Flawless

“No, Kieran. I’ll take it back there,” Julie told her.

“Don’t be a fool. You have no finesse when it comes to doing anything dishonest,” Daniel said. “You’ll look guilty as hell, and you’ll wind up confessing, saying you did it. Gary might have you arrested, not to mention what his boss might do.”

“I left the house, trying to give him space to screw anyone he wanted, and what did he do? He nearly killed my dogs!” Julie said, tears rising to her eyes.

“Asshole,” Daniel muttered, placing his arm around Julie. “He doesn’t deserve you. There are good guys out there, and you’ll find one, I swear.”

Kieran lowered her head, listening to the two of them. They just didn’t get it.

“You idiots,” she said. “This wasn’t just juvenile—it was criminal. Yes, Gary’s behaved like the worst and most despicable jerk on earth, but, Julie, if you want to get even, get over him! Finalize the divorce and learn to live a better life on your own. And, Daniel, how could you, you dunce? You’ve stayed out of trouble for years. You’re working. You have a life and a career ahead of you. Think. You’ve risked your whole future. Both of you have to think about yourselves. Forget about Gary. Do you understand?”

They both reddened, nodding their agreement.

“Give me the stone,” Kieran said to her brother.

“No, I’ll get it back where it belongs,” Daniel said.

“No! If something goes wrong, they’ll have you on tape twice. I’ll go. And you can’t go with me, Julie. If Scumbag’s there—” She cut herself off. “If Gary is there, I can say I’ve just come to ask him to start behaving civilly. If he’s not there, I’ll...I’ll let it fall on the floor when no one’s looking, pick it up and just hand it over. What you did is serious. I mean years-in-prison serious, grand-larceny serious, you—”

She stopped herself. She wasn’t going to call them idiots again.

Even though they were, she’d made her point.

Daniel very casually reached into his pocket and handed her the stone. Casual was the way to do it. She should know. They’d all been proficient at pilfering little things during those difficult early years. Gum, candy—small stuff. Now she understood that they’d been bitter and unable to handle the death of their mother, so they’d acted out.

They’d been good at it. What wasn’t good was that they’d never been caught. They hadn’t been hauled down to juvenile court, then threatened with their father’s wrath and whatever the system could do to them.

“I’m terrified that you don’t realize what you did. Grand larceny. You could be put away for years and years. Honestly, this is no joke. And no lie—sometimes the sentences for theft are longer than the ones for murder,” she said sternly.

They both looked contrite, but what scared her was that they still didn’t seem to comprehend just how foolish they’d been. How dangerously foolish.

She pointed a finger at her brother. “You promised me. No more stealing.”

“But I wasn’t stealing it. I was just...borrowing it for a while.”

“My company works with the police,” she retorted. “Aside from everything else, think about the position you’ve put me in.”

“You’re a psychologist who works with a bunch of doctors,” Daniel said.

“Who work with the police,” she finished. “You—”

Julie broke in. “It was my fault,” she said.

“Yes, in a way it was,” Kieran said. “And then again, no. Daniel is responsible for his own behavior. Daniel, I need you to promise me, once and for all, that you’ll never steal again.”

“Kieran...” he murmured, glancing away. “This was an exception. I did it for—”

“Daniel.”

“All right, I promise.” She could tell by the way he looked at her that he knew she doubted him. “Never again. I swear it on our parents’ grave.”

That, to her brother, was a solemn vow.

“I wonder if they’ll even miss it,” Julie said. “The diamond, I mean.”

“You wonder if they’ll miss it? A flawless stone worth a half a million or more?” Kieran asked incredulously.

“Like you said, there’s been a rash of jewelry store holdups in the city.”

“Yeah. Armed men come in and wipe out half a store. Do you think Gary’s boss and coworkers wouldn’t notice if they’d been held up by men with guns?”

She checked her watch. She had to leave now if she was going to make it before the store closed for the day.

“What do you want me to do now?” Daniel asked her.

“Cover for me at the pub.”

“I’ll help him,” Julie offered.

“No, you won’t. You’ll go home and walk your dogs. That way Daniel can say I’m dealing with something for you and it won’t be a complete lie. Declan will understand.” She stood. “And don’t you ever—ever—put me in this position again.” She stared at them hard. “I can’t believe what I’m about to do. I’m heading off to unsteal a diamond.”

She turned away. She had to hurry because time was against her now. Pretty soon the staff would be counting receipts and logging the day’s sales as well as inventorying the jewelry and stones they’d shown that day.

She prayed she could keep Daniel out of jail—and not land both of them in the arms of the law.

CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_70c68538-6931-57b6-bf1e-0b6b877a2f98)

WALLY O’NEILL, a civilian tech employed by the FBI, was working with Craig and Mike, viewing the security footage from the jewelry stores. They could have looked at the videos alone, but Craig was glad they had Wally’s help. He was a whiz when it came to cameras, computers...anything digital.

The security footage showed that all the robberies had been carried out in much the same way.

Quickly, for one.

Three men—or they looked like men, anyway—in dark jeans, hoodies and ski masks suddenly converged on the door and entered the store. They burst in with guns out. Not one of the recording devices allowed for sound, but Craig was certain that the first man to break in roared that no one had better set off the alarm or someone would die.

No alarms had been set off, but in the last two robberies, people had died anyway.

“Okay,” Mike said, “since they’re dressed alike, maybe they come from different directions or time it so each one is slightly ahead of the next guy to avoid calling attention to themselves. I mean, half the kids in America walk around wearing hoodies with their heads down and hands shoved in their pockets, but the ski masks are a real attention getter. I’m betting they don’t put those on till the last minute.”

Mike was probably right about that, Craig thought. In New York City, with crowds everywhere and people walking in every direction, their own agendas in their heads, there would be no particular reason to notice someone dressed like that. And Jersey? Pretty much the same story.

“They don’t split up when they leave, though,” Craig pointed out.

“There’s gotta be a getaway car idling somewhere nearby.”

“They committed the murders in Jersey. They’re either getting bolder—or they’re not the same crew.”

“That again,” Mike muttered.