Free Thicker Than Blood by Penny Rudolph Page B

thought there might be a schedule book in here. One of those things where executives write down every thing they do. But I don’t see one.”
    “You think he wrote down ‘Thursday, ten a.m., meet with Colombian drug dealer’?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “Well, seeing as how you think he got himself killed because of something we just found, if it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna get the hell out of here.”
    Rachel closed the drawers. They both headed for the corridor. Goldie was pulling the door closed when a sharp voice behind them split the silence.
    “Who are you?”
    Rachel jerked upright and dropped the cuff link, which skittered across the floor tiles and landed at the feet of the woman who had spoken.
    Pale hair gleamed in the bright light of the hall as Charlotte Emerson, in a cobalt-blue cloak, bent over and picked it up. She looked tense when she straightened and, despite her size, formidable. “Where did this come from?” She eyed them both, then recognized Rachel. “Good heavens. What are you doing here?”
    Eyes meeting Charlotte’s, Rachel said with as much aplomb as she could muster, “This is Goldie—she’s in charge of the office-cleaning crew. Goldie, Charlotte.”
    “I lost something,” Goldie said.
    Rachel nodded. “While she was working here tonight. I came over to help her look for it.”
    “I see. Is this what she lost?” Charlotte held up the cuff link.
    Rachel paused on the edge of saying yes, but Charlotte probably had seen Jason wearing the cuff link. “No, that’s something we found on the floor while we were looking. We should’ve just put it on the desk. I didn’t realize I still had it.”
    Charlotte turned to Goldie. “What did you lose?”
    “A…ring.”
    “Well, it wasn’t just any old ring,” Rachel added. “It belonged to her mother, and to her grandmother before that. Goldie lost weight and the ring was loose. The last time she remembered having it was when she was cleaning the bathroom in there.” Rachel tapped the door to Jason’s office with one hand and smoothed her shirtfront with the other.
    The stiffness in Charlotte’s shoulder relaxed. “What does it look like, in case someone turns it in?”
    “Gold, with a…a red stone,” Goldie said carefully.
    “A garnet,” Rachel added smoothly. “Is there someone we could call to report it?”
    Charlotte smiled. “I’ll report it myself in the morning. When I turn this in.” She held up the cuff link.
    “Sorry to have disturbed you,” Rachel said.
    “Quite all right. I was just a bit startled to find someone here so late.”
    It wasn’t until later that Rachel began wondering what Charlotte was doing at the office at that hour.
    Outside, tiny drops of mist hung in the air and the pavement was damp.
    Goldie let out a low whistle. “You just may be the best liar I ever heard, and I have heard me some genuine champions.”
    “You weren’t so bad yourself.”
    “We are real lucky she didn’t come in when you were going through that desk. We would’ve been in shit so deep we would’ve been drawing flies for the rest of our very short lives.”
    “Funny,” Rachel mused, “I wasn’t even thinking about that. All I was trying to do was get out of there without her seeing this.” She reached under her shirt tail and drew out the envelope.
    A car passed, its taillights making red holes in the mist.
    “Christ almighty, girl. I forgot about that friggin’ envelope.”
    Rachel tapped a corner of it against her forehead. Her hair was damp, and not from the weather. “If what’s in this envelope is the same as what I found in Lonnie’s apartment, I think they got it from the same place.
    “Oh, my God,” Rachel said softly.
    “What?”
    “Lonnie hates garlic.”
    “You are making about as much sense as a valley girl on LSD.”
    “He couldn’t eat garlic. Said it tore up his stomach.”
    “So what?”
    “When I found him, he smelled of garlic.”
    Goldie frowned. “Don’t make sense.