Free Lost and Found by Elle Casey

things. I glare at him over my shoulder as he addresses the man in a suit behind a case full of diamond rings.
    “This young lady says she has some jewelry to be appraised.”
    “Actually, that’s not what I said.” I give him the stink-eye and then immediately change my expression to one of pure sweetness and look at the salesman. “I said that I have a ring worth quite a bit of money, and I wanted to talk to someone here about it.”
    “Do you have the ring with you?” the man-boy asks me politely. His hair is parted exactly on the side with a bright-white part and slicked down with liberal amounts of gel. It could be dyed black, it’s so dark. He smells like the cologne counter at Macy’s, and there’s not a single fleck of lint on him anywhere. I suspect he’s either gay or a seriously dedicated metrosexual. Not that it matters what he is, but for some reason, it makes him more approachable to me than the man with the taser.
    “Thank you, David,” the suited salesman says, looking behind me. “I’ll look after her.”
    I give the security guard my best poo-eating grin. “Yes, David, thank you. You can go away now.”
    He nods at the guy, completely ignores me, and leaves us alone.
    I roll my eyes and turn back to my helper. “Thanks. That guy was so rude.”
    “He’s my brother.”
    “I knew that,” I say without thinking. My face starts to heat up.
    The guy lifts an eyebrow. “You did?”
    I wave my hand between us. “Oh, yeah.” I snort, like it’s so obvious you’d have to be an idiot not to notice they’re practically identical twins, when actually they couldn’t be more different. “He has the same facial structure. High cheekbones, arched brows.”
    “I’m adopted.” The guy’s expression does not change. Not one bit.
    He caught me in a lie, so now I’m pissed. That almost never happens. “Fine. I didn’t know you were brothers. Are you happy?” I’m completely deflated.
    “Actually, I was just joking.” The guy smiles for one second and then stops. “Can I help you with something? A ring you said?”
    My jaw drops open but I can’t think of what to say, and this might be a first for me, but what the hell? This guy is completely crazy, right? It’s not just me, I know this. How did he get a job here?
    He blinks a few times, maybe waiting for my brain to come online again.
    “You’re seriously twisted,” I finally say, a smile creeping up to appear on my face. I can appreciate a twisted personality if nothing else.
    “So I’ve been told.” He grins back, but only for a second before going back to being stoic.
    He’s so pristine and neat, I swear he could be a mannequin, and his ridiculous nano-second smiles and weird delivery only heighten that impression. I lean in closer and stare into his eyes, searching for a circuit board buried deep inside. “Does Cartier have seriously lifelike robots waiting on customers right now? Because that would explain everything that just happened here.”
    He blinks once. “Not that I’m aware of.”
    I lean back and shake my head. This is just too weird. It’s got to be the ring thing; that bad juju is coming out again. I decide to switch to all-business mode so I can get out of here as soon as possible.
    “Okay, here’s the deal … I have this very valuable ring, which I got from … someplace … someone … but I don’t want it anymore and I want to return it to the person who bought it. I was told to ask for Wendy.”
    The salesman tilts his head. “I don’t follow.”
    I put both hands on the counter and take a deep breath in and let it out before trying again. My previous story of having a recently-divorced mother isn’t going to work here. I have to get the identity of the owner from this guy so I can track him or her down and give this ring back.
    “I have this ring that was purchased here. I want to get in touch with the person who bought the ring so I can give him or her the ring back.”
    The salesman looks up