Teaberry Total Eclipse

by R A Wallace

  “Yes. He seemed very pleased with himself.” Jill turned to her sister. “Maybe that’s a good puzzle piece?”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  He lowered the volume of the music playing over the speakers throughout his store. He wanted to be able to concentrate as he examined the monthly receipts. He’d had a particularly good holiday season at the end of the year, but there was always something of a slowdown between then and Valentine’s day, his next big holiday in terms of sales. After Valentine’s Day, he typically had only moderate sales until Mother’s Day, though there was no real way to predict when a couple might become engaged or want to celebrate some other important event in their lives with the purchase of jewelry.

  His favorite kind of client was the one who wanted something unique, such as the case of the man who was scheduled to stop in today. Although the client hadn’t had anything concrete in mind, the description he had given Miles had been enough to keep Miles entertained for over a month as he searched for the perfect match. He’d scoured all the main bulletin boards across the Internet of reputable sellers. Surprisingly enough, he’d managed to find what he thought would fit the description much closer to home. His customer had been thrilled. After that, it was just a matter of making a slight adjustment to the size of the ring.

  Miles Craney pushed his oversized black-framed glasses back up on his nose and leaned forward in his chair as he studied the spreadsheet on his computer. In addition to finding the right piece for his client, he had also procured several other pieces at the same estate sale. Perhaps he should post those on the bulletin boards. He might have better luck finding a new home for them if did. Smiling at his ingenuity, he immediately opened a web browser and logged into his favorite message board.

  His fingers poised over the keys, he paused for just a moment and considered what he was about to do. He often used the bulletin board when he was searching for pieces himself. He’d never posted any items for sale on it, however. But, why shouldn’t he? Others, like him, use the board to search for items for their clients. Why shouldn’t he add his own unique stock from the estate sale to the list? It was the first time he had seen anything like those pieces.

  Nodding to himself, he began to type. Once he had his descriptions in, he found the photos he had taken of the pieces and uploaded those. Satisfied with his work, he sat back in his seat and read some of the other postings on the message board made by other jewelers across the world. The bells on the door interrupted his reading. He stood when he saw the young woman enter the store.

  Megan approached the diminutive man on the other side of the counter and introduced herself when she reached it. The counter was a glass case filled with jewelry that ran down the length of the room. She saw Miles Craney glance down at her gloved hands.

  “I’m not here to shop, sorry,” Megan said with an apologetic smile before introducing herself.

  Miles Craney was in his forties, not all that much older than Megan, but somehow seemed decades more mature. Perhaps it was his choice of clothing. She had never seen him in anything but a full suit and tie with matching pocket square. His oversized glasses magnified his eyes and somehow gave him the impression of being a wise old owl. The top of his head was completely bald, and the remaining hair around his ears was kept very short and neat.

  “What can I help you with?” Miles studied the young woman in front of him. He couldn’t figure out why her name sounded so familiar. Suddenly, it hit him. “You’re her!”

  Megan felt her brows go up when he shouted. She watched his face infuse with color.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. It’s just that my book club mentions you all the time. They say you like mysteries.” Miles’s eyes widened when he realized the implications. “Is that why you’re here? Are you working on a puzzle?”

  Megan smiled at his enthusiasm. He looked positively thrilled.

  “I am, yes. I was wondering if you might have some information to help.” She explained that someone had told her of seeing him at the estate sale.

  “I was, yes. I found some interesting pieces of estate jewelry and was lucky to add it to my collection here,” Miles explained.

  He wasn’t sure what that might have to do with a murder, but he couldn’t wait to find out. He loved the mysteries he read for the book club.

  Megan had a thought. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her pictures until she found the ones she had taken of the diamond they’d found in the telescope.

  “Can you tell me anything about this?” She handed the phone over to Miles.

  Megan watched as Miles adjusted his glasses and studied each photo. His eyes seemed to grow larger inside the frames of his glasses as he swiped to each new photo.

  “Oh, my. Very nice, very nice indeed.” Miles turned large eyes to Megan as he handed back her phone.

  She’d assumed the sheer size of the diamond would mean it was impressive, but his reaction seemed even greater than she’d anticipated.

  “Are there any characteristics of the diamond that makes it particularly interesting?” she asked.

  “The age, for one,” Miles said emphatically.

  “You can tell how old it is just by looking at it?” That hadn’t occurred to her.

  “In this case, yes. It’s the cut, you see. This is considered an old European cut. The timeframe would have been the turn of the twentieth century.”

  “Can you tell what the worth would be?” Megan asked.

  “Not entirely, no. Not without being able to study it with the proper tools,” Miles said. “That’s true for the other jewels in the photos as well.”

  The guess he did give her left her temporarily speechless. He told her the other jewels would also be worth a great deal. When she found her voice, she asked him if he’d spoken to the security guard.

  “He came into the room when I was looking at the jewelry. He insisted on walking me to my car after I purchased them. I felt guilty about it, but I understood he was doing his job.” Miles lowered his voice. “He didn’t get around very well, you see.”

  Megan thanked him for his time when she finished asking her questions and walked to the door of the store. Someone opened it for her when she reached it.

  “Thanks. Oh hey, hi Jim.” Megan passed through the door.

  “Hey, Megan. Nice to see you again.” Jim went into the jewelry shop.

  Megan stood outside of the store and stared at the door for a moment after he passed through it.

  ***

  It had been a long day. She’d spent much of it trying to find answers to questions that she needed before she could proceed on a case. It shouldn’t have taken her as long as it did, but she’d had to repeat a lot of the work because she’d messed it up the first time around. Most of her problems had stemmed from her inability to focus due to her concern about the situation at home. She couldn’t keep her mind off her worries.

  She knew something was different as soon as she walked into her house. Maybe it was the smell. For some reason, she could smell something floral. Confused, she set her purse on the hall stand and removed her coat before hanging it in the closet. It wasn’t just something floral. She swore she smelled food. She walked through the house slowly, wondering what the smells could possibly mean.

  That was when she heard the soft music. Now thoroughly confused, she stepped into the living room. Nothing looked different there. She next moved to the kitchen. She could smell something cooking. The oven was, in fact, turned on. She knew she couldn’t possibly have left it that way this morning. She rarely used the oven. That was Jim’s domain. Frowning, she opened the oven door expecting to see a cloud of smoke and charred remains. That wasn’t the case. Whatever was inside smelled awesome, not burned.

  She left the kitchen and next went to the dining room. There she found the reason for the floral smell. The entire room was filled with flowers of all kinds. Dozens upon dozens of flowers covering practically every square inch of the room. The table was set for two. There were candles l
it on the table. Surprised at what she saw, she didn’t notice Jim at first on the other side of the room as she slowly looked around the room.

  “Oh!” Jennifer stared at Jim.

  He moved across the room and stopped in front of her.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, I was hoping we could have a nice dinner together.” Jim watched her face carefully. He had long ago figured out that she had a knack for not allowing emotion to show on her face. This was one time when she wasn’t succeeding at masking it. She looked completely stunned. At first, he thought it was a good thing. Until he saw the tears.

  “Are you okay?” Maybe he hadn’t planned everything as well as he’d thought he had.

  “I thought you were going to break up with me,” Jennifer said. She sounded almost angry.

  “Why would I do that?” Now it was his turn to be confused.

  “You’ve been so secretive. It was like you were pulling away from me.” It sounded like an accusation.

  Jim reached out and pulled her to him. She felt stiff in his arms. “So, I’m an idiot. Sorry. I’ve never proposed before.”

  “What?”

  Jennifer pulled back to look at him. He gave her an apologetic smile.

  “You would think I would have figured out how to do it correctly. I’ve been planning it for quite a while.”

  He pulled out a jeweler’s box and went down on one knee.

  Jennifer looked down at him and shook her head slowly. “I might forgive you. But, just this once.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  He read the text from Jennifer and smiled. He quickly texted back that he would be there shortly. He first went into his bedroom and lifted the picture of his wife that he kept on his dresser. He apologized to her that he hadn’t been able to get the heirloom ring back that they had sold all those years ago when they’d been so desperate for money. He’d really tried, but someone had beaten him to it.

  “He’s really perfect for her, honey. You’ll see. Our little girl is going to be happy.” Emmet carefully set the picture back on his dresser.

  Perhaps if he kept looking, he’d be able to track it down still. It may not be the ring Jennifer was married in, as her grandmother was, but he could still get it to her. It was where it belonged. It didn’t take long for him to get into his car and make the short drive to her house. Emmet hung his coat in the hall closet and headed for the kitchen. He could hear them in there talking.

  “That cake looks awesome,” Emmet said when he walked in.

  He stopped and looked at the love of his life. She looked happy. Much happier than she had the last time he’d seen her.

  “We have champagne to go with it. If you’re really hungry, there are leftovers from dinner,” Jennifer said.

  Emmet put up his hands. “No, I’m good. It was sweet of you to invite me over for cake. I won’t stay long. You two should celebrate your engagement.”

  “You don’t seem surprised,” Jennifer pointed out.

  “I couldn’t believe you were thinking he was going to leave you. It was obvious he was getting ready to propose,” Emmet argued.

  “I thought so too but I’m staying out of this one,” Jim wisely said.

  “Intelligent man,” Jennifer agreed before turning to reach for the plates from the cupboard behind her.

  “We have Lauren Dempsey to thank for the cake.” Jim cut the cake and put a piece on each of the plates. He added a fork to each and handed one plate to Emmet. He opened the champagne and poured three glasses. He passed one to Emmet and another to Jennifer. Then he held up his glass when Emmet proposed a toast.

  Emmet had been thinking about this moment for a long time. He knew exactly what he wanted to say. It wasn’t as perfect as he’d hoped for, he hadn’t found the ring, but his daughter was happy and Jim was a good man. Those were the important things. Holding his glass high, he turned to Jennifer. His eyes dropped to the champagne flute she was holding. The words he had planned flew from his brain.

  “The ring!”

  “I know, isn’t it beautiful?” Jennifer moved the flute to her right hand. She held her left hand up to better display her new engagement ring.

  Emmet looked at Jim in disbelief. “Where did you get it?”

  Jim frowned. “I had the jeweler find it for me, Miles Craney. I explained that I wanted something different. He really came through. I knew it was perfect as soon as I saw it.”

  Emmet felt the laughter bubble up.

  ***

  Erica threw the list back down on her desk. They’d spoken to everyone on the list who had purchased something at the estate. Some of them twice. They still weren’t any closer to figuring out who Jimmy’s murderer was.

  “Maybe we need to focus on the letters Megan gave us,” Jerry suggested. He’d gone over them several times already.

  “What was your take on them?” Erica returned her focus to the murder board.

  “It sounds to me like Mrs. Henderson had something that the letter writer wanted. At least, they wanted their share of what they felt was owed to them. For whatever reason, they seemed to believe that Mrs. Henderson was holding out on them.” Jerry picked up the letters and started shuffling them.

  Erica had read them all as well. “Did you see the name reference?”

  “The nickname? Yeah.” Jerry pulled out the correct letter and set the rest back down. “If that’s what it is, anyway. I can’t imagine why the word ‘arn’ would be there like that unless it was a way to reference someone.”

  “I agree. It would have been more helpful if they had given an actual name though.”

  “I’ve heard that bad guys rarely try to help law enforcement,” Jerry said as he walked over to stand by Erica. He glanced over at his partner. It had been a long day and she was looking tired. “You ready to call it quits for the day.”

  “That I am. Do you remember, before the babies were born, when I used to tell you I was tired?” Erica asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “I was wrong. I didn’t know what tired was until now.”

  Jerry laughed. “They keeping you up at night?”

  “They take turns.” Erica took one last look at the board before turning to walk out with Jerry. “Okay. Tomorrow is another day.”

  She spent the drive home going over everything they’d learned. It wasn’t entirely accurate to say they hadn’t learned anything. They had. Some of it was thanks to Megan. They certainly would never have found the diamond and other jewels without her. They may have eventually gotten the photos and the letters. The trick was now figuring out what all of that had to do with Jimmy’s death.

  Did Jimmy know about the jewels? No, Erica couldn’t believe that. All the threads of this mystery might be tied together somehow. But she didn’t believe that Jimmy was in on any of it. Especially not after hearing about his condition from everyone they had spoken to, including his own son.

  Erica left her car in the garage and made her way into the house. She heard the laughter as soon as she opened the door and it brought a smile to her own face. It felt good to be home. She found them in the living room. The babies were each on a blanket on the floor. Kaylee was sitting on the floor near Mason. Brad was sitting on the floor near Maddie.

  Brad looked up when he saw her and a smile lit his face. “Hey, Mommy’s home!”

  Erica smiled back. “Are we doing tummy time?”

  “They’ll be crawling before you know it,” Brad joked.

  “Then life as we know it will never be the same,” Erica agreed. She looked over at Kaylee. “Thanks for everything.” She made it a point to say it often. She wanted Kaylee to understand how much they appreciated her.

  “There’s a plate for you in the fridge. I can stay a little longer if you need a shower first,” Kaylee offered.

  “I will not say no to a shower.” Erica bent down to kiss Brad and make funny faces at her babies before heading for the master bedroom. In a short time, she and Brad were on their own with the twins and putting them t
o bed. She stopped at the door and looked back at them before leaving their room. Her little angels were both asleep. She knew from experience it wouldn’t last all night.

  “Wine?” Brad asked.

  “I would love some. How was your day?” It was something she’d rarely asked them the first time they’d been married. It was something else she now made a point of doing.

  “I finished a project and started on another one. How are you doing with Jimmy’s case?”

  Erica took the wine glass from her husband and followed him back to the living room. They sat together on the couch.

  “We have several pieces of information,” she said slowly.

  “You’re working on tying them together?” Brad guessed.

  “That’s the thing. I’m not sure we’re there yet.” Erica took a sip as she thought about it. “Maybe we need to get with Rhys and Ian more. Maybe if we could solve the case with the break-ins, it might help with the murder.”

  ***

  They drove slowly around the neighborhood, checking out all angles of the house as they did. There were windows on both sides of the house but those are fairly visible from the street. Anyone trying to access them might be seen. It wouldn’t be the safest way to get in, not without risk of getting caught. There was access to the house from the rear. The fence in the back yard would hide anyone as they approached the house. That would be the only way to do it safely.

  “You want to check out the back yard?” Ian asked.

  “Wouldn’t hurt.” Rhys parked the police car in front of Caro’s house. Both officers got out. It wasn’t the first time they’d checked the perimeter of the house. The neighbors were used to seeing them do it, as were Tom and Caro.

  After returning to the car, Rhys next headed in the direction of Tom’s farm. They’d check it out also, just to be safe. They doubted that anyone would be foolish enough to try to break-in to either house again, or that they would feel a need to. But it didn’t stop Ian and Rhys from checking both houses. They knew it might be their only chance of finding whoever had been after the jewels.