Elaine Orr - Jolie Gentil 06 - Behind the Walls Read Free Page B

but then I could hear the scratching of a pen and he was silent for a few seconds.
    Lester Argrow is Ramona’s uncle. He is the biggest pain in the backside in the Ocean Alley real estate cadre. Maybe in all of the Jersey shore. But he knows how to sniff out good deals and he sends a lot of appraisal work to Harry and me.
    “How about just a ride around town? I’ll buy you a cuppa joe.” The man had regained his bluster.
    “Thanks, Mr…” He had not given me his name, so I let the words hang between us as I buried the canvas bag, with the jewelry in it again, in the bottom of my purse.
    “Dorner. Clive Dorner. I’m not talking about formal showing, you see…”
    “Mr. Dorner, I’m in the middle of tearing down walls at the house I just bought, and I’m late for an appointment. Lester knows me well. If you two find a property that suits you, he’ll very likely come to Harry Steele and me for the appraisal.”
    “Who’s…?”
    “Thanks for calling.” I hung up, shaking my head at the man’s arrogance.
     
    AUNT MADGE WAS intrigued by the jewelry, but she had no thoughts about anyone who had it or pieces like these stolen.
    Harry nudged her elbow with his. “Sounds as if they placed them there deliberately.”
    Puh-leeze . They’re pretty good about not doing constant mushy stuff, but it still seems weird to see them practically sitting in each others’ laps. They have only been married about six months, but they act like a couple who have been together for decades.
    Aunt Madge is only a few inches shorter than Harry’s five-ten, and she looks his age of almost seventy rather than her own of early eighties. They are both very fit-looking, Aunt Madge from climbing stairs many times a day and Harry from almost two years of hammering, sawing, and painting at his house. It used to belong to his grandparents and is his retirement hobby.
    Aunt Madge and Harry were next to each other on the loveseat in her great room, or sitting room, as she calls the L-shaped area that has her living room at one end and kitchen/dining room at the other. I was in a high-backed chair across from them and the jewelry was on the coffee table between us.
    “I want to tell the police about this, but I don’t want it in my house overnight. You don’t care if we put it in your fire safe, do you?” Aunt Madge has one of those small metal boxes that’s not much bigger than a shoe box. It wouldn’t keep much protected if there were a fire, but she reasons that it’s better than putting B&B guests’ checks under the mattress before she gets to the bank.
    “Of course not,” Aunt Madge said, and she began to pick up the diamonds to put them back into the bag.
    I begged off having dinner with her and Harry by saying I was going to meet Ramona, and then high-tailed it to the office supply store where she works. The Purple Cow is open until six, and I knew she worked until then today. I like spending time with Aunt Madge and Harry, but a threesome dinner requires a lot of conversation, and I was tired and achy after a day of scrubbing and sanding.
    As I drew close to the store, I saw the white board on its easel on the sidewalk just outside. Ramona writes sayings on the board every day that she’s working, and she has begun to suspect that Scoobie is the one who rewrites them now and then. She isn’t sure, though, and I’m not about to play tattle tale.
    Today the sign said, “Learn to be patient in the presence of your own thoughts,” and was attributed to Verlyn Klinkenborg. Under the name someone had written, “Klingons live!” That was x’d out and under it was, “Resistance is futile.”
    I was chuckling as I walked in, and tried to hide it when I saw Ramona.
    “Don’t bother, Jolie,” she said in her usual dreamy voice.
    “Don’t bother?”
    “I have a new policy. I’m going to leave up whatever they write.” She said this as she set a couple of boxes of pens on a shelf, rather harder than necessary.
    “Not