The North Star

by Shepherd

  Marguerite’s smile was pained. “But of course.” She began to dial, very slowly.

  The detective turned to the other police officers. “Looks like a false alarm, everybody. You can move out.” The uniformed officers began gathering their things and trooping toward the front door.

  “False alarm is a bit of an understatement, wouldn’t you say, detective? Barging in on an old woman like this.” Her hand fluttered at her heart. “We should all count our lucky stars I didn’t expire from the shock!” She looked down at the phone. “Now, where was I? I’ll have to start again, I suppose.” She tapped the switch hook to disengage the line, and began dialing the number again, one button at a time, her eyes watching the police officers as they trickled out the door.

  Vishal watched the exiting police with growing alarm. “Where are they going?” He tugged on Detective Bermudez’s sleeve. “Search the house! You’ve got to find D-Mack and rescue my friends! He’s going to get away!”

  The detective held out his hands, palms up. “I can’t search the house without probable cause, and there just isn’t any evidence that Derek or your friends were ever here. Mrs. LaFarge says you were never inside the house.”

  “We were here!” Vishal insisted. His eyes searched the room until they landed on something familiar. He felt a surge of triumph. “And I can prove it!”

  CHAPTER

  27

  Vishal ran over to the curtains and pulled them aside, revealing the kids’ backpacks. “This one’s mine,” he said, holding up his camo-patterned pack. He unzipped the front pocket and pulled out his student ID. “See? That’s me.”

  Detective Bermudez waved the officers back into the room. “Hold up, everybody.” He stood over Marguerite. “Mrs. LaFarge, lying to the police is a very serious offense. It’s clear this boy and his friends were at your house earlier this afternoon, and I’m certainly inclined to believe that Derek Mackenzie was here as well. I’m going to give you one chance to explain yourself, and if I’m not satisfied, you’re going to find yourself in jail.”

  Marguerite pulled a lace-edged handkerchief out her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes, which were dry and clear. “I’m so sorry, detective, for telling a fib. This young man and his friends were here with my darling grandniece earlier today.” She patted Vishal’s arm. “I’m very sorry, dear, but you see, I just felt so badly for poor Derek. He’s had a rough go of it, and I just hate the idea that he’s been unfairly targeted simply because of his checkered past. He’s an innocent man, and I wanted to give him a chance to escape and clear his name. I still can’t believe he would truly do such a thing.”

  “I’m sorry to tell you this, Mrs. LaFarge, but Ms. Jetani’s statement was supported by a multitude of evidence, including emails between her and Mr. Mackenzie. He was most certainly behind the North Star theft. Perhaps you’ve been a bit too trusting?”

  Marguerite dabbed again at her dry eyes. “Oh, this is devastating news! I feel simply terrible for believing him. I gave him some money, and off he went. He could be anywhere by now!”

  “Go track him down.” Detective Bermudez nodded at two pairs of uniformed officers, who nodded back and hurried out the front door.

  “What a foolish old woman I’ve been.” Marguerite collapsed against the back of the sofa. “Thank goodness the other children went home earlier; I would be consumed with guilt if I had exposed them to any danger!”

  “So the other children left,” Detective Bermudez asked. Marguerite nodded.

  “Without their backpacks?” Vishal asked, pointing at the floor.

  Marguerite swallowed audibly. “Children are so forgetful, aren’t they?”

  Vishal’s voice rose. “And without me?”

  Marguerite stiffened. She closed her eyes for a moment. She opened her eyes for a moment and gave Vishal a kindly smile. “I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, dear.” She leaned closer to Detective Bermudez. “I don’t think they care for him very much, poor thing,” she said in a loud stage whisper. “You should have heard what they were saying about him when he left the room.” She shook her head. “Children can be so cruel, can’t they?”

  “She’s lying,” Vishal said. “They’re my best friends. They would never talk behind my back like that. They would never leave me behind.”

  “Wouldn’t they?” Marguerite said, her voice sly.

  “They must still be here, trapped somewhere,” Vishal said, his voice firm. He stood up. “We have to search the property.”

  “Officers have already searched the house, Vishal. They didn’t find anything,” Detective Bermudez said.

  “What about outside?” Vishal walked to the front door and turned back to the detective. “Will you help me look?”

  Marguerite hurried behind him. “There’s no need for that, young man. I assure you, they’re all safe at home.” Vishal ignored her and stepped out the door. She grabbed his arm to prevent him from walking down the steps.

  Detective Bermudez hurried over. “I suggest you let go of him, Mrs. LaFarge.” He nodded to the sergeant who had been interviewing Marguerite earlier. “Keep an eye on her,” he said, pointing at the old woman.

  Vishal and the detective walked outside. It was full dark, and most of the police had left. The remaining pair of cops outside were just closing the trunk of their patrol car and starting the engine. Bermudez tapped on the driver’s window. “Hang on a sec; I just want to do a search of the grounds before you go.” They hopped back out of the car. The group walked over to the side of the house and turned toward the back.

  Vishal grabbed the detective’s arm. “Look!”

  CHAPTER

  28

  Bermudez and the officers ran over to the garage, where they had seen the message painted by Sophia and the twins. The detective banged on the door and rattled the handle. “Zach! Evie! Are you in there?”

  They could hear Sophia’s voice, muffled through the door. “Um, excuse me, but aren’t you forgetting someone?”

  Vishal’s face broke out in a relieved grin. “Stand back, okay? We’re gonna break down the door!” He took a few steps back and broke into a run toward the door.

  Bermudez grabbed his shoulder before he could make contact. “Easy, tiger. Let’s leave it to the professionals, okay?” He moved Vishal aside, and within moments, the other officers opened the door, and Vishal’s friends came rushing out, all talking at once. “Whoa, whoa! One at a time!”

  “Where’s Derek?” Sophia demanded. “Did you catch him?”

  “Not yet, but don’t worry. We’ll track him down. I have officers searching for him right now. The important thing is that you’re all okay.” The detective grinned with relief, but his smile disappeared abruptly when Evie grabbed his hand and pulled him over to where a weak and pale Evan Masterson lay on the garage floor, his eyes just beginning to flutter open.

  Evie crouched down next to Evan and looked up at the detective. “When you do arrest Derek, make sure you add kidnapping to his list of crimes!”

  “Where did he come from?” Bermudez asked, kneeling beside her. He put his fingers on Evan’s wrist and checked his pulse. “Call an ambulance!” he shouted over his shoulder. One of the other cops grabbed her radio and hurried out of the garage.

  “We found him in here,” Zach explained. “We think he must have discovered that Derek was behind the North Star theft and tried to blackmail him. Instead of paying up, Derek kidnapped him and hid him in the garage until he had time to make his getaway.”

  Evan’s eyes blinked slowly open. He moaned and clutched his head. “But it wasn’t Derek who stole the North Star; it was Marguerite!”

  ***

  The group surrounding Evan froze in shocked disbelief. “Marguerite?” Sophia finally sputtered. “But that’s . . . that’s not possible. She would never do that! The North Star belonged to her sister. It’s been in our family for five generations! There must be some mistake.”

  Evan’s eyes closed for a moment. “It was no mistake. Two days ago, I
was . . . well . . . I was looking through Marguerite’s closet, and I found the North Star among her things. When I confronted her about it, she threatened me . . . told me to keep quiet or else. And when I asked for a little compensation for my silence, that’s when Derek showed up.” He rubbed at the angry red bump on his head.

  “So it was Marguerite who locked us in the garage, and not Derek?” Sophia asked in a small voice.

  “It looks like it,” Zach answered.

  Sophia swallowed thickly. “How could she do that?” Zach just shook his head.

  Two EMTs arrived in the garage and put Evan on a stretcher. “We’ll take the rest of your statement at the hospital,” the detective told him. After Evan was taken away, Bermudez and the children walked slowly back to the house.

  Marguerite had moved from the sitting room to the formal dining room. She sat regally at the head of the long mahogany table, just underneath a portrait of her late husband. When she saw the children, her expression grew defiant.

  Sophia wiped at the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. “So it was you all along? What about Derek?”

  “Derek? That idiot couldn’t plan his way out of a paper bag! He was merely a means to an end.”

  “But how did you trick Jasmine in the first place?” Evie asked.

  “Oh, Jasmine, that utter fool! All it took was arranging for ‘D-Mack’ to meet her at one of those ridiculous YouTube conferences, and he had planted the idea in her head within weeks. She never suspected a thing. That empty-headed Barbie doll would do anything if it would make her famous!”

  Sophia struggled to keep her voice from breaking. “But why, Marguerite? Why would you take the North Star in the first place?”

  “Why indeed?!” Marguerite hissed. “It was galling enough when my mother left the North Star to my sister and not to me. I was the eldest; it should have been mine! And then when it was passed down to your mother, she didn’t even have the courtesy to appreciate it. She was too busy going to law school and wasting time on charities. And then when your family decided to auction off our family history for a couple of filthy monkeys?! That was absolutely the end.” She clutched at her throat. “Disgusting!”

  Sophia’s voice hardened. “Gibbons aren’t monkeys; they’re apes.” She turned to Detective Bermudez. “Isn’t this the part where you arrest her and drag her off

  to jail?”

  The cops slapped cuffs on Marguerite’s wrists and marched her out the door. As she was leaving, she called over her shoulder. “The North Star has been in my family for generations, and you’ll sell it over my dead body! I’ve hidden it in a place where you can never find it!” She let out a wild cackle. “Never! Do you hear me? Never!”

  The kids followed the police out of the house and watched them put Marguerite in the back of a police car. “I’m not gonna lie,” Vishal said. “It feels pretty good to see that. She is a nasty piece of work.” He glanced over at Sophia. “Sorry,” he said.

  “No, you’re right,” Sophia said bleakly. She hugged herself. “I think ‘nasty’ is kind of an understatement.” A black SUV pulled into the driveway, and Mareva and Dashiell Boyd jumped out, followed by Mrs. Mamuya and Vishal’s parents. They ran to embrace their children.

  “Thank goodness you’re all right,” Mrs. Mamuya cried. “We were worried sick!”

  “I’m sorry, Mom,” Zach said. “We were on a case, and it kind of got away from us.”

  “A case, huh?” Mrs. Mamuya mouth quirked into a half smile. “I didn’t know I had a couple of detectives in the house. Maybe I should just call you the Gemini Detective Agency from now on, huh?”

  Evie nodded. “That’s actually not bad, Mom. I kind of like it.” She nudged her brother. “What do you think?”

  Zach grinned. “It’s a pretty sweet name.”

  Mrs. Mamuya ran her hand over the top of Zach’s head. “The next time you find yourself chasing down a lead, though, how about keeping me in the loop, okay?”

  Evie hugged her mom tighter. “It’s a deal.”

  ***

  A short time later, the police finished taking the kids’ statements and walked them and their parents over to the car, where Edgar was patiently waiting, reading a novel. Mrs. Mamuya lagged behind with the officers, taking notes for the Telegraph. “My mom said the police found Derek at the Greyhound station, buying a ticket to Chicago,” Zach said. “She heard it on her scanner app. They arrested him.”

  “Yes!” Vishal pumped his fist. “That’s three down at least.” He kicked a rock down the driveway. “But what’s going to happen to Evan?”

  “Once he’s out of the hospital, he’ll go straight to jail, too,” Zach said. “Blackmailing is a pretty serious crime.”

  “Good,” Sophia said. “Although now that I know how awful Marguerite was, I’m kind of glad he was using her. They deserve each other.” She sighed and looked at her feet. “I really wish we could get the North Star back, though. Marguerite said she hid it in a place we’d never guess. That could be anywhere.”

  “Man, that bites,” Vishal said. “I mean, we kind of saved the day by catching the bad guys and stuff, but we didn’t find the one thing we were looking for. And we still have to do homework.”

  Evie stopped in her tracks. “Homework? Oh, shoot! We left our backpacks inside!”

  The four ran back to the house. A uniformed cop barred the door. “This is the scene of an active investigation,” he said, barring the way. “I can’t let you inside.”

  “But we left our backpacks in there,” Evie said, “and we need them for school. Can we go get them?”

  The cop sighed. “All right. Come on.” The house was swarming with cops, who were checking under furniture, inside drawers, and even removing pictures from the walls in search of the North Star. Their faces were grim.

  “I guess they haven’t had much luck,” Zach said, slinging his red backpack over one shoulder.

  On the way out, Sophia noticed two officers searching the dining room. One was taking Harold’s portrait off the wall. “Hang on a sec,” Sophia said to her friends. She stepped into the dining room. “Could you guys please be careful with that? That’s a portrait of my great-uncle.”

  “Don’t worry, miss, I promise we’ll be careful.”

  Sophia glanced around the dining room, drinking in its walnut-paneled walls, crystal chandelier, and Persian silk rug. “I always loved this room. When my great-uncle was alive, we used to dine here all the time. He always told the best jokes.” She shook her head. “He would be so disappointed if he knew what Marguerite had done.”

  Evie’s face broke into a grin. She reached out and squeezed Sophia’s hand. “Don’t worry. I think that pretty soon things will be looking up.”

  CHAPTER

  29

  Sophia looked in the mirror and tugged at the hem of her dress. She smoothed a stray lock of hair behind her ear and turned to her mom.

  Mareva put her hands on her daughter’s shoulders and bent down so they were almost nose to nose. “You ready?”

  Sophia nodded. “I’m ready.” Mareva handed her a black velvet box. Sophia popped it open and looked at the sparkling North Star nestled inside. If they hadn’t found the necklace hidden in the chandelier, this day would never have come. Her fingertip gently stroked the large diamond that was the centerpiece of the necklace. “Thank you,” she whispered. Sophia snapped the box shut and followed her mom through a set of double doors flanked by two guards.

  “We’re not taking any chances this time,” Mareva said. The guards escorted them down a hallway and onto the ballroom stage of the St. Paul Hotel. The Gibbon Gala was packed with the Twin Cities’ most prominent citizens, all dressed in elegant cocktail attire. An MC stood on stage dressed in a perfectly tailored tuxedo. On Sophia’s cue, he picked up the microphone. “And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, the crown jewel of the Twin Cities and the highlight of our auction this evening, the incomparable North Star necklace.”

  A hus
h fell across the room as Sophia and her mother walked slowly to a pedestal at the center of the stage. Sophia opened the box, and the audience let out a collective gasp of appreciation. The diamonds sparkled under the stage lights. Sophia placed the box on the pedestal and stepped back.

  “The bidding will commence at one million dollars. Shall we begin?”

  ***

  Later that evening, Sophia found her friends standing near the buffet table. They were dressed in party clothes, and Evie’s hair was freshly braided. “Wow, thank you so much for coming. You guys look fabulous!”

  Evie hugged her. “Are you kidding? We wouldn’t miss this for the world!”

  “Besides, the food is amazing!” Vishal held up a plate piled high with food. “This is my third helping.”

  “Dude, I don’t know if that’s something to brag about,” Zach said.

  “What?” Vishal said. “I’m not ashamed.” He pointed down to his too-short pants. “We bought these pants for all the bar mitzvah parties last year, and they’re already too small. Clearly, I’m a growing boy who needs my fuel!” He took a huge bite of mashed potatoes.

  “Where are your parents?” Sophia asked.

  “My mom’s over there.” Zach pointed over to where Mrs. Mamuya stood talking with Detective Bermudez. “But don’t worry, you can talk to her; she’s not on duty tonight. She only reports on crime.”

  Sophia blushed. “Your mom’s story on the North Star was pretty awesome, actually. I think I’m starting to change my opinion on reporters.”

  ***

  A few months later, the families were all together again admiring the new exhibit at the Minneapolis Zoo. Gibbons swung happily through their new home, exploring every nook and cranny. A bronze plaque on the front read, This exhibit made possible by the generous efforts of the Boyd family and their friends. Sophia pointed at the plaque. “That means you!”

  Vishal laughed. “As if! I think I only donated like ten dollars.”

  Sophia shook her head. “No way. Without you three, we would never have solved the crime and gotten the diamonds back. We could never have built this without you.”