Jewelry Can Be Deadly (Sage Gardens Cozy Mystery Book 6) by Cindy Bell Page B

him!”
    “He has a gun!” Eddy growled.
    “I’m not going to use it!” Roger placed the gun on the ground. Jo reached down and scooped it up.
    “There, now both of you stop! We need to figure out what is happening here!” Jo said.
    Eddy glowered at Roger as he got to his feet. “What is going on is that he was waiting out here for you with a gun. He clearly killed his wife and was prepared to do the same to you.”
    “I think you’re wrong about that, Eddy. I knew he was here, and I knew he had a gun, before I ever went in.”
    “What?” Eddy’s eyes widened. “Why would you do something so reckless?”
    “We’re all looking for the same thing,” Jo said.
    “A murderer?” Eddy’s eyes flashed. “Because that’s what I’m looking for.”
    “The only way we are going to find the murderer is if we find the necklace.”
    “You didn’t find it?” Roger looked at her with some disappointment.
    “I thought I had. I really did. It was the perfect hiding spot. But it wasn’t there.” She shook her head.
    “We need to get out of here before Tony comes back.” Eddy grimaced.
    “Wait, we should shut the front door first or he will know that someone was here.”
    “Why did you open it?” Roger rolled his eyes. “You had time to do that, but not find the necklace?”
    “Excuse me, but I was distracted by the two of you out here wrestling like teenage boys.”
    “He had a gun!” Eddy waved his hands with exasperation.
    “So? Who doesn’t have a gun?” Roger said.
    “Wait a minute.” Jo narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying that you didn’t open the front door, Roger?”
    “No. I didn’t. Why would I go in the front door and risk being seen? I’m not that stupid.”
    Jo didn’t argue, but she knew that going in the front door wasn’t stupid at all. Drew taught her from the first day that the best way not to get caught was to act as if you belonged there. Walk up to the front door, use your body to shield whatever tool you’re using to break in, and to anyone passing by it will appear that you are just unlocking the door.
    “Maybe Tony took off suddenly for some reason,” Roger said.
    “Whatever the reason might be we should get out of here,” Eddy said.
    “You’re right, let’s go.” Jo hurried towards the car. Roger went off in a different direction when they reached the sidewalk.
    “Get in, get in.” Eddy unlocked the doors. Jo jumped into the passenger seat and Eddy started the car the moment he was inside. “We should be arresting him.”
    “Well remember, you’re not a cop, and I don’t have handcuffs.”
    “I know.” Eddy drove down the road with his hands curled around the steering wheel so tight that his knuckles turned white. “I can’t believe that you did that.”
    “It was a judgment call, Eddy. He had a gun.”
    “You could have called for me.”
    “And then he might have shot us both. I thought it would be safer to go inside. I wanted to search the place anyway.”
    “Did you find anything?”
    Jo sighed. “I thought I did. But it turned out to be nothing. I don’t know, Eddy, we keep hitting up against brick walls.”
    “It’s a bit complicated. It’s almost like Valda’s death is an afterthought. Samantha called while you were in there Walt did some searching on Valda and he couldn’t find anyone in her past that had anything against her. I still think she was just an innocent bystander at the time of the crime. It’s hard to figure out who would be so vicious, when she doesn’t have any personal enemies that we can find. It looks like she wasn’t the target, the necklace was, she just got in the way.”
    “Are we sure about that?” Jo rested her head against her fist and looked over at Eddy. “Maybe we zeroed in so much on the necklace that we overlooked a simpler answer. Maybe she was the target. Anyone who killed her would have taken the necklace, too. Nobody leaves a piece of jewelry like that behind. Let’s not forget that Roger was