“Where are you going with those? I’ll take them both and”—Reaper placed a finger over the charm tray—“I’ll take the gold star.”
“The charm is twenty-two hundred.” Quoting the price, the saleswoman used a white glove to pick up the charm while simultaneously placing the tray back inside the display case.
“That’s expensive for a charm, isn’t it?”
“The charm is twenty-four carat gold, and if you look closely there, you can see tiny diamond chips.” She held it out for him to take.
Reaper didn’t take the star from her. “I’ll take your word for it … and the moon.” Giving the tray a final perusal, he then pointed at another tiny one that was so small, it had almost escaped his notice. “Add this one to my bill as well. Can you wrap those for me?”
“I’ll leave you in Charline’s capable hands,” Dalt said. “It’s been nice meeting you. I’m sorry, she didn’t tell me your name.”
“Call me Reaper.”
Dalt West closed his store promptly at six. Forcing himself to walk and not run, as much as he wanted to, he made it to his car without incident.
“See you tomorrow.”
Dalt jumped as Charline called out from her rolled down window.
“Good evening.”
His car keys fell from his hand as he tried to get into his BMW. Picking them up, he got inside. Wiping his sweating brow, he started the car.
Sedately driving the two blocks to his home, he almost pissed himself when two motorcycles pulled out of the gas station and drove behind him. He was sweating so badly that he wanted to wipe away his sweat again but didn’t want to make any moves that they could see through his rearview mirror. Switching on his blinker to turn down his street, he was relieved to see the motorcycles continue on the main road.
He turned into his driveway, pulled into his garage, and kept his car doors locked as he waited for the garage door to completely close before he practically fell out of his car to run inside.
“Lisa? Lisa!”
“I’m upstairs.”
Running upstairs, he was moving so fast that he would have stumbled up them if he hadn’t been holding onto the bannister.
“Where are you?” Dalt yelled.
“I’m in the bathroom.”
Hearing her mumbled reply, he pushed the door open to see Lisa opening the shower door.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you okay? Why didn’t call me back when I called, or answer my texts?” he shouted. Sitting on the end of the tub, he tried to catch his breath.
Lisa turned the water off. “I had my hair and doctor appointments today, remember? I told you last night. I thought you just wanted to know if I wanted take-out for dinner.” Grabbing a towel to wrap around herself, she then removed her shower cap. “What’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”
“Gavin James came into the jewelry store this afternoon.”
Lisa paled. “Did he recognize you?”
“I don’t think so. He spent almost eighty thousand dollars.”
“What did he buy?” she asked, regaining her color.
“Three Rolexes and some charms.”
“Charms?”
“The charms that go on a woman’s bracelet.”
“I know what they go on. I meant, which charms?”
“A star, a moon, and I left when he was picking the third one out.”
“Did he mention who it was for?”
“No, I was too busy shitting myself.”
“Don’t be disgusting.” Lisa went to the sink to fill a glass of water. “Obviously, he didn’t recognize you. He was so high every time we were at Slate’s that there’s no way he remembers what we look like. We knew when he came back to town that it was inevitable he would see us. I was in UPS one day when he came in, and I didn’t freak out.” Adding paste to her toothbrush, Lisa began brushing her teeth.
“Let’s drive to Lexington and stay there at our condo.”
“The worst thing we can do is panic. We’ll keep to our schedule like we always do.”
“That’s convenient for you.” Dalt stood up to take off his clothes. Then, going to the shower, he turned the water on. “You’ll be safe behind locked doors.”
Rinsing out her mouth, she spat in the sink. “Then call in to the store tomorrow and tell Charline that you’re not feeling well and are concerned for her and the customers’ safety.”
“Don’t think I won’t. Have you seen Gavin lately?” Dalt stepped into the shower. “He told me to call him Reaper.”
“Damn. Now you’ve got me wanting to see him.”
Dalt closed the shower door on her excited expression. “You want to see him, he’ll be back at