by Amy M. Reade
Everyone sat in awkward silence for a moment, waiting for someone to speak.
“It’s horrible that the woman died in your store. Did she have any family?” Ghada asked.
“Yes, a husband and a son.”
“Again, maybe we could think of something more pleasant to discuss?” Hassan put in.
“Hassan is right. We should not be discussing such painful topics with a guest present,” said Amir. “Lilly, can you recommend good restaurants around Juniper Junction? We have been eating some meals out, but my wife and sister and daughter have been doing a lot of cooking, too. It would be nice to give them a break more often.”
Lilly was relieved to talk about something other than the deaths of Eden and Herb. Taking a pad and paper from her purse, she wrote down the names of some of her favorite local restaurants and a few from places outside Juniper Junction. She suggested that Amir look for them online to get directions and take a look at the menus.
Eventually the members of Hassan’s extended family began to take their leave of the Ashrafs and Lilly. Several of them were staying in the house so they just disappeared upstairs or downstairs. Others had rented houses on either side of the Ashrafs and they ventured out into the crisp, cold evening after bidding Lilly a warm goodbye.
Chapter 45
When everyone but Hassan’s immediate family had departed Amir stood up and beckoned Lilly to join him in the dining room. Hassan joined them and Basma and Ghada followed.
“Hassan tells me you also design jewelry,” Amir said. Lilly nodded. “He said you might like to see a particular piece of lapis lazuli that we have in our inventory. We happened to bring some lapis with us on this trip because on the way back to Minnesota we are going to stop at a gem show in Ames, Iowa. Normally we keep these pieces and all our other gems under lock and key, but I brought some out to show you tonight.”
Amir had been sifting through several boxes while he spoke. Each box was made of plastic and had a transparent lid so the contents could be easily identified. Finally he found the box he was looking for and lifted it up. Setting it down in front of Lilly, he lifted the lid with a flourish. Lilly looked into the box, which was separated into smaller sections by plastic dividers. In each section were nestled pieces of lapis lazuli in soft cotton, Some of the pieces were polished and shone under the dining room chandelier; others were matte and had a duller look to them. Lilly had never seen so much lapis in one place before. Since it was a relatively rare stone, she didn’t keep much of it in stock and she wasn’t a frequent visitor to gem shows, preferring to order her gems from trusted suppliers who chose stones for her.
Hassan reached into the box and pulled out a triangular piece of lapis. “This is the one I had in mind for your design for your client’s mountain pendant.” He handed it to her.
Lilly turned the stone over in the palm of her hand, admiring its smooth, cool surface. Hassan had been right—this was perfect for one of the mountains in the pendant. It was a deep blue, almost purple, and it matched the color of the mountain at sunrise in the photo Lilly had seen. Tiny white veins ran through the lapis, suggesting crests of snow. Lilly would certainly be able to use this stone as the anchor piece in her pendant, surrounding it with smaller stones to add contrast. “I think this would make a beautiful piece,” she said to Hassan and Amir. “How much is it?”
Hassan looked at his father, who put a hand to his chin. “I rather think Hassan would give it to you for nothing,” he said with a smile, “and if it were for you I would agree. But since it is for a client who is paying you to design a piece of jewelry, suppose you tell me how much you are willing to pay and we will agree on a price.” Lilly was surprised. She had expected Amir to name a price and she would either be able to purchase the stone or she wouldn’t. She hadn’t realized bargaining would be part of the process. She looked at Hassan uncertainly.
He grinned. “This is part of the fun for my father,” he said. “You should see how bargaining is carried out in Afghanistan. It is very intricate, very complex. Sometime I will tell you about it. But for now, just tell my father how much you would normally spend for a stone that you would use in a pendant of your own design.” Lilly thought for a moment, debating whether to name a price they all knew was too high in order to play along with Amir or to name a price that they all knew was too low in order to show respect to the man. She decided to go a little high.
She named a price and Amir smiled. “I see you are new at this, but you will learn.” He countered with a lower price and Lilly found herself beginning to enjoy the game. She made another offer, slightly lower than the first number but not as low as the number Amir had named. Again, he suggested another number. They were both smiling by the time they had completed three rounds of bargaining and agreed on a price Lilly thought was fair and even a bit lower than she would have paid someone else. The entire exchange had taken several minutes; Lilly discovered that the most nerve-wracking part of bargaining was the silence that ran long between offers and counteroffers.
Amir wrapped the stone for her in a length of linen cloth and gave it to her.
“Thank you,” she said. “My client is going to love this.”
“Please take a photo of the pendant when you have finished it,” Amir said. “I would like to include it in a catalogue we produce that has images of finished products jewelers have sold with our stones.” Lilly agreed and thanked Amir again.
Basma and Ghada had remained silent throughout the bargaining exercise. Now Basma spoke up. “You have given my husband a great deal of enjoyment this evening,” she said with a wink. “I can tell he is impressed with your skills as a businesswoman.”
Ghada nodded and joined Lilly and Hassan as they made their way out of the dining room. “Dad loves that part of the business,” she said. “Since he has stopped going on most gem hunting trips, he spends his days in happiness, bargaining all the time with unsuspecting people.” She laughed. “He doesn’t look that sly, does he?”
Lilly joined her laughter. “No, he strikes me as very mild-mannered.”
“In that case, has he sucked you in!” Hassan said with a grin. He changed the subject then and suggested that he and Lilly take a short walk outside. “You should see some of the houses in this neighborhood,” he told her. “I like to walk at night because they’re all lit up for the holidays. Even the rentals—the owners must pay local companies to install the Christmas lights so the renters can feel like they’re at home. My aunts and uncles love it.”
They bundled up and Lilly said goodbye to Hassan’s sister and parents. She hoped she would be able to see them again before they all returned to Minnesota.
Before setting off to see the neighbors’ homes, Hassan took Lilly behind the house where he was staying. The backyard, if you could call it that, had the look of a wildlife sanctuary. There were thick stands of trees and a small stream that hadn’t quite frozen yet. A quiet, soothing gurgling filled the night and the water sparkled in the moonlight as it tumbled over the rocks and around clumps of leaves leftover from the fall.
Hassan took Lilly’s hand in his. “Thank you for coming to meet my family tonight. I had a feeling my father would try to bargain with you over the price of the lapis, but I didn’t mention it because I wasn’t sure and I didn’t want you to fret or feel nervous.”
“I thought it was fun,” Lilly replied, looking up at him. He put his arm around her shoulders. “Was that some kind of test—the bargaining?” she asked.
“I can never be absolutely sure what is going through my father’s mind, but yes, I think it was.” He pulled her closer. “Look up there,” he said, pointing to the sky. “We never see stars like that in Minneapolis.”
“Yet another reason I love this place,” she said, snuggling into his shoulder. They stared at the stars for a short while before it started getting too cold to stand still, then they went around to the front of the house and made their way to the street. There were only four other homes on the block, two of which
were occupied by his own family members. Each house was decked with white fairy lights and still more lights twinkled in the trees surrounding the homes. As Lilly and Hassan walked, they paused in front of each house to admire the festive decorations. No inflatable Santa Clauses in this neighborhood, and no plastic reindeer. Everything was wrought iron and had been lit up with an elegant restraint.
“Every year our family goes away for the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s,” Hassan said. “I think this is the best place we’ve visited for a lot of reasons.” He stopped walking and leaned down to kiss Lilly. She felt a warmth that started in her toes and traveled up her body, into her fingertips and then her face. It was a kiss that left her flushed and breathless.
“Wow.”
Hassan laughed. “Do you have time to grab dinner somewhere?”
“I really shouldn’t,” Lilly said, pulling up her coat sleeve and glancing at her watch. “I texted the kids before I left the store to tell them I’d be late, but that I’d have dinner with them.”
“Then let’s get you back to the car so you can get home.”
He kissed her again when they reached her car and she pulled away from the curb with a feeling of giddy happiness. She brushed away any thought of him leaving at the end of the holiday season and treasured the time they were spending together while she could.
But it wasn’t long before the happiness dissipated like a mountain fog.
Chapter 46
“Mom, where have you been?” Tighe asked when she came into the kitchen.
“I had to meet with someone to buy a piece of lapis lazuli,” she said. “Why?”
“We’ve been texting you,” he scolded. “Uncle Bill is looking for you. He texted you, too.”
She froze. She hadn’t looked at her phone all evening. “What does he want?” she asked in a rush. “Is Gran okay?”
Tighe glanced sideways at Laurel, who had been listening to the conversation. “I don’t think it’s about Gran,” he said. “I got the feeling it was about Eden Barclay.”
To Lilly, it felt like all the blood in her body solidified and stopped flowing. She didn’t need to return Bill’s call to know that it was bad news.
She sat down hard in one of the kitchen chairs. Laurel poured her a glass of water from the sink and set it down in front of her.
“Mom, do you want us to go upstairs while you talk to Uncle Bill?” she asked. Lilly didn’t answer; she seemed not to have heard the question.
“Mom?” Laurel repeated. Lilly looked up at her daughter.
“Do you want us to go upstairs while you call him back?”
“You probably should,” Lilly answered. “I’ll call you down when I hang up.”
Laurel and Tighe went upstairs more quietly than usual. Barney, as if sensing her stress, sat down at Lilly’s feet and licked the back of her hand. She reached out absentmindedly to scratch his ears.
Taking a deep breath, she took her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed Bill’s number. He answered on the first ring.
“Where have you been?” he asked, his voice rough.
“I was out buying a piece of lapis lazuli for a client,” she said, her voice flat and dull. “What did you call for?”
There was a pause on the other end, then Bill spoke in a quiet voice. “Two officers are on their way to the house to question you again. Eden Barclay’s first husband told them you were snooping around his auto body shop, looking for information about Eden.”
“So? If anyone had a motive to kill Eden, it was Jed Horstman,” Lilly replied hotly. “Of course he would say that in order to deflect suspicion from himself.”
“They’re questioning him again, too. The thing is, they’re pretty sure one of the two of you did it. The way they figure it, the motive was money in his case, business disagreements in your case. And Jed has an alibi.”
That last sentence dropped like a rock. “But, but,” Lilly spluttered. “Alibis aren’t always truthful, right? I mean, did his wife just say he was home when Eden was killed? Because what else would they expect her to say? Did they see him on video somewhere that would prove his alibi?”
“You watch too much television,” Bill said, trying and failing to lighten the mood.
“I don’t watch television. You know that,” Lilly spat. It was no use getting mad at Bill—he was trying to help. She lowered her voice and spoke more slowly. “I’m sorry. I just see this coming at me like a runaway train and I don’t know what to do. I didn’t kill Eden.”
“I know that. I’m working as hard as I can to break this open. There’s someone out there who knows what happened; we just have to find that person.”
“When will they be here?” Lilly asked, running a hand over her eyes.
“Won’t be too long. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you for a few hours to give you a heads-up.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t worry about Mom,” Bill said. “I’ll stop over there on my way home from work and check on her. You’ve got enough to think about right now.”
She called the kids downstairs and they sat down to a meal of ham sandwiches and some of Noley’s leftover squash. While they ate Lilly explained what was going on.
“Bill said there are two police officers coming over here tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if they take me into the police station to ask their questions. I don’t want you two worrying about anything. If you’d like, I can have Noley come over until I get home. I’m sure I won’t be too late.”
“Are you going to be arrested?” Tighe asked, his forehead wrinkling.
“Bill didn’t say I would be arrested, so I doubt it. He would tell me if that was going to happen.”
“I think I want Noley to come over,” Laurel said in a small voice.
“Okay. I’m sure that’s not a problem. I’ll call her as soon as we’re done eating.”
They hadn’t finished dinner, though, when the officers showed up at the front door. Barney almost lost his mind barking at them when Lilly opened the door for them to come inside; he could probably sense the tension in the air.
“I suppose Bill has told you why we’re here,” one of the officers said.
Lilly nodded. “You have to ask me some questions about Eden Barclay’s murder?”
“Yes. We’d like you to come down to the station. We’ll drive you and then bring you home when we’re done. And while we’re here, we have a couple questions for your kids.”
Tighe and Laurel were watching the scene, their eyes wide. The officers took them separately into the living room and dining room while Lilly waited in the kitchen, fretting. She called Noley, explained what was going on, and asked her to come over. Noley agreed and said she’d be at the house as soon as possible. The kids were both back in the kitchen in just a few minutes. Neither of them looked especially perturbed, so Lilly tried to calm her own breathing. She was surprised the police hadn’t talked to the kids before now.
The officers didn’t wait for Noley to show up. Lilly kissed the kids goodbye, told them not to worry, and then allowed herself to be ushered out the door. She climbed into the backseat of the police cruiser and looked back toward the house, where the living room curtains twitched as the kids watched her leave.
Mrs. Laforge was watching, too. Lilly could tell by the twitching of her living room curtains. Nosey old bat.
At the police station the officers left Lilly in a small room with a table and three chairs. Lilly sat down to wait for them, wishing Bill could come in to say something reassuring, but she knew he wouldn’t. He needed to separate himself from this investigation for the sake of his job; she was lucky he’d been able to call her with a heads-up about the police coming to her house.
She sat by herself for several minutes then was joined by one of the officers who had accompanied her from her house.
He took her with agonizing slowness and miniscule detail through the events of the day before Thanksgiving until the moment Lilly had found Eden’s body on Black
Friday. Then he switched gears to inquire about all the discussions and disagreements Lilly could remember having with Eden over business differences and issues involving the Chamber of Commerce.
As frustrating as it was to repeat everything she had already told the police about her whereabouts from the time she left the shop on the day before Thanksgiving and for the ensuing thirty hours, Lilly remained calm throughout the questioning. She didn’t want to antagonize the officer and persuade him to keep her at the station any longer than necessary.
At one point, feeling the frustration and not thinking before she spoke, she blurted out, “I can’t believe I forgot to lock that vault.”
“Yeah, let’s talk about that,” the officer said, and Lilly groaned inwardly. “You say you’ve never forgotten to lock the vault, yet the one night you ‘forget’ someone is murdered in your shop,” the officer said, using his fingers to make air quotes.
“I must have had a lot of things on my mind, you know, for Thanksgiving and Black Friday and the Chamber of Commerce and the holidays,” Lilly said, not bothering to add and my mother and my kids. “And as I mentioned already, I got a call just before leaving the store on Wednesday. My mother had fallen and I was beside myself with worry. I can’t believe I forgot to lock the vault,” she repeated. “And the back door. I am such an idiot.” She shook her head.
“No comment,” the officer replied. Lilly stifled the urge to glare daggers at him.
“Are you going to arrest me?” Lilly asked. She couldn’t help herself.
The officer leaned back and fixed her with a long stare. “Not yet. But don’t leave town. We’re not through with you yet.”
“Can I go?”
He nodded and Lilly wasted no time pushing her chair back and leaving the room. She collected her purse and cell phone at the front desk and left quickly. She thought for just a moment about seeing if Bill was in, but she wanted to get out of the station and she didn’t want to get Bill in trouble.