Cupid's Treasure - Mystery of the Golden Arrow (7 page)

Kisses flicked her tail.

“Please,” Amber said.

Kisses walked over and sniffed the purse.

“That’s a good girl,” Amber said.

“
Muff-muff
.” The kitty circled the purse, making a noise that sounded like the beginning of a meow ending in a puff of air, and climbed in.

Amber picked her up, glancing back at the night table where the radio speaker was sitting and sighed.
This is harder to leave than I thought it would be
. She looked down at her bag with the kitty’s head poking out of the top. “I’d give almost anything to stay and have this thing over and done with once and for all.”

Amber slowly made her way down the stairs in the darkened house. She could hardly believe her eyes when a shadow crossed her path. She stopped in her tracks. The street light coming in through the front door cast the shadow of the trees outside. It had been nothing. She took another step as the grandfather clock struck two. The chimes made her want to jump out of her shoes for the second time that day. She slipped past the foyer and down the hall to the kitchen she’d seen earlier when she’d brought her dirty clothes down.

She wished she could have just gone out the front, but with only the clothes on her back, she could really use an extra change until she could purchase some more. She found them folded neatly on the table. She picked them up. They smelled of laundry softener. She’d felt what it was like to have a family again for almost five minutes.

The scent only caused her heart to become heavier. It had been so long since anyone had cared for her. She placed her skirt in the bag, tucking it around her kitty, and donned her sweater.

Tip-toeing across the kitchen to the back door, she opened it. The screen squeaked slightly, but other than that she made it outside to the back porch without too much fuss. The air was crisp and cool after the storm. She looked across the dark yard with its old trees dripping with Spanish moss.

Meow.

“We will be okay. You’ll see,” she said more to herself.

“Of course you will,” Jonathan said from where he sat in a chair with a wide wicker back.

Amber squealed and jumped.

“I’m sorry.” Jonathan rocked forward in the chair and stood up. “I didn’t mean to startle you. What are you doing up?”

She glanced down at her cat and used the only thing that came to mind. “Kisses needed to go outside.”

“Ah—I’ll make sure to bring up fresh litter for Elvis’s box,” Jonathan said as he watched her unpack her kitty and set it on the lawn.

“Elvis?” Amber whispered, glancing over her shoulder at him.

“That’s Katie’s cat,” Jonathan said. “He’s around here somewhere.”

“Oh,” Amber said as her cat promptly ran back up onto the porch, shaking her paws from the wet grass.

“I guess she’s done,” Jonathan said.

Amber could hear the amusement in his voice.
It is almost like he knows!
She picked up her kitty. “I guess so. I’ll just go back inside now.”

“That’s a good idea,” Jonathan said. “You need your sleep. We have a big morning.”

“We do?”

“Of course, Charlene’s is coming for coffee, Tom will be by to get a statement, Bob is bringing your car, and the library is in need of a safety check.”

“You’re going to work with me?” She gulped.

“I’ll probably be there all day long.”

Oh, no!
Amber thought.
That’s all I need—to spend the whole day with him
. As it was, she was daydreaming about him. She glanced back at the path leading away from the house and didn’t know if she was angry to have been thwarted or not.
He may well be the worse of two evils
.

~*~

Jonathan was still sitting in his chair in the dark when Jacques appeared. He wasn’t even shocked to see him materialize.

“You know she was making a run for it?” Jacques asked as he leaned against the bannister. The ruffled lawn shirt he wore made him look like he belonged in the eighteenth century.

“Yes, I know.” Jonathan sighed.

“How did you know?”

Jonathan pointed to his radio phone. “It started broadcasting loud and clear a while ago.”

“You mean you bugged her?”

“I didn’t,” Jonathan said. “She had control over whether to turn it off or not.”

Jacques watched him for a moment, sensing there was something else.
“What is wrong?”

Jonathan clicked a button on his laptop. “Harold sent me this before he went to bed.” The screen lit up, displaying a photo of Amber, only it looked like it was taken from an old newspaper.

“What is this?” Jacques asked.

“A photo of Miss Amelia Jones.”

“She looks just like Amber,” Jacques said.

“That’s probably because it is her. They have the same prints,” Jonathan said. “Now look at the date.”

“1928.” Jacques looked up at him. “That’s eighty five years ago.”

“Exactly.”

“She looks to be about the same age there as she is now,” Jacques said. “Which would make her well over one hundred, or she is not who she says she is.”

“The resemblance is uncanny,” Jonathan said with a nod. “Not to mention the prints.”

Jacques watched him for a moment. He could tell by the way he was acting that there was something else bothering him. “Is that all that is wrong?”

“Why do you ask?” Jonathan grinned. “You think I was struck by Cupid’s arrow and now I’m a besotted love struck calf?”

“Well, when you say it like that,” Jacques said,
“oui!”

“Sorry
, Pops,”
Jonathan answered. “You couldn’t be more wrong. I swore off women when Patricia left with her producer to do that documentary in Burma.” “If she wants to sleep her way to the top, then so be it.”

“So if you’re over Patricia, why not the lovely librarian?” Jacques grinned.

“Well, for one she’s old enough to be my grandma.” Jonathan laughed.

“You know what they say about older women?” Jacques moved his brows up and down.

“Yeah, right.” Jonathan sighed. “No—I’m not interested in love at this time.”

“Love?
I never said love.”

Jacques was grinning from ear to ear when Jonathan looked at him with an expression of exasperation.

“Did Harold have anything on the blood work up.”

“No, but he did get this from another print.” Jonathan moved his finger across the screen until the face of a man appeared. It was a mug shot of a rough looking character
who looked to be in his forties.

“Nice sun glasses,” Jacques said. “Is this the beach? Who is he?”

“Joseph Marciano,” Jonathan replied, “aka Joe the fish.”

“Do you know anything about him?”

“No, but I bet she does.”

Amber shut the door to the room. “Well,” she said to her kitty, “I guess if we are here for the night, we may as well get some sleep.”

Kisses made
herself at home on the bed pillows as Amber removed her sensible shoes and started to change back into her pajamas, this time selecting her own flannel night gown. A soft knocking sounded on the door to the bedroom as she threw back the comforter.

“Amber,” she heard him say softly. She paused before the door, preparing herself mentally for the effect the man had on her.
How does he do this to me?
In all her years, she’d never met a man who could make her feel this way.

“Amber,” Jonathan whispered softly. “Are you still up?”

Amber opened the door and stood facing the large covered kitty litter box that he was carrying. She stepped back to let him in.

He crossed to the closet and swapped it with one that was inside a bench in the closet.

“I didn’t even see that,” Amber said.

“I should have pointed it out.” Jonathan smiled, showing her the open side where the kitty could go in and out. “Katie didn’t like having the ugly box in her room, so I built this for her. It contains all the mess, and there is even an air freshener here on the side,” he said, showing her his handiwork.

“Have I displaced Katie from her room?” Amber asked guiltily.

“Oh, no.”
Jonathan chuckled. “She built a new master suite down in the cellar for her husband and herself.”

“That’s a relief,” Amber said. “I feel guilty enough being here.”

It was probably the closest thing to the truth she had said to him Jonathan realized. “You haven’t met her husband René yet. He’s a bit of a night owl.” He stepped back to allow her cat who was sniffing around the area to get a closer look.

“Thank you for going to the trouble,” Amber said.

“Sure thing.” Jonathan smiled at her. “It looks like Miss Kiss will be a happier kitty now.”

The cat jumped in and started scratching around. “I guess I’ll give her some privacy,” he said, picking up the other box.

Amber was relieved when he stepped back into the room. Being in such tight quarters as the closet with him had been enough to make her palms sweat.

Jonathan went to the door and turned around, but he almost wished he hadn’t. She was standing just outside the closet. The light from the small room outlining her form in the flannel nightgown gave a hint as to what was beneath.

“See you in the morning.” Amber nudged her glasses up on her nose.

“Hmm, hmm.”
He cleared his throat which suddenly felt tight. The spinster librarian was hiding an incredible shape under all that covering. Jonathan had to force himself to look away.
Holy hell!
He was glad he wasn’t strapped to a heart monitor at the moment.
She’s as old as your grandma,
he reminded himself, but his body wasn’t listening.

Amber didn’t know what had come over the man. He was not acting like his normal, laid back, overly confident self.
It must be from the fumes of the old cat box he was carrying.

“
Good night,” he practically choked out. He left the room, shutting the door behind himself and stood for a moment to gather his wits in the dark hallway.

“Well, that was odd,” Amber said when Kisses came back into the room and sat looking up at her.

Muff, muff.

“No, it couldn’t be,” Amber said in response. “I mean look at me.” She turned off the light and crawled into bed. “There is no way.”

Jonathan stood in the hallway and took a deep breath.

“Everything is okay,
oui?
” Jacques asked as he appeared.

“Augh.”
Jonathan gasped in surprise, somewhat startled by him. “Do you have to keep popping up like that?”

Jacques smiled knowingly.

“No!” Jonathan whispered, looking at the grin on the other man’s face. “It’s not what you think!”

“I said nothing.” Jacques chuckled.

~*~

Knock, knock,
knock.

Amber bolted upright in the bed at the sound of someone tapping on her door. She looked around, disoriented.

“Rise and shine, sweetheart.” She heard Charlene say as she slowly padded across the floor to open the door. Amber hesitated as her hand touched the knob.

“I just came over to check on you like I said I would, sugar,” Charlene said. “And I thought I’d bring you up a cup of coffee while I was at it.”

Not wanting to leave the woman waiting out in the hall with a cup of coffee, Amber opened the door.

“Good mornin', sleepyhead.”
Charlene grinned at her.

Having left her glasses on the nightstand, Amber stared at her blearily. “Did I oversleep?”

“No, sugar, it’s only seven a.m.” Charlene handed her the cup. “I can let you get some more shut eye if you want,” Charlene said. “I just thought we could sit out on the back porch and look over the flower garden. She has those beautiful winter roses.”

“Thank you,” Amber said.

“I can come back,” Charlene said.

“No, really, I’d like that,” Amber said.
“I just didn’t sleep well.” She yawned.

“Well, I guess you wouldn’t all alone in
that
bed.” Charlene chuckled as she gazed at the heart shaped bed with its red silk trapping and gold filigree. There was even a gold plaster image of Cupid on the wall behind it. Betty Boop reigned supreme in the décor war. The cherub was sadly outnumbered by the Boops. “This room is made for two.”

Amber immediately thought of the man she’d most like to have with her, which wasn’t what she wanted to be thinking about.

“Hmm, hmm,” Charlene said as Amber donned her glasses. “I don’t know why you are hiding those eyes behind glasses.”

Amber glanced in the mirror over the dresser. Her hair had lost some of its frizz factor as she slept. Her curls were cascading down her back in a glorious heap.
Oh, no!
She wanted to groan at the fetching picture she presented.
Good thing only Charlene is in the room with me
.