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said. She moved closer to the other woman and conspiratorially
slipped one of her Somers Private Inquiry Agency cards from her purse. She
watched in silence as Grace speed-read the words on the beige card. “I’m here
on a case, you see – there’s a guy that some people think may not be all he’s
cracked up to be, and he’s at the Tara Bay Hotel at a jewelers' convention….”
She let the words trail off; hoping that she could make her escape while Grace
digested the information. Fat chance.
                “You’re
on an undercover assignment? Never did have much truck with jewelers, so I hope
you get him dead to rights. Me wedding band turned me finger green, it did, and
my Joe, God rest his soul,  had to go in and threaten to knock the jeweler down
before he’d replace it with something proper, and for the same price, too.  A
bunch of feckin’ crooks, they are.” Grace paused, her eyes widening with
excitement. “If you wait a minute, I can be ready and come with you – backup,
like they say on the TV. It’s not right for a young girl like yerself to be on
a nasty job like this unprotected….”
                Cíara
gulped and quickly assured Grace that she would be in crowded public places at
all times and there was no question of danger. She had to leave right now or
she’d be late. Then she whizzed out the door and literally ran to the Beast to
make her getaway before Grace could come up with any further arguments. Not
that she would have the last word.
                “You
make sure you wear a coat over that dress, young lady – you’ll catch yer
death.” Grace’s voice rang out over the roar of the Beast, the lecture trailing
her down the bumpy driveway like exhaust fumes.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
                The
Tara Bay Hotel had lots of style, lots of class, and lots of very wealthy,
beautiful people gliding around its marble-floored foyer. Cíara hovered on the
edge of the crowd, wondering how to slip unnoticed in to the ‘Get to Know You’
social evening that the jewelry trade convention was hosting.
    Grace had been right about one thing – her
outfit was a problem, but not in the way the outspoken landlady had meant. The
sexy little dress was missing one vital accessory – a wealth of genuine jewels
that seemed obligatory. The women here were walking showcases for the jewelry
trade and she felt positively naked by comparison.
    But her momentary pang of jealousy was followed
by a big gust of relief not to be walking around with thousands of Euros around
her neck, wrists, ears, and anywhere else expensive jewelry could be displayed.
She grinned as she imagined strolling along to her favorite pub in North
Dublin, dressed like that – she wouldn’t get five yards before all that lovely
shiny stuff was in someone else’s greedy paws!
                Still,
the difference in dress code was going to make it a little harder for her to
blend in and sashay into the main room where the social event was taking place
– especially as she had to cross the broad foyer under the watchful eyes of the
desk staff and, she suspected, a crowd of gimlet-eyed security people. She
stood out like a sore thumb without all those shiny baubles.
                 “Dah-rling!
Where have you been all my life!”? Cíara jumped as a big, bear-like young man
threw his arm around her as if they were long-lost lovers. Exclaiming in a
decidedly foreign accent, he risked his life as he pinched her bottom and
breathed whisky into her face. On the brink of a Vesuvius-type explosion, she
held in check her impulse to punch him on the nose as she realized that here
was her ticket to the ball.
    Despising herself but saying it was just this one
job, after all, she gushed: “Oh, honey, I’ve just been waiting around for you!”
Then she firmly linked her arm with his, grinning to herself at the slightly
bemused expression on his face as they strolled towards the