Sneak Thief (A Dog Park Mystery) Read Online Free

The interior was lined with folds of gun-metal gray Ultra-Suede. Long strands of stones pooled and spiraled across the cloth. The effect was a dizzying kaleidoscope of color that shifted and flashed as Lia moved around the case.
    â€œDo you like it?” Desiree asked. “Al let me do the display.” She glanced over her shoulder at the man at the desk, then lowered her voice. “Al designed the spacer beads and has them mass produced. I’m not supposed to tell people I assemble this stuff. Ruins the mystique.”
    Lia grinned. “I won’t rat you out. How did you wind up working here?”
    Desiree shrugged. “I wandered in one day and asked Al—that’s short for Alfonso—about buying some unmounted stones for my grandmother’s necklace. I wanted to try to fix it. So he asked me some questions and said he could use a helper.”
    Lia looked back at Al. His nose was still buried in his papers, a scowl on his face. She couldn’t imagine him warming up enough to be congenial. “How do you like working here?”
    â€œIt’s great. Hardly anyone comes in, so it’s nice and quiet and I just sit in the back and play with the stones. Al looks like a sourpuss, but he’s really sweet to me.” She leaned in, confiding. “His son is really hot and he’s a big flirt. He’s been hitting on me a lot when Al isn’t here, but I don’t want to mess with the boss’s son. This is the only job like it that I’ve found and I’d hate to lose it over sex. I console myself by flirting with the guys rehabbing the house next to mine.
    â€œAnyway, the jewelry is really easy to make. I feel like I’m one step up from Hobby Lobby.”
    â€œA few more steps than that. The spacers are lovely and I’m sure the quality of the stones is better.”
    Desiree looked back at her boss. “Not that much better,” she said. “I think it’s a hoot that people are willing to pay hundreds for a strand of beads that can’t be worth more than twenty.”
    â€œI feel the same way about art. Twenty bucks worth of canvas and paint, and if you have a name, you can sell it for a hundred times that.”
    â€œOh, but painting takes skill. This is easy.”
    Lia thought about pointing out that the value was in the design, but decided to keep her mouth shut. In this case, she didn’t see much that was extraordinary about the pieces, so maybe Desiree wasn’t far from the truth. It wouldn’t be the first time the world of fashion repackaged the ordinary as classic and sold it at premium prices.
    Lia strolled by the cases, examining the different stones. “I’m familiar with garnets and moonstone, but ametrine, celestite, peridot? I’ve never heard of them before.”
    â€œMost people haven’t, unless they’re rock hounds or crystal freaks. We’ve got an encyclopedia of minerals and stones that’s four inches thick. Al tells me they discover more gems every day, many of them rarer than diamonds. Diamonds aren’t even in the top ten, unless you’re talking about the Pink Star Diamond. It’s 60 carats. Sotheby’s sold it for 83 million.”
    â€œWow, that’s almost as much as Christie’s got for Van Gogh’s Sunflowers . So when are you bringing Julia to the park?”

3
    Monday, April 28
    T he Watcher thumped back in his chair and scowled at the offending monitor. He should have expected this. He had expected this; he’d overheard Desiree talking about her date on her cell phone. He’d been in agony, forcing himself to wait until the optimal time to retrieve the SD card from the camera, all the while hoping the date was a bust. Obviously not, as their ghostly, grappling bodies demonstrated on his monitor.
    The quality of the infrared was excellent. It tortured and titillated him as he watched the rude hand shove up under Desiree’s bra. The sound