Kate gently laid a white linen handkerchief on the table in front of Rosie and slowly unfolded it. It had seemed thoughtless to keep the bracelet jammed in her pocket, so she’d stored it carefully in one of the drawers beneath her new bed.
Rosie’s eyes opened wide as she reached for the bracelet. “Where exactly did you find this?”
“Stewart Lord’s private office bathroom. He had a closet where he kept a half-dozen suits, shoes, that kind of stuff. This was in an upper niche alone. Except for the dregs of a bottle of rum.”
“This was Muriel’s,” Rosie said in a hushed voice. She picked up the bracelet and laid it over one palm. “She bought it on her last trip out here. That was about two weeks before she died. What was he doing with it?”
“No idea. I don’t suppose Muriel drank rum?”
“Muriel didn’t drink anything. She was even careful about her coffee intake. Decaf only.” Rosie shook her head. “This is weird.”
“What?” Kate asked.
“This bracelet came with charms. See these?” she said, running her finger lightly over the silver form. “Also in sterling, also original to the period.” She pointed to three gaudy plastic discs, each the size of a quarter. “But not these. I’ve never seen them before.”
“I wondered about those,” Kate said. “They’re colorful. But they don’t exactly match the style.”
“Hot-pink, orange, and blue plastic charms on a fine piece of Edwardian jewelry? I’ll say they don’t match the style. Muriel never would have done this. She appreciated beautiful things.”
“Maybe they meant something to her personally. You know, sentimental value.”
“Maybe he did it,” Rosie countered. “The funny thing is, that last visit? She was spitting mad at Stewart Lord. But she was happy, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’d been pricing homes out here,” Rosie recalled. “Actually shopping them, I mean. Before, it was always more of a daydream. You know how people say ‘oh, someday’?”
Kate nodded. She’d done way too much of that in her own life.
“Well, this was different,” Rosie continued. “She was different. Angry. At Lord anyway. But proactive and happy, too. Does that make any sense?”
Kate nodded. “More than you know.”
“It was like she’d had some sort of a wake-up call. She was done idling in neutral. Muriel Hopkins was moving forward with her life.”