Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer Page 0,75
nowadays.” Heidi laughed. “She’s at least twenty years my senior, and it’s hard to see what I could possibly end up like,” she admitted. “Aretha’s memory is definitely going. She’s got joint pain, and her stomach can’t handle a lot of foods now.”
“I guess that’s to be expected to a certain extent,” Doreen said cautiously. “But that’s an interesting point. The stomach upsets could be from too much stress, worrying about her future. Maybe worrying about the jewel theft.” She added the last as a stab in the dark.
“About what?” Heidi asked, looking at her. “That, if she’d had them, she would have sold them?”
“Of course she would have,” Doreen said. “After hearing the story, I thought her first husband Reginald might have had something to do with it all.”
“Why is that?”
“Because, after her parents died and then her husband Reginald died, the court cases fell into disarray.”
“The court cases were all pending, but, after Reginald died, then there was nobody left to take to court,” she said with a laugh. Heidi raised a glance and gave Doreen a superior smile. “You with all your puzzle-solving abilities didn’t consider that? Surely you didn’t believe Aretha and her suicide version, did you? Of course, it makes her feel better to believe he did it out of remorse.”
“I’m trying to get a copy of the death certificate,” Doreen said. “Just to make sure it was suicide.”
“That won’t help,” she said, “because it could say overdose, but that wouldn’t mean he overdosed himself. Now he might have, but who are we to know what really happened?”
“True enough,” Doreen said, but for some reason she felt a little uneasy. And Mugs wasn’t cooperating. Goliath was, however. He sat right at her feet. However, Heidi kept smiling, but the smile was a little bit disconcerting too. She looked down at Goliath. “I should get the animals home.”
“You do that,” Heidi said with another unsettling smile. “And, if you find any jewels, let me know.”
“Hah! Wouldn’t that be nice?” she said.
“According to the grapevine, you found some.”
At that, Doreen turned and looked at her. “And who told you that?” she asked.
Heidi shrugged. “It’s the local gossip.” Her gaze narrowed. “Did you?”
“If I did,” she said, “I certainly wouldn’t be passing that news around.”
“Of course not,” Heidi said. “You wouldn’t want anybody to break in, would you?”
“I’ve had several break-ins lately,” Doreen said, her nose inching up slightly. “The last thing I’d want is more.” And with a wave of goodbye, she turned and hurried away. She knew in her heart she wouldn’t be dealing with Heidi anymore. This version was the complete opposite of the fun-loving gardener she’d met the first couple times. Feeling like Heidi’s gaze glared into the back of her head, she resisted the urge to turn around and look because she knew instinctively Heidi was watching. When she got home, she phoned Mack.
His voice was distracted. “Now what?”
“It’s Heidi,” she said. “Something’s very off about her,” and Doreen related the conversation.
“That’s not good,” he said. “Don’t you have a safety deposit box someplace where you can keep the gems?”
“No,” Doreen said, “and I highly suspect that’s why your mom never did anything with them either. She didn’t want to get any undue attention because of it.”
“No,” he said. “That makes sense.”
“Did you ever see Reginald’s death certificate?”
“I did,” he said. “He overdosed. His death certificate says accidental overdose.”
“Interesting.”
“Why?
“What kind of poison?” she asked.
“Well, let’s put it this way. It was an overdose. Accidental overdose. A mixture of all kinds of drugs in it. As if he tossed it all into his drink and drank it up.”
“Interesting.”
“You keep saying that,” he said in exasperation. “That doesn’t mean it was murder.”
“What if he didn’t want a divorce, and what if it was murder?” she asked.
“Are you suspecting Aretha?”
“I don’t know what I’m suspecting,” Doreen said with a heavy groan. “This case has got me befuddled.”
“Good,” he said, “now you know how we feel.”
She laughed. “I am a little worried now though, after Heidi’s comment about the rumor saying I have the jewels and someone breaking in.”
“You should be,” he said. “Make sure you set that security system.”
“Right,” she said. “And, if I send you a weird text, take it as a warning sign and come, would you?”
There was silence on the other end. “Are you thinking you’re seriously in danger?” His voice sounded brusque.
“Yeah,” she said. “It feels like something really weird is going on.”
“What? Something really weird is going on and you feeling