“Are you sure you don’t want me to stay tonight, Rebecca?” Erica hesitated at the door.
“I’m sure. Wilma is here, and I can call you if I need you.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
“And that hunk, Nick?”
“Yes, that hunk, Nick.” Rebecca laughed. “I’ll call him, too.”
“He’s crazy about you. You know that, don’t you?”
“Don’t be silly. He hardly knows me.”
“He told me he had a crush on you in high school.”
“That was a long time ago.”
“Doesn’t matter. He’s still carrying the torch.”
Again, Rebecca said, “Don’t be silly.”
“If I’m being silly, why did he kiss you before he left?”
Rebecca blushed. “You saw that?”
“Yes.”
“It meant nothing.”
“Come on now. He’s a neat guy. I think you should dump Vernon and grab him.” She put up her hand. “I know you’re going to say don’t be silly, but—”
Rebecca laughed again. “Erica, I’m glad you’re back in town.”
“So am I.” She gave Rebecca a quick hug. “Don’t forget. If you need me, call.”
“I won’t forget.”
Rebecca closed the door. She started up the stairs, but changed her mind and went into the kitchen. “Wilma, I want to thank you for all the help you gave me today. Aunt Millicent would be pleased.”
“I’m glad I could help. And you’ll never know what the money means.”
“I’m glad. Aunt Millicent liked you a lot.”
“I know. I liked her, too. I’m going to miss her.”
“Me, too.” She smiled at Wilma. “I’ve been thinking. This house is awfully big for one person to clean. How would you like for me to hire a full time cook?”
“I like to cook. Now that I’m staying here, I can cook every day.”
“Then why don’t I hire someone else to clean? You don’t need to work so hard.”
“Are you unhappy with my work, Ms. Rebecca?”
“Not at all, Wilma. I just thought that if we had another person in the house, well… you could spend more time with me. For some reason, Nick insists that I never be alone.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking selfishly. I thought you were trying to get rid of me. Forgive me, Ms. Rebecca. You go on and hire all the people you want. Just know that I’ll do anything you want me to.”
Rebecca smiled. “Wilma, you’re in no danger of losing your job. As long as you want to work here, there’ll be work for you.”
“Thank you.”
“I think I’ll go to my room and rest a while. Erica went home, so if you have to go anywhere, please let me know.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll check on you in a little while.”
When she got to her room, Rebecca didn’t want to go to bed. She wandered into her closet and on impulse pulled back the rug. She opened her safe and took out the two embroidered bags.
“Mindy,” she said aloud, “we’re getting closer to finding your killer. I promised you we’d catch him, and I’m sure it’s going to happen soon. In fact, it may have already happened. Max Garvey is a prime suspect.”
She looked at the little bags and smiled. The work her mother had done was so neat. It must have taken her a long time to complete them. Rebecca rubbed the smooth round stone that served as a dew drop on her bag.
“This is nice work, Mother.” She put her bag aside and picked up the one that had belonged to Mindy.
“I wish you could know what this bag meant to Mindy,” she said as she put her finger on the dew drop on that bag. She stopped cold and stared at it. Instead of being round and smooth, it was square and a little rough. “What the…”
Then, as if by magic, she envisioned the stone pear shaped, emerald cut, and diamond shaped. Where had she seen all those shapes?
Without closing the safe, she got up and ran down the stairs to the library. She pulled open drawers and flipped through stacks of papers. It had to be here.
She finally found it in the back of the middle drawer. A folder containing a drawing of seven shapes, with one word beside each: Alone, Crowd, DVD, Trouble, Camera, Gathering, and Phone. The square shape had the word Alone beside it.
Rebecca sat in the recliner. What did this mean? Mindy had to have been using this as a signal of some sort. Had she been trying to tell Vernon things? Did the paper belong to him, or had Mindy left it here? The words were definitely in her handwriting and she’d used the library a lot when she’d lived in this house.
Rebecca’s head ached. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and continued to think about the shapes. Her thoughts grew muddled. Without meaning to, she dozed off.