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“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.


Tags: Jude Deveraux Edilean Romance