Rarities Unlimited 02 - Running Scared

asked.
    Lawe didn’t look up. At Rarities he had become accustomed to ceilings speaking to him without warning. “Depends on which outcome you prefer.”
    “Happy clients are always good,” Dana said.
    “Then it’s going badly.”
    Dana tilted her head and studied the screen. “Why?”
    “I’m ninety-nine percent sure that two of the emeralds are laboratory gems that have been stressed to reproduce the kind of fracturing that is common in natural emeralds. I can’t be a hundred percent certain without removing a stone and sacrificing a tiny bit of it for testing.”
    “But the emeralds are fake?” she asked.
    “Technically they’re quite real. Just man-made. Very nice color. Perfect for this kind of primitive cabochon setting and quite in line with early usage of gems, when stones were chosen for their depth of color rather than their brilliance.”
    “Could they be replacements of earlier stones that were lost?” Dana asked.
    “Could be. But I suspect at least some of the gold is a modern eighteen-karat alloy,” Lawe continued, pushing back from the table. “It just doesn’t have the feel of some of the old gold I’ve handled. If I’m right, at best you have a heavily repaired object. At worst a fraud. I’m not a gold expert, so I can only suggest that you do more tests.”
    Dana looked at her thin platinum watch. “Tomorrow.”
    “He has a ten a.m. flight to Seattle,” Ian said.
    “We don’t need Lawe for lab tests,” Dana said. “Write up your preliminary report. If the client wants more tests on the emeralds themselves, we’ll take care of it.”
    “It’s a lovely piece,” Lawe said.
    “It’s a joker,” Ian said.
    “So it’s a lovely joker.”
    “Why would anyone put all that work and expensive raw materials into making a fake?” Ian asked, shaking his head.
    “Because there aren’t any modern churches, kings, czars, or emperors who pay artisans to create gorgeous dust-catchers,” Lawe said. “But museums and collectors will pay high dollar for history with crowd appeal. So you create the history and get very well paid at the same time.” Lawe ran sensitive fingertips over the piece. “Either of my sisters would love this.”
    “We’ll offer that fact to our client as a consolation prize,” Dana said. “Good night, gentlemen.”
    “I believe that’s a hint,” Ian said, standing and stretching.
    “Ya think?” Lawe asked, nudging the other man toward the door. “C’mon. You owe me a beer.”
    “Huh? What are you talking about?”
    “You bet a beer that Factoid wouldn’t try the chocolate syrup thing twice on Gretchen.”
    “So?” Ian asked.
    “So she came back from lunch with a chocolate smear on her majestic cleavage.”
    “That doesn’t prove that—”
    Niall hit the audio switch. “Let’s go before something—”
    His phone rang. One of his very personal numbers. The one very few people had. “Bloody hell.”
    “Amen,” Dana muttered.
    Niall checked the caller number, said “Tannahill” to Dana, and put the call on the speakerphone. “Niall here. What’s wrong?”
    “Risa was attacked by a thug who thinks she has more Celtic gold artifacts like the ones I sent you.”
    “Is she all right?” Dana and Niall asked simultaneously.
    “Hello, Dana,” Shane said. “Risa outsmarted the guy, so she wasn’t hurt. Her apartment in the Golden Fleece was trashed and slashed.”
    “Who did it?” Niall asked.
    “Don’t know yet. The cops took a good photo off the camera data, and his fingerprints are all over the apartment, so we should have an ID pretty quick. I need Lapstrake here by tomorrow morning to help me persuade an artifact trader to tell the truth about where he got the goods.”
    “He’ll be there,” Dana said. “He can protect Risa, too.”
    “He’ll get real bored on the job,” Shane said.
    “Why?”
    “I fired her after her attacker got away.”
    “You—” Niall began.
    “I want her out of the game,” Shane said, talking over Niall. “One of her childhood friends is in this up to her dirty neck, and there are more gold artifacts floating around out there. Until they’re all accounted for, things could get lethal.”
    Dana and Niall exchanged looks. Now they knew why Risa had called.
    “I’ll be at Rarities by six a.m.,” Shane continued. “I’d appreciate a preliminary report on those four pieces. The gold is coming back to Vegas with me.”
    “No need. Lapstrake will fly out with the artifacts and the