1 Dog Collar Crime by Adrienne Giordano

on my first dog coat.”
    “Please.” This from Frankie. “I think you’d know if you were using real jewels.” A hesitation. “Wouldn’t you?”
    “Apparently not. Ro did a scratch test to prove it. The stone left a groove in the bottom of a glass. And she thinks it’s fifteen carats.”
    Silence crowded the room. Even fat-mouthed Joey was struck mute.
    “How the hell?” Frankie finally said.
    “That’s what I want to know.” She turned to Joey. “Well?”
    “You think I put it there? Newsflash, genius; if I wanted to hide a real diamond, I’d do a hell of a lot better than putting it in your craft crap.”
    “That makes sense,” Ro said. “He’s no dummy.”
    All true. Never hurt to ask though.
    “Frankie?” Lucie asked. “Have you heard anything about this? Maybe from the guys at Petey’s?”
    “Hell no. I’d have told you.”
    Of course he would have, but desperation made a girl think odd things and Frankie holding out on her would be odd. Lucie sighed. “We need to figure out who this diamond belongs to.”
    “Could it be your dad’s?” Frankie asked.
    “I doubt it,” Joey said. “He’d have told me in case I had to move it.”
    Lucie twisted her fingers together. “Neither of you has heard about a diamond? Nothing?”
    “Not me,” Frankie said. “But the guys don’t talk about that stuff in front of me.”
    Joey looked pensive. “I’d have heard.”
    “It has to be stolen. Why else would it be hidden in my things?”
    And wasn’t that a screwed up scenario. Harboring stolen jewelry. They could all go to prison when they hadn’t even known about the stone. The police would never believe that.
    Not from the Rizzo clan.
    Lucie put her hand over her mouth in case the screaming in her head broke free. How the hell would they get out of this? Joe Rizzo’s family involved in stolen jewelry. Nobody would bat an eye.
    Trying to contain her internal hysteria, she turned to Joey. “We can’t tell Mom. Whatever this is, she can’t be involved. I don’t want her to worry. She’s been through enough with Dad.”
    “Luce,” Frankie said in his deep, strong voice. “Calm down.”
    So, apparently, containing her hysteria wasn’t working. Screw it. “How can I calm down? This is a nightmare.”
    “No kidding there,” Ro said.
    Lucie pressed both palms into her forehead. “We have to figure out how that stone got into the attic.”
    * * *
    That night, Frankie stopped by the Rizzo’s after finishing at the newspaper. Lucie couldn’t remember a time she’d been so happy to see him. Simply put, Frankie deflated chaos.
    They stood in the dining room, staring at the newly discovered diamond in his hand.
    “Wow,” he said.
    Total understatement. She’d stepped in deep doo-doo this time. She leaned her head against his shoulder, felt the soft cotton of his dress shirt against her cheek and took sanctuary in the feel of him next to her. “This stone has to be what the dognappers are after.”
    Frankie held the diamond against the light. “I don’t know.”
    The wall clock chimed midnight. She could sleep for a week. “I checked my files. The stolen dogs all have coats and collars I made.”
    Using his index finger, Frankie rolled the diamond in his hand. “Are we sure this is real?”
    “According to Ro.”
    “And she became a gemologist when?”
    Lucie eyeballed him. “This is Ro. She doesn’t need a degree to spot a real stone.”
    He stared at her as if one of her eyes was hanging out. “And you guys went through all the other stones in the bag?”
    “Yes. All fakes.”
    Frankie laughed, but the sound—that little bit of sarcasm—expressed itself as anger. “Someone’s mutt could have been walking around with fifteen-carats on a collar.”
    If Lucie had used the real diamond, yes. She didn’t want to think about what would have happened then. “I need to hunt down every item I’ve sold and check for real diamonds.”
    “That’ll be a job.”
    “I don’t have