Something From Tiffany’s (33 page)

Justin looked sceptical. ‘But he already has a girlfriend, doesn’t he? Who would be his fiancée by now if our Gary hadn’t messed it all up.’

‘I know.’ Terri bit her lip. ‘Lucky her, whoever she is. He’s a dote and Rachel would be so much better off with someone like him than with the likes of Gary.’

‘Come on, Terri, Rachel barely even knows him. And neither do you, for that matter.’

But Terri thought that sometimes you didn’t need to know a person all that well to have a good feeling about them. She put her hands on her hips. ‘Stranger things have happened, Justin. You didn’t see Rachel this morning. Something happened with those two last night; I’m sure of it.’ When Justin’s eyes widened again, she quickly clarified: ‘Oh not that kind of something. I mean a spark, a connection, whatever you want to call it.’

His gaze narrowed suspiciously. ‘When did you turn into such an old romantic?’

‘Since I realised that my best friend has become engaged to the biggest shit in the world.’ She kneaded her forehead. ‘I’m her bridesmaid and we’re going out shopping for wedding dresses soon. How am I supposed to tell her that Gary had no intention whatsoever of proposing, and that she’s wearing – for all intents and purposes – a stolen ring? This is all such a mess.’

‘So
are
you going to tell her? About how Gary came by the ring, I mean.’

Terri grimaced. ‘Can you imagine that conversation? I don’t want to upset her, but of course I don’t want to see her get hurt either. You know what Rachel’s like; she’d be devastated. Anyway it’s not up to me to tell her, is it?’

‘Well, surely Gary will say something now that he knows the game is up.’

Terri wrinkled her nose. ‘I wouldn’t bet on it.’

Justin continued making up some fresh salad. ‘One thing I will give you: it is pretty telling that Ethan Greene didn’t break the news to Rachel. Especially considering the size of that rock. If it were me, by now I’d have been ready to hold her down and prise it off her finger.’

‘Exactly. Which has to mean that he feels something for her, or at least enough to worry about her feelings. He admitted as much to me on the street earlier.’

‘So what are you going to do?’

‘What can I do, Justin? Rachel’s convinced that Gary’s the man of her dreams, when in reality he’s the stuff of most women’s nightmares. Whereas Ethan, on the other hand . . .’ She smiled, picturing the earnest face, the deep blue eyes. ‘This could be fate.’

Justin raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, for what it’s worth, I think you should take a step back for a while, see how this plays out. I wouldn’t go running to Rachel about it just yet; you’ve already done your bit in getting Gary to admit the truth, and maybe that’ll be enough to shame him into telling her. If he does, then you’ll be around to help pick up the pieces.’

Terri looked at him. ‘When did you get so
sensible
?’

‘I’ve always been sensible. You’re the one getting carried away with all this “fate” business, which really isn’t like you.’ He picked up a chopping knife. ‘But if you truly believe in that, then you also have to let fate do its own thing. The problem is that, in my experience, sometimes fate can have a strange sense of humour.’

Terri sighed, but she knew deep down that Justin was right.

Throughout her conversation with Ethan Greene, she’d already tried her best to give fate a helping hand.

What the guy did next was entirely up him.

Terri was surprised to see Gary at the bistro later that evening and even more surprised when, after speaking briefly to Rachel, he came into the kitchen and asked if he could have a private word with her.

‘What’s up?’ she asked, drying her floury hands on a nearby tea towel. He looked preoccupied and uncomfortable, a notable change from his usual cocky demeanour.

‘I, ah, just wanted to talk to you about last night,’ he began, his tone cautious.

‘Last night? What about it?’

‘Well, I had a few in me and I might have said some things . . .’

‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ she said, feigning innocence. Was he worried she might tell Rachel about their so-called flirting? Or did the concern stem from elsewhere, namely the sorry truth about the ring?

‘Well, as I said, last night is a bit fuzzy but you know the way we were talking about the engagement and I was telling you that it all happened a bit fast?’

Aha! So he
was
worried about that, she realised with some satisfaction. He’d obviously had a good think about it all after last night and had finally copped on to the reality of where the ring had come from. Maybe she’d misjudged him and he was about to come good after all.

‘Yes, you might have mentioned something about it all being a bit of a surprise for both of you.’

‘Yeah. It’s just that . . .’ Then he looked at her, as if trying to figure out something. ‘Actually, did Rachel mention to you where she was last night?’

‘After work, you mean? As far as I know she went out to dinner.’

‘Any idea who with?’

Terri was all innocence. ‘Well, now that you ask, I think it was with that guy who saved you, Ethan Greene.’

There was a strange look on his face. ‘Don’t believe everything you hear, Terri. That guy didn’t save me.’

‘Of course he did. You know that.’

Gary grimaced. ‘I don’t know. I think he’s a bit of a player, this fella, making up stories about losing some ring to try to get into Rachel’s pants.’

She shook her head, bewildered at his reckoning. ‘Gary, I really don’t think so. And you yourself admitted that you don’t know where the ring came from.’

‘Still, there’s nothing to prove it came from him, is there?’

Terri couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was Gary seriously trying to justify keeping the ring even though he knew it belonged to Ethan Greene? And was he now trying to accuse Ethan of moving in on Rachel? Admittedly, there might be something to the latter, but that was only through circumstance and certainly not by design.

‘Gary, I’m not sure what you’re asking.’

‘If this Greene guy was so anxious to speak to me, then why did he go behind my back and ask her out to dinner?’

‘Because you weren’t here and Rachel thought you were staying overnight in Wicklow. Anyway, he didn’t ask her; she asked him, to thank him for helping you out.’

He rubbed a hand across his stubbly jaw. ‘I don’t know, Terri; this guy seems a little too cute for my liking. And if he thinks I’m going to fall for that sorry story he fed me earlier . . .’

‘So you have spoken to him, then?’ Terri was relieved that the two men had at least been in contact. It meant that Gary would now have no choice but to be upfront about what had happened. Granted, Rachel would be hurt and feel very deceived but the truth needed to come out sooner rather than later. ‘I’m glad. The sooner Rachel knows about this the—’

Gary looked at her. ‘Rachel doesn’t need to know anything, as there’s nothing to know.’

‘But . . . but we both know that the ring isn’t yours!’ she replied, wide-eyed. ‘You must give it back to Ethan.’

‘Forget it, Terri. There’s nothing to prove it’s his. It’s Rachel’s now, and none of us wants her to get hurt, do we?’ He looked at her closely, and Terri realised that behind his Neanderthal bluster was a calculating mind. This worried her even more.

Even worse, he was calling her bluff, daring her to admit what she knew to Rachel, when he was sure she wouldn’t be able to back it up. He was right in a way: there was probably no firm proof that the ring belonged to Ethan. And, by the looks of things, Gary was planning to suggest that Ethan was using it all as a cover story to get closer to Rachel. Perhaps he was even convinced of it himself.

Either way, it looked like Ethan wasn’t going to get the ring back any time soon.

Just then Rachel arrived back in the kitchen. ‘Hi, what are you doing hiding away in here?’ she said, sidling up to Gary.

‘Just thanking Terri for keeping me company last night,’ he said, putting an arm around her, and Terri was amazed at the ease with which he could lie. ‘Anyway, I’d better go and let you ladies do some work.’

‘Are you sure you don’t want to throw on an apron and give us a hand? I’ve got some fresh pastry that needs making,’ Rachel teased him, going to the storeroom.

‘Nah, best to leave all that stuff to the experts,’ he joked. Giving Rachel a kiss on the cheek, he eyed Terri briefly as if to challenge her.

With a sinking heart, Terri knew that, realistically, even if she wanted to tell Rachel the truth, she didn’t have a leg to stand on. The story would seem so unlikely and far-fetched that there was a chance Terri might simply come across as jealous or spiteful.

What made it harder was that Gary was willing and (it appeared) well able to cover his tracks, and after talking it all over with Justin, Terri knew that by saying something to Rachel she ran the risk of ruining not only their friendship, but also their business relationship.

So what was she going to do?

Rachel came back out of the storeroom. ‘Making more sourdough already?’ she said, noticing that Terri was kneading out fresh dough. ‘Damn, it must be doing a bomb today.’

She and Terri had an unofficial competition going on over how well each of their speciality breads was doing in the artisan bakery. Today Rachel’s olive bread was lagging behind.

‘Doesn’t it always?’ Terri replied jokingly, hoping her despondency didn’t show in her tone.

‘We’re still fine on cookies though, and – oh blast!’ Rachel added, her face falling. She wiped her hands and fished around in the pockets of her apron for her mobile.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I don’t know how many times I promised Ethan I’d make some for his little daughter. I should have given them to him when he was in earlier, but I completely forgot. Maybe he can pop back and collect some later.’

Terri watched as Rachel waited for the call to be answered.

Rachel rolled her eyes. ‘No answer. I’ll just leave a message and hope he gets it before he goes back to London.’

Terri idly wondered why Ethan hadn’t taken the call. Although, given Gary’s response to his plight, he was perhaps down at a Garda station trying to make a complaint, or worse, she thought with a woeful grin, down by the River Liffey trying to decide whether or not to hurl himself in.

‘When is he due to go back?’ Terri asked. ‘Doesn’t seem that he’s had that much time for research.’

‘Not sure. I think it’s this evening. And I know,’ Rachel chuckled, ‘I just didn’t have the heart to tell him that a book about bread sounded about as interesting as paint drying. But I did tell him that we’d help out, if he’d like – given our own superior knowledge of the subject!’

‘Good idea.’ Maybe Ethan would take Rachel up on this and use it as a pretext for staying in touch. If so, the guy would be rightly stuck with his lame cover story. ‘But we both know I’m the real baker around here,’ she teased. ‘Seeing as my good old sourdough’s left your olive bread for dust, again.’

‘Well, get cracking on making more of it then, instead of rubbing my nose in it!’ Rachel retorted. ‘Anyway, I told Ethan in the message to collect the cookies whenever he can, so if he calls back later when I’m finished here will you make sure he gets them?’

‘Of course.’ Terri now wondered if Ethan would be back with a policeman, given his recent stonewalling by Gary. Yet she knew he wouldn’t make a scene, for Rachel’s sake if nothing else. Either way, she wasn’t entirely resistant to another encounter with Ethan Greene. It meant she could find out exactly what had been said when he’d spoken to Gary.

Rachel was using her fingers to break up pieces of fat for puff pastry. ‘Damn, I keep forgetting to take this off,’ she said, catching the ring as it was just about to slide off. She laughed lightly. ‘If I’m not more careful, one of these days it’ll end up in somebody’s dinner!’

Terri looked up and watched Rachel place the ring on a nearby shelf before resuming what she was doing.

‘Yes, we wouldn’t want that, would we?’ she replied distractedly, turning back to the dough she was kneading.

Chapter 30

Ethan was so angry he thought he might burst. The gall of the man to deny outright that the ring was Ethan’s, when Knowles had to know full well he had come by it in unlikely circumstances!

Enough was enough. There was nothing else for it now but to take this whole thing straight to the police. But there was a problem: which police? The incident had happened in New York so why would the Irish, or indeed the British police, be interested?

He wondered if he might be able to claim the loss back on his credit-card insurance. There would be visual proof (as well as witnesses) to his buying the ring in the store, and he could ring Tiffany’s and ask them to send him copies of the security footage of Gary Knowles buying the silver bracelet. Yes, he supposed he could try that. Ethan was annoyed he hadn’t thought of this before now, but, stupidly, he’d thought he was dealing with reasonable and rational people, not a thug with no morals, who thought nothing of pocketing such a valuable item.

He was delighted to have been offered another excuse to visit the bistro, and by Rachel herself, when he picked up her message about collecting cookies for Daisy.