Heartwishes (34 page)

“Let me guess,” Gemma said. “She’s young and pretty and unmarried.”

“Have you met her?” Tris asked, his eyebrows raised, and they laughed together.

She couldn’t help her amusement at the way Tris pretended not to know that women fell over themselves over him. She’d seen grown women halt in the street when they saw him, and Tris would smile at them in a shy way, as though he had no idea why they were gaping at him.

He opened the refrigerator door and began pulling out bowls that were covered with plastic wrap, and handed them to her. There were several vegetable salads, cold meat and chicken, and little cubes of cheese.

As they unwrapped the food and put the bowls on the table, they talked. Neither of them suggested heating the meal. Gemma wanted to ask Tris about the Heartwishes Stone, but she also wanted to let him tell her in his own time.

“So what’s with you and Dr. Burgess that you don’t trust him?” Tris asked as soon as they sat down at the table.

“Nothing I can put my finger on, but I think maybe he might want to find out what he can about my research so he can publish it.”

“You think the Fraziers’ family history will entice some editor to put it in print?”

“You know very well what he’s after,” Gemma said.

“Oh, that.” Grinning, Tris looked at his plate. “I think you’re right. He’s been grilling everyone in town about anything he can find out about the Stone. This morning Ellie said that if he tried to pry more information out of her, she was going to set his skinny butt on the slicing machine.”

Gemma laughed. “He does have skinny legs, doesn’t he?”

“Ellie said he was complaining that everyone in town is so secretive.”

“And by that he means The Seven.”

It was Tris’s turn to laugh. “So that’s what we’ve become, is it? Wasn’t there a movie about us?”

“You mean
The Magnificent Seven,
and it had nothing to do with the lot of you.”

“Maybe it will once you write about us,” Tris said. “This morning after you left, Dr. Burgess asked me about the robbery case Colin is working on, but I said, quite honestly, that I didn’t know anything.”

“I hope the robbery will become the latest gossip around town and overshadow the Stone.”

“I heard that there were a couple of break-ins and that kids probably did it,” Tris said.

Gemma looked down at her glass. “I don’t know much more than you do.”

“Did you hear about Sara?” Tris asked.

“Yeah. Nice, huh?” Gemma was quiet for a moment, then
said, “All right, enough chitchat. You said you think you found the Heartwishes Stone. I want to see it—if that’s possible, that is—and I want to hear every word of the story.”

“Nell found it,” Tris said as he went to the side of the room and swung out a framed photo on a hinge to expose a little wall safe. He quickly turned the combination, took out what looked to be a lady’s silver compact, and handed it to Gemma.

It was surprisingly heavy. As she examined it, she saw that it was pretty but scarred in the front, as though someone had pried it open. Based on her knowledge of history, the little case looked to be late Victorian or Edwardian. It wasn’t remarkable in the least, but rather plain.

“My sister and Nell took a couple of screwdrivers and a chisel to open it.”

“I understand curiosity,” Gemma said as she lifted the lid. The inside was filled with lead. She looked up at Tris.

“Go on, take the top layer off,” he said.

Gemma was able to get her thumbnail under the lead and peel it upward, the lead bending as she lifted. Inside was a pretty little necklace. There was a little gold cage holding a tiny chip of some kind of stone. Gemma held it up to the light. “Uncut diamond?”

“Yes. I had my cousin Kim look at it, and it is a diamond, but it’s not worth trying to cut it into a shape.”

Gemma kept holding it aloft and looking at it. It was pretty but oh so simple—and so much smaller than she’d imagined. And she’d seen it before. “This was on Landy.”

“What an excellent memory you have,” Tris said. “I can see why you’re good at research.”

“How did you get Nell to give this to you? You didn’t . . . ?”

“Steal it? I should be so clever. I had to trade her two Helen Kish’s and one Heidi Plusczok for it.”

“And they are?”

“Doll designers. I swear that child is going to be a negotiations lawyer. And thank heaven for eBay or I never would have been able to get them.”

Gemma kept looking at the necklace. “Where? When? How?”

“I’d like to say it was my powers of deduction, but it was just a hunch. And I still don’t know for sure if that’s what the letter you found was talking about. Anyway, the day you were hurt, Nell said that Landy’s necklace was blinking.”

“I remember her saying that, but I paid no attention to it,” Gemma said.

“Me neither. Nell lives in a world of her own. But I guess my brain registered it. Remember when I had to leave the barbecue for Mr. Gibson’s heart attack?”

“Of course,” Gemma said. That had been the day she was so angry at Colin—and it seemed like a lifetime ago.

“By the way, it was an anxiety attack, and he’s fine now. I was quite annoyed at being called away, and I was planning to go back to the party. I called my sister at the hospital in Miami to see how her husband was. He’s fine, but Nell wanted to talk to me. She took the phone and went in the hall and started in on an incoherent story about her father taking Landy’s necklace away from her and I
had
to save it.”

“Why would he take his daughter’s necklace from her?” Gemma asked.

“My brother-in-law thought it came from the church jumble sale. He thought it might be valuable and someone could be missing it.”

“Nice guy.”

“He is,” Tris said. “But the truth was that Nell had lied to her mother about where the necklace came from.”

“Ahhhh,” Gemma said. “And the plot thickens.”

“Right. My devious little niece stole the necklace from me.”

“Okay, so now I’m confused. Wouldn’t you have noticed that you owned a necklace encased in lead and silver?”

“I would have if I’d ever seen it. Nell told me over the phone that she just happened to find the necklace behind the man.”

Gemma smiled. “I guess you know what that means.”

“Oh yes. Every child who has ever lived in this house since it was built has been fascinated by ‘the man.’” He motioned for her to follow him as he walked toward the fireplace. On the far end of the big mantel, a four-inch square of wood had been inserted. On it was carved the profile of a handsome young man. He wore the stiff collar of the early nineteenth century, and his hair curled about his neck. His cheekbones were high, his chin firm. He looked almost exactly like Tristan.

“An ancestor of yours, I take it,” Gemma said.

“I assume so. I always thought he looked like my father, but my mother said he looks like all the Tristans. The name goes back a long way in my family. Anyway, no one knows who he is for sure, and as kids all of us wondered about him. One of our favorite rainy day things to do was to make up stories about him. Colin used to say he was a man who fought for justice in secret.”

“That sounds like him,” Gemma said, smiling. “It’s my guess he was the father of Louisa’s son.”

“That’s what I think too, but that wasn’t something the adults were going to tell the children, was it? Whoever he is, no one today knows for certain why he was chosen to be immortalized in the end of a fireplace. My mother wanted to take the tile out and frame it. She was always afraid it might catch fire, but Dad wouldn’t let her.” Tris looked at Gemma. “It’s a good thing she didn’t.” Reaching out, he touched the bottom left corner of the square, then the top right, then he pushed in the middle. The little square sprang open to reveal a hole inside the mantel.

“Nell figured out the code to open that?”

“All by herself,” Tris said.

“I am proud to know her.” Gemma leaned forward to look inside the hole. “It looks as though it was made especially to hold the necklace in its box.”

“That’s what I think too.” He pushed it closed, then stepped back and motioned for Gemma to try it.

She got it on the second try. “Truly amazing that the child figured that out.”

“And told no one!” Tris added. “She knew that if she did, someone would take the box away from her.”

“Then she lied her way into getting her mother to help her open it,” Gemma said in admiration. “And it was very clever of her to hide it in plain sight around the neck of her teddy bear. It was as though she was daring any adult to see what she’d done.”

“That’s my dear little niece,” Tris said. He went back to the dining area and they began to clear the table. “So, anyway, Nell was on the phone to me and practically hysterical because her father was going to take the necklace away from her. Of course all the problems were caused by the lie she’d told, but she didn’t want to own up to that little detail.”

“Interesting that she was telling
you
the truth of what she’d done and not her parents.”

Tris gave a little laugh. “Why do you think she loves to stay with me? I let her get away with murder. You should have heard Addy when she found out that I let Nell ride in Mr. Lang’s truck with him.”

“He’s not—?”

“No, no,” Tris said. “No deviant sexual behavior, but the man is eighty-five years old and he’s still driving.”

“In that case, I agree with Nell’s mother,” Gemma said.

“Yeah, me too,” Tris said. “It won’t happen again, but the problem
is that I let Nell wrap me around her fingers, and she knows it. She knew that I’d be more interested in her story than in trying to teach her not to steal. I leave that up to her parents.”

He paused as he put the bowls Gemma had covered in the refrigerator. “When Nell told me where she’d found the box and what was inside it, I remembered that it was blinking the day I met you, then later . . .”

Gemma nodded. “Right after that, Nell got her wish for her father to come home and live in Edilean.”

“Exactly,” Tris said. “So if it was blinking again on the day of the barbecue, then—”

“Someone was making a wish. I guess you found out about our little game that afternoon.”

“I called Sara, and she went over everybody’s wishes.”

“And since then, Sara unexpectedly had twins,” Gemma said softly as she thought about what had been said that afternoon. “At least no one wished for something bad.”

“I think your mind works like mine,” Tris said. “If the world found out that there’s a possibility that something like this existed . . .”

“No Frazier would be safe,” Gemma said. “I could see Shamus being kidnapped on his way home from school and some crooks demanding that he wish so and so would win the lottery.”

“Or they’d demand weird things like being able to stop time.”

“Good one,” Gemma said. “How about spirit transfer? Or wish for the power to be able to take over the world.”

“When I heard of Sara’s babies, all I could think of is the bad that could come from this. I wish it weren’t already all over town.”

“Me too,” Gemma said. “Colin says . . .” She broke off.

Tris gave her a little smile. “Got it bad for him, don’t you?”

Gemma smiled modestly. “We get along well, and he’s easy to be around.”

“That’s not what other women have said.”

“You mean Jean?”

“No,” Tris said. “The other women Colin dated when the two of them weren’t together. They wanted his full attention, and when they didn’t get it, they weren’t, shall we say, pleasant.”

“But Colin does give a woman his attention,” Gemma said. “We talk about everything.”

“That you get Colin to talk at all is something no other woman has achieved.”

Gemma was smiling as Tris went to the picture on the wall and opened the safe, ready to put the silver box back in it.

“Wait!” Gemma said. “I think there’s something you should know about wall safes. Is it okay if I tell you the truth about the robberies?”

“Sure. Colin and I talk about his cases all the time.”

She told him how the robber had opened the safe in one house. When she finished, Tris said, “It sounds like someone is looking for something small that’s well hidden.” He nodded at the necklace.

“But who could know what the Heartwishes Stone is? Know that it’s small enough to fit into a little safe? I’ve done a lot of research and I didn’t find out what it looks like. I mean, until now, that is.
If
that’s the Stone, which we’re not sure of.”

“So where do I hide this thing if not inside a safe?” Tris asked. “Maybe I should put it back where Nell found it.”

“The thief found a brooch inside a bedpost, so I doubt if that picture will hinder him. Why don’t you give it to me? I’ll have Shamus sketch it and I’ll photograph it. At least that way, whatever happens, we’ll have a record of it.”

“Where will you keep it?”

“In its lead case, and I think I’ll put the compact in with my other makeup so it won’t look like anything special.”

“Gemma, that’s quite clever,” Tris said and smiled at her warmly. “Are you
sure
you’re set on Colin? No other man has a chance?”

He was a truly beautiful man, but she wasn’t interested. “I think perhaps I’m absolutely sure.” She looked at her watch. “It’s after nine. I better go. The gym comes early tomorrow.”

He walked with her out to her car. It was a beautiful night. “I’m glad you’ve come to Edilean. You’re a good addition,” he said as he kissed her cheek. His eyes sparkled. “And if you ever find out what a lowlife Colin Frazier actually is, you know where I live.” He opened the car door for her.

“I’ll be sure and tell him that you said—” Gemma broke off because she was suddenly overcome with a wave of nausea that she couldn’t suppress. She bent over and threw up her dinner on the ground.

Instantly, Tristan changed from being a teasing friend into a doctor. He put his arm around her shoulders and led her back into the house.

“Stomach flu,” Gemma said, her voice rather loud as she tried to drown out her thoughts of what could be the cause of her being sick. “Or maybe I ate something bad. It’s probably food poisoning or a twenty-four-hour bug. I’ll be fine in a few minutes. I bet you have a lot of patients right now with whatever I’ve caught. It rained on Thursday and I got wet. I bet that’s what this is.”