Page 59 of Savannah Heat
Dan ran his hands through his hair. “Probably, but it will take some time, and Harper knows it. The Roselands will have to give up the real thing to the jeweler again while he is making the new fake. I don’t think she will want to do it any time soon. I think the necklace will be back in the safe.”
“If Harper goes for option one, Marta is taking it out in public again at the big party the senator is giving to thank all his staff and campaign contributors. Well, it was the plan before all of this happened. Maybe she will just leave it in the safe now. Everyone is assuming he will be the winner again come Election Day. If the voting went otherwise, everyone will be surprised. His big thanks party is to be held right here in Savannah in two weeks. It’s the last, big public event before the election. He hits the road again afterward and will continue until Election Day, and he will be on to all those little places and one-hour stops. Marta will certainly not be wearing the necklace to those places.”
“So, this last big event will be something Marta would help host, but yeah, how do we know she will even consider risking the necklace again? Using it as bait again…once burned.” Dan drummed his fingers on the table.
“I can ask her,” Jenna said.
“Hmm, how would that go over under the circumstances? Would she or the senator trust you, us, now?”
Jenna shrugged. “Maybe not, but maybe we can help it get leaked about her plan to wear it just to get Harper back here.”
“Yeah, possibly. All right then, you do your thing and I’ll do mine. I’ll ask Luc to help me track Harper when she comes in and goes out of Paris. I feel sure she is there right now and will be until she is ready to strike again. You can bet she will be getting news about the Roseland’s schedule and likely from Gail Wells, wherever she is.”
Jenna grabbed another bottle of water. “Speaking of Gail Wells, where is she supposed to be? I mean where does her office think she is?”
“The police, along with her employer, were still looking for her the last I heard.”
Jenna put the cold bottle of water on her forehead. “I don’t know, Dan. Should we walk away now and leave it, all of it?”
“Harper won’t allow it, Jenna. We must set her up, and she must go to jail. If for nothing else than leaving you in the dirt and threatening to kill you.”
“Amato was who made the threat and who seems to have conveniently disappeared as well. Isn’t it time we leave it to the police? I still think she has something else planned to hurt us, and I hesitate to put myself and you in her path on purpose.”
“I know, Jenna, but it’s always better to meet your enemy head-on, rather than to wait for him or her to seek you out. You want the advantage. Trust me, we are already in her path. We are like a bull’s-eye on her target.”
Jenna sat again at the kitchen table. “So, I’m stuck with you here in Savannah for a bit, huh? I need to break the news to my office manager at the magazine and call two of my editors. They will hate me.”
“Once this is over, they will forgive you. Come on, let’s get out of here and go for a sail, and get our minds off the ugly things in life.”
“You always know how to live in the moment, Dan.”
After they had finished cleaning Dan’s borrowed townhouse, they decided a change of scenery was in order, and went sailing in his friend’s boat…something Jenna had not done in years. She’d forgotten how much she loved just the two of them together for a few hours, in their own world, working together as a team, and in perfect harmony.
Jenna closed her eyes and threw out a wish to the god of the sea—she wished she could always be so happy. But like all things, good and bad, an end came. As they returned the boat to its owner’s dock and drove back to the house, she wondered why she still lived in New York City and not here all of the time. This time, she asked it as a serious question.
Chapter Twenty-Five
They picked up groceries on the way to the townhouse, and Dan was confident he could navigate the high-tech grill he found on the deck.
Jenna did a load of laundry, pressed a few clothes, and returned calls and emails. She broke the news to her staff she would be away at least another week, maybe two. She promised her editors her article would be turned in on time. She didn’t mention the article she was writing about her experience—not yet.
Dan fussed with the grill, finally declaring it conquered.
An hour later, she looked up from her laptop, blurry eyed. As she finished her columns about the events at the senator’s party, she saw Dan was putting the steaks on. Man of many talents, she reminded herself. Her phone pinged—a text from Kerri. She finished reading Kerri’s text with a glass of wine in one hand and phone in the other.
Dan came inside. “Luc said Harper got in this morning. She is at her main house in Paris, at least for now.”
“Not for long, I found out from Kerri just now via text, Marta is wearing the necklace at the thank-you party, and the news is going out to the fashion world as I speak. Harper will know about it in twenty-four hours or less.”
“Well, at least Kerri is still speaking to you. So, great, it gives us time to set our trap.”
Jenna closed her laptop “Which is what, oh, master mind?”
“Harper will go for it at the party. She has nerves of steel. I think she will also try to plant some of her previously stolen jewels on me while she is here. She knows we will be there, but she has no way of knowing how long we will be at the party, so I expect she will pay me a visit beforehand. I’d be willing to bet she had us followed when I picked you up. She knows we are here. This is all based on what we know about her and what I would do if I were her.”
“Oh, Dan…she’ll never leave us alone, will she?” Jenna ran her hands through her hair.
“Now don’t worry, she wants us in jail, disgraced and ruined. She wants us to suffer like we caused her stepfather to suffer. She can only do that by pinning the robberies she has done on us. The only way is to let the FBI or local police find something on us or on our property that was stolen in one of the big heists she did.”