Murder & The Monkey Band: High Desert Cozy Mystery Series by Dianne Harman

you on this appraisal. It’s not
uncommon for women who live alone to hide something valuable in unusual places
like the pocket of their bathrobe or some other place, although I’ve never seen
anything quite like this.” She photographed the ring and handed it to Carl
whose eyes were uncommonly large as he stared, gape-mouthed, at the large
sparkling diamond ring.
    “I’m almost afraid to
touch it. Laura, could this thing be hexed or something? I guess what I’m
asking is if I’m going to have something horrible happen to me because I’m
about to touch it?”
    “No, I did a protection
chant before I came into the room. We’re all going to be just fine.”
    “You did a protection
chant,” Carl said. “Swell. I can’t even believe I heard those words, much less
that I’m saying them. I’ve heard of a sixth sense, but this is definitely the
first time I’ve ever experienced it. Do you realize if you hadn’t found that
ring it probably would have been thrown out when the room’s unneeded items like
the wig stand were cleaned out and dumped in the trash? Wow! I’m impressed.”
    Carl finished up his
examination of the ring and said, “I need to leave. Marty, it should take me
about a week to get my report to you. Thanks again for asking me to do this.
Laura, I should say it’s been a pleasure to meet you, but instead I think I’ll
say you’ve provided me with the most extraordinary experience I’ve ever had in
my life, and I rather doubt anyone would believe me even if I tried to tell
them about it. I know you two ladies have a lot more to do here, so I’ll let
myself out.”
    “Thanks, Carl. I’ll be
talking to you,” Marty said.
    He walked out of the room,
shaking his head and mumbling to himself.

CHAPTER 19
     
    “Laura, I don’t know if Carl will
ever accept another appraisal of mine after you broke open the styrofoam head
with the butcher’s knife and found the ring.”
    “Yeah, it was kind of
exciting,” Laura said, laughing, “Now what?”
    “As long as we’re in the
bedroom, I’d like to do the furniture and decorative items and finish up with
the antique perfume bottle collection on the vanity.” The master bathroom was a
huge room with a tiled floor, a large tiled shower with six jet sprays, a claw
foot tub, and an antique vanity which displayed the perfume bottles. The
bathroom overlooked the hills and the only window coverings were white silk
tieback drapes. Brightly colored blooming orchids were placed throughout the
room.
    “Sounds good. Shall I be
the official holder of the tape measure like yesterday?”
    “That would work for me.
We’ll start with the bed.” For the next two hours Laura held the tape measure
and whatever else Marty asked of her while Marty painstakingly took the
dimensions of the item and anything pertinent to it, recorded it, and
photographed it.
    At noon, Rosa walked into
the bedroom and said, “I’d like to fix lunch for you, if that’s all right. It
will be ready in about twenty minutes.”
    “That would be great, and
those sweet rolls were wonderful. Thank you. Actually your timing’s perfect.
I’ll finish up everything but the perfume bottle collection before lunch, and
after lunch we can tackle it.”
    Twenty minutes later, they
walked into the breakfast nook where Rosa had set out lunch for them on the table.
“This looks fabulous Rosa. Thank you so much,” Marty said, “What do we have
here?”
    “I made stuffed avocados
with a chicken salad filling and a fruit compote. The drink is a virgin
pomegranate blueberry rickey. Mrs. Jensen had one almost every day at lunch. I
hope you like it.”
    “Thank you, I’m sure we
will.”
    A few minutes later the
buzzer rang, indicating there was someone at the gate. “Who’s there?” Rosa
asked as she pressed the intercom.
    “It’s Detective Combs.”
    “I’ll open the gate for
you and meet you at the front door.”
    A few minutes later Jeff
walked into the breakfast nook. He greeted Marty