r /> “What is it?”
“I don’t know. You want to open it, or should I?”
“Go for it.” I had no desire to be the one who unearthed more of my father’s horrors.
Joe slowly lifted the lid. “It’s a gold cufflink.”
“A gold cufflink? My father never wore cufflinks.”
“Yeah, he did,” Joe said. “Remember? Talon recalled seeing a cufflink with the initials TS at the place where he was kept?”
“You never told me that.”
“Didn’t I? It came up in one of his guided hypnosis sessions with Melanie.”
“All I can say is I don’t remember ever seeing my dad wearing cufflinks.”
“No one wears cufflinks,” Joe said, “but a lot of men own them. Did he have any?”
“I don’t know. Do you think this is the cufflink Talon saw?”
“I don’t know. There’s only one here.” Joe lifted it out of the box and examined it. “Except the initials aren’t TS. They’re CM.”
Chapter Forty
Marjorie
“What do you see?” Ruby asked.
Dale picked up a rock. “This,” he said. “It doesn’t belong here.”
A polished stone of some sort. It had clearly been through a rock tumbler. It was black and white and easily blended in with the other stones and dark dirt of the ground.
“May I see?” Ruby asked.
Dale handed her the stone.
“Wow, good eye, Dale,” she said. “You’re right. It doesn’t belong here.”
“Wait,” Dale said. “Let me see it again.”
Ruby handed it back to him.
“Sometimes people carry stones for good luck. That’s what my mom used to tell me when I collected them.” He turned the stone over.
“You collected rocks?” I asked.
“I used to. I don’t know what happened to my collection.” He examined the rock more closely. “This is obsidian. Snowflake obsidian.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Yeah. I had one just like it.”
I dropped my mouth open, and Ruby glanced at me, shaking her head ever so slightly. I understood. We had to keep him calm so he’d continue to talk. So far, he hadn’t freaked at finding something that reminded him of his past.
“What happened to your rock collection, Dale?” Ruby asked, her voice even.
“I don’t know. I assume it’s back in my house.” He swallowed. “My old house.”