Deadly Diamond

“A cat sees no good reason why it should obey another animal, even if it does stand on two legs.”

––Sarah Thompson

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: The Estate Sale

Early Saturday, the morning of the estate sale, Alyx called Maggie to tell her about the break-in.

“I’ll have Bernice take inventory today to make sure nothing is missing,” she said. “The items from Althea’s condominium are in shambles, though. The furniture was turned over on its side, drawers pulled out, chair seats removed, apparently ready to be torn apart, possibly interrupted by the appearance of the patrol car…” She paused. “They searched under, behind and in all the drawers.”

“I’m speechless,” replied Maggie. “What could they have wanted?”

“I think someone was looking for something that belonged to Althea.”

“So you don’t think it was a robbery?”

Alyx took a deep breath before answering. “No, I don’t. At first, I thought it might have been bored teenagers out for an evening of mischief, but now I think maybe not. The police are calling it a break-in, and said they’ll conduct an investigation accordingly. They did say they found the alarm disabled. Apparently, it’s an old-fashioned model, and anyone could have disabled it. I don’t necessarily agree with that; I couldn’t.”

“I’m sorry, Alyx. I shouldn’t have left you with the estate sale going on––and now this to deal with too. We’ll leave right away, and I’ll investigate the cost of putting in a new alarm system as soon as I get back.”

“No, it’s not necessary for you to leave, Maggie. I can handle it. The only reason I called was to let you know about it. If I need you, I promise I’ll call. I’ll let you know if there are any developments and don’t worry, okay?”

Although Alyx rushed to get to Althea’s place early, Nelda was already at her condominium when we arrived for the estate sale.

“I’ve got coffee and pumpkin muffins,” Alyx announced, and handed Nelda the bag of muffins.

They unloaded and set up a card table in the garage, grabbed a couple of chairs from the kitchen, and Alyx tied my leash to her chair, which was totally unnecessary since I wasn’t about to go anywhere with a crowd of people stomping around, not watching where they stepped, I’m sure.

The women barely had time to take a sip of coffee when a caravan of trucks and vans arrived.

“Fasten your seatbelt, Nelda. Here we go.”

Nelda took a bite of the pumpkin muffin and smiled. “Got coffee. Got food. I’m ready.”

Most of the early birds were local dealers hunting for bargains. Alyx said she remembered all those times when she’d arrive at a sale at the advertised time, and half the items would have been gone because the dealers beat her to the sale and made tempting offers that the homeowners couldn’t refuse.

She ignored the slamming car doors and the murmuring of the mini-crowd until one man––the owner of the collectibles store down the street from Antiques & Designs––asked in a loud, brusque manner, why she wasn’t letting them in.

“In the interest of those who want to buy items for their own use and not for resale, I’ve decided to make it fair, and open the sale at the time stated in the ads. According to my watch, it’s not nine o’clock yet.”

“Aw, come on. You know how it works; this isn’t the only sale going on.”

“It’s the one I’m running, and I’m opening at the time advertised.”

The man clenched his fists, pushed past a couple of other people, made a show of slamming his truck door, and peeled away. No one said anything, except the thumbs-up sign from the young mother in the back of the group.

As the day progressed, the estate sale was going well. Most everything sold for the asking price, and by the middle of the day when the crowd had trickled down to one or two people at a time, Alyx started marking items half-price to move them more quickly.

Alyx and Nelda had everything wrapped up by three in the afternoon. Nelda was helping her carry a few items to her truck, when she saw a note under the windshield wipers and handed it to Alyx, who scanned it and shoved it in her pocket without comment.

“Thanks again for helping out, Nelda. I hope it wasn’t too much for you. Estate sale customers can be trying.” She turned, unlocked the car door, buckled my carrier into the passenger seat, and climbed in without further conversation. She didn’t notice that Nelda hadn’t left, and rested her forehead on the steering wheel.

“Did that rude man from this morning leave you a nasty note?” said Nelda through the window.

“Don’t worry, Nelda; it’s not the first time I’ve made someone angry. Thank you for all your help. You worked hard today. Enjoy what’s left of the day, and I’ll see you Monday.”

Alyx drove straight to the police station, and she asked to see Detective Smarts. He wasn’t in, so she left a message for him to call her as soon as possible regarding a threatening note someone had left her.