"Maybe a thousand, fifteen hundred. I just wanted him to get me a price. Then I was going to give him the other and a bracelet I had. I was trying to figure out if I should go through with it."
"So you're here to get it back?"
She nodded and took a deep breath. "I changed my mind. Maybe I don't have what it takes to be in business anymore. I don't know. I knew I didn't want to start a business by lying to my husband. I went to Someday Quilts the day he was killed and asked Marc for the jewelry back. He told me he was keeping it as his fee. I saw his keys on the checkout counter, so I took them. I was going to run down here and get the earring, and then I ran into you and got all freaked out, and then… Did Marc tell you about our arrangement?"
"Why would he?"
"You were getting… close," she stammered. "Maybe you were just as fooled as I was."
Another slam, unintentional or not, but this time I hit back. "You didn't go back to the shop later, maybe when you couldn't find the earring, and kill Marc?"
"If I'd already searched his place, why would I be here now?"
She had a point. I got up, knowing that Jesse would kill me for this, and walked over to the box of jewelry on his bookcase. I handed it to Carrie, who riffled through the mostly cheap earrings. In the middle was a beautiful diamond.
"I don't think he really knew where to sell it," she said. "I don't think Marc was that worldly. He was just really good at fooling people."
"We should go," I said, and we headed for the door. Just as we locked Marc's apartment behind us, I heard steps coming up the stairs.
"I got a report that someone was breaking into Marc's apartment. " I turned to see Jesse on the bottom stair.
"I can explain," I said.
"I'm almost certain you can."
Carrie and I sat in Jesse's office for nearly an hour. For ten minutes we explained why we were there, and for fifty we listened to Jesse tell us why we were in big trouble.
"I could charge you with half a dozen things," he said to Carrie.
"What if Marc gave her the key?" I asked. "Then she would have had his permission to be in his apartment. It's not a crime scene. You don't have police tape across it, do you?" Jesse just glared at me. "The earring belongs to her, so really what crime could you charge her with?"
"Tampering with a police investigation, for starters. I could charge you with the same thing." He sighed heavily. "Carrie, go home. I'm keeping your earring for now. I'll get it back to you when we're done with the investigation."
Carrie squeezed my hand. "Thanks," she said meekly and left.
I got up. "Don't move," Jesse said. "I like you, Nell. And I realize that this is my fault. I guess I liked having you around. And I'm the first to admit that you have been helpful. But this is the end of the line, do you understand? You are not a police officer."
"I wasn't being a police officer…"
"You followed a potential murder suspect into the apartment of a victim and then aided her in recovering property that could be evidence of her guilt."
"I don't think Carrie killed him."
"You did before."
"I don't now."
"Well, then. You tell me who did, Sherlock, and I can take the rest of the afternoon off."
"I don't like your tone," I said, my voice quivering just a little.
"I don't care what you think of my tone. I'm not going to be responsible for something happening to you, or this murder investigation, because you've gotten a little caught up in playing detective."
"Am I charged with anything?" I asked with as much iciness as I could muster. He was right, and that made me feel all the more angry and defensive.
"No. I'm just going to ask you to stay out of it. Maybe you should be spending your time figuring out why you're planning to marry a man you think could have committed murder. A guy who uses you for an alibi and tells me that you didn't mean anything to him."
"I realize he isn't likely to be the perfect, faultless husband you were." I surprised myself with my sarcasm. "I guess I'm just choosing from what's out there."
"Get out of my office," he said without looking at me.
"My pleasure." I got up and walked out as quickly as I could.
CHAPTER 54
Irushed out of the police station so fast I nearly walked straight into oncoming traffic. It took the sound of brakes screeching and someone yelling "Nell" before I paid attention. I looked around and someone yelling "Nell" before I paid attention. I looked around and saw Natalie coming out of the post office with little Jeremy.
"Are you okay?" she shouted.
I nodded. "I'm fine. Just mad."
"You want to get some coffee and tell me about it?"
We headed over to the bakery, where I got coffee, a chocolate-covered doughnut, and an eclair.
"You are upset." Natalie sat at the bakery's one small table. "Who are you mad at?" she asked as I swallowed the donut. "Sure hope it's not me."
"Jesse."
She blinked slowly. "What did he do?"
"Put me in my place, that's what he did. I understand that he's the cop. And I was wrong. I'm willing to admit that."
"You made a mistake and you told him you were wrong and he got mad at you?"
"I didn't tell him I was wrong. I would have, but he was so busy telling me all the ways I've screwed up that I just couldn't."
"What exactly happened?"
"I've been helping him. He's wanted my help. Now, all of the sudden, he's telling me to stay out of it. And he just said the meanest thing to me about Ryan."
"He has that way about him sometimes," she agreed.
"Everybody has to be perfect like him," I said, still exasperated.
Natalie sipped at her coffee and dusted some nonexistent dirt off Jeremy's bib. "He's not perfect."
"I know about you and his wife."
"Who told you?"
"Eleanor."
She nodded and looked away. "Then you don't know, not really."
Out the window I could see Jesse walk out of the police station and stand talking to another officer. "What don't I know?" I asked Natalie.
"When Lizzie, his wife, was really sick, I used to come by and visit. A lot of times, though, she would fall asleep and I would stay to keep Jesse company. It was hard for him, trying to look after his daughter. She was just a baby. I didn't realize at the time how hard that could be." She swallowed. "One night we sat outside, Jesse and me, and talked. He was so scared. So lonely. I don't think he'd admitted that to anyone before."
I could see that Jesse was slowly walking up the street toward the bakery. "Did something happen?" I asked, watching Jesse with one eye.
"It was stupid. One night we were having some wine and talking. Me about my bad marriage, him about his dying wife. I guess we both felt a little sorry for ourselves. He leaned over and kissed me," she said, blushing. "I let him because I was a little shocked, a little sorry for him. It wasn't a big deal, and that's all that happened, but to Jesse it was a huge betrayal. Whenever he saw me, he was ice-cold. He doesn't allow himself much in the way of failure."
"That's why he's mad at you-because you represent his failure to be a perfect husband."
"I guess." She leaned back. "He had also made me promise it wouldn't change my friendship with Liz, but it did. I felt uncomfortable, and I just stopped visiting her."
"And then he felt you had abandoned his wife."
"I guess, and if it made him feel better to be mad at me, then I was okay with it. Maybe I could have handled it better, for Lizzie's sake. But I didn't, and enough is enough. He's human too. He makes mistakes. And I'd tell him that if I saw him. I really would."