“Thank you so much,” Rutherford said. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“Pretty slick,” Clara said when I closed the door on Rutherford.
“It’s not a given that he can find the stone,” I said.
Clara went back to bagging the fresh bread. “He’ll have every member of Ammon’s household staff out there digging up the garden.”
—
Diesel strolled in at noon.
“I got word on Ammon,” he said. “He’s still in the hospital. They were going to release him, but they found him drinking out of the toilet bowl and decided the concussion was more serious than they’d originally thought. So he’s there for another day.”
I told him about Rutherford, and Diesel grinned.
“Good work,” Diesel said.
“We’ll see,” I told him. “There’s no guarantee that Ammon buried the stone.”
“True, but it’ll give Rutherford something to do.” Diesel helped himself to a cookie. “I have a small job to do for the Exalted One, but I’ll be back for dinner.”
“Who’s the Exalted One?”
“My boss.”
“Does he have a name?”
“Sidney.”
“Last name?”
“I don’t know his last name.”
He gave me a kiss on the top of my head and walked out of the shop.
“I see what you mean about this being a good day,” Clara said when Diesel left. “If he kissed me I’d think it was a good day, too.”
I finished up a batch of cookies, cleaned my workstation, and headed for home. I stopped at the store and got steak and baking potatoes for dinner. I rolled into my house a little after three.
Rutherford knocked on my back door ten minutes later. “So sorry to bother you,” he said. “I thought you would want to know that we’re planning to bring Mr. Ammon home late tomorrow morning. He seems much improved.”
“Not drinking out of the toilet bowl anymore?”
“Ha-ha. No, no. None of that, I’m happy to report.” He looked over my shoulder at the food on the counter. “Steak and baked potatoes. Excellent choice for a meal. I see you’re expecting a guest.”
“Diesel.”
“Of course. I imagine he more or less lives here.”
“More or less.”
Rutherford clasped his hands together and went serious. “About the treasure. Have you located it? Is a trade actually possible?”
“Yes and yes.”
He looked around. “I don’t suppose you have it here?”
“No. I’m just a go-between.”
“Of course again.”
“Have you found the stone?” I asked him.
“Ah, that’s the thing. It seems that without your special ability, all stones look alike. We have, in fact, found many stones that are the appropriate size. Unfortunately, I don’t know if any of them are the stone. I was wondering if you would come out to the car to examine the rock collection.”
“You brought them with you?”
“It seemed like the least I could do since you’re helping me get the treasure back. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you any more than is necessary.”
A black Cadillac Escalade was parked at the curb. The back gate was open and two suited henchmen stood on either side of the SUV. I peeked inside at three boxes of rocks.
“That’s a lot of rocks,” I said to Rutherford.
“There are a lot of flower beds.”
I put my hand to the rocks one by one. None of them were empowered.
“Sorry,” I said.
“I don’t suppose you would want to give me the treasure anyway?” Rutherford said.
“I don’t have it. Someone else has it.”
“Someone who wants a stone.”
“Yes.”
“Couldn’t you give them one of these?”
“I don’t think that would work out.”
Rutherford packed up and left, and I returned to my house, where Cat was waiting.
“No luck,” I said to Cat. “They were all just plain old rocks.”
Cat looked at me with his one eye, thought about it for a beat, and gave his foot a lick.
“Well, I had to look,” I said to Cat. “You never know. The stone could have been there.”
Cat looked like he didn’t think so.
I stashed the food in the fridge, and Nergal called on my cellphone.
“I have something to show you,” he said. “I went to the bakery, but you’d already left.”
“What is it?”
“You have to see it in person. I’d bring it over to you, but I don’t know where you live.”
I gave him my address, and twenty minutes later he was at my door.
“Are you done with work for the day?” I asked him.
“I’m on call. My job is like that. Anyway, I went to that specialty grocery store that just opened on Fifth Street. They have an amazing deli. The egg salad has lots of mayo, and the tuna salad is full of celery.”
“I know the store you’re talking about. They make their own terrine out of olives and baloney. It’s awesome.”