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“I’ll call you,” I said as she stepped across the new porch and into the twilight. She turned, the breeze toying with her hair, and blew me a kiss.
Once she was gone, I shut the door and nearly ran through the house back to my room. I was going to take that damn diamond out to Remy’s and toss it into the swamp.
I wasn’t going to have my life fall down around me for some mistake one of my parents made. No way. Not when I had so much to lose.
I yanked the zipper down on the side pocket of my leather duffel and tossed out the top two socks, looking for the black pair I’d hidden behind them.
The socks weren’t there.
Trying to keep my cool, I opened the main pocket and dug through shirts and underwear, a couple of pairs of jeans, until I found one black sock at the bottom.
I tore apart the bag. My room. I ran into the room Richard had been staying in, but it was empty.
No socks. No diamond.
The gem was gone.
And in my mind it was no coincidence that my father happened to be gone, too.
Swearing, I found my cell phone and dialed my brother’s number.
“Carter O’Neill,” my brother said after the first ring. Carter was always Johnny-on-the-spot when it came to his cell phone.
“Carter.” I rested my head against the doorjamb, feeling worse than I had in a long time. I hated calling my big brother for help, like some kind of child, but there was no one else I could talk to. Not even Juliette, despite what she might say. She was police, and this was a very nonpolice matter. “We have a problem,” I said, and launched into the whole story.
“You’re sure Dad has it?” Carter asked when I was done.
“It’s a pretty big coincidence, isn’t it? A diamond is missing and so is a confessed jewel thief.”
“I’m just saying, you put it in a sock, Tyler. Is there any way you’ve lost—”
“No!” I yelled, in no mood to be baby-brothered by Carter. Despite the fact that putting a diamond in a sock was a dumb move, especially since Dad and I swapped clothes like girls. “There’s no way.”
Carter sighed and I burned, recognizing that sigh from a dozen other phone conversations when I had reached out for help.
“Forget it,” I said. “The damn thing is gone, it doesn’t matter anymore.”
A big gong was struck in my head.
It truly didn’t matter anymore.
With the diamond off O’Neill property, it was no longer my problem. And considering that Richard had been a person of interest when the gems initially disappeared, if he was stupid enough to get caught with the diamond now, it was pretty cut-and-dried.
Savannah and Margot wouldn’t be implicated.
Juliette wouldn’t be forced to get involved.
Everything was going to be okay.
“Doesn’t matter?” Carter asked. “If Dad gets caught, it will be all over the papers.”
“So?” I’d been all over the papers before; it only hurt for a minute.
“So, some of us have careers, Tyler. Careers that hinge on keeping this kind of garbage out of the papers.”
Carter was mayor pro-temp of Baton Rouge, and I had to admit that if Dad got caught with this gem, it would be ugly for Carter.
Sympathy flooded me. Just as my problems got better, Carter’s got worse. O’Neills could not catch a break.
“I’ll see if I can get ahold of Dad,” I said.
“Do that,” Carter snapped. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
Carter hung up and I dialed my father’s cell phone number, but the line never rang, which meant Dad had lost his phone—again—and it was sitting someplace with a dead battery.
Or Dad had ditched the phone, not wanting to be found.
And I, a selfish, disloyal brother—was glad.
18
TYLER
As far as weeks went this was one for the books. Perhaps, I thought, leaving my meeting with Derek and some volunteer builders, the best week ever.
Dad hadn’t surfaced, but then neither had the diamond. And while that was sending Carter into a tizzy, I felt better than I had in years, as though I was stepping out into the sun for the first time.
I started Suzy and pulled out my cell phone, pressing redial to get Juliette.
“Chief Tremblant,” she said, and I smiled, pulling out of Remy’s parking lot where I’d held my meeting.
“That is seriously the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard,” I said.
“You didn’t think that when it was my father!”
“No. No I did not.”
She laughed, the sound like fine wine. “How was the meeting?”
“Awesome. We should be ready to go on Monday. How about you?”
“Well—” she sighed “—I’ve got my home visit meeting scheduled for next week. I need to clean out my home office, get stuff organized for kids.” She paused. “Do you know what kids need?”
“Let’s talk about it over dinner,” I said, looking at the sinking sun on the horizon as I drove through town. “Ben Cruise owns that new fancy place on Main Street, and he’s one of the volunteers. He invited me to come out anytime.”
