by Diane Noble
The timer chimed and the fragrance of corn bread filled the room as Kate pulled the pan from the oven. John’s eyes lit up when he lifted the lid on the pot of chili, and Melissa sighed when she saw two lemon-meringue pies come out of the fridge.
When they had taken their places at the table, they held hands as Paul lifted a prayer of thanksgiving heavenward.
The first sound following the prayer came from Mia. She sat in her high chair waving her spoon over her applesauce and stringing sounds together that sounded like blue pancakes. Her cheeks were rosy again, and her eyes sparkled with life.
After dinner, the family lingered around the table over second helpings of Kate’s pies, still rejoicing over the good news and talking about the treatments the doctors recommended, and the best news of all: The doctors fully expected her heart to heal itself as she grew older. They would monitor her carefully, of course, but they expected her to fully enjoy a healthy childhood.
Mia took a drink of milk from her sippy cup and buzzed her lips, giggled, and tried it again. She pounded the spoon on the high-chair tray, then decided to give her stuffed bunny rabbit a drink of her milk.
John turned the conversation to Kate, asking about the mysterious urn. She caught them up with the latest. Paul filled in details about meeting Collin at Renee’s tea, and Kate told them about running into him at church the previous day, holding the urn and climbing the stairs from the basement.
“It’s the strangest thing,” she said. “After he left, I opened the urn, which was a surprise because we hadn’t been able to open it before. It had obviously been tampered with, so I searched the basement to see if anything unusual turned up.”
“Something tells me it did,” Melissa said, smiling at her mother.
“Just a strange little square battery, and I’m not even sure it was his. I found it in one of the classrooms—in the trash.”
“A square battery?” John frowned. “You mean like a nine-volt?”
Kate shook her head. “More the size of a postage stamp.”
She got up and headed to the bedroom, where she’d left her handbag. A moment later she returned, unwrapped the tissue, and handed it to John.
He laid it on his palm, turned it over, and then looked up at Kate. “This isn’t a battery,” he said. “It’s a computer chip.” He held it to the light. “And it appears to be a dud.”
“A dud?”
“As in it was on the receiving end of a power surge or something else that might have caused it to malfunction. You can see where the tiny contacts melted together.” He held it out for Kate to see.
“That’s why the chip was thrown away,” Kate said, her mind in a whirl. “It needed to be replaced.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
C omputer chip?
Kate couldn’t get the little defunct chip out of her mind. The kids had gone to bed at eight thirty in anticipation of their trip home the following day, and Paul said he also needed to turn in early. He had a morning business appointment in Pine Ridge. They were exhausted from all they had been through, and he’d promised to help them settle in. Again, there was no invitation for Kate to join him.
As soon as the house was quiet, Kate sat at the kitchen table. Her heart ached that once again Paul was going off to another appointment, leaving her in the dark about their finances. Why wouldn’t he invite her to join him? How she longed to know what was going on. How she wanted to share the heavy burden with the husband she loved so much, but he had chosen to carry it alone.
She bowed her head and sat in silence for several moments. Lord, you know how much I love Paul, and how willing I am to help in any way I can. For whatever reason, he has chosen to leave me out of the picture. Please give me the patience to abide by his wishes. And keep me from feeling resentment toward him.
After she opened her eyes, she remembered the tiny chip in her hand, and a million scenarios tried themselves on for size in her brain. She glanced at the clock. It wasn’t too late for what she needed to do.
She tiptoed into the bedroom to retrieve her handbag, keys—to the car and to the church—and a light sweater. Then she slipped back toward the entry door leading to the garage.
Three minutes later, she backed out onto the street and turned the Honda toward Mountain Laurel, where she turned left and then left again into the church parking lot.
A security light illumined the front of the church, and the spotlight in the steeple gave the beloved Faith Briar bell a luminous glow. It always brought her comfort to see that bell and its reminder of how God, after the church burned, truly gave the little congregation beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning.
She hurried to the entrance and unlocked the door, being careful to lock it behind her after she stepped inside. The Diner Duo was still part of the puzzle, and though she didn’t know exactly how they fit into the bigger picture, she didn’t want to be taken by surprise if they showed up.
She turned on the light to the foyer and headed to the glass case, though the framed Saint Francis quote that Renee had borrowed and hung beside the case caught her attention for a moment. Maybe it was the way the overhead light shone on the glass, but something made her focus on the words “It is in giving that we receive...,” and she paused, thinking of Paul and the burden he had been carrying by himself. She lifted a quick prayer for him, then, as she stood in front of the print, she had a thought.
What if she could somehow help out financially? Though she had put them aside briefly to work on her new stained-glass votive design, she had been working on two new Tiffany-style lamps over the past few months, planning to enter them in the county fair. Maybe she could offer them for sale at the same time—plus take orders for more, if others were interested. She wouldn’t be able to make up the thousands they obviously owed, but it would be a start. This would be a gift to Paul to ease whatever it was that burdened him, a gift of love.
She smiled to herself as she located the key in Millie’s office, then opened the glass case, where the urn glowed beneath the spotlight.
Her heart beat in anticipation as she took the urn into her hands. She knelt and placed it on the floor, pressed the cherubim’s tiny feet, and the urn snapped open.
At first glance, the inside space was empty. But something at the back of her mind suspected there might be a secret cavity—a space where the computer chip had been hidden.
Gingerly she moved her fingers around the space where the sides met the bottom, turning the urn toward the light so she could peer inside. Suddenly she saw it. A tiny aperture in one corner. Barely visible, the opening couldn’t have been much wider than a toothpick. Did it lead to some kind of false bottom?
She remembered John’s “smart phone,” and the little stylus that he often used with it. Something like that would have been perfect for her purposes, but John and his phone weren’t there.
What about a safety pin? She didn’t need it often, but she kept a sewing kit the size of a matchbook in her handbag. She reached for it, rummaged around inside, then pulled out the kit.
A moment later, fingers shaking, she pressed the opened pin into the tiny hole.
Nothing happened. She tried once more. Still nothing.
She sat back in disappointment. When she saw that little aperture, she had been sure that the urn had a false bottom.
She looked at the pin and bit her lower lip. She needed something a little larger. Something like...a coin! Again, she rummaged around in her handbag, found her coin purse, and grabbed a penny.
Holding the coin between her thumb and index finger, she then pressed its edge into the aperture.
As if by magic, whatever was holding the false bottom in place released.
Kate sat back with a satisfied smile. A penny urned...and suppressed a nervous giggle.
Then bad pun forgotten, her eyes widened in surprise.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Kate stared at the device inside the urn. At first, with her heart thudding beneath her ribs, she thought
it might be a bomb. She blinked at it a few minutes, holding the urn utterly still, and considered the headlines in the Chronicle that week: Minister’s Wife Blown to Bits by Urn Bomb.
Her nervousness was affecting her sense of humor. First the bad pun, now the “explosive” headline. She stifled a groan, drew in a deep breath, then peered more intently at the device.
Whatever it was had been in need of a new computer chip. And Collin had taken it downstairs and into a Sunday-school classroom, seemingly so he could avoid being discovered should someone come into the church unexpectedly.
She touched the small device, checking to see whether it would budge. It was somewhat bigger than a cell phone, perhaps the size of a GPS.
A GPS? She almost gasped. She knew that kind of techie item could help people find their way through traffic or let them know where they were on any given back road.
But why would such a device be installed in an urn that might—or might not—be an ancient artifact?
A half second later, the obvious answer hit her brain: A museum could have installed it as a tracking device—if the piece was indeed the original.
What, then, had Collin done with it? Could he have replaced the museum’s chip with one of his own? If so, why?
Her brain was beginning to hurt from all the possibilities.
She closed the compartment in the urn, turning the cherubim to their original positions.
Then she placed the urn back in the case and locked it. After returning the key to Millie’s desk, she headed to the door, stopped, and glanced back at the glowing urn once more.
With more questions whirling through her mind than before, she turned out the light and stepped outside into the dark parking lot.
PAUL LEFT BEFORE SUNUP for his appointment in Pine Ridge. While he was gone, the kids packed the car to leave while Kate read picture books to Mia.
When Paul returned, they said their good-byes and cleared out of the house so quickly, Kate didn’t have a chance to tell anyone her astonishing discovery the night before.
As soon as the breakfast dishes were washed and put away, she called Livvy. “I need to run something by you.”
“I have a meeting at noon, but how about coffee this morning? If you’d like, we can get together in one of the conference rooms upstairs.”
Kate laughed with her. “How about tenish?”
“I’ll see you then...” Livvy hesitated. “Kate, do I detect a note of sleuthing success in your voice?”
Kate laughed. “Just a few more pieces of the puzzle fitting together. But it’s such a bizarre theory, I need to run it by my sleuthing partner.”
“I figured you’d be spending time with Paul today.”
“He left early this morning, first for business in Pine Ridge, then to follow the kids to Atlanta. He’s planning to spend the night.”
Surprisingly, Livvy didn’t ask any questions or sound the least bit sympathetic about Paul’s secrecy. She just said she would see Kate at ten and disconnected the call.
Kate sat at the kitchen table, staring at the receiver. Again, she sensed her best friend knew something that she didn’t.
More puzzled than ever, she replaced the phone and headed to her studio.
She glanced at the votive designs she’d been working on, and then filed them away. Saint Francis would have his day later. It was time to concentrate on the Tiffany table lamps. She lifted one onto her worktable, admiring the colors and design. Both lamps still lacked the electrical hookups and needed to be mounted to their bases, but their stained-glass shades were complete.
In a twist of irony, she had planned them as gifts for Paul after the county fair—one for his office at church, and one for his home study. The colors were his favorites and the designs, two he had long admired.
She jotted down some ideas for the fair exhibit, a pricing list, and the approximate time the buyer could expect her to take to complete the project. She quickly did the math, figuring in her time and materials and the cost of the oil-rubbed bronze bases and electrical work, then factored in the number she would have to sell to help make up the money they owed. She sat back and blinked.
It was almost overwhelming, but she would do anything to help the man she loved. They were in this together, and when he decided the time was right, she would present the gift of her time and talents to him.
AT A FEW MINUTES BEFORE TEN, Kate parked in front of the library. When she reached the conference room on the second floor, Livvy had already poured their coffee and was seated at one end of the rectangular table.
She met Kate with a smile. “I can see by the gleam in your eye that you’re onto something.”
Kate sat down next to her friend and took a sip of coffee. “I am. At least I think I am, but some of this is so far-fetched...” She laughed. “Besides Paul, you’re the best sounding board I know.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Livvy said with a wink. “Tell me what you’ve found out.”
Kate sat back in her chair. “Let me see if I can pull all this together in my own mind.” She paused for a moment, collecting her wild whirl of thoughts. “The duo we both observed in the diner—”
“Curly and Carrot-top?” Livvy giggled.
Kate grinned. “Don’t get me started.”
“You’ve seen them since that day they locked themselves out of the car?”
“Twice at the diner, once at Emma’s, and a fleeting glance as they left the diner when I was driving by. To me, it seems they’re waiting for their boss to give them some signal.”
“And you think it has to do with stealing the urn?”
Kate nodded. “I’m almost certain of it.”
“Which means the urn isn’t a copy, and Collin simply used Renee to get it into the US.”
“He definitely used her for transporting it internationally—just as he used you to write the article about it and plant the photos in the paper.”
Livvy narrowed her eyes in thought. “Why would he do that?”
Kate sipped her coffee thoughtfully. “Think about his motives. He apparently wanted publicity, as much as possible. He must have targeted this area of Tennessee for a purpose. After all, he targeted the tour bus that had two large magnetic signs announcing “Tennesseans Tour Tuscany.” But why Tennessee?” she wondered out loud. “Do you suppose there’s some connection between Collin and Dr. Hosea?”
Livvy leaned back and crossed her arms. “Wow. That would be something. Okay, I follow you so far. What else?”
“We don’t know who the boss is that Curly and Carrot-top are waiting for...”
“It could even be someone here in Copper Mill since we seem to be the center of this intrigue with the urn.”
Kate nodded. “True.” She paused and drew in a deep breath. “Then there’s the urn itself. I’ve discovered how to open it.”
Livvy leaned forward, obviously impressed. “You did? How in the world did you figure it out?”
Kate explained, then told Livvy about running into Collin Saturday morning at the church.
“He took the urn downstairs. I met him just as he was coming back up. Then he returned the urn to the glass case and left, though not without giving me another stern warning.”
“Just like the last one...to stay away?”
“The same.” Kate tucked a strand of hair behind one ear. “I think something’s about to go down. The signs are all there.”
“Another heist?”
Kate nodded. “Only this one from our very own Faith Briar.” She paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before going on. “There was a false bottom in the urn, and I opened it with a penny.”
Livvy laughed. “As in ‘a penny ur—’”
Kate grinned. “Exactly.” She sipped her coffee, then put the cup down and leaned her elbows on the table. “Livvy, there was this device inside, something that appeared to be a GPS.”
“Why isn’t the urn being heavily guarded? I mean, if there’s any chance it might be stolen, shoul
dn’t the sheriff or his deputy be in on this?”
“I agree, and I plan to call the sheriff and let him know what I’ve discovered. Skip was concerned about the man he saw running from the church, though nothing ever came of it.”
“The sheriff or Skip will probably plan a few more drive-bys, don’t you think?” Livvy took a sip of her coffee.
“I certainly don’t have the evidence it would take for Skip to do a stakeout.” She bit her lower lip in thought. “But I can’t let this go. I want to catch these guys red-handed.”
She picked up her coffee cup and scooted back her chair. Livvy stood with her. “So you’re going to do this by yourself, aren’t you? I can see it now, the minister’s wife camping out in the sanctuary, waiting for some international thieves to arrive.” She laughed.
“Actually, that’s exactly what I was thinking,” Kate said. “How else can I catch them red-handed?”
“From everything you’ve told me, this is getting more and more dangerous. You can’t go alone.”
Kate raised an eyebrow. “If you’re hinting about going with me, I can’t let you. I don’t want to put you in danger.”
Livvy grinned, her eyes sparkling. “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
Kate took a last sip of coffee. “Okay Liv. But we’re both going to have to be extra watchful.” Kate paused, brushing her fingers through the crown of her hair. “In my way of thinking, tonight’s the night for the hit. Mondays are notoriously slow days at the church. On most Mondays, there’s hardly a sign of life in the church or the parking lot.”
“I figure the thieves most likely won’t attempt a break-in in broad daylight.” She sat back and folded her arms with a smile. “If they’re planning to pick the perfect time for a church robbery, it will be a Monday night.”
“Are you going to tell that to the sheriff?”
“Of course. And I hope he listens. But either way, I plan to be there.”
“Okay,” Livvy said, picking up their Styrofoam coffee cups and dumping them in the trash. “What time?”