Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer

Prologue

Friday Morning …

It had been two days since Doreen had been at Ed Burns’s house. She’d kept her head low and had stayed out of sight since then. It was Friday morning, and she was back at Millicent’s place. Millicent hadn’t stopped talking since Doreen had arrived to weed, but that was okay. Doreen was more than happy to listen while Millicent reminisced about the Jude and Ed Burns family drama and then about Frank and Fred Darbunkle.

“You, my dear, are an absolute marvel,” Millicent said.

“Not at all,” Doreen said. “Who knew I would find out all this just from finding one ice pick in the ivy?”

Millicent chuckled. “Did I ever tell you about the jewels I found?”

Doreen sat back on her haunches. “Jewels? Where?”

“They were in the juniper,” Millicent said. “It was years and years ago. I never did find out who they belonged to.”

“Did you ask Mack to find out?”

“Mack wasn’t even an officer back then. Not sure I have mentioned them to him since he joined law enforcement, now that I think about it.” She frowned. “You know what? I’ll see if I can find them.”

“Especially if you want to find who they belong to,” Doreen said. “It might take time to find the owners.”

Millicent looked at Doreen and smiled. “Not with you, my dear. You are so darn fast. I’ll take a look now because I want you to have the jewels, and I want you to find out who they belong to.”

“Oh, but …” Doreen started.

However, it was too late. Millicent was gone.

Doreen laughed. Apparently she now had a new cold case.

Chapter 1

Friday Late Morning …

Doreen walked home slowly, her three animals at her side. She had just left a very rattled Millicent, who couldn’t find the jewels she had been talking about. Doreen didn’t know whether Mack’s mother was serious about her story or if her memory was starting to go and maybe she was imagining it all. Doreen hoped not because it sounded like a fun new mystery and likely to be something completely harmless. She was getting tired of being attacked on these jobs. On the other hand, Mack wouldn’t like it if his mother was involved in one of Doreen’s cases.

As Doreen and her animals hit the creek, she turned to see Goliath dragging behind. She crouched and called him to her. He stretched, looking toward her. She smiled as she reached an arm around him, picked up the big orange Maine coon cat, and continued along the path on the creek’s edge. Goliath was perfectly content to be carried. Only then Thaddaeus wanted up too.

With Thaddeus secured on her shoulder, he stared at Goliath, clearly unimpressed at having to share some of Doreen’s love and attention. She reached up a hand and patted Thaddeus too. “You’re fine, Thaddeus.”

He crooned in her ear, gently rubbing his head against hers. Then Goliath reached up and nudged her with his head, which was his way of mimicking that he loved her too.

Mugs took note of that but was clearly assured of her love for him as he seemed to smile at them. She chuckled and, with her hefty armload, continued toward her place. The river was higher than it had been, but she wasn’t up on the details of the fluctuations in water levels. She knew sometimes it rose with the water coming down off the mountains—with the highest levels in the wee hours of the morning—then receded and sometimes rose again, depending on the temperature and the snowmelt. But now it was definitely higher, and the sound of the river babbling beside her was lovely.

Although named Mission Creek, it was river-sized, and no way would she try to cross it right now. With the water’s force and flow, she doubted she’d make it without being swept out to the lake.

And that thought reminded her of another case she’d previously worked on, where a little boy and a handyman had gone missing. She was grateful she’d managed to find their bodies in the lake and to bring the families closure.

She didn’t want to think about the ice pick scenario she had just dealt with. She wanted to enjoy days of gardening and visiting her grandmother and maybe finding a secondhand bookstore to take the place of the library, so she didn’t come under the gimlet eye of the librarian on the night shift again. Back home, she lowered Goliath to the ground as soon as she came around the corner. “You can walk the