“Brew Café owner?”
“Yes.” I agreed. “His helpers come and go. He seems to always have new employees. I saw a couple of men drive away with two of Luke’s helpers the other day.”
“That doesn’t seem right. Why would there be such a turnover of employees? We’ll check into it.”
Finally the detectives left and we were alone. “What do you think about Luke?” Aaron asked.
“The employees really could be family members. I know he comes from a large family, and most of them live in Cambodia where he grew up. I frowned.
“The two men could’ve been brothers,” Aaron said. “The woman in the dumpster didn’t speak English.” Aaron raised a brow. “Do you have any idea what is happening all around us?”
“I haven’t a clue.”
Chapter Eleven
Aaron and I stared vacantly at the television screen. I realized I had no idea what program it was. “Are you watching this show?” I snuggled into his shoulder.
“No, I’m thinking.”
“How is this all connected? It’s weird. I think this mystery is about Lincoln and Tad because of the stuffed bear.”
“We’re spinning our wheels.” Aaron flipped the station to another one. “I’m worried about you.” He riffled my hair.
“I’m worried too. I don’t like all of this bad stuff happening around me.” I felt confused. “You’re right, we are going in circles, but it all has to lead somewhere. I just wish I could figure out where.”
“Give it time. You’ll figure it out… Keep the faith, hon.” Aaron pressed the remote button, shutting off the television. “The detectives will look into everything, that’s for sure. Including this thing with Luke and the girls.”
“Maybe they’re foreign exchange students.” Shivering, I gazed out at the new fallen snow. “That poor girl in the dumpster…half-frozen.”
“We have to think clearly now and be extra careful.” Aaron kissed me. “Let’s put these items in the lock box, including the necklace.”
“I can just wear that under my blouse where it won’t be seen.”
Aaron smiled at my gesture and where I was pointing.
I blushed. “I’ll go get my iPad and send Dr. Williams, the professor, a message right now. Maybe we’ll hear back in the morning.” I reached around to the shelf where I kept my iPad. My e-mail account seemed to open slower than usual when I turned it on. “This is weird. My business computer at the shop is really slow, too. Also, that bear is showing up on the screen saver here, too. Hmm. I think it needs an expert to check it out.” I pressed the new message button and typed in:
Hi Dr. Williams,
I am Marie Ott’s granddaughter and I hope that you remember me. I have the silvered acorn necklace and am still wondering if you could do me a favor? Would you be able to take a few scans of it? I’d like to know, as would the investigators, if indeed there is a real acorn inside of it—and if there is – is it possible to date it? I could bring it in to your office at your convenience.
Thank you, Liv Reynolds
I hit “send.”
“We should give Grandma and Grandpa a call now, don’t you think?”
“I’ll take care of the kitchen mess. We’ll pick up the hat mess together.” Aaron got up and left the room.
Grandma answered on the third ring. “Grandma.” I sniffled and blew my nose a couple of times while she waited.
“Olivia, what is it?” I could almost hear as she looked up at the ceiling or placed her hand on her right hip. She had an earpiece for her phone, so at least she didn’t have to hold the phone tight against her ear like I had to. “Olivia?”
“I found someone in the dumpster behind the store this morning. I fell in, too, but the woman… she’s alive and in the hospital.” I rambled on until Grandma quacked, “What?” I went ahead with my explanation about finding the woman. Also, the mess of dumped miniature pieces in the store, and the crazy cleaning ladies.
“You fell into the dumpster!” Grandma said. She was more concerned with me falling into the dumpster than if the person was alive. “I don’t want you to be there alone, Olivia. That’s final.”
“She did what?” Grandpa hollered in the background.
“I’m okay. There’s more news. Someone broke in here, too, our house,” I said. “But other than that and those other things, we’re doing fine, really we are. Don’t worry.”
“Give it to me straight,” Grandpa shouted in the background. “The Mary Lincoln hat has been destroyed.” I continued telling her about it, plus how the house was found. I then brought her up to date about the rest of the Mary Lincoln puzzle. When finished, I asked, “What do you think it all means?”
“Is the dress that you wore at the birthday celebration also one of Mary Lincoln’s?” Grandma always got to the point.
“Yes.”
“Then check out the hem. I’ll wait for you to call me back.”
“All right.” She had already disconnected before I clicked out of the call. I went out to Aaron. “Checking my Mary Lincoln dress hem is next on the agenda.” I noticed that he’d already picked up two of the tipped-over drawers, but there were several more left to straighten out.
“Good idea. When I’m done here, I’ll join you.”
He glanced at me. “We’ll get through all of this together, babe.” “Right.” I blew him a kiss before heading down the hallway to the back bedroom.
Seeing the shredded flowers that had once adorned the old hat, and remembering the beauty of it, saddened me. I picked up bits of grasses and feathers and piled them on the bedspread. That attempt at cleaning complete, I opened the closet and removed the worn dress from the hanger. I had some investigating to do.
As I carried the dress into the living room, I wondered if there would be anything at all inserted in the hem of this one. Maybe doing some in-depth research on Mary Lincoln after the assassination might give me insight into her mental state.
I sat down on the couch, clicked the television on, drew my legs up underneath me to get comfortable, and began to search the hemline. Since the colored thread was dark and hard to see, I switched on the reading lamp for a more direct light. The multi-yard hem seemed to go on forever as I slowly smoothed my fingers over the stitches. But I found nothing.
I studied the inside of the hemline. Mary Lincoln had hid something… I could feel it in my bones. I decided it would have been hidden either for Tad or out of dire necessity. I had read they were always short of cash. Every cent that Abraham made, she spent. It was easy to see why Congress would get mad at her for spending, especially with a war raging.
Realizing I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my work, I glanced back down at the hem, noting that the job was almost complete. Right before the final seam, I caught a change in thread color—just like in the other dress. I stared at it. With small scissors in hand, I snipped the knot. I carefully slid the thread out from each stitch until enough open space allowed me to insert my finger inside the opening and I touched the paper. Holding my breath, I gently slid it out into the open. The small slip of paper had a pillar drawn on it. I studied it closer and shook my head, murmuring, “a pillar?” I held it closer to the light and shouted, “Aaron!”
I jumped up and brought the small piece of paper out to the kitchen. “Guess what? Look at this.”
Aaron was fitting the last drawer in place. “This is crazy.”
I held the paper out for him to see. “I’m at a loss. What does all this mean?”
“It’s almost like the ones at the U.S. Capitol building or the White House.” He shook his head. “Geez. Call Marie back.”
“I’m right on it,” I said. I returned to the living room and called Grandma. She answered before the end of the first ring, which didn’t surprise me. “What does a pillar symbolize?” I went on to explain our latest discovery.
“Hmm…a ‘G,’ a pillar, and a staircase are all symbols. Here, I’ll put Grandpa on; you get Aaron on the phone, too.
They might be able to figure it out,” Grandma said.
“Oh, sure. And we can’t?” I said, running my fingers through my unruly red hair. “We didn’t just fall from the turnip truck, ya know.”
“I’ll give you five minutes, then Grandpa’s calling,” Grandma said.
“You’re impossible.” I disconnected and picked up my iPad. After typing in three words, the search brought me to symbols. I clicked on the Masonic site and found that all three were Masonic symbols. The “G” stood for The Grand Master staircase. The search exposed the meaning of the pillar as, The Temple of Solomon, rooted deeply in Masonic teachings.
“Oh my,” I muttered. “Talk about perplexing.” I picked up the phone and once again speed-dialed Grandma. “It’s all embedded with Masonic symbolism.”
“You’ll have to keep investigating.” I could hear Grandma yawning. “We’re going to bed. If you find out more, call me in the morning.”
“Will do.” I placed the phone down on the table and held up the iPad and read about the symbols until Aaron entered. “Hold on a sec.” I bookmarked the site, got up, grabbed the dress, carried it to the bedroom and rehung it.
“They are all Masonic symbols.” I sat down on the couch with him beside me. “Interesting, eh?” I said, showing it to him.
“I don’t want to think about another mystery that happened well over a century ago. It’s too much.” He nudged me. “Do you?”
“I think we’re locked into it.”
“But, what is it?”
“No idea.” I held up the iPad. “Read through this, will you?”
“Sure.” He took it from me as I leaned into him. “We don’t have anything to go on, though.” He passed it back. “Here, fluffy.”
“I wonder if it does have anything to do with the Lost Speech? It makes me wonder about Mary’s diary pages.” I covered my mouth and yawned. “Let’s get the hat mess picked up. Those Victorian hats are so beautiful. Why rip one apart?”
“More clues, maybe? Let’s take the dresses and hat downstairs. We’ll hide them in the basement.”
“Good idea.”
We walked back to the bedroom together. The hat mess took a while to pick up. We placed all of the remnants in the box, along with the hat, and placed the lid back on. We both had our hands full, me with the dress, and he with the hatbox.
I followed Aaron into the kitchen and down the basement stairs. We stopped at the bottom to flick the light switch.
”We should fix this basement up, it’s nothing but cement blocks,” I said.
“Let’s get this over with. I can think of better things to do than hold onto a dress of Mary Lincoln.” Aaron glanced around the room.
“Keep your shirt on.” I handed him the hanger and he set the hatbox down. Near the laundry there were a few shelves. I found two garment bags and brought them over to Aaron. “Hold this open so I can put the dresses and hat inside.”
“Anything to get back upstairs where it’s warm.” I opened the bag, Aaron hung the hanger hook on the wire, and I slid the dress inside. “Are we finished?”
“Nope. Let’s go and get the rest of the stuff and keep it all down here,” I said. “I’ll try carrying both crinolines and the pantaloons, but what about the hoops?” I followed him up the stairs.
“I’m not touching them.”
As we headed down the hallway, I took his hand and squeezed it, smiling up at him. We gathered up the items in the back bedroom until our arms were full, and then we hurried back downstairs and hung them all up. I made two more trips for the hoop skirts. They barely fit down the narrow stairs. “Thank heavens these hoops aren’t in style anymore,” I said to Aaron when we’d finished. It was amazing how our accumulation of Lincoln artifacts had grown.
As I made ready for bed, I wondered if I would be able to get a decent night’s sleep. Aaron turned on the electric blanket and I curled into him and closed my eyes. I still got up several times during the night. Once I called the hospital for an update on the girl in the dumpster but wasn’t told anything more than I already knew. She was under close supervision, no visitors were allowed, and she hadn’t regained consciousness. At one point, I fixed myself a cup of hot chocolate and another time it was chocolate ice cream. Now, finally, just when I was ready for sleep, the sky was beginning to brighten.
It was hard to get up. I yawned and rolled over, pulling the blankets up over my head. It wasn’t until Aaron came and yanked them down that I got up.
“Brr.” I placed a foot down on the pale blue carpeting. “It must be too cold for you to run to work. What’s the temp?” Aaron had brought a steaming cup of coffee to the bedroom for me, and I sipped it carefully. Setting the cup down, I reached for my robe and pulled it on.
“Forty below.” Aaron frowned. “But, it’s going to warm up—all the way to twenty below.”
“Did you really have to tell me the temp?” I shivered. “Let’s go to work together. I hate the idea going in alone. I’m chicken now that all of this has happened.”
“All right. Can’t say as I blame you.” He grinned. “Don’t concern yourself with the garbage from now on.”
“Thanks. It’s off my to-do list,” I groused. I didn’t want a reminder of the day before, with my mind stuck on the image of that poor girl in the bottom of the dumpster. When I breathed in deeply, the remembered stench permeated my nostrils. “Can you hang that shelf for me today? Please?”
“Oh sure, Liv.”
I followed him out to the kitchen where we ate a small breakfast before getting dressed. I wore a turtleneck under a Scottish highland green knit sweater and jeans. Aaron wore a tan shirt and jeans. Once we’d bundled up into our heavy outerwear, we jumped into the car.
“Did you make sure the house was locked?” I asked.
“Yes. I checked every door, twice. Even the one between the house and garage is locked. I don’t usually check it because it’s never locked, until today.” Aaron backed from the garage after the door had lifted. He turned and headed for the street. “Don’t worry, honey.”
“I won’t.” I clenched my jaw tightly as we waited for a traffic light to turn.
“Yeah, right.” He glanced at me, winking. “I have a couple more practices before the tourney. Do you want to come tonight?”
“Not on your life! I’m going to stay home. I don’t care to become a popsicle.”
I was comforted knowing I wouldn’t have to enter the store alone. After last night, and the other store break-in, I was frightened. When these types of things happened back when we were involved in the Dolley Madison search, Grandpa made sure someone was with me all the time.
It didn’t take long before we were at the store, and Aaron parked in the lot out back.
“I hope no one broke in here last night,” I said, standing beside Aaron as he pressed in the door code.
“Think positive, but let me go in first.” He grinned.
“Yeah, as if you are.” I stepped aside as he entered. I really wanted to peek inside but hoped for the best.
“All clear,” he said, coming back out to get me.
“Good.” Taking my hand, Aaron led me inside the back door, shutting it behind us. I held my breath as I poked my nose into the workroom. “Looks fine.”
“So does the showroom.”
We both removed our coats and hung them on the clothes tree. “I’m starting the computer and will check for a return message from Bill.”
“I’ll go for a hot cup of coffee for each of us.” Aaron stood, blowing on his fingertips to warm them.
“Wait, honey. I want you to see how long it takes for this computer to boot up.”
Together we walked over to it, and I pressed the start button. Once it started humming, I looked up at him. “Who do you think broke into the house?”
“Not a clue.” He shook his head. “I’ll call the detectives after a while. They have to have time to study all the information before they know anything.
“You know who strikes me as
odd?” He massaged his chin. “Mikal.”
“Mikal?” I raised a brow and stared at him. “That makes no sense. No sense whatsoever. He’s ancient, anyway.”
“True. But remember how he broke into the store the last time? There wasn’t any reason for him to do that, was there?”
“He had a hunch and ran with it.” I frowned. “But why would he break into my house? That person could run fast. Mikal is too old.” I shook my head. “You’re not making any sense.”
“Listen to me.” Aaron took in a deep breath. “What do we really know about him? Besides, old people aren’t that old anymore. Not like when we were kids.”
“There’s truth to that. Health care is exceptional nowadays.” I glanced at the computer screen and pressed the button to open my file. “See? Look at how slow this thing is. It’s a snail.”
“Also, Mikal seems too interested. Look at how he insisted on doing the handwriting analysis? He’s too nosy, in my opinion.” Aaron looked over my shoulder at the computer. “Let’s see your e-mail.”
I pressed the button and my messages popped up on the screen. As I opened the reply from Dr. Williams, the page began jumping up and down.
“Your computer has been hacked.”
“First, Blanche, then breaking into our house, and now the computer hacked,” I said. “Are they connected?”
“Good question.”
Chapter Twelve
Aaron finished hanging the shelf above the counter as a tech geek worked on the computer. The detectives arrived and parked outside the front door. Before they entered, I took a moment to greet the ladies. First Lady Edith Wilson beckoned me over by the wink in her eye. As I picked up the doll, I whispered, “It’s okay. The stranger will soon leave. He’s trying to figure out what’s wrong with the computer.” I set the doll back and began to circle the room. Mrs. Lincoln looked quite sad, so I leaned over to whisper in her ear. “Can you tell me where you hid the speech, that is, if you did? Now is a great time to come forward to tell me.”
Since a computer geek monopolized my computer, I joined Aaron in the workroom to speak with the detectives again about last night’s break-in. I wanted to see if they knew anything more about the girl.
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