Emeralds in the Attic Read online

  “But why?” Annie asked. “The jewels aren’t valuable. Why steal them?”

  “Maybe they thought they were valuable?” Kate said with a shrug. “When you showed us the rest of the set, I thought they looked real. Not everyone can recognize what’s real or not in jewelry.”

  “But wouldn’t jewel thieves need to know?” Annie asked. “If you steal jewelry for a living, you’d probably know jewelry.”

  “Unless you’re simply grabbing something because you liked it,” Mary Beth said. “Which puts Sunny Day in the lead as far as I’m concerned.”

  “She definitely didn’t seem like the brightest bulb in the chandelier,” Alice said. “I could see her as being impulsive.”

  “But leaving the ball and breaking into my house doesn’t sound all that impulsive,” Annie responded.

  “Sounds greedy,” Mary Beth responded. “And I can totally picture her being greedy.”

  Alice raised an eyebrow. “You haven’t even met her.”

  “I know enough about her.” Mary Beth recrossed her arms as if the matter were settled for her. Annie suspected Mary Beth’s firmness was as much from loyalty to Kate as from any kind of logic.

  “Maybe that biologist is connected to the scandal somehow,” Gwen said, clearly intent on keeping her favorite suspects in the lead. “Maybe the original owner was Simon Gunderson’s grandmother or something, and he’s swiping them back for her.”

  “I don’t know that we’re going to come any closer to solving the mystery at this point,” Annie said. “We need to know more. I’ll get the photo from Milt Koenig, and we’ll see if we can learn the identity of the woman in it.”

  “And find out if she’s Simon Gunderson’s grandmother,” Gwen said.

  “And find out who she is,” Annie corrected. “And what scandal was connected to her.”

  “That makes sense,” Alice said. “So is the sleuthing meeting over? I need to pop into The Cup & Saucer to catch Peggy up on everything.” She turned to Annie. “Want to come?”

  Annie sighed. “If you don’t mind waiting just a few more minutes.” She turned to Kate. “I’m totally stuck on that cable stitch in the sweater sleeves. Can you help me?”

  Kate smiled at her warmly. “Of course.”

  While Kate began unraveling the mystery of the crochet cable for Annie, the rest of the Stony Point sleuths slowly drifted out of the store, promising to report back if they learned anything else. Alice stood at the counter and chatted with Mary Beth as she waited on Annie.

  With Kate’s sure hands demonstrating the cable stitch and twists, Annie quickly saw what she was doing wrong. “Sometimes a technique is really easy once you see how it’s done,” Kate said. “etven though the instructions seem complicated.”

  Annie worked a few rows while Kate watched, just to be certain she had it. She then gave Kate a quick thank-you hug and packed the sweater in her project bag. “I’m ready,” she told Alice.

  “Great, I could really use a nice jolt of caffeine,” Alice admitted.

  Annie looked closely at her friend as they walked out of the shop. Alice looked tired. The laugh lines that gave her face much of its mischievous look seemed deeper, making her look older. “Are you feeling all right?” she asked.

  “I’m exhausted,” Alice said. “I had trouble falling asleep last night. All this business with John brings back a past I really don’t like revisiting.”

  “I’m sorry,” Annie said. “Do you think he’ll be leaving soon?”

  “I’d like to hope so, but I think it’ll take a while to get my footing back even then. It’s like having the stupidest thing you’ve ever done pushed right in your face … coupled with all these memories of some really bad times.”

  Annie nodded. She couldn’t really know how Alice felt, but she couldn’t begin to imagine how much it would have hurt if Wayne had ever betrayed her trust, or if she’d found out what she’d believed about him was a lie. In some ways, it might have been even worse than the pain of losing him after a long, wonderful marriage.

  Alice gave her a light shoulder bump. “I’ll be all right. I promise.”

  “I’ll hold you to that.”

  They settled down to a pleasant cup of coffee at the diner, catching Peggy up on what had happened at the meeting in small bits so that her boss wouldn’t yell at her for spending too long a time at their table. It became almost a game, seeing how much they could pack into a coffee refill, and soon all three were giggling over it.

  Finally Peggy said, “OK, I think I’m caught up now.”

  “Good,” Annie said. “If I drank one more refill, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep for the rest of the week.”

  “I am feeling a little fidgety,” Alice admitted as they paid the check and left the diner. “I think I’ll work some of the nervous energy off with some shopping. Want to come?”

  “I don’t think so,” Annie said. “But you have fun.”

  Alice smiled. “I plan to.”

  Annie watched her friend climb into her sporty convertible and pull out, the breeze already tugging her auburn hair as she waved back at Annie. Annie hoped a little shopping therapy would help bring back a little of the Alice-spirit she knew and loved.

  14

  The next morning, Annie decided to have a little electronic sleuthing with her morning coffee. She hauled her laptop and the tiny portable printer downstairs to the kitchen to check her e-mail and finally see the mystery woman. As she sorted out what to plug in and where, she was reminded again why she normally did research at the public library. She really just preferred to work with computers in a place where she had someone to call for help.

  The laptop had been a birthday present from LeeAnn a couple of years earlier. LeeAnn had gushed about how she could send photos of the twins, but her busy daughter had as little time for e-mail as Annie had inclination.

  Still, she’d followed LeeAnn’s orders about getting Internet through the cable company, just in case she needed it. She just hoped the little blinking cable modem was letting her connect because she had no idea what to do if it decided to be contrary.

  She nearly clapped when messages began to appear in her e-mail program. Since she hadn’t touched the computer in weeks, she had to wait as a variety of messages offering her discount medicines from Canada, untold wealth from Nigeria, and the names of swinging singles in her area. She shuddered as she deleted these without opening them.

  Finally the e-mail from Koenig’s Jewelry popped up and Annie held her breath while she clicked on it. Would the photo help her solve this mystery? She scanned Milt’s brief note. It basically said the same things he’d told her on the phone. Then she double-clicked the attachment.

  A photo filled her screen. It showed a slightly grainy black-and-white newspaper photo of a dark-haired woman laughing. The woman wore a dark dress and a fur wrap. Peeking from the gap between the edges of the fur wrap, Annie could clearly see the emerald necklace. Behind the woman in the photo stood a man with light-color hair, but so little of him showed that Annie wouldn’t have recognized him even if she’d known him.

  Annie stared at the woman’s open-mouthed laugh. She seemed so carefree and happy. At the same time, her carefully styled hair and the fur wrap definitely suggested money. But did she look like any of Annie’s suspects?

  Annie shook her head. There just was no way to judge any kind of resemblance from the photo. Certainly she didn’t look enough like anyone to trigger recognition. With a sigh, she sent the photo to the printer, hoping that Stella might find the woman more familiar.

  After she tucked the printed photo in her cardigan pocket, Annie decided to use her own coffee-induced energy to finish the raking, not that raking could truly be called “finished” as long as so many leaves still hung from the trees. Still, she found the raking and hauling a good way to use her hands as her mind wandered from suspect to suspect.

  As Annie heaved the last tarp load of leaves into her compost bin, she heard the sound of tires on
gravel and turned to see another strange car pull into her driveway. She squinted into the low sun to see if she could identify the driver.

  The car stopped and she immediately recognized the tall man who climbed out. Frowning, she wondered what John MacFarlane wanted with her.

  “Good afternoon,” he said pleasantly as he walked toward her.

  Annie was suddenly sorry she’d finished her raking. She’d probably enjoy seeing the perfectly pressed cuff of his pants fill up with leaves. “What can I do for you?” she asked.

  “I went by Alice’s, but she wasn’t home,” he said. “Do you know when she’ll be back?”

  Annie shook her head. “Alice doesn’t check in with me.”

  “That’s not what I hear,” he said, folding his arms cross his chest.

  “Oh?”

  “It seems to me you have a great deal of influence with Alice,” he said, and suddenly the smooth charm she’d seen every time she spoke with him slipped away. “I have to wonder why you’re so intent on her not getting back together with me.”

  “Alice makes her own decisions about you.”

  “So you’re not going to admit you don’t want to see us together.”

  “I don’t want to see Alice hurt,” Annie said. “She’s my friend. But she’s also an adult, and she makes her own decisions just fine.”

  “Except that here in Stony Point with her old friend Annie, she suddenly doesn’t trust me. She suddenly doesn’t want to see me.”

  Annie stared at him in disbelief. “You don’t think cheating on her and dumping her in a world of debt had anything to do with that?”

  “So you two do talk about me?” His smile was as cold as the chill that slid up Annie’s back.

  “We talk about most things that bother us,” Annie said, “but I’m really not interested in discussing Alice or our friendship with you. It seems to me that Alice is handling you just fine.”

  He took a step closer, crowding Annie’s personal space. “Don’t make me show you how I handle things that bother me, Annie Dawson.”

  Annie reached behind her and wrapped a fist around the rake handle, she brought it around her body quickly and pushed the end into John’s stomach slightly. “You need to leave,” she said. “We’ve got nothing else to talk about.”

  He looked down at the rake handle, then back up into her face. “For now.”

  He took a step back, and then he turned and walked quickly back to his car. Annie drew in a deep, shaky breath. He may not be a suspect in her break-in, but something told Annie that John MacFarlane could definitely be a dangerous man.

  Annie put her rake and tarp away, but she jumped at any sound in the driveway, and finally she accepted that John had truly frightened her. She went inside and carefully locked the door behind her.

  She wondered if she should tell anyone about their confrontation. He hadn’t exactly threatened her, though he had certainly been menacing. He hadn’t waved a weapon around, and he hadn’t even touched her. She was the one who poked him with a rake handle. He’d frightened her, but it didn’t seem like anything she should bring to Chief Edwards. Her last conversation with the chief had left her feeling slightly foolish, and she didn’t want to repeat that.

  She could tell Ian, of course. He definitely wouldn’t brush aside her concerns, especially since he didn’t like John in the first place. But she worried that he might overreact a little. She certainly didn’t want to be the cause of some kind of macho confrontation where either man got hurt. She didn’t like John—and she desperately wanted him to leave Stony Point—but she didn’t want to provoke Ian to go after him either.

  Annie picked up the phone and began to dial Alice’s cell. Then she stopped and hung up. Alice looked so tired from all this business with her ex. Annie didn’t want to make it worse, and Alice would definitely feel guilty if she knew John had frightened Annie.

  As she sat at the edge of the chair, staring at the phone, Boots padded into the room and rubbed against her ankles. Annie scooped the cat up and gave her a gentle hug. “Someone scared me a little, Boots,” she said. Boots responded by rubbing Annie’s chin with her head.

  She held the soft, warm cat for some time, petting her until Annie felt calmer and more in control of herself. John MacFarlane had been trying to intimidate her, and it had worked. But now she felt more in control of herself. She even smiled a little as she remembered Betsy Holden’s no-nonsense advice about fear.

  “Fear only has one job,” Gram told her. “It’s supposed to point you at places you need to be careful. When you find that fear is getting a little too big for its britches, you have to put it in its place. Tell it that you’re going to be careful, and after that just tell it to shut up! You’re the one who’s in charge of what goes on inside of you—don’t ever forget that.”

  “Right, Gram,” Annie said softly. She’d be careful of John MacFarlane, but she wasn’t going to cower and shake. With that, she looked down and realized Boots had fallen asleep in her arms. She carried the sleeping cat to the sofa and laid her gently on the soft cushions.

  Annie decided she didn’t want to simply sit at home and fret about the mystery, and certainly not about John’s threats. Since it was Saturday night, she decided to drive into town and see if Mary Beth or perhaps another friend might want to go to dinner with her. A little company was sure to give her some perspective. Plus, stopping by A Stitch in Time might give her a chance to show the photo of the woman to Stella, since the older woman often came into the needlework shop during the week to spend some time knitting and chatting with Mary Beth and Kate.

  As Annie pulled into a parking space between A Stitch in Time and the diner, she was delighted to see the shiny white Lincoln Continental that she knew was Stella Brickson’s car. Stella must be knitting at the shop, Annie thought as she climbed out of her own car, trying not to notice how much her burgundy Malibu could use a nice wash, especially compared to Stella’s spotless vehicle.

  Annie walked to the big window that covered much of the front of A Stitch in Time and peeked in. She saw Mary Beth deep in conversation with a customer as they stood huddled together near one of the yarn cubbies. Annie’s gaze swept the rest of the shop, but she didn’t see Stella.

  Frowning, Annie stepped away from the shop. Should she go in and ask if Mary Beth had seen Stella? Surely the elderly woman hadn’t walked far from the car. Annie looked up and down the sidewalk, finally spotting a figure she recognized. Stella’s driver Jason was walking away from her, carrying what seemed to be a heavy cardboard box. She hurried to catch up with him. “Jason?”

  He turned and smiled at her. “Mrs. Dawson.”

  “Is Stella in town?” she asked.

  “No, not today,” he said, and then he dropped his voice and leaned closer to her. “It’s a dread secret, but she’s caught a cold. She never likes it to get around when she has something so common.” He laughed lightly.

  “Oh, I was hoping to show her something,” she said.

  He shrugged apologetically, and Annie heard something shift in the box. “I shouldn’t be keeping you here chatting. The box looks heavy.”

  “It’s just some dishes Mrs. Brickson loaned the Historical Society for the ball,” he said. “They ran short, and Mrs. Brickson had the same pattern in abundance. The Bricksons could have hosted a dinner party for fifty and all the china would’ve matched.”

  “Now that would be quite an undertaking,” Annie said. “Well, I would tell you to pass along get-well wishes, but since her cold is a secret, I’ll just keep a good thought.”

  “That’ll do,” he said cheerfully. “You have a nice day now.” Then he strode past her with the heavy box.

  So much for finding out who the woman in the photo might be, Annie thought, frustrated. She wondered if it would be worth carrying the photo to the Historical Society. She doubted Liz Booth missed much that went on around Stony Point, but the slightly prim president of the Historical Society had made her feelings about gossip pretty cle
ar back when Annie and Alice had been trying to solve a mystery about a tattered rag doll.

  Annie felt at loose ends until she saw Ian Butler crossing the street toward her with a smile on his face. “I’m very glad to see you,” he said. “I was going to search for meat to soothe the savage beast. Would you like to join me for dinner?”

  Annie smiled slightly. “I don’t know. I’ve probably seen enough savage beasts today.”

  “Oh?”

  She waved her hand lightly. “Never mind. So shall we go to the diner?”

  “I’m not sure I’m in the mood for the diner tonight,” he said. “Would you mind if we go to the inn? They make a fantastic venison stew this time of year, and I’ve been thinking about it all day.”

  Annie looked anxiously down the street. John MacFarlane was staying at the inn, and she definitely did not want to run into him again. Then she remembered Alice saying John wouldn’t eat at the inn because of the expense. “OK,” she said tentatively.

  “Annie, are you all right?” Ian asked.

  She nodded and forced a smile. “It’s just been a bit of a long, weird day.”

  “I insist that you tell me all about it,” he said as he put a hand at her back to coax her down the sidewalk toward the inn.

  “It’s not really worth talking about.” Then she slipped the folded photo out of her pocket and handed it to Ian. “Do you recognize this woman?”

  Ian looked it over and shook his head. “It looks like an older photo, though. I doubt this woman has looked like this for a long time. She probably looks like Stella now.”

  Annie nodded glumly and slipped the paper back in her pocket. “I’ll just have to try to be patient until I can show it to Stella.”

  They walked along in friendly silence for a bit until they reached the movie theater. Annie glanced at the ghoulish movie posters on display and shuddered. “I can’t imagine why anyone would sit through a movie that involves chopping people up,” she said.

  “You probably have to be a teenage boy,” he said mildly, glancing at the posters. “I suspect it might have something to do with scaring your date into clinging to you in the dark.”