It was dark by the time the bus dropped them back at the village green. They stood on the sidewalk, organizing their shopping bags as the bus drove off, its red taillights disappearing around the curve in the road. After a short walk to the police station, Charlotte told Aaron to get along home and that she’d see him in the morning. Inside the police station, the receptionist had gone home and the little waiting area was empty. She rang the bell, and a moment later, Phil appeared.
“Oh, you’re back,” he said. “Come on in. He’s waiting for you.”
She followed Phil into the main room. He didn’t look at her, but sat down at his desk and turned his attention to his computer. His behavior wasn’t cold, exactly, but rather like a juror who can’t look at the prisoner when the verdict is guilty. She had a sinking feeling that she knew what was coming, and when she entered Ray’s office, she knew she was right. She’d been struggling to think of a way to replace the ring in the little red box without Ray knowing, and now she wouldn’t have to. He’d cleared his desk in preparation for this conversation. There was nothing on it but the little red box.
He closed the door behind them and then gestured at the chair across from this desk. “We need to talk,” he said.
Heart pounding, dreading what was coming, she sat.
He pulled his chair closer to the desk and slowly reached out and picked up the box. He snapped it open so she could see inside, its white satin lining slightly yellowed and the empty slot where the ring should be.
Unable to meet his eyes, she opened her handbag and removed a small blue box. She opened it, removed the ring, and returned it to its red Garrard box. The worthless stones put out a halfhearted twinkle under the overhead fluorescent lighting.
“I’m so sorry,” she said softly. “I shouldn’t have taken it, I know that. I don’t know what came over me, and then I had no idea how I was going to get it back in the box without you knowing. It’s almost a relief that you know.”
“Why would you do a thing like that?” Ray demanded, and then, without waiting for an answer, he continued, “Have you any idea how much trouble you’re in? If you were anybody else, I’d charge you with evidence tampering, but of course, I never would have let anybody else near it. The chain of custody has been broken, and if this ring turns out to be important to the case, it won’t be admissible in court. I was supposed to hand over the box this afternoon to the state investigators, and thank God I checked it before I did. Can you imagine what it would have looked like if I’d given them this,” he shook the box slightly, “that’s supposedly been locked in a police safe, without the ring inside? When I saw the box was empty, I couldn’t believe that you could possibly do such a thing. But I knew it had to be you.”
She said nothing, and stared at her fingernails.
“Charlotte, look at me.”
The tone of his voice startled her, and she raised reluctant eyes to meet his. His blue eyes glittered like cold steel. “Tell me. Why did you take it? And don’t give me that crap about wanting to draw it so Lady What’s-her-name could have a new ring.”
“Lady Capulet,” she said softly.
“So now tell me. Why did you take the ring? What did you do with it?”
“I took it to New York to get it appraised.”
“You did what?! What the hell were you thinking?” He stood up and paced back and forth behind his desk, struggling to regain his composure. When he was seated again, his mouth twisted into a contortion of disgust. “And what if you’d lost it? Did you think of that?”
“I did, actually,” she replied. “And I was terrified that I would. I had to keep reassuring myself that I still had it.”
“But why? Tell me that. I don’t understand what would have possessed you to do something like that.” His tone was a little gentler, and she sensed he was starting to thaw and the worst was almost over.
“I don’t know, really. I just had a feeling that the ring was somehow important and I . . . Well, I’m afraid that Aaron’s going to be fitted up for Lauren’s murder, and I wanted to prove somehow that he didn’t do it.” She sighed. “I’m so sorry. I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing. I really don’t know why I took the ring. I just found myself doing it. It was a really bad choice. So stupid of me.”
“Well now we’ve finally got something we can agree on,” Ray said. “You don’t know what you’re doing, and yes, it was an awful decision.”
“What about you?” Charlotte asked. “What did you tell the detectives?”
“Nothing. I’ll hand this over to them tonight. I knew it had to be with you, and since we’d be seeing each other this evening, I decided to talk to you about it in person rather than phoning you.”
“So you didn’t tell them the ring was missing?”
“How could I? I’d have looked like a total idiot for losing something that was supposed to be in a police safe. How could I tell them that I let my girlfriend look at the ring and while my back was turned, she stole it?” His voice was slightly raised, and Charlotte cringed at the harshness of the words. Seen in that light, maybe the worst wasn’t over, after all. She tried to steer the topic onto more solid ground.
“And Rupert? How was he?”
“I took him for a walk about one,” Ray said abruptly. “He was fine.”
“Well, thank you for seeing to him.” They lapsed into a pained silence filled with mistrust on one side and regret on the other, which Charlotte broke a few moments later. “Well, I guess if that’s everything, I’d better get home to him. It’s been a long day, and I’m tired.”
Ray nodded and stood up. He checked one last time to make sure the ring was in its box, and then placed it in the safe. “I’ll drive you,” he said.
They said good-night to Phil as they passed his desk, and Ray held the door for her as they left the station and made for the marked police car parked out front. As they drove toward the hotel, Ray broke the silence.
“What about the ring? After all the trouble you went to, did you get it evaluated?”
“It’s fake.” Her voice sounded small in the darkness. “If Brian gave it to her, knowingly or not, he gave her a worthless piece of costume jewelry. What the jeweler said his grandfather would have called ‘paste.’” She stole a glance at Ray’s profile in the soft shadows of the car’s interior lighting.
“But here’s something interesting that I should have told you,” she went on. “That ring is a copy of one that Lady Deborah wore at the staff party on Friday night. You know, the party you were too busy to attend.”
“Don’t be like that. It doesn’t become you. I’d have gone if I could, but something came up.”
“Sorry.”
“As a matter of fact, I was really looking forward to seeing you. I haven’t seen enough of you lately and I’ve missed you. It’s been all business. Murder inquiries do tend to take precedence over everything else. The good news for you at the hotel, though, is that the Albany boys are winding down that part of the investigation and they’ll be out of there soon.”
“That doesn’t matter to me. What matters is us. Do you think you can forgive me?”
He reached over and touched her hand. “I already have. But it does make me wonder if I can trust you, so we’re going to have to work on rebuilding that. I thought I knew you and then this. It seems so unlike you.” He slowed down for the turn into the Jacobs Grand Hotel driveway. “And you have to promise me you’ll never do anything like that again.”
“No, I won’t. Of course, I won’t. But here’s something else. I think the jeweler I spoke to knows something about the ring. He seemed a bit shifty.”
She sighed and settled back into her seat, and a few moments later, Ray pulled up beside her bungalow.
She leaned toward him. “Call me when you can. Again, I’m so sorry.”
“I know.” He leaned over to kiss her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him. “I’m on shift until eleven,” he said. “I could come over when I finish work, but don’t wait up for me. If I get called out, it could be late.” She nodded and then reluctantly let him go. Ray waited until she was safely inside her bungalow and then put the car in reverse and drove away.
Rupert was curled up on the sofa, waiting for her return. He stood up, waggled his bottom in greeting, and accepted her pats. She was glad for the opportunity to take him outside for his evening walk. As they strolled past the bungalow where Lady Deborah and Brian Prentice were staying, a light went off in the living room, and a moment later, Brian charged out of the house.
“You stupid, bloody fool!” came a shrill shout in a refined English accent. “You’ve only gone and ruined everything!” This was punctuated by the melodramatic sound of a slamming door.
Ruined what, I wonder, thought Charlotte.
Brian said something in the direction of the slammed door that Charlotte didn’t quite catch, and a moment later, he was on the path in front of her. As he took a step or two closer, she caught the sour smell of alcohol that was his breath. God, he’s been drinking for hours, she thought.
“Everything all right, Brian?” asked Charlotte, mentally kicking herself for saying such a daft thing. Why do we English always ask if everything’s all right when it’s obvious everything is bloody well not all right?
“Oh, I didn’t see you there. Yeah, everything’s fine, thanks,” Brian replied, and then he let out a barking cough that shook his shoulders. Of course it is, thought Charlotte. He lit a cigarette and fell into step with her. I wish he wouldn’t smoke, she thought.
“I hear the state police are winding down their investigation here at the hotel,” Charlotte said. “Have the police talked to you yet?”
“Yeah, they asked me all the usual questions.” He took a deep drag on his cigarette and blew smoke into the trees above their heads. “At least, I guess they’re the usual questions; I’ve never known anyone murdered before. ‘Where were you? What was your relationship with the deceased?’ That sort of thing.” He pulled an old-fashioned hip flask from his coat pocket, the kind that sporting gents used to take to the races, and tipped it in her direction. She shook her head, and he took a long, hard sip ending with a satisfied “Aah.” I’ll bet that flask’s got a lot of mileage on it, she thought.
“And where did you tell them you were?” she asked.
“I told them where I was. I was at home all morning, learning lines. It takes me a lot longer to learn them now than it used to, let me tell you. Deborah was there. She can vouch for me.”
The thin trickle of conversation ran out, and they trudged on for a few more steps in strained, uncomfortable silence until Charlotte said, “Right, well, this is where Rupert and I leave you. We’ll be heading back now. Come on, Rupe, this way.”
Brian stubbed out his cigarette in the damp earth of the path.
“Right, then. See you tomorrow,” came the alcohol-soaked voice out of the darkness behind her.
As she and Rupert settled in for the night, she pulled the bedclothes over her shoulder, turned on her side, and switched off the light. She lay in the dark, eyes closed, listening to the quiet night sounds outside her window, as her thoughts drifted over the moment in time that had been today. What was the significance of the two rings? And what had Brian ruined? Probably everything he touched, she thought, if past experience is anything to go by. Rupert made little snuffling noises as he drifted off to sleep. She put her arm around Rupert and thought about Ray, who she hoped would arrive soon.