jasper.
“Nobody will ever accuse my sister of being subtle.”
“What do you think?” Jasper’s chest bounces with a silent laugh. “Love at first sight?”
“I doubt it. And there’s an over-my-dead-body joke in here somewhere, but I’m too preoccupied by this ring to fish it out.” I fish my phone out of my purse instead and take a few pictures of the gold bauble. “Jasper, what’s that silver thing lying over the black stone?”
“A sword.” He takes a picture with his own phone. “I’d better do a rough and dirty internet search.”
“Ooh.” I tug on my lower lip with my teeth. “You just sent me somewhere heated with those words.”
His lips curl my way. “Remind me to repeat them after dinner.”
“Does this mean you’re stopping by with takeout?”
“Wyatt Sanders might be dead, but I’m very much alive and plan on stealing every moment I can with the woman I love.” He takes a quick nip from my ear.
“You keep up the sweet talk, Detective. It will get you everywhere.”
Something pops up on his screen and we both lean in to inspect it.
“It looks as if the ring was made by Johnson Jewelers,” he says. “They’re renowned for collegiate rings like this. I’ll call and see if I can get anywhere with the people at Johnson’s.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I shake my head while looking down at the ring. “They must have gone to the same school. Maybe even the same fraternity?”
“I bet you’re right.” Jasper pulls me in and wraps his arms around my waist, those day-glow eyes of his settling over mine. “Let me do this, Bizzy. Let me figure this out. I’ll talk to Thomas Dean and see what he can tell me about the ring.”
“But I can be there with you while you quiz him, and I can read his mind and let you—”
He dots my lips with a peck of a kiss before I can finish the sentence.
“I know,” he whispers. “But I don’t want you to. I don’t want you anywhere near the realm of danger, Bizzy. I can talk to Thomas alone.”
My lips twitch as I look up at him.
“No problem.” I give a little shrug as if I were indifferent. “I hope he tells you exactly what you want to know.”
“I hope so, too. If anything, we know he was close to Wyatt.”
“Yes. Just how close?” I glance down at the ring with its prominent black stone and that silver slash across the middle.
While Jasper talks to Thomas Dean, I’ll talk to someone who was close to Wyatt myself—his girlfriend.
Molly Shay, here I come.
Chapter 7
Molly Shay was easier to track down than I would have thought. It turns out, Molly works in the next seedy town over, Edison, in a bookstore called the Mystic Eye.
The walls and ceiling are painted black with rhinestones adhered every which way to give you that galaxy appeal—a decorating doppelgänger to the interior of Killer Books, and it makes sense, considering Wyatt told me himself he and his girlfriend were responsible for the décor. But, unlike Wyatt’s mystery haven, this place is chock-full of books of a nefarious nature.
There are sections on the new mind, pathways to the light, New Age ideas and big thinkers, how to tap into the future, and what your spiritual color wheel says about you. There’s also a simple section on love, and it seems odd, almost out of place, in this mystical world of New Age self-help mumbo jumbo.
One thing’s
