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“Stephanie Plum,” he said. “Sorry I missed you at the office. Thank you for coming to the store.”
“Do I know you?”
“We’ve never officially met. I recognize you from the Leoni viewing. I was there when you put Bella Morelli in cuffs and hauled her out of the funeral home. That took guts. I don’t think I could have done it,” he said.
Bella Morelli is a Sicilian immigrant stuck in a Marlon BrandoGodfathertime warp. Her hair is gray. Her dresses are alwaysblack. Her posture is vulture on the attack. She’s crazy like a fox, and she’s my boyfriend’s grandmother. She was being her usual disruptive self at the Leoni viewing and the funeral director begged me to take her away.
“Bella wasn’t really all that upset about leaving in cuffs. She loves a dramatic exit,” I said to Plover.
“She scares the heck out of me. She put a curse on Stu Carp, and he got shingles.”
I nodded. “She scares the heck out of a lot of people. Connie said you mentioned a job.”
“Yes. I thought of you because you’re obviously good at finding people and surviving dangerous situations.”
“Like removing Bella from the viewing.”
“Exactly! Like removing Bella from the viewing.”
“About the job?” I asked.
“I want you to find a former employee. I’ve reported him as missing to the police, but nothing has come of it.”
“How long has he been missing?”
“Three weeks. He disappeared on the same day that I was held at gunpoint and the store was robbed in broad daylight by some moron.”
“Did your employee disappear before or after the robbery?”
“After,” Plover said. “Actually, I fired him. He was supposed to provide security. I hired him so I wouldn’t get robbed, and I got robbed.”
“But now you want to find him?”
“Yes,” Plover said. “He stole a tray of diamonds valued at close to a million dollars.”
“Seriously?”
“Duncan Dugan, the moron who robbed the store that afternoon, got low-hanging fruit. He cleaned out the cases. I don’t want to trivialize that. It was terrifying. It was a smash-and-grab without the smashing. He had me dump everything into a garbage bag while he held me at gunpoint. Fortunately, all the pieces he took were insured and he left the cases intact.”
I glanced around the store. “It looks like you got everything back.”
“Unfortunately, no. The bag of stolen jewelry wasn’t in the car when the police finally arrested the driver. Everything you see here is new. My displays are a little skimpy, but at least I’m still in business.”
“How could the bag not be in the car? I thought the police were on him the second he pulled away from the curb.”
Plover shrugged. “I don’t know. It wasn’t in the car. And it gets worse. The real loss was with the unset gemstones that were stolen separately. A large part of my business is in engagement rings. Couples come in and select a setting and a stone. So, like most jewelers, I keep an inventory of gemstones. Mostly diamonds of varying sizes and quality.”
“And you think your security guy stole the unset stones.”
“Yes. I do.”
“Have you told the police?”
“Yes, and they said they conducted an investigation, but nothing came of it. I can’t fault the police. I have no real proof that my guard took the stones. All I can say is that the gems are definitely missing.”
“But you seem sure that the guard took them.”
“After the robbery, when I locked up for the night it was justme and one of the police officers. Andy had left a couple hours earlier.”
