The Jewels of Sofia Tate (10 page)

“Can you ask the people you work with if the money was for her?”

“I definitely will. And in the meantime, I'm going to take this cash and deposit it back into the account.” She shook her head. “It's so unsafe to have this much cash lying around.”

Garnet frowned. “When I was here on Sunday, Elizabeth had a phone call. She seemed really upset after it. I think I heard her say something about fifty thousand dollars. But the day I met her, she had a lot of money with her, too. There was an envelope full of hundreddollar bills when I took her pills out of her purse.”

Her mother's eyes narrowed. “I wonder what's going on.”

Garnet handed over the bundles of cash. “I don't know. Only Elizabeth can tell us, I guess.”

“Or maybe we should call the police. I don't like what I'm seeing here.”

“The police? Oh, Mom, don't do that. Let's wait. At least until we see what happens to Elizabeth. She might have a good explanation for all of this.”

“I'll see what Susan can tell me. In the meantime, let's go home.”

A short time later, as her mother backed the car out of the driveway, Garnet looked up at the darkened windows of the house. She had always thought that the windows of a house were like eyes — they watched the outside yet revealed only a little of what was going
on inside. A flutter of curtains or a burning light told you someone was home; darkened windows or a light gone out — the house was empty or all had gone to bed. Drawn drapes were like closed eyelids, shutting out the world.

But it was the walls that watched and listened and kept the deepest secrets of all who had ever lived inside. And they never gave up those secrets.

How Garnet wished now that the walls of this house could talk. Or at least whisper just a little.

Garnet was in the cafeteria at lunch the next day when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

“Hey, Garnet.”

She whirled around and the plate with her pizza slice slid to the edge of the tray while the can of Diet Coke rolled away under a stack of chairs. “Oh, great,” Garnet muttered. Dan quickly set down his tray and bent to retrieve the can, then placed it back on hers.

“Thanks,” Garnet said, feeling her face flush.

“No problem,” Dan said, picking up his tray again. “Are you sitting with anyone?” His eyes seemed bluer than Garnet remembered.

“No.” Not that she ever did, she might have added.

“Do you want to grab a table? There's a spot right over there,” Dan said, gesturing with his chin.

Garnet assumed he meant with him. “Sure.” She followed him and they sat down opposite each other. She was vaguely aware of a few stares in their direction.

She was about to pull the tab from her Coke, then thought better of it. After the tumble it had taken, it
might be better to wait. She took a bite of her pizza, then asked, “Did you know that Elizabeth's in the hospital?”

Dan frowned. “No. How do you know?”

“I called the ambulance. I went to her house yesterday after school and found her unconscious.”

Dan raised his eyebrows. “You did? Is she okay?”

Garnet shrugged. “She had a heart attack. They wouldn't let me see her.”

“Oh, wow. That's bad,” Dan said, letting the information digest. “I'll have to call Grandpa. He's the minister. He'll want to visit her.” He squirted some ketchup on his fries and stuck one into his mouth. “So, what happened?”

“Well, actually, it was kind of strange.”

Dan stopped chewing. “Strange?”

“Yeah. Okay. I was riding up the street on my bike and this car was parked in front of Elizabeth's house. All of a sudden the driver just took off and was driving so crazy I almost got hit. I had to swerve to get out of the way. Then when I got to the front door, it was open and Elizabeth was lying on the floor in the front hall. And you know that vase on her side table?”

Dan shrugged. “No, but —”

Garnet waved a hand. “Anyway, it was smashed to pieces and she had this enormous bump on her head,” she hesitated. “I was wondering if someone might have
hit her with it.”

“You mean, like someone trying to break in?”

“I don't know about breaking in. Nothing in the house looked like it was out of place.”

“But who would want to hurt Mrs. Tate? Did you get a look at the driver?”

“No. The windows of the car were tinted. But do you know anyone who drives a blue BMW?”

“Hmm. No, I don't think so. Anyway, who would break into a house if they drove a BMW? That doesn't make sense.” Dan dipped another fry into the ketchup and gave a little shrug. “It might have been just coincidence that the car was parked at Elizabeth's. Someone might have been leaving the park and happened to be a bad driver.”

“Do you think so?” Garnet said, suddenly feeling as though she had overreacted. “But what about the vase?”

“Could've been knocked over when Elizabeth had the heart attack. And she might've got the bump when she fell.”

“But why was the front door open?”

“Maybe she was about to go outside.”

“I suppose,” Garnet softly agreed. She cautiously pulled the tab off the Coke can and took a sip. “There is one other thing that's kind of weird.”

“What?”

“Well, I decided I would look after Ginger while Elizabeth's in the hospital —”

“Yeah. Good idea. Who knows how long she'll be there,” Dan interjected.

“Anyway, my mother and I decided to leave Ginger at the house for now, and I needed a key,” Garnet said. “I knew Elizabeth had one in her purse. The thing is, when I took out the key, there was fifty thousand dollars lying underneath.” She took a bite of her pizza and watched Dan choke on his Coke.

“Fifty thousand dollars in cash?” he sputtered.

Garnet nodded.

Dan searched her face and let out a deep breath. “See, I told you she might not be thinking clearly anymore.”

“That might not be it.”

Dan's eyes grew wary. “What do you mean?”

“Well, last Sunday after you left, someone phoned. I heard her talking. There was something about fifty thousand dollars. I don't know what the call was about or who she was talking to, but she was upset after. And the day I met her — you know, when she fell in front of my house? She had a bundle of cash that day, too, but it didn't look like as much as what I found yesterday.”

Dan tilted his head. “Do you think someone's extorting money from her?”

Garnet shrugged again. “I don't know. She didn't talk about the call and I didn't want to ask.”

“Why not?”

“Well, it's not exactly any of my business, and to be honest, she was so upset I was afraid to. I had to get her one of those pills,” Garnet replied defensively.

Dan sighed. “So where's the money now? Still in her purse?”

“No, my mother took it. She's putting it back into Elizabeth's account. She works at the trust company where Elizabeth banks.”

“That's good,” Dan said. He poured the last bits of fries from the cardboard container into his mouth and licked his fingers. “Are you going to visit her at the hospital?”

“If they let me.”

“Do you want to go together? I've got track after school but if you want, I could pick you up after supper.”

“Okay,” Garnet said, feeling a slight flutter.

“I'll be over at seven.”

Jeans or green capris to go with her pale yellow shirt? It was an oddly difficult wardrobe decision for a visit to an old lady in the hospital. Jeans, Garnet decided. She pulled them on, then dabbed a little of her favourite floral
scent onto her wrists. The doorbell rang. Garnet peeked through the blinds and saw the black sports car parked at the curb. She checked her watch. Either Dan was a few minutes early or her watch was behind again. Smoothing a hand over her tied-back red curls and lamenting her freckled nose, she took one last look in the mirror before heading down the stairs.

“Come on in, Dan,” she heard her mother say. “So nice to see you again. Garnet should be down soon.”

Garnet slowed herself down, trying to appear casual and relaxed as she entered the front hall. “Hi, Dan!”

“Hi! Ready?”

“Yeah,” Garnet replied, swinging a small purse over her shoulder. “Bye, Mom. See you later.”

They walked out to the car and got in. Dan started the engine and turned the stereo on. He turned the volume up and, to her amusement, sang along to parts of a song as they headed to the hospital.

A different nurse was working at the station today and she let both Dan and Garnet enter Elizabeth's room without any hassle, though she did ask that they keep the visit short. When they opened the door, they found Elizabeth asleep so they were careful not to wake her. A monitor above her head measured her physical patterns in a rainbow of colours and two IVs pumped all the necessary fluids into her veins.

“She looks a little better today,” Garnet whispered, though the bruise on Elizabeth's forehead was now a dark purple. “She's made the first twenty-four hours. The nurse said yesterday that if she makes it through forty-eight hours, her chances increase.”

They sat down on the chairs on either side of the bed, but Garnet soon became aware of an awkward silence. At least in the car, the stereo had been on and Dan had been singing. Now she was conscious of him across from her and she tried to avoid his eyes by looking around the room. Elizabeth's chest moved slowly up and down as the machines pulsed next to her. The hospital's ventilation system hummed behind her. People were talking outside in the hallway. It reminded Garnet a little of her last visits with Nana. This was an unsettling thought.

“My mother brought the money back to the bank today,” Garnet said, breaking the silence. “She asked Susan, a lady she works with, what she knew about it.”

“And?”

“Elizabeth told Susan she was helping a friend. They tried to tell her a cheque would be better than carrying around so much cash, but Elizabeth insisted on it. Susan also mentioned that Elizabeth looked kind of sick and that she rested in a chair with her eyes closed while they got the money from the vault. Susan was so worried about her that she asked if she could call anyone to drive her
home, but Elizabeth just told her to call a taxi.”

There was silence again, except for the sound of Elizabeth's even breathing and a beep from one of the monitors. Garnet was aware that anything out of the ordinary would have caused alarms to sound.

“I'm going to start looking for those jewels,” she said. “I think I might have a clue.”

“A clue? What kind of clue?” Dan said, shaking his head as though he were removing cobwebs.

“The angel on the mantel at Elizabeth's house has some writing engraved on each of its wings,” Garnet explained. “Elizabeth said they're Bible verses. I think they might possibly lead to something.”

Dan let out a long breath. “Look, Garnet. Remember what I told you about ...” He stopped and swung his chin in Elizabeth's direction.

Garnet waved a hand. “I know, I know. But I've been thinking a lot about this and I think it's worth at least a try. The thing is, I kind of believe her, you know? I don't know why, but I don't think she's making it up. After you left last Sunday and I found those engravings, Elizabeth helped me look them up in the Bible. One of them's about a king's daughter and the other one's about looking for Christ.”

“Well, that's convincing,” Dan said, rolling his eyes. “I don't get the connection.”

“I was getting to that. Elizabeth said that when Reginald died, he said something about the angel and pointed to it. He said the angel would guide her.”

“Elizabeth also said he was eccentric.”

“I know, but why are the wings engraved? Why would anyone do that? And why did Reginald point to the angel?” Garnet asked.

“Angels serve as guardians but are also often messengers in the Bible,” Dan explained, shifting in the chair. “Garnet, remember what I told you. There may be nothing to the story. She may have gotten things a little mixed up.”

“I know that, considering it's been years since all this began. But I really do believe there's something to it and I'd like to get to the bottom of it. If there's a chance those jewels exist somewhere, I want to find them. And if someone's hidden them and they left a clue, then I want to follow it. If you'd only see that angel, you might change your mind. Look, I should probably check in on the cat later. Can we stop at Elizabeth's on the way home so I can show you?”

Dan stared at her for a moment. “You're not going to give up, are you?” He threw his hands up in mock surrender. “All right. Show me the angel. Whatever. Then will you leave me alone about it?”

Garnet laughed. “We'll see.”

A nurse appeared at the door and a moment later, with the help of an orderly, another patient was wheeled to the opposite side of the room. The woman was fast asleep with the covers pulled up to under her arms, and had a monitor and IVs connected to her.

Elizabeth stirred, ever so slightly. The monitor gave a short beep, but she did not wake up. Dan and Garnet decided it was time to leave. When they entered the hallway, Gerdie was walking toward them with a man who looked somewhat familiar to Garnet. He had a large build and appeared to be in his mid-fifties. Garnet tried to think where she had seen him before, then remembered his face was on a business card next to the phone in Elizabeth's kitchen.

“Hello, Miss Pitt. Stan. How are you?” Dan said.

“Fine,” Gerdie replied curtly in her quiet voice.

“We're doing great, just great,” Stan added in a deep, confident tone, flashing a smile. “How's Elizabeth?” he asked, motioning his head toward the room.

“She's sleeping, but I guess so far she's doing okay,” Dan replied.