The Color of Death Read Free Page B

can’t see beyond their own brown noses can take a flying leap.
    Silently, Sam repeated his personal mantra while he handled an assignment any schoolboy could have covered.
    A shimmer of raspberry silk caught his eye. He glanced across the room. Though not beautiful, the woman held his attention. Black hair ruthlessly pulled back from her face. Medium height. Nicely curved—not showgirl nice, but the kind of real flesh that men liked to hold close. Expensive-looking suit and low heels with matching leather handbag. No obvious jewelry.
    She moved confidently, yet his investigator’s gut told him that she was on edge.
    Intrigued, he drifted closer without ever looking directly at her. When he saw that she was heading for the Purcell booth, his interest sharpened. If someone offered them quality goods, Mike and Lois had a reputation for not asking embarrassing questions about previous owners and bills of sale. Naturally, the price they paid for the goods reflected their tight lips. In all, the Purcells were just the kind of folks a gem hijacker might be looking for.
    After all, there wasn’t much point in clouting a gem shipment if you couldn’t turn the tiny pretties into big mounds of anonymous green cash.

Chapter 6
    Scottsdale
    Tuesday
    9:33 A.M .
    Kate was so relieved to find Mike Purcell alone in the booth that she gave him a radiant smile. He responded with a leer. When his wife, Lois, wasn’t around, Purcell had the reputation of being a real hound. Until yesterday, Kate hadn’t thought much about the gossip. Then she’d learned firsthand just how true the gossip was, and she’d chosen her outfit for today accordingly.
    She braced her smile to keep it from slipping, eased her right hand down her blouse to undo a few buttons, and told herself that it was all for a good cause. Apparently unaware of the gap in her clothing, she stepped closer to the case and bent over it.
    “Come back to look at the blue sapphire?” Purcell asked slyly, leaning forward over the display case, close enough to sense her body heat. “Or maybe you have something else in mind.”
    Her smile stiffened, but he didn’t notice. His eyes were on the cleavage she’d so generously displayed. She swallowed hard and settled into the odious business of flirting with a man she’d rather have scraped off her shoes.
    “Well, you never know.” Kate stroked the hollow of her throatlightly, hoping to distract him from her breasts. It worked for about two seconds. “That is one mighty fine gemstone,” she said in a carefully breathless voice.
    The sapphire was indeed unusual, but not quite to the point of being a showstopper. At least, good old Purcell must have thought so or he wouldn’t have displayed it so openly.
    Kate thought Purcell was wrong. That was a gem guaranteed to raise the heart rate of any dealer who saw it.
    Maybe Purcell just couldn’t resist strutting the stone in front of the other second-tier dealers, she thought, gritting her teeth against her sudden distaste for the man who was older than her father. Or maybe he knows that McCloud wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about the Seven Sins, so he thinks it’s safe. Either way, Purcell is slime.
    But all she said aloud was, “Emerald-cut sapphires of that size and quality don’t come on the market every day.”
    “Day?” Purcell straightened and reached into the case without looking away from the smooth, firm tits he’d love to squeeze. “Honeypot, sapphires like this are rarer than a faithful woman. I ought to know. I’ve helped more than one of the little darlings do the adultery dance. And unlike this sapphire, I gave those gals a real thorough deep-heat treatment, if you get my meaning.”
    Kate’s smile became all teeth. She made a sound like a terrier sinking canines into a rat. “I still can’t believe that the gem hasn’t ever been heated. May I look at it again?”
    “What are you offering?”
    Same as last time, you jackal. A cheap peep show. “I won’t