times she's done this—we only know about two, but it could have been dozens more."
"And don't forget about her stalker," Ava added. "I mean, maybe he had some idolized idea of her, found out she was a thief, and killed her out of some crazed sense of betrayal."
"While we're talking about motive, it sure gives you a great one, too," David teased.
"Me?" Ava laughed.
"You catch her trying to steal from you and kill her." He shrugged. "Just saying."
"Yeah, well, Ava has an iron-clad alibi. Me," I added.
David grinned. "Lucky her."
Ava shook her head. "Anyway, I guess it's in the hands of the authorities to figure all that out now." She smiled down at her recovered gem.
I sipped my wine, feeling a small ball of unpleasantness form in my stomach at the mention of authorities. "I hate to say it…" I glanced from Ava to David. "But I think we have to tell Grant we found this."
"Oh, you're on your own there, blondie," David said, putting his hands up in a gesture that said he was backing the heck out of that conversation.
"I mean, we kind of took it from a crime scene," I pointed out, the implication of that settling in now that the rush of finding it was subsiding.
"Oh, no way." Ava shook her head. "I'm not going to feel guilty about taking back what is mine in the first place."
"From a locked crime scene," I added.
"You were simply returning stolen property to its rightful owner," Ava argued. "If it's my emerald, you didn't take it. You returned it."
"I'm not sure Grant is going to see it that way," I said.
Ava sighed. "Fine. Tell him whatever you have to." She paused. "But I'm not parting with this again!" She pointed to the emerald.
I had a bad feeling it might be evidence, but I didn't voice that as I grabbed my phone and pulled up Grant's number.
David shook his head at me like he thought I was crazy.
It was possible he was right. But I knew this wasn't something I should keep from Grant, even if I could keep it from him.
Ava and David sipped in silence while I listened to the phone ring. The tension hung heavy in the air. Finally, four rings in, the call went to voice mail, and I'd admit to feeling just a tiny bit relieved at the reprieve.
"Uh, hi. It's Emmy. Can you please come to the winery when you get this message? It's, um, kinda urgent. Thanks." I hung up, wishing I felt less guilty for having made that call.
"There you are!"
We all turned at the sound of Eddie's voice as he came pushing through the kitchen door in a pair of pressed chinos, a purple silk shirt, and a matching silk ascot. "Well, I've been looking for you all afternoon, Emmy."
"Here I am." I offered a tentative smile and tried to put myself between Eddie and the emerald to block his view. "What's up?"
"I wanted to fill you in on my meeting with Aurora Dawn." He paused, glancing behind me to see Ava and David. "Hi, kids." He gave them a little wave.
David raised his wineglass in greeting. Ava gave a tentative smile, eyes cutting to the emerald on the counter.
"Anyhoo, guess what?" Eddie said.
"Um…what?" I asked.
"She loved it! She said the Zin was nectar of the heavens. Isn't that cute? She totally twitted it to her peeps."
"Tweeted?" Ava supplied.
"Whatever." Eddie waved it off with a grin. "Point is, we're going to go viral." He did a little happy dance, stamping his feet and wiggling his ample hips.
I couldn't help but smile. "That's great. Amazing, really. Nice work."
"Thank you!" Eddie gave an exaggerated bow.
And the lower angle of his eyeline must have been just enough to see past me to the sparkling green jewel sitting out in the open on the kitchen counter, as he froze.
"Oh my goodness gracious. What is that?"
"Uh, what?" I asked.
Eddie straightened and shot me a look. "Emmy Oak, don't you hold out on me. Is that Ava's emerald?"
"Yes," I reluctantly admitted. While I might have wanted to hand it over to the authorities before word got out too widely—and telling Eddie was the equivalent to taking out a billboard on 101—the cat was out of the bag. Or out of the wrinkle cream jar, as it were.
"Where did you find this?" he asked, taking a step closer to pick up the gem.
We quickly gave him the condensed version of events, including our discovering what Gia's real moneymaker