| |
When Dorrie got back to the shop, Jessica was in the kitchen crushing garlic, water was bubbling on the stove and the smell of the herbs of spaghetti sauce filled the room.
“Did you let Pumpkin choose dinner again tonight?”
“Of course,” Jessica reached to Pumpkin now sitting at his perch on the kitchen window sill to scratch him between his ears. “Besides it was getting late and it is the only thing I really know how to cook. Tacos will have to wait.”
“It smells wonderful.” Dorrie washed her hands. “What can I do to help?”
“Nothing. I’m just spreading the garlic oil on the bread.” Jessica wiped her hands on Dorrie’s flowered apron. It made on interesting accessory to her peasant skirt and construction boots. “I invited Ray over for dinner so you could tell us about the jewelers.”
Dorrie looked at the plates and silver laid on the table with napkins. Even Pumpkin’s dish was washed and carefully placed right next to the stove. “You’re having fun with this mystery, aren’t you?”
“I am. And why not make it fun. Anyway, it’s time you started inviting people over here, Aunt Dorrie. You stick to yourself too much.” Dorrie knew there was some truth to that. It had been just her and Pumpkin for a long time.
A few minutes later Ray came in. He was carrying a cake box in his hands. Apparently, Ray was seeing this as a whodunit dinner party also.
Jessica’s eyes lit up “What did you get?” she asked.
“Strawberry shortcake.” He smiled at Dorrie and handed her the box.
“That’s your favorite, Aunt Dorrie.”
Dorrie looked at Ray and realized that was why he brought it. It touched something inside of her that hadn’t been touched for a long time and Dorrie was surprised to feel herself staring to blush. Pumpkin recognized it immediately. “So, you are still alive. Sometimes I’ve wondered.”
“Let me take that,” Jessica reached for the box. “You look like you might drop it.”
Dorrie snapped back from her thoughts and handed her the cake. Jessica filled Pumpkin’s bowl with spaghetti and then the human plates.
“This looks great,” Ray said as he sat down, “You even have salad.”
“It’s a woman thing,” Dorrie recovered enough to give him a smile
“I’ll survive.” Ray took a piece of garlic bread. “So, what did you find out? Were we right about the ring?”
“It has been enlarged,” Dorrie told them, now also getting excited about what she had learned. “And apparently mended.”
“What does that mean?” asked Ray.
“Mr. Johnson said that it looked as though the metal band had been cut and then re-fused to make it a band again.”
“Why would someone cut a ring band?” asked Jessica. “
“It is not uncommon,” Dorrie told them what Mr. Johnson had said about how rings sometimes have to be cut off a finger and how he was surprised the diamond had not been reset. “Apparently the diamond is worth a lot of money and so the band most likely was saved for sentimental value”
“So, it probably is an engagement ring,” Ray was slightly disappointed. “I was hoping it would be a birthstone ring. That would have been unusual.”
“Don’t give up yet. He didn’t say it had to be an engagement ring. He just said that the band in some way was probably meaningful.”
“Let the clues tell the story,” Jessica quoted from The Dogged Detective.
Dorrie twirled a spaghetti noodle and took a bite. “Okay then, let’s go over the clues. “
“The ring band has been changed, possibly twice once to enlarge it and once to mend it where it had been cut. The diamond is of exceptional quality and very valuable.” Dorrie finished and began twirling her spaghetti again.
“And we have the man looking for the woman and he asked to see the ring.” continued Jessica.
“And we have a hurried note asking us to save an expensive ring for this unknown person,” finished Dorrie. “We still don’t know why any of this has happened.” She began to twist another piece of spaghetti around her fork. “We could just be unwitting participants in a lover’s spat.”
“No,” said Ray. “You have felt too intensely that this woman is in trouble and that the man is dangerous for it just to be a lover’s spat. The man has even gotten the police involved.” Ray paused and added, “Which is strange now that I think about it, given that he is the one we think is dangerous.”
They all thought about this for a moment. Dorrie let her mind go back to seeing the man when he entered the store. She remembered his arrogance. “It’s not strange,” she said. “Whatever his part is in all this, he thinks it’s his right. He is like a predator.”
Ray and Jessica stared at Dorrie. “You keep surprising me,” said Ray. “I don’t think I have ever heard you describe someone like that. Even the parking police that are always chasing away our customers you say are just doing their job.”
Dorrie had even surprised herself. Something had shifted within her in the past two days. It wasn’t that who she was had changed. Rather it was like she had new lenses where she was noticing things about people that she would have missed before and what she saw was important and should not be lessened with words like maybe, possibly, or I might be wrong. She decided it was what she really thought. “The man is like a predator.” She repeated but then shook her head. “Still, I don’t really know that he has done anything wrong.”
“Yes, you do,” protested Jessica. “He almost hit Pumpkin with the door when he came into the store.”
“Probably just an accident,” Dorrie said and then quickly thought he should have apologized.
“And he didn’t even look at you when he walked in asking you to do something for him,” Jessica pointed out.
“That was rude,” Dorrie remembered how he had only looked at Ray. She was pleased to see that Jessica noticed something like that.
“And, we do know he is following a woman who doesn’t want to be followed,” continued Jessica. “That’s definitely wrong.”
“You’re right,” agreed Dorrie. “That might not be a crime but it was definitely wrong.”
“He’s the bad guy,” said Ray. Dorrie looked over to see he was half smiling but also half serious.
“Great,” Dorrie shrugged, “we found the criminal but we still haven’t found the crime. Does the dogged detective have anything to say about that?”
“He doesn’t have to,” said Jessica. “A mystery doesn’t have to be a whodunit. Plenty of mysteries are whatisits.”
Maybe Jessica is right but a whatisit mystery didn’t have quite the same sound. Dorrie looked over to Ray to see if he had any opinions on this. She saw that he was looking off into space.
“This almost reminds me of a story I read once,” he said as he turned back to the conversation.
Dorrie was going to joke about whether it also had a cartoon dog on the cover, but she could see from his expression he was very serious.
“I read about it in the paper,” he continued. His eyes drifted off into space again as he tried to recall the story. “For about a month one summer there were a few articles about a woman who had been engaged and then broke it off. She was found dead a few days later. The medical examiner ruled it a suicide.”
“That is so sad,” said Dorrie. “She must have been very unhappy.”
“I’m sure,” agreed Ray, “but that is not why it was in the paper. Apparently, there was an issue with a missing ring. It wasn’t found with the body. The fiancé even put an ad in the paper offering a reward for its return.”
“I suppose we all have our ways of dealing with grief, but he doesn’t sound exactly heartbroken.”
“Apparently the police didn’t think so either.” Ray took a bite of salad. “That’s where I picked up the story. For some reason, the police briefly reopened the case to consider ‘foul play’ but it was quickly closed again.” He chewed on a carrot for a minute and then said,” I guess they didn’t find anything.”
“Was that right around here?” asked Jessica.
“I can’t really remember where. I can’t even remember why it would have been reported at all.”
“Maybe the people were famous.” Jessica’s said.
“I probably would have remembered that. But I can still remember where I read the advertisement for the lost ring.”
“You read the advertisement for the ring?” asked Dorrie. “I thought you only read the story about the possible murder.”
“I did, but I work in a bookstore. It’s basically my job to read for a living. When I read that the ad had been run in every Penny Saver on the West Coast I wondered if it had been in ours.”
“You save old Penny Savers?” Dorrie asked.
“Only for a few months.” Ray busily speared another carrot “I found it. It was there for the whole month of July.”
“Wow,” said Jessica. “That must have cost him a lot of money.”
“Actually, it is free. The Penny Saver only charges for ads that are selling things. This just said ‘lost engagement ring, reward offered.”
“This is an interesting story but I’m not sure how it reminds you of a ring changed twice. Do you think it is the same ring?” asked Dorrie.
“I don’t know.” Ray took another piece of garlic bread and bit into it thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s just that it was a diamond and it had at least two, maybe three owners, the man, his fiancé and who ever stole it.” Ray got quiet again, “I guess you’re right.” He shrugged. “That was a long time ago anyway. It doesn’t really lead us anywhere.”
“Yes, it does,” Jessica said excitedly, “Aunt Dorrie is just trying to lead you off trail with the lure of logic.” Dorrie smiled. For a child who loved science Jessica was having a lot of fun pointing out its limitations of deductive reasoning. Still, Jessica had a way of keeping her on track.
“She’s right,” agreed Dorrie, “None of this makes any sense so why should our next step. We need to just keep following our noses. Do you think we could find this old ad? Is it possible that the Penny Saver archives issues from a few years ago?”
“I don’t know about the Penny Saver,” said Ray, “but it is just possible that I do. I tend to save the things that I find interesting.”
Dorrie laughed. She was beginning to realize that for a modest man, Ray had a wide array of things that he found interesting.