Rarities Unlimited 04 - The Color of Death

IQ of the men looking at them.
    Sam enjoyed tits and gems as much as any man, but he managed to keep his mind on his job. He was sixteen years into the FBI and hoped to make twenty before someone added up the “doesn’t play well with others” and “colors outside the lines” flags in his file, and then kicked his “runs with scissors” ass out of the Bureau.
    No matter how hard Sam tried, when someone asked his opinion, he gave it. All of it, no matter how disagreeable it might be to the people who asked.
    Good thing you’re bright, boy, ’cuz you sure ain’t politic.
    That’s what his first SAC—special agent in charge—had told Samfifteen years ago. Nothing had changed since then. The Bureau got even with him by delaying his promotions and assigning him to low-profile jobs. So instead of tracking international and domestic terrorists with the other Bureau hotshots, he was part of a special task force trying to break a ring of jewel hijackers that had plagued the gem trade in the past five years.
    But even on what should have been a straightforward assignment, Sam’s offbeat way of looking at the world had gotten him into trouble.
    Tough titty. Sam flipped another page and scanned another breathless advertisement describing rubies as the colored gem investment of the century. I’ve weathered worse than Mr. “Legend in His Own Mind” Sizemore. In less than five years I’ll have my pension and my own business, and the politically correct assholes who can’t see beyond their own brown noses can take a flying leap.
    Silently, Sam repeated his personal mantra while he handled an assignment any schoolboy could have covered.
    A shimmer of raspberry silk caught his eye. He glanced across the room. Though not beautiful, the woman held his attention. Black hair ruthlessly pulled back from her face. Medium height. Nicely curved—not showgirl nice, but the kind of real flesh that men liked to hold close. Expensive-looking suit and low heels with matching leather handbag. No obvious jewelry.
    She moved confidently, yet his investigator’s gut told him that she was on edge.
    Intrigued, he drifted closer without ever looking directly at her. When he saw that she was heading for the Purcell booth, his interest sharpened. If someone offered them quality goods, Mike and Lois had a reputation for not asking embarrassing questions about previous owners and bills of sale. Naturally, the price they paid for the goods reflected their tight lips. In all, the Purcells were just the kind of folks a gem hijacker might be looking for.
    After all, there wasn’t much point in clouting a gem shipment if you couldn’t turn the tiny pretties into big mounds of anonymous green cash.

Chapter 6
    Scottsdale
    Tuesday
    9:33 A.M .
    Kate was so relieved to find Mike Purcell alone in the booth that she gave him a radiant smile. He responded with a leer. When his wife, Lois, wasn’t around, Purcell had the reputation of being a real hound. Until yesterday, Kate hadn’t thought much about the gossip. Then she’d learned firsthand just how true the gossip was, and she’d chosen her outfit for today accordingly.
    She braced her smile to keep it from slipping, eased her right hand down her blouse to undo a few buttons, and told herself that it was all for a good cause. Apparently unaware of the gap in her clothing, she stepped closer to the case and bent over it.
    “Come back to look at the blue sapphire?” Purcell asked slyly, leaning forward over the display case, close enough to sense her body heat. “Or maybe you have something else in mind.”
    Her smile stiffened, but he didn’t notice. His eyes were on the cleavage she’d so generously displayed. She swallowed hard and settled into the odious business of flirting with a man she’d rather have scraped off her shoes.
    “Well, you never know.” Kate stroked the hollow of her throatlightly, hoping to distract him from her breasts. It worked for about two seconds. “That is one mighty fine gemstone,” she said in a carefully breathless voice.
    The sapphire was indeed unusual, but not quite to the point of being a showstopper. At least, good old Purcell must have thought so or he wouldn’t have displayed it so openly.
    Kate thought Purcell was wrong. That was a gem guaranteed to raise the heart rate of any dealer who saw it.
    Maybe Purcell just couldn’t resist strutting the stone in front of the other second-tier dealers, she thought, gritting her teeth against her