“Yes. They were given to me,” Autumn answered truthfully.
Carlita watched him make his way over and glanced at his nametag, Al. She held out her hand and he tightened his grip on the bills.
“Whose gems are these? Yours or hers?”
“Mine.” Autumn said. “I owe Aunt Carol some money and she’s already trying to collect.”
He gave Carlita a quick glance and began counting out the cash in Autumn’s hand. She folded the wad in half and stuffed it in her front pocket. “Since we’re here, we might as well take a look around.”
The women split up and perused the aisles, searching for anything that resembled an antique weapon, including a sword. Carlita circled the perimeter of the store and joined Mercedes, who was studying the gun case. She shook her head. “I don’t see anything in here that Uncle Dom would like.”
Carlita peered over her shoulder. “Maybe we should take a picture and show him what they’ve got.” She pulled her cell phone from her purse and snapped a photo of the weapons inside.
Autumn, who was on the other side of the store, began waving frantically. “Hey you guys. Over here!”
Carlita and Mercedes hurried to the other side of the store.
“Check this out.” She tapped the tip of a long sword hanging on the wall behind a DVD rack. “I’ve never seen a real sword before.” Autumn turned to Al. “How much is the sword?”
“It’s not for sale.” Al pointed to the placard next to it. “For display only. The owner is a collector. Any new swords we get in, if they’re worth anything, he keeps them for himself. He’s got a small arsenal displayed in his office.”
“Oh, I would love to see them,” Mercedes snatched her cell phone from her pocket and snapped a picture. “Our Uncle Dom collects vintage weapons. He’s part of the Revolutionary War re-enactment group in the Atlanta area. Is there any way we can have a look?”
The man shook his head. “Nope. Mr. Goldstein doesn’t allow anyone inside his office. Besides, I’m the only one here at the moment and I can’t leave the front of the store unattended, even if I could let you look inside, which I can’t.”
Mercedes scratched her head. “Too bad. I bet he has some cool stuff in there.”
“Well, we’ll just have to keep searching.” Carlita made a beeline for the metal peacock. “I do want to purchase this beautiful piece of art.” She carefully picked up the piece and carried it to the cash register.
Autumn followed behind. “Let me buy this for you Aunt Carol, since I owe you some money anyways.” She pulled out the wad of cash she’d gotten for the sale of the gems. “How much is the peacock?”
“Seventy-five bucks.”
“Seventy-five bucks?” Autumn gasped. “That’s highway robbery.”
“It’s a one of a kind piece,” the man said. “Take it or leave it.”
“We’ll take it.” Carlita frowned at Autumn as she grabbed the stack of cash, counted out the bills and handed them to the man.
“Just trying to make sure we’re not getting ripped off,” Autumn mumbled.
Carlita slapped the remaining bills in Autumn’s hand. “I appreciate that. You can pay me the rest of the money you owe me when we get to the car.” She lifted her new purchase off the counter, carried it to the door and held the door open while she waited for Autumn and Mercedes.
“I’m going to put him on the back seat, but first we have to pluck his bottle feathers and set them on the floor.” Carlita waited for Mercedes to unlock the car doors before gently removing the bottles and setting them on the floor.
Autumn eased into the backseat. “Sorry Mrs. G. I got carried away with the peacock. I didn’t mean to butt in on your transaction.”
“It’s okay.” Carlita climbed behind the wheel and reached for her seatbelt. “I’m only sorry the pawnshop has your address. I guess I forgot they were going to ask for identification.”
“I knew it, but with the excitement of the mission, I forgot,” Mercedes said.
“Dummy me,” Carlita said. “Well, I guess the mission was partly a bust. We might as well head home.”
“I don’t think we should throw in the towel yet,” Autumn said. “I have an idea on how I can get inside Beachy Bargains Pawn Shop’s office.”
Chapter 4
“I have a feeling we won’t be walking through the front door,” Mercedes said.
“Correct. I’ll need a diversion, some sort of crisis to distract the pawnshop employee. What was his name?”
“Al,” Carlita offered. “At least that’s what his nametag said. What kind of diversion?”
“Medical would work best,” Autumn said. “I was thinking chest pains or possibly fainting would get his attention.”
“We need to think this through first. We can’t barge in there with a medical emergency. The guy will call 911 and both the cops and an ambulance will show up while one of us will be in the process of breaking and entering.”
“Oh, I’ll already be in,” Autumn said confidently. “Plus, I’m not going to break anything, at least that’s not the plan. I brought my handy-dandy lock picker, thinking we might need it. But before we proceed, we need to scope the place out. Let’s walk around the block, pretend to browse the other shops in the area.”
Mercedes frowned. “This doesn’t look like the safest part of town. Besides, the only nearby shops are an auto repair shop and a tattoo parlor.”
“It’s perfect. We stop by the tattoo joint, circle around the block, so I can scope out the pawnshop and then we return to the car. Mrs. G has her medical emergency, creates a major diversion, I slip inside Mr. Goldstein’s office, take a few quick pictures, slip back out and voila! We’ve got
