Winter Watch

Home > Other > Winter Watch > Page 9
Winter Watch Page 9

by Klumpers, Anita;


  “I’ll go help her,” Ann told Claudia. “You two have a nice talk.”

  Claudia led Amos between the heaps of tablecloths, silverware, clothes, books, toys, and flashlights. She was saddened to see shards from a lovely set of china swept into a pile, and hoped it wasn’t a loved family heirloom. As her host clung to her arm, she grasped the enormous repercussions of the vandalism. A blind man could function beautifully in familiar surroundings, but upturn everything, change locations of furniture, misplace necessities, and the simplest task would become overwhelming. Claudia seated Amos in the dark, heavily-curtained room and excused herself with the promise she would return in a minute. She picked her way past Ezra and Lem and, with trepidation, entered the kitchen. Amos’s daughter scared her.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt,” she called.

  Sue turned from the stove, eyebrows high.

  “It just hit me. I mean how hard it will be for your father to get around. Once he and I finish talking, can I help put things away?” She laughed, a nervous, dry sort of giggle. “I have plenty of time on my hands, and I’d love to be useful.” She wasn’t sure how the offer would be taken, but she didn’t expect the grin from Ann and the chortles from the Prospers behind her.

  Sue’s face, however, softened. “That is kind of you, Miss Alexander. You’ve already lifted Dad’s spirits more than you can imagine. We’ll have this place put back together in no time.”

  Ezra said, “In less than an hour this place will be overrun with deBoers, and in less than two hours you won’t know there ever was a mess.”

  “Didn’t I tell you she’s wonderful?” Ann said to Sue.

  Sue almost smiled in response. Claudia almost smiled back. She turned to find Ezra’s chin inches from her nose.

  “I want to make sure you know we aren’t laughing at you. We’re just picturing the deBoers in action. That is a sight you won’t soon forget.”

  Mollified, she moved toward the front room, and Ezra fell in step next to her.

  “Claudia,” he said as they reached the room where Amos waited, “that was nice of you.” He returned to his brother.

  Claudia, warmed, went in to Amos.

  He asked her to leave the big oak door open for extra heat.

  “I can’t see this room, but I still dislike it. We keep those dreadful curtains closed to hold back the chill. I never could abide north-facing rooms and neither could my pa when he lived here. Spent most of his time in the kitchen or the bedroom on the southwest side of the house, and so do I. But of course they’re a mess right now, too. That was one thorough intruder.” Amos patted the seat on the sofa next to him and handed Claudia a colorful woolen blanket. She sat and pulled it around her. The chill went right through.

  Amos leaned back, his milky-blue eyes fixed toward the yellowing ceiling tile.

  “Everybody has a story. Things do, too. I’m beginning to think this watch has a story. Ann told Sue that you got it back. Did you bring it? Can I see it?”

  Claudia looked to see if he meant this as a joke, but his expression was serious as she put the watch in his hand. He turned it over, running blunt old fingertips over the face and the back.

  “Not lovely, did you say?” he asked.

  “Hmm. I guess I should say it isn’t ornate. The inside face is plain, with big Roman numerals. The four is goofy. It’s made of four I’s. The workings I couldn’t tell you about. As far as I know, nobody in my family had them checked. All I know is that it loses time. The metal is shiny, and I would say rather lovely. We think the platinum must be a good grade because it never tarnishes. Heavy, isn’t it?”

  Amos nodded as he hoisted it in his palm. “Sturdy too. Wish I could remember where I put that fob. I’d like you to see it.”

  “I read up on fobs. You’d use one if you didn’t want your watch attached directly to a chain. Or to protect the watch face, but this watch has the lid that closes. Your fob must have been for decoration. But wait, you said it wasn’t decorative?”

  “Oh no, I would say rather ugly and bulky. Not elegant. Not at all.”

  “I’m wondering about the stones. Is it possible they could be valuable?”

  “I shouldn’t think so. As far as I know my family never put a high monetary value on it. Say! You don’t know why we have the fob and not the watch, do you?”

  “Putting two and two together it seems logical that my great-great uncle Dan missed it, and it was found on your grandpa’s body in Galveston.”

  Amos’s cloudy eyes found the general vicinity of her own.

  “Ah, but my granddad didn’t die in the Galveston flood.”

  Claudia had not expected this. “Really? I can’t wait for Grandfather to hear this. If nothing else, it will relieve him of family guilt. For over a hundred years now the Thorns were sure Dan indirectly caused Abner’s death.”

  Sue stood at the open door. “I changed my mind, Dad. Poor Miss Alexander is not going to listen to such a long story in such a cold room. The kitchen table is cleared. Come in there and get your cocoa. Ann and I can work in the dining room now, so we’ll be out of the way.”

  The kitchen table was indeed cleared, and while bits and pieces sat in baskets around the room, it looked as though several essentials were back on their hangers.

  Amos sipped the cocoa, thanked Sue, and resumed his tale. “It couldn’t have been too much after your Great-Great Uncle Dan took off with the watch, that searchers found my granddad and pulled him out from under whatever had him trapped. His one leg was never the same, but he survived and lived a full life. Met Grandma at the hospital, married her, and my dad came along a few years later.

  “We called my granddad Big Jake. He was about 6’3” and just a big guy. The limp didn’t stop him from working hard, and he always told us that coming that close to death in Galveston was the best thing to happen. Before that, Jake was bit of a scoundrel.

  “His father had made his fortune through business monopolies in New York City and stepped on a lot of people. The only thing he took time to teach Jake was how to take advantage of folks. I don’t know much about Big Jake’s mother. She sort of fades into insignificance and must not have been able to keep to firm a hand on him. Jake spent his boyhood in and out of good, Ivy League schools. He either got kicked out for lousy grades, a lousy attitude, or because he was a pilferer, always taking little things that didn’t belong to him. All his father did was bail him out with a nod and a wink.

  “One day he was on a train heading home from Notre Dame. He had just gotten kicked out, and his father had wired him the money to come back to New York. They got stopped somewhere in Ohio because there was trouble farther up the tracks. Big Jake went exploring. After about two miles he came upon a really awful train crash. It had happened some time earlier, and Big Jake watched the folks cleaning up the wreckage. They were piling everything salvageable of the victim’s personal effects in the little depot. When he saw a watch on its fob, he couldn’t resist. He slipped it in his pocket and hightailed it back.

  “He stuck the watch down in his stuff. He went back home, and soon after his dad lost everything in the Wall Street Panic of 1893. I think his mother was already dead. Big Jake had to fend for himself, and he headed west with a vague idea of going to Alaska to join in the gold rush. He never did say how he found himself in Galveston. Maybe he wanted to spend the winter someplace warm before going north. He ran out of money and started looking for someone to buy the pocket watch. His clothes were still in pretty good shape, and he sounded high class and educated, so he had a few honest folks interested.

  “When the storm hit he was camping out on the beach. Sounds as though you know the rest.”

  Claudia took a moment to absorb the new information. She looked at the watch on the table. “You may be right, about the watch having a story. At least the people who possess it seem to have stories. Now I’m curious about your fob. It doesn’t sound like much of a fashion asset. I wonder why Big Jake kept it at all?”

  Amos consi
dered. “Maybe, at first, to remember how clever he was to steal it. Maybe at first the ugliness appealed to his ugly side, or he hoped something that odd-looking had to be worth at least a little money. Your Uncle Dan probably thought it too ugly to waste his time on. Anyway, after Big Jake met and married my grandmother down in Galveston, he saw the Light. He started going to church and raised a good, God-fearing family. He hung onto the fob so he’d never forget what a wastrel he had been.”

  “He didn’t try to find the owner of the watch?”

  “Didn’t see any point. It was gone, and he didn’t know who the original owner was. The appraisers down in Galveston may have given him something for the watch, but they had no use for the fob. He figured no one would miss it. I didn’t leave any of my personal stuff in the old house when I moved, so the fob must be here. I just wish I could remember where.”

  “Maybe you’ll find it when you put everything back together,” she told him, glancing at the piles of odds and ends. “Unless whoever broke in came across it and took it. Maybe your thief thought something so ugly must be worth money, too?”

  Amos grinned. “If somebody was looking for ugly stuff, he wouldn’t have left so much behind. According to Sue most of what I own fits in that category.”

  Claudia laughed with him. “I’m more intrigued than ever now. I’d love to see that fob, and take a photo back to my family.”

  “If we run across it, I’ll make sure to let you know.”

  “That would be great. It looks as though I’ll be here for at least another day.” She pressed the watch into Amos’s hand. “Would you keep this please?”

  Amos rubbed his thumb back and forth over the face a few times and handed it back with a shake of his head. “Now you know it isn’t mine either. It really belongs to the person Big Jake stole it from. I’m afraid it’s still your burden, my dear.”

  NINE

  Sue had been hovering outside the kitchen and now came in, red-faced and huffing. “Dad, we can’t do this without you. We have everything taken care of that I remembered but a ton of junk is left, and the family will be here any minute asking for guidance. Does everything need to get hung up again? Couldn’t we please put unnecessary stuff into storage?”

  Amos reached for his daughter and held his hands on her face. “Susie, let me just have my things at my fingertips. I can’t look at precious memories, but I can touch them. Please?”

  Sue rolled her eyes. “Don’t bother, Dad, you never could sweet talk. You’re just a pack rat. A blind pack rat. The only way I’ll hang this stuff up is if you tell us where it goes.”

  Amos rose meekly but grinned in Claudia’s direction. Ann pecked Sue on the cheek, hugged Amos, and headed to the door. Claudia started to follow but ran back.

  “Sue, Mrs. er-um—”

  “Stevens.”

  “Mrs. Stevens, do you remember seeing a watch fob anywhere?”

  “It was always around at the other house, honey,” Amos added, “but you kids didn’t really play with it much. About this long,”—he spread his fingers apart several inches—“with pebbles stuck on all over. I’m sure it moved here along with me.”

  Sue thought a moment. “Maybe. You never throw anything away. Possibly one of the grandkids took it. Or it could be under one of these mounds of junk. Sorry, Dad. I mean ‘precious memories.’”

  Amos reached for Claudia’s hand. “We’ll keep an eye out and ask the rest of my family. Make sure you try and come visit me again before you leave.”

  She squeezed his fingers with the assurance that she would try and then followed Ann out the door, through the lean-to back porch and out into the muted afternoon sun.

  On the way home, Ann explained Sue. “She’s another B&B owner, only open during tourist season. I wish she wouldn’t worry about everything. Especially Amos. She’d love to make him come live with her so she could wrap him in wooly fluff and keep him safe. He’d be dead in six months.”

  Peter was waiting at the Weary Traveler. The windows of his room indeed overlooked the parking lot, and he must have been watching for them, because he opened the back door to let them in the kitchen.

  Ann raised her eyebrows slightly, and Claudia noticed. Embarrassed for Peter, she whispered, “I’m not sure you are supposed to be in the kitchen uninvited.”

  “Oh, Mrs. Gomer, I’m sorry.” Peter clasped penitent hands and looked at Ann from under his long lashes. “It’s your fault. You make a person feel so at home. How can I remedy this etiquette breach? Peel potatoes? Slice onions?”

  “Careful what you offer. I may take you up on it.”

  Claudia left Peter to reiterate his apology and went to her room. She was reading her book by the fire when Peter knocked and asked to come in.

  A week ago, her pulse would have raced at the request. Now she put down her book and hoped her permission didn’t sound grudging. He left the door slightly ajar, sat next to her, and casually put an arm across the back of the settee.

  “How did it go with Amos? Did you learn anything?”

  “Not much.”

  “You know, there are only so many times and ways I want to say I’m sorry. I realize I destroyed any chance for a closer relationship. But can we have one that doesn’t include constant penance on my part and constant suspicion on yours?”

  Claudia was surprised at her reluctance to share information with him. She couldn’t fault his irritated response.

  “You’re right. We probably need to redefine everything. Until then, you have to understand I don’t plan on sharing whatever I do with you.” Relenting, she said, “Amos had a fob that went with the watch, but he doesn’t know where it is. For some reason my Great-Great Uncle Dan left the fob behind with the man who turned out to be Amos’s grandfather.” She told him an abbreviated story of Big Jake’s survival. “Amos said he’ll keep an eye out for it as they put the house back in order, but with so many kids and grandkids in and out, that fob could be any place. Maybe whoever broke in took it. Although I can’t imagine why.”

  “Was there something tempting to a burglar?”

  “No, Amos said it was an ugly strip of leather with ugly pebbles. He emphasized its ugliness. Maybe that’s why Uncle Dan didn’t steal it. ”

  “I wonder if it was just some bum looking for food, or something worth selling. Does he have many valuables?” Peter seemed less interested in the fob than the break-in.

  “I wouldn’t think so. Lots of sentimental things, but Amos doesn’t appear to be wealthy.”

  Muffled creaks on the steps were followed by a knock.

  “Come on in,” Claudia called.

  Ann pushed open the door and seemed disconcerted to see Peter. “Ezra is downstairs Claudia, in the parlor. He wants to talk to you if you don’t mind.”

  Claudia followed Ann, and Peter followed Claudia. When he was still on her heels at the parlor door, she turned and frowned. He grinned and came in with her anyway.

  “Ezra Prosper? I’m Peter Bird, a good friend of Claudia’s. I heard about you and maybe you’ve heard a bit about me. Don’t believe everything you hear.”

  Ezra shook his outstretched hand. “Same here. Unless you heard that I’m the heroic type.”

  “Good to meet you. I’ll leave you alone with my girl now.”

  Claudia sighed. She wasn’t about to correct Peter every time he called her his girl lest she be accused of protesting too much. She shut the door on him and turned to Ezra.

  “You wanted me?”

  He looked serious. “Is there anything you aren’t telling me?”

  “Lots of things, I’m sure.” Her conversation with Peter had left her prickly, and now she teetered on the verge of annoyance. “Did you have anything in particular in mind?”

  Ezra ignored her tone and the question. “I’m not asking in any official capacity. This chain of unlikely events seems odd, and I wonder if you think the same. You come to town on Monday, Amos gets sabotaged on Tuesday, and now his house is ransacked. And your boyfriend turn
s up out of the blue.”

  “For heaven’s sake, he isn’t my boyfriend!”

  “Is that the only thing you can clear up for me?”

  For the last couple of days Claudia had been focused on the drama surrounding Amos, complications with Peter and revelations about the watch. She understood why Ezra would want to question coincidences, and she was grateful he hadn’t sent his brother the sheriff to do it.

  “It does seem odd, now you mention it. I just don’t know how any of this can be connected to me. I’ve led a dull and blameless life. Really. You can check.” Ezra started to respond, but she hurried on. “I want you to, on both of us. Although I have to tell you, my dad did some pretty intense research on Peter before he’d let me head north with the guy. He concluded that since Peter was well-known in his field, it followed that he was honorable. So much for fatherly instinct.” She broke off, remembering Ezra didn’t know the reason she’d been abandoned at the gas station.

  He let this slide.

  “Lem did run some preliminary checks on you and Mr. Bird. You both are who you say you are, although you’re a little more of an open book than Peter. Let me reiterate. I don’t think you’re responsible for this series of misfortunes. Lem is nosing around for other potential mischief-makers who live in the area or might have passed through. There has to be a reason Amos, who has never been the center of a ruckus his entire life, got targeted twice in a week. I told my brother I’d be happy to tackle you.” He broke off, and his eyes widened momentarily. “Let me rephrase that. I mean, so he could tackle the less appealing prospects.” He stopped again and studied the floor. Color rose up his high forehead. “Because he’s a trained professional.” His shoelace caught his attention, and he tugged the loops tighter. When he straightened he switched directions. “What can you tell me about Peter? How did you meet him?”

  With confusion, Claudia had watched Ezra’s increasing discomfiture. Why did he need to explain why he was helping his brother? The questions were legitimate, and her answers could be off the record. She seized the new line gratefully. “I think you already know how I came to have Amos’s watch? Or what we thought was Amos’s watch? Turns out the thing doesn’t technically belong in his family either.”

 

‹ Prev