Read PW02 - Bidding on Death for Free Online

built-in desk. The office area was even more of a disaster zone than usual. But on closer inspection, I realized that was due to a new wave of boxes, which comprised Julia’s auction haul. Julia was going through the boxes, unwrapping her purchases and setting them out in a line along the wall.
    “So what’s the verdict?” I asked. “What did they get?”
    Julia waved comprehensively. “Who knows? I can’t find anything missing.”
    I pulled up a chair. “What did the police say?”
    “Luther Dawson came by last night. Took some notes but didn’t sound very hopeful. I’m supposed to make a list of missing items for the police report and insurance, but like I say, I’m not finding anything. The computer’s still here, the TV’s still over there. My jewelry box is on the dresser upstairs and it wasn’t touched. It’s all costume jewelry anyway. My cards were in my purse with me.”
    Julia unwrapped a cookie jar and admired it briefly before adding it to the row. “Luther thinks it was one of our criminal element, looking for cash or small items. He said someone, naming no names, is just out of juvie. I know who he’s talking about – Bink Tyler. I could tell Luther had already decided that Bink is the perp, but without finding goods on him, there wasn’t a lot they could do.”
    “Cash?” I asked. “Who uses cash anymore?”
    “Huh!” said Julia. “Good question. Well, I guess drug dealers and criminals. I can’t remember the last time I paid cash for anything. ”
    “Then it would have been dumb of this Bink Tyler to expect to find cash at your place,” I pointed out.
    “Aren’t most criminals dumb, though?”
    “I suppose so.”
    Polly ambled over to see what we were up to, and Beau followed to sniff her butt. He was uninterested in the boxes, presumably having thoroughly sniffed them when they arrived.
    “Hey!” I asked. “What about Beau? Did he react at all?”
    “Oh, Beau,” Julia said disparagingly. “Not that he’s exactly a watch dog, but he wasn’t here. Bob went down to Buddy’ s and you know how long those outings take, and he took Beau with him.”
    I knew. Buddy’s Feed and Seed was the favorite hangout of the men of a certain age in Queen Anne County. There were always a few ‘customers’ sitting in the back passing the time of day, and more often or not there was a dog in the mix. Visitors from more urban settings found the scene just too adorably quaint for words.
    Just then the front door opened, and Julia jumped like she’d been stung. “Oh, it’s you!” she exclaimed, as Bob entered carrying a bag.
    “Who else would it be?” Bob asked her curiously.
    “Oh, I know,” she told him. “I’m just flustered. We’ve never had a break-in before.”
    Bob nodded. “Uh-huh,” he said. “Queen Anne is having a crime wave.” He set the bag down on the work counter and pulled out his purchases, which turned out to be new door hardware. “ I was just out to the h ardware place in Livery and Jordan Johnston was there buying new locks too. He said Amy’s place had been broken into.”
    “Jordan is Amy’s boyfriend,” Julia told me in an aside.
    “You mean the Amy we met at the auction?” I asked, just to be sure.
    “That’s the one,” Julia said.
    “Oh no!” I exclaimed. “Did they get the Ruba Rombic?”
    “Get the what?” Bob asked.
    “There were some glasses and vases and such that Amy got at the auction,” I told him. “They’re really valuable, though you’d never know to look at them.”
    “Jordan didn’t say,” Bob replied. He was extracting the door hardware from the almost inpenetrable packaging as we talked. Finally freeing his purchase, he hoisted a screwdriver and hunkered down by the front door.
    Julia heaved out of her desk chair. “Come on, Cissy,” she said, heading for the kitchen. “Let’s get away from this mess for a while. I want to call Amy.”
    We settled into the kitchen with fres h cups of coffee, and Julia dia led