us worry about being at work when we’re supposed to be. I had to leave.” I gave her a brief explanation and asked if she’d brought my bag with. She went back to the cabinet at the back of her department and retrieved it.
“Pink, you got arrested again,” she said, shaking her head. “If you had the open and honest relationship Eric and I have you wouldn’t have to go sneaking around.” I bit my tongue to keep from mentioning that just that afternoon she’d done something she didn’t want Eric to know about. What would be the point?
After what I’d just gone through, I needed something normal and was relieved to work on the September calendar of events, though I was counting the minutes until I could leave. I wanted a shower as soon as possible to wash away all the ick I’d picked up in the backseat of the cruiser and on the bench in the cop shop. When I finally left, I didn’t even want to wait until I got home and went straight to Dinah’s instead. Maybe I wanted some sympathetic company, too. I looked down the sidewalk as I went up to her house. The production crew was still busy at work.
I was glad she was home. She took one look at me and said, “Okay, what happened?”
“Is it that obvious?” I said as I followed her inside.
“Probably not to the average person, but to me,” she said with a knowing look. I realized I’d been holding my shoulders in a stiff position and finally let them relax. I could see she was getting ready to go somewhere. I pointed toward the glitter vest she’d put on, not her usual attire.
“You have something up with Commander, don’t you?”
Dinah laughed. “I can’t believe the costumes that man has gotten me to wear.” She held out the glimmering green vest and said they were hosting disco night at the senior center. “They love it when we dress up.” She took another look at me and forgot about the vest and her upcoming evening and ordered me to spill.
“I need a shower first,” I said. My friend didn’t ask any questions, just handed me a fresh towel and pointed me toward the bathroom. Even though I had to put on the same clothes that had been through the ordeal, I felt better after washing my hair and showering. Dinah was eagerly awaiting my story when I came back with a towel wrapped around my wet hair. I thought her eyes were going to pop out of her head when I told her about the condo and the strange people who were living there now, my almost arrest and Barry’s admission.
“What is wrong with that guy?” she said. I brought up the shooting incident and how I thought it had affected him.
“But still,” she said not letting him off the hook.
I went back to how my detour to his place had all come about. As soon as Dinah heard I’d been to Adele’s she wanted to know what it looked like. She shook her head with amazement when I told her about the black-and-white decor. I moved right on to the important part about the coins and the watch and showed them to her on my BlackBerry screen.
We both figured the Rolex was worth a lot, but neither of us knew anything about coins. We went to Dinah’s computer and she did a search.
“Wow,” Dinah said looking at the screen. I looked over her shoulder and echoed her sentiment. Coins looking remarkably like the ones I’d seen were worth fifty thousand dollars each. When we’d recovered from the shock, I scrolled back through the pictures until I got to the quarters we’d seen in the package at Commander Blaine’s.
“Maybe we should see what we can find out about these.”
“It’s amazing what you can find on the Internet,” Dinah said doing another search. It took a bit of checking, but she finally pointed to a screen at an auction site. “There’s a coin like them.” I bent down to get a better view. It was nothing compared to the value of the two gold coins, but each of the quarters we’d seen was worth fifty dollars.
“I think it’s safe to assume that the whole box of flower pins had coins in them. No wonder somebody took them from the bookstore,” I said. “And that’s why when I found them in the storage locker, they were cut open.” I thought back