Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer Page 0,20

ashamed. The other three were backing up the older woman.

“Of course not, but waste not, want not,” she said with an airy wave of her hand. “You must be Aretha.”

Shock slammed into the woman. “How do you know who I am?” she demanded.

Doreen gave her the smallest of smiles. “It’s really not hard to figure out,” she said, and she moved to walk away, but that wasn’t enough for Aretha.

“What are you talking about?” she said. “Tell me!” Then she reached out with a birdlike hand that was all claws and gripped Doreen’s arm. “How dare you talk about me!”

“I haven’t talked about you.” Doreen could lie with the best of the snobbery club, if called upon. “But I did hear you were a little too arrogant for your own good and that you looked down on everybody else if they didn’t have as much money as you did,” she said with a laugh. “So it was immediately obvious who you were. And, of course, these are your sidekicks. I’ll be sure to find out who they are too.”

With that, she simply smiled at them all and, ignoring the shocked look on Aretha’s face, said, “Have a great day, ladies!” She pushed her cart forward, and, as she walked past them, she could see some men who worked at the store looking at her with their jaws open. She gave them both a bright sunny smile and said, “Remember to never lower yourself to the level of those you can’t stand.”

And, with a laugh, she carried on to the checkout stand.

Chapter 6

Saturday Morning …

Still chuckling, and having seen the wide-eyed gazes of the cashiers and everybody around them, Doreen pushed her cart out to her car and loaded the few groceries she had bought, including her single banana. She never was one to have many bananas around because they ripened so fast. Not that she was an expert on them, and maybe there was a way to stop it, but it seemed like bananas went from green to black in split seconds, particularly during the heat. The last thing she wanted was a whole pile of black bananas that she didn’t know what to do with.

On the other hand, the incident had been very eye-opening in terms of Aretha’s personality. But Doreen had met many women like her. Doreen’s previous life had been fraught with women who were all so much better than she was. Or at least they wanted to be. In her case, her husband had been an all-powerful figure, and many times those women, in particular, wanted nothing more than to be her.

As she got back into the vehicle, she really wanted to chuckle because Aretha would be so surprised to know about the jewels Doreen was taking to get appraised right now. Inside the vehicle Doreen drove to the largest of the jewelry stores in town. It was located inside the mall, which was not her favorite place, but, if that was where they were, that was where Doreen was going.

As she walked inside the mall, she headed toward the jewelry store and asked to speak to the manager. The clerk looked at her in surprise, then shrugged and went into the small back room. Very quickly, two women came out. The older of the two smiled.

“Hello. What can I do for you?”

“I’d like to get some jewels appraised, please.”

“For insurance purposes?” the woman asked, pulling her glasses off the top of her head.

“That’s part of it, yes,” Doreen said, as she glanced around. “I would really prefer not to have everybody know what I’ve got.”

“Of course,” the woman said. She lifted a portion of the counter. “Come with me.”

Together, they went into the back of the store, where a small table was in an office area. As soon as Doreen was seated, she pulled out the little bag and handed it over. “I’ve obviously photographed everything at home,” Doreen said, “but for insurance purposes and identification, we need more detail.”

The woman nodded and carefully poured the jewels into a small sparkling heap on the table. She didn’t make a comment, just studied them carefully. “I’ll have to get these off to a specialist,” she murmured.

“You don’t have anybody here?”

“Not for some of these,” she said. “Hmm.” She frowned. “Although, we do have a couple dealers here for a convention,” she said. “I might be able to get one of them to have a look this weekend. I’ll just send off a quick text, checking on