The Jewels of Sofia Tate

by Doris Etienne

  “Are you a relative?” the female paramedic asked.

  “No,” Garnet replied. “I’m ... I’m a friend.”

  “Would you come with us? It might help to know any details you can provide us with when we reach the emergency room.”

  “Okay,” Garnet agreed, moving along like a robot.

  Everything seemed like a blur. While the male paramedic stayed in the back of the ambulance to continue monitoring Elizabeth’s vital signs, Garnet rode up front with the female. Upon arrival at the hospital, they wheeled Elizabeth into the emergency department to receive specialized care, and with the few details Garnet could provide, the medical team was able to bring Elizabeth’s medical history up on the computer.

  But this was all Garnet could do for her. Now she had to wait for the outcome as they did their job. She paced the floor in a waiting room that smelled strongly of disinfectant. She was afraid to even call her mother on the pay phone in case someone came out to give her an update.

  After a while, Garnet could stand it no longer. She approached the grey-haired, heavy-set receptionist seated behind the window at the desk.

  “Is there any news on Elizabeth Tate?” Garnet asked, biting her lower lip.

  “Just a moment, I’ll check.” The woman stood up and went through the doorway behind her, returning a minute later. She shook her head. “There’s no news at this time. She’s still being attended to.”

  “Oh. Okay. Thanks. I’ll be waiting right here.” Garnet turned and took a seat in one of the green vinyl chairs behind her. She felt a tight ball in the pit of her stomach. What was taking them so long? What was happening back there? What was happening to Elizabeth?

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She had known Elizabeth for less than a week but it felt like she had known her for longer, like some strange force had pulled them together. And now she might lose her.

  Garnet folded her hands in her lap and took another deep breath. She needed help.

  “Dear God,” she found herself praying. “Please help Elizabeth. Please let her make it. Don’t let her die. I was just getting to know her.”

  She opened her eyes again and slowly exhaled. She glanced at her watch. Six o’clock. Her mother would be home from work by now and would soon be wondering where she was. A row of pay phones filled the wall at the entrance of the waiting room, but Garnet remembered her wallet was inside her knapsack, still at Elizabeth’s house. She checked the pockets of her jeans. Two quarters — change from the school vending machine. She got up, placed one of the quarters into the slot, and punched in her home number.

  “Hi, Mom. I’m at the hospital.” Garnet heard her mother gasp. “No, I’m okay,” she said quickly. “It’s Elizabeth. She’s in Emergency.”

  “Oh, no! Is she all right?”

  “I don’t know. Can you come?”

  Garnet’s mother arrived a short time later with a brown bag from Tim Hortons. She pulled out sandwiches, doughnuts, juice, and coffee and they ate while Garnet filled her in on how she had found Elizabeth. When they finished, they continued to wait for an update. Garnet’s mother pulled a banking report from her bag and began to read while Garnet picked up a magazine that someone had left behind. But she couldn’t concentrate. The chairs were getting harder and harder, and she felt restless. A glance at her watch told her it was already seven-thirty. What was taking so long?

  Garnet rose from the chair and smoothed out her capri pants. “I’m going to ask again if there’s any more news. We’ve been waiting forever.”

  “Maybe they’re still running tests,” Garnet’s mother suggested.

  “Well, they’ve got to know something by now.”

  She walked up to the receptionist. A new shift had come on and this time a dark-skinned young woman, Garnet guessed of East Indian descent, sat behind the window. “May I help you?” she asked with a British accent.

  “Is there any news on Elizabeth Tate?” Garnet asked.

  “One moment, please. I’ll check.” The receptionist sipped her tea, then picked up the telephone and pressed some numbers. She waited for someone to take the call, made the inquiry, then replaced the receiver. Garnet moved a stray lock of hair away from her face. The receptionist looked up at her. “She has been admitted.”

  Garnet gave her a blank stare, not quite understanding. “Admitted. But is she okay?”

  The receptionist shrugged. “I’m sorry. I don’t know her condition.”

  Garnet let out a deep breath. What did it take to get answers around here? “Where is she?”

  “Just a moment.” The woman typed Elizabeth’s name on the keyboard and scanned the screen. “5D-North, Room 34.”

  “5D-North, Room 34. Okay.” Garnet repeated it so she wouldn’t forget. “How do I get there?”

  “When you leave this room, turn left. Go down that hallway and turn left again. Then take the lift to the fifth floor. When you step off, you’ll find a map on the wall.”

  “Thanks.”

  Garnet motioned to her mother and they walked the maze of hospital corridors. On the fifth floor they found the map and looked for the room number.

  “May I help you?” an authoritative voice asked behind them. They turned to face a stern-looking nurse seated at the nurses’ station.

  “Yes, we’d like to see Elizabeth Tate,” Garnet’s mother replied.

  The nurse stood up. “Are you family?” she enquired in a brusque tone.

  “No, she has no family. We’re friends,” Garnet explained. She decided not to mention that her mother had never met the woman in her life.

  “I’m afraid a visit won’t be possible this evening. In the condition she’s in, she will need complete rest.”

  Garnet felt her body stiffen. “But what’s wrong with her? I’ve been waiting here for hours for someone to tell me, but no one ever does!”

  Garnet’s mother placed a hand on her shoulder as a door behind the nurse swung open and a doctor, who appeared to be in his early fifties, entered the station. He looked up from his clipboard and at their faces. “Is there a problem?” he asked.

  “Yeah, there’s a problem,” Garnet said as she tried to control the quiver in her voice. “I’m trying to get some answers. Can you tell me what happened to Elizabeth Tate?”

  “Elizabeth Tate?” The doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry. She’s not a patient of mine.” He turned to the nurse. “Eleanor, is there any information you can give to this young lady?”

  Eleanor did not look pleased that the doctor had interfered. “Elizabeth Tate is recovering from a heart attack,” she replied. “Her chances for survival will increase only if she rests and if she makes it through the next forty-eight hours.”

  “Do you think she’ll die?” Garnet asked quietly. She closed her eyes and felt the breeze from the open car window rush past her as she laid her head back on the headrest.

  Her mother hesitated before answering. “She might, Garnet.”

  This was not the answer she wanted to hear; yet it was something she might have to face. She looked at her mother.

  “But it’s not fair! How can it be? She’s one of the only friends I’ve made around here. I was going to help her find some missing jewels and everything. And now ... this.”

  “Missing jewels?” her mother said, lifting an eyebrow.

  “Yeah. It’s a long story,” Garnet replied, waving a hand.

  “How old is she?”

  “I don’t know. Around eighty, I guess.”

  “She’s getting up there, Garnet. And if she’s not been well, as you’ve said, anything can happen. You know that,” she gently reminded her.

  The image of Elizabeth sprawled out in the front hall and the smashed vase behind her came rushing back to Garnet. Then she remembered she had left some of her things behind at the house.

  “Mom, can we stop off at Elizabeth’s before we go home? I left my bike and knapsack there.”

  She directed her mother to Elizabeth’s street, and as they neared
the house, she recalled some other details from that afternoon.

  “You know, when I rode my bike here this afternoon, there was this car at the front of Elizabeth’s house.”

  “You mean, she had a visitor?”

  “I don’t know,” Garnet replied. “It was all kind of weird.”

  Her mother frowned. “Weird? What do you mean?”

  “Well, I was coming up the street and all of a sudden this car took off from the curb. The driver seemed in an awful hurry and nearly hit me and another car. Then when I got to the house, the front door was open and Elizabeth was lying on the floor with a vase smashed next to her.”

  Her mother’s eyes widened. “Did you get a look at the driver?”

  Garnet shook her head. “No, the car windows were tinted and I couldn’t see inside.”

  Her mother shook her head in disbelief. “Did you get a licence number or a description of the car or anything?”

  “No. No licence number. It happened so fast I didn’t think to look. But the car was dark blue — a BMW.”

  They stopped in the driveway and Garnet got out of the car. She breathed a sigh of relief to see that her bicycle was still at the side where she had left it. Her mother helped her load it into the trunk, then went with Garnet as she opened the front door. Garnet hadn’t even thought to lock it when she left with the ambulance attendants.

  The knapsack, along with her helmet and headset, were lying next to the shattered vase. Garnet reached for the headset, then gave a short yelp. She looked at her finger. She had grazed it on something sharp — one of the jagged pieces of broken ceramic.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Garnet held up the finger for her mother to examine.

  “It’s not deep. You’ll live,” her mother declared. But it still hurt and Garnet sucked on it.

  Just then, Ginger sauntered into the entrance, carefully stepping around the shards of ceramic. “I think we better clean this up or that cat’s going to get hurt, too,” Garnet’s mother remarked. “Do you know where we might find a broom?”

  “Maybe in the kitchen,” Garnet replied as she quickly gathered the cat up in her arms. “Come on, Ginger.”

  In the pantry, they found a dustpan and hand brush. Garnet’s mother placed them inside a bucket and they returned to the front hall. While Garnet held on to Ginger, her mother leaned Elizabeth’s cane against the wall and moved Garnet’s things aside. She gathered up the larger ceramic shards first, then swept up the smaller ones, placing everything inside the bucket. When she finished, she carried everything back to the kitchen while Garnet waited for her in the front hall.

  As Garnet stood there, something shiny next to the wall, under the hall table, caught her attention. She set Ginger down to pick it up. It appeared to be a metal clip with a black square centre — onyx, Garnet thought, set in gold. A cufflink, perhaps? She placed the clip on the hall table as Ginger mewed and rubbed her yellow-brown sides against Garnet’s ankles.

  “What’s the matter, Ginger? Do you miss Elizabeth?” She picked Ginger up again and was petting the cat when a thought struck her. She returned to the kitchen and looked at Ginger’s feeding dishes. One was out of water and the other was out of food. “Poor kitty. Are you hungry?”

  Garnet’s mother emerged from the pantry. “I think I saw some cat food in here,” she said, and she brought the bag out to Garnet. As Garnet filled up one bowl with food and the other with water, it occurred to her that while Elizabeth was in the hospital, Ginger would have no one to look after her. Gerdie could probably do it, but Elizabeth had said that she wasn’t fond of cats.

  “Do you think I should check in on Ginger while Elizabeth’s in the hospital?”

  Garnet’s mother nodded. “That would probably be a good idea. We don’t know how long she’ll be in.”

  “I guess I’ll need a key.”

  “Do you know where to find one?”

  “No.”

  “Well, we’d better start looking.”

  They checked for a key rack in the kitchen and the hallway, and searched in several drawers, but after finding none, Garnet recalled that Elizabeth had taken a key out of her purse the day they had met.

  “I’m going to check up in her bedroom.” She ran up the stairs and surveyed the room, then looked in the closet, which reeked of mothballs before she even opened the door. Elizabeth’s purse was on the shelf. Garnet pulled it down and unzipped it. At the very top lay the gold key chain with the house key attached. She grabbed it, then gasped when she saw what lay underneath. She reached in again just as her mother poked her head into the doorway.

  “Find one?” her mother asked before she stopped and stared at what Garnet held in her hands. “What is that?”

  “Money,” Garnet said, holding up five brown bundles of cash. “Lots of money.”

  “I can see that. What’s it doing here?” Garnet’s mother took the cash from her and quickly flipped through the bills, counting to see how much was there. “Fifty thousand dollars. Is there any more?”

  Garnet checked Elizabeth’s purse. “Looks like that’s it. But here’s something else.” She pulled out a green passbook with the gold Prosperity Trust logo on it.

  “Can I see that?” her mother asked. She handed the money back to Garnet and took the book from her, thumbing through it to the last entry. “It looks like she took it out today.” Her mother thought for a moment. “You know, I needed Susan this morning to sign as a witness on a document, but had to wait for her because she and Debbie, one of the customer service reps, were in the vault getting some cash. I wonder if it might have been for Elizabeth. But for that amount, why didn’t she simply write a cheque?”

  “Can you ask the people you work with if the money was for her?”

  “I definitely will. And in the meantime, I’m going to take this cash and deposit it back into the account.” She shook her head. “It’s so unsafe to have this much cash lying around.”

  Garnet frowned. “When I was here on Sunday, Elizabeth had a phone call. She seemed really upset after it. I think I heard her say something about fifty thousand dollars. But the day I met her, she had a lot of money with her, too. There was an envelope full of hundreddollar bills when I took her pills out of her purse.”

  Her mother’s eyes narrowed. “I wonder what’s going on.”

  Garnet handed over the bundles of cash. “I don’t know. Only Elizabeth can tell us, I guess.”

  “Or maybe we should call the police. I don’t like what I’m seeing here.”

  “The police? Oh, Mom, don’t do that. Let’s wait. At least until we see what happens to Elizabeth. She might have a good explanation for all of this.”

  “I’ll see what Susan can tell me. In the meantime, let’s go home.”

  A short time later, as her mother backed the car out of the driveway, Garnet looked up at the darkened windows of the house. She had always thought that the windows of a house were like eyes — they watched the outside yet revealed only a little of what was going on inside. A flutter of curtains or a burning light told you someone was home; darkened windows or a light gone out — the house was empty or all had gone to bed. Drawn drapes were like closed eyelids, shutting out the world.

  But it was the walls that watched and listened and kept the deepest secrets of all who had ever lived inside. And they never gave up those secrets.

  How Garnet wished now that the walls of this house could talk. Or at least whisper just a little.

  6

  Clue in the Locket

  Garnet was in the cafeteria at lunch the next day when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

  “Hey, Garnet.”

  She whirled around and the plate with her pizza slice slid to the edge of the tray while the can of Diet Coke rolled away under a stack of chairs. “Oh, great,” Garnet muttered. Dan quickly set down his tray and bent to retrieve the can, then placed it back on hers.

  “Thanks,” Garnet said, feeling her face flush.

  “No proble
m,” Dan said, picking up his tray again. “Are you sitting with anyone?” His eyes seemed bluer than Garnet remembered.

  “No.” Not that she ever did, she might have added.

  “Do you want to grab a table? There’s a spot right over there,” Dan said, gesturing with his chin.

  Garnet assumed he meant with him. “Sure.” She followed him and they sat down opposite each other. She was vaguely aware of a few stares in their direction.

  She was about to pull the tab from her Coke, then thought better of it. After the tumble it had taken, it might be better to wait. She took a bite of her pizza, then asked, “Did you know that Elizabeth’s in the hospital?”

  Dan frowned. “No. How do you know?”

  “I called the ambulance. I went to her house yesterday after school and found her unconscious.”

  Dan raised his eyebrows. “You did? Is she okay?”

  Garnet shrugged. “She had a heart attack. They wouldn’t let me see her.”

  “Oh, wow. That’s bad,” Dan said, letting the information digest. “I’ll have to call Grandpa. He’s the minister. He’ll want to visit her.” He squirted some ketchup on his fries and stuck one into his mouth. “So, what happened?”

  “Well, actually, it was kind of strange.”

  Dan stopped chewing. “Strange?”

  “Yeah. Okay. I was riding up the street on my bike and this car was parked in front of Elizabeth’s house. All of a sudden the driver just took off and was driving so crazy I almost got hit. I had to swerve to get out of the way. Then when I got to the front door, it was open and Elizabeth was lying on the floor in the front hall. And you know that vase on her side table?”

  Dan shrugged. “No, but —”

  Garnet waved a hand. “Anyway, it was smashed to pieces and she had this enormous bump on her head,” she hesitated. “I was wondering if someone might have hit her with it.”

  “You mean, like someone trying to break in?”

  “I don’t know about breaking in. Nothing in the house looked like it was out of place.”