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at the man snoring in the corner, at his oozing sores and sandpaper stubble. In spite of herself Kyna wondered if he could really be a cop and was only made up to look like the world's most disgusting bum. |
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Finally she decided that if the guy were a cop, he deserved to make a good bust and opened the top locker and pulled down a stainless steel attaché case. After checking to make sure the clasps were still locked, she walked as calmly as she could back out of the depot. |
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Once safely locked inside the car, she sat behind the wheel for a few moments to let her heartbeat return to normal and then drove down Park Avenuepaying strict attention to the speed laws. At Audubon Park, she stopped in the shade of a huge oak tree to check the contents of the case. Inside she found a hundred plastic bags of loose diamonds and a package about the size of a brick wrapped in plain brown paper. |
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This must be the package Bryan had mentioned when he called, she thought. He'd also told her in no uncertain terms not to open it. |
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Kyna picked the package up and shook it. |
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She stared at the package for all of ten seconds and then began tearing at the paper with her nails. |
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"Serves you right for disappearing, you prick." |
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Inside the paper was a box taped and tied with white string. |
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It cost two of her brand-new nails, but at last she lifted the lid and peeked inside. |
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It was a necklacesort of. |
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Kyna held the thing up to the light. It was the oddest piece of jewelry she had ever seen: a mishmash of seventeen semiprecious stones, rocks and crystals, spaced widely apart on a strip of what looked like rawhide, but felt rough and scaly like snakeskin. At one end was a hunk of black rock tied to a |
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