Midnight in Ruby Bayou Read Online Free PDF Page B

handbasket . . . but he wouldn’t say it was going to heaven, either. “In fact, plan on going to Savannah with her. I need someone I can trust not to fly off the handle.”
    â€œBesides Tony,” Walker drawled, “is anything in particular bothering you?”
    â€œKyle. He’s still got a bad feeling about those Montegeau rubies.”
    â€œHow bad?”
    â€œReally bad. Getting worse.”
    Walker whistled softly. Kyle had had a really bad feeling about Walker’s recent trip to Afghanistan. Walker had gone anyway.
    He had nearly died there.

4
    â€œA million bucks for thirteen rubies?” Walker’s nearly black eyebrows rose skeptically. He shifted his grip on the cane. He didn’t really need it, but the old-fashioned wooden cane reassured people that he was harmless. It also reminded him how close he had come to being totally harmless, as in dead. It would be a long time before he was that stupid again. “I’d have to see the rubies before I’d sign the check.”
    â€œYou won’t be signing anything,” Faith said shortly. Then she looked at the workbench in front of her as though to remind Walker that he was interrupting her. “It has nothing to do with you or my brothers.”
    Walker’s glance followed hers. The thick, rough wood of the U-shaped bench showed the nicks, gouges, and burns common on a jewelry designer’s work surface. Pliers of all sizes and shapes, rat-tail files, soldering equipment, goggles, awls, clamps, polishing wheels, a metal block for hammering, a leather-covered mallet, and other less easily identified pieces of equipment were laid out in a pattern that looked random to him, but he had no doubt that Faith could lay her hand on anything she needed without searching. Anyone who used tools to make a living knew how to take care of those tools.
    With barely veiled impatience, Faith ignored Walker’s scrutiny and turned to the sketches of a jeweled suite she had been working on—necklace, bracelet, earrings, brooch, and ring. The loose papers covered with pencil drawings were held down by an expensive chunk of lapis lazuli. She stared at it—the stone was the exact shade of Walker’s eyes.
    The thought annoyed Faith. After her disaster with Tony, she had sworn off men, yet Walker kept sneaking into her awareness.
    She switched her attention to the large, discreetly wired front window of Timeless Dreams, her combination studio and jewelry store. Her social life might be a disaster area, but she was very proud of what she had achieved professionally.
    Beyond the glass, Pioneer Square’s mix of street people, artists, shop owners, and shoppers swirled through the raw early February afternoon. Last fall’s leaves had long since been ground to brown paste and licked away by winter rain. Tourists, even the hardy Germans, wouldn’t arrive for months. The rain was still at work washing streets, buildings, and pedestrians with the insistence of a mother cat grooming a dirty kitten.
    And Walker was still waiting for Faith’s attention.
    â€œDamn,” she muttered.
    Walker just kept waiting. He was good at it. He had learned patience the hard way, as a boy hunting salt marshes and black bayous in order to add protein to the family table. But Seattle was a long way from the torrid Low Country of South Carolina, Walker was a long way from his boyhood, and Faith had fewer survival instincts than the most innocent prey he had ever hunted in the haunting, primeval swamp. Walker knew the high cost of such innocence, even if Faith didn’t.
    â€œWhat do you want?” she asked bluntly.
    â€œAre the Montegeau rubies insured at all?”
    â€œMy shop insurance covers them while they’re on the premises.”
    â€œThen you must have some kind of an appraisal.”
    â€œOh, sure. But it’s informal. The man who owns the rubies gave me a written description of the stones and