Free The Rescuer by Dee Henderson Page A

a key. With the owners traveling, the house was empty tonight, and the storm was good cover.
    Jonathan had no choice but to be the one who tned to recover the bracelet. He couldn't trust Craig now that it was clear his friend was frying his common sense on drugs, and Neil wouldn't be going more than a hundred feet from his sitting chair for the foreseeable future.
    The stroke had partial y paralyzed Neil's left side and ended his craftsman ability and thus their profitable sideline career. Future income would have to come 71
    ",from sel ing pieces they had already taken. Because of that, it was

    important not to let the ruby bracelet be lost or to have the cops     ^>How many pieces over the years had disappeared by acci-
    * <,-j
    »fdent as Neil's wife lost her sense of the present and gave away
    iitems?
    *Jonathan turned on his flashlight and looked around the living room, careful not to let the light pass across the windows.
    \Shelves had been emptied and tables cleared of pictures and
    *%*knickknacks. They were having the rooms redone-the project
    of a retired lady with too much time on her hands.

    Would the
    dol s be out or tucked in some boxes somewhere?
    t'i
    vHe would have to pressure Neil to tel him where the
    ^remaining pieces were hidden. He had no leverage with the man
    /
    tyand didn't expect the pressure to yield much, but if he had to go
    to Silverton after Neil died and rip up his house and jewelry store-it would be a headache creating the block of free time in his schedule. His manager was already demanding to know what was so urgent that he had to fly back to the States for a long weekend and miss an opportunity to rehearse with the London symphony.
    ^In a way he was glad of Neil's stroke. The stealing had run its

    course. Find the pieces, consider the income from their sale his nest egg, and wrap this up for good.
    *Neil was a tough old man. He'd probably live another ten
    lv years, but if he didn't? Jonathan wasn't looking to change things as much as create some insurance.
    Would Neil have kept so many pieces on his own property, among his own things? Or had he spread them out tucked in spots around town? Maybe at '
    Meghan's-the fact she couldn't see would have made her home an ideal stash site.
    The mere thought of being in a race with Craig to find the stones Neil had hidden wasn't something Jonathan wanted to
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    contemplate. It was definitely time to start thinking about how to handle his friend before the occasion arose.
    The china cabinet was empty. Couldn't she have waited another two or three days to begin redecorating? He sighed and started looking through the boxes that weren't taped closed.
    Time crawled by as Meghan waited for Stephen to arrive. She paced back and forth in the living room.
    The power was out again. The radio in the bathroom might stil have good batteries. She walked with her hand trailing along the wal into the hal way then to the stairway. Her dog bumped against her knee as she walked, pressing so close he interfered with her balance. She lowered her hand to stroke his head.
    Meghan took the radio from the bathroom counter into the guest bedroom to try and find a location that got better reception. The local news crackled with static. A thunderbolt cracked overhead. Her dog yelped and she heard a door hit a wal .
    "Blackie." He must have headed into his favorite hiding spot-the open walk-in closet. She tried to coax him out but he refused to come. She final y crawled in after him, shoving back the hanging coats to sit beside him.
    "I can't blame you, boy. It's loud enough to hurt your ears." She leaned her head against his warm coat.

    Glass broke and Meghan flinched. Somewhere a tree limb had just pierced a window. She left Blackie to his temporary shelter, tossing a glove back at him to distract him. She fol owed the noise and realized it was the bathroom window. The rain was reaching her standing in the doorway, and she could tel from the