Blackbird 02 - Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds by Nancy Martin Page A

was.
    Grandmama Blackbird's sapphire ring.
    I let out a shaky breath, suddenly feeling as if he'd backed me against a wall in preparation for throwing knives.
    He said, "It's yours, isn't it? I recognized it."
    "How did you get it?"
    "Let's just say I found it in Laura Cooper's possession, only a few hours after you had a public argument with her, hours after she was found drowned in a swimming pool. Don't worry. At the moment, nobody else knows I have it."
    At the moment. "You don't think I hurt her."
    He tossed the sapphire up and down in his hand.
    "You can't be serious," I snapped. "You're trying to coerce me. And you're probably interfering with the real investigation by withholding evidence."
    "Is this your ring?"
    "You know it is, but—"
    He was very calm. "How many people do you think will tell the FBI about the scene between you and Laura Cooper? And how many people noticed that Laura Cooper bears an uncanny resemblance to her husband's old girlfriend? Yeah, I noticed. Maybe the FBI won't put the two of you together, but I saw it right away. She was pretty bad coining out of the pool, but she definitely had a familiar look. You're going to be the first suspect, Nora."
    I felt breathless, clammy and dizzy, along with a few other flulike symptoms. "I didn't kill Laura Cooper."
    "I know that," he said earnestly. "I'm just asking for your help. I want to know who else Laura Cooper stole from. Who's missing jewelry? Who would be angry with her?"
    If the police became interested in Laura's career as a jewel thief, they couldn't be looking at Flan for her murder. Suddenly I liked the idea of steering the investigation away from Flan. "All right," I said cautiously. "I can ask around a little."
    "Okay. I won't tell the FBI about this ring, and you'll find out what you can about Laura Cooper. Deal?"
    Bloom might look like a kid with a stamp collection, but he had killer instincts.
    I said, "What should I do first?"
    "Find out about stolen jewelry."
    Chapter 6
    Afterwards, I sat in the back of the car and tried to think like a detective. Except I was trembling so hard my brain wouldn't function. I put my head between my knees.
    "My most creative inspirations often come from billboards," my mother used to say. The billboards Mama noticed usually advertised department stores, and her inspiration involved buying new sets of china we didn't need.
    But an electronic billboard outside the car window swam into view when I sat up.
    "Reed, can you park here?"
    Puzzled but obedient, he pulled to the curb across from the Civic Center. Above us, on the marquee outside the Civic Center, large black letters welcomed the Mid-Atlantic Cat Fanciers to Philadelphia .
    My sinuses began to swell just looking at the sign. But I had an idea.
    "What do you want to do?" Reed asked.
    I reached for the door handle. "I'm going inside."
    "You like cats?"
    It's not that I don't like cats. I think they're lovely, and I have an appreciation for their Greta Garbo kind of temperament.
    But I'm allergic. Not the charming little sniffle kind of allergic, either, but the purple eyes, hives and streaming nose kind of allergic.
    On the other hand, I was either a prime suspect in Laura Cooper's unofficial murder, or I was being blackmailed into helping the local police grab a high-profile case away from the FBI. Either way, I needed to do something. And suddenly I knew just where to find a certain person on this particular day.
    So I pulled a handkerchief out of my handbag, said good-bye to Reed and went into the cat show. The lobby was crowded with people. I followed the enthusiastic throng along a wide concourse to the ticket counter, then rode the escalator up to the exhibition hall, which had been converted into a cat lover's heaven.
    I'd visited the Civic Center during the fabulous Philadelphia Flower Show. But that event didn't prepare me for the chaotic extravaganza inside the exhibition hall today. The cavernous space was a maddening mass of cat fanatics,