Анна Керн - Deadly Diamond

The car didn’t touch her, but disoriented by the action, Alyx fell on her knees. A station employee ran towards her and helped her up.

“Are you all right?”

Alyx brushed off her knees. “Yes, I think so. Did you see what happened?”

“Yes, I did. That car drove in slowly and picked up speed when it swerved in front of you. It looked to me like he did it on purpose.”

“Did you recognize the make of the car?” she asked.

“I’m sorry; I don’t know one from the other, and I didn’t even look at the tag. Do you want me to call the police?”

“No, there’s not much I can tell them other than it was a black sedan. I didn’t see the tag number either.”

After the incident, we drove directly to the police station in Beachside. A tall, skinny man with a potbelly and a few strands of dirty hair was telling an officer at the front desk about an altercation with his neighbor, a two-inch cut on his cheek still fresh but not bleeding.

The officer wrote down all the information about the man’s complaint on a form, and then took care of two people over the phone before he turned his attention to Alyx, thirty minutes later.

Busy filling out a log sheet, he didn’t even look up when he asked if he could help her.

“Yes, ma’am. What can I do for you?”

She skipped the small talk that usually accompanied her requests. “I’d like to speak to Detective Smarts.”

“He’s not in the station at the moment, ma’am.”

“He is on duty today?”

“Yes, he is.”

“Is there any way you can reach him?”

He looked at his watch. “Are you sure no one else can help you?”

She bit her lower lip. “I received a threating note, and someone just tried to run me over. I prefer to speak to Smarts, but, yes, someone else can help me.”

“Your name?”

“Alyx Hille and this involves the Althea Burns’ case.”

The officer looked up and smiled. After a discreet phone call, Detective Smarts appeared a few minutes later, a toothpick dangling from his mouth.

He scanned the note Alyx handed him, and the smirk on his face quickly disappeared. He made no comment about my presence, but asked her to follow him down the hall to an office no bigger than a closet. He slid behind the desk and asked her to have a seat in one of the two folding chairs facing him. I took up guard next to her. She told him everything. He listened without interruption.

“Is that all? You’ve told me everything?”

She nodded and looked down, her hand clasped tightly around my leash.

“Thank you, Ms. Hille. I know you don’t think much of my detective skills, but I assure you, we’ve been working on the case. Although we didn’t get any prints off the pill case you found, I did learn that Carole Berth’s husband takes nitroglycerine for angina.”

I wasn’t surprised to hear that.

“Ms. Hille, as far as I’m concerned, this case is now a priority, and if anything else happens … call nine-one-one, then call me immediately.” He pulled a business card from his pocket, “My cell phone number is on there.”

We left the station. I was feeling assured and I hope Alyx was too. When we arrived at the shop, Maggie got up from the couch when we walked into the workroom, and stepped forward to unhook my leash. “It’s about time you got back. I’ve been sitting here waiting and worrying,” she scolded.

“I thought you had plans outside the store today,” said Alyx.

“I did and I do. I expected you back sooner. What happened in Umatilla?”

Alyx closed the workroom door. “You were right to worry this time; someone tried to run me over at the train station. Actually, I think he was just trying to scare me,” she began and she ended with the visit to the police station.

“You did the right thing talking to Detective Smarts. I think you should stay at my place or I can stay with you, if you’d rather not leave the cats alone.”

“It’s okay, Maggie. If the guy in the car had really wanted to kill me, he wouldn’t have swerved to avoid me.”

“What about the nitro case you found?”

“Smarts said Carole’s husband takes nitroglycerine for angina, but there’s no proof the case I found belonged to him. I know you’re concerned, and it worried me too, but now that Smart knows everything, I think it will be okay.”

Maggie gave her a hug. “Promise you won’t go to Umatilla again.”

“I can definitely promise you that I will not make the trip again.”

“If you yell at a cat, you’re the one who making a fool of yourself.”

–– Unknown

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: An Apology of Sorts

Jim Husen, an antiques dealer whom Alyx had met a couple of years earlier at a Miles-Long-Garage-Sale event on A1A, stopped in to see her. He said he had a customer who collected globes, and he wondered if she happened to have any or knew anyone who did.

“As a matter of fact, I do have a globe,” she said, and directed him to the side of the store, near the staircase.

“It’s been here since we opened. I don’t know much about it, other than it’s from the 1930s, produced by the George F. Cram Company in Indianapolis.”

The globe she’d referred to was very decorative with Atlas holding up the globe between two columns.

“You know,” said Jim, “some of these can go for real good money. I heard about a tiny 1790s pocket globe that sold for fifteen-thousand dollars.”

I was impressed. Alyx’s globe probably wasn’t that valuable, but it still might draw nice sum. Of course, not all deals went that smoothly. Some dealers were greedier than others; they weren’t satisfied with just making a profit. They wanted to squeeze every last penny they could out of the deal. I knew that as far as Alyx was concerned, that took the fun out of it. Somehow, Antiques & Designs managed to prosper without gouging anyone in the process.

Alyx had another item sitting nearby that had not attracted any attention. It was a duck decoy. She asked Jim if he was interested, and told him all she knew about it.

“This and that globe were the first two items I purchased with the intent of selling them in my store someday,” she told him. “Anyway, the Mason Decoy Company in Detroit, Michigan––my home state––produced three grades of decoys––premium, challenge, and standard. The standard typically featured glass eyes, and a hand-painted solid body. This is a standard decoy, made around 1910. The last time I’d checked, it was valued at fifteen hundred dollars. I’ll negotiate if you find a buyer, and you’ll get the ten percent dealer discount.”

Jim picked up the decoy, turning it over in his hands to inspect it closer.

Suddenly, I felt her presence before I saw her. An elegantly dressed woman in a classic-style blue suit stood scrutinizing Alyx from top to bottom. She quickly looked away when Alyx turned in her direction.

“It looks like it’s in excellent condition,” said Jim about the decoy, “You should get full value for it. I’ll mention it to some people.”

“Great. Are you and Louise planning to go to the Williamsburg Antiques Forum in February?” Alyx asked him.

“We talked about it and think we might go. The theme this year is “The Arts of the American South” and that’s right up my alley. My wife is looking forward to helping prepare an authentic eighteen-century dinner, and I’m looking forward to eating it. What about you?”

“Maggie and I talked about it, but at the time she wasn’t interested. I love the place and its history and I don’t need a reason to go.”

“Well, if you decide to go, you’re welcome to come with Brenda and me. You know our RV is big enough to handle more than the two of us.”