The girls leaned forward, drinking in every word the elderly woman spoke. It seemed more like the makings of a romance movie than a real story.
The woman paused, and looked directly at Megan. “At closing time, Foster showed up again, wanting to talk to Emily Marie. They sat in one of the booths while I cleaned up. I tried to give them privacy and turned on the jukebox to a slow country song. But even over the music, I could hear bits and pieces of the conversation.
“‘Emily Marie, you must know how I feel about you. You must see it my eyes,’ he told her. The whole thing was quite romantic. ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’m going to sell my ranch in Colorado, and move down here, and we can get married. That is, if you’ll have me,’ he said.
“There she was, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘But Foster, I have my two kids to think about,’ she said.
“‘I know I haven’t met Ruby and Jack yet, but I promise I’ll love them like my very own. I know things have been hard on you since your husband died. Let me rescue you,’ he begged.
“Well, at that point I left the room. I figured the cleanup could wait. Emily Marie and I were best friends, and I had watched her struggle to make ends meet since Paul died. It looked to be a fairy-tale ending for her,” Mrs. Wilson said as she leaned back in her chair.
The room was silent, except for the tick-ticking of the old grandfather clock in the corner. Finally, Megan broke the silence. “It sounds like my mom and my grandma had a lot in common.…”
Elizabeth reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand.
“So what happened next?” Elizabeth asked.
Mrs. Wilson frowned. “The next few days are hard to talk about. I prefer to remember my friend in that moment, her face shining with joy.”
The three girls remained silent. They didn’t want to push the woman or be disrespectful, but they needed more information.
Jean Louise rescued them. “Mama, Megan wants to find out what happened to the marbles. Is there any more you can tell her?”
The woman looked at Megan again and smiled, a sad kind of smile. Then, she pulled herself up with her walker and started toward her bedroom. Jean Louise helped her mother, leaving the three girls alone in the living room.
“Why did she leave like that?” McKenzie whispered.
“I don’t know, but it looks like she’s our only hope for more information. We’ve got to find out what happened next,” whispered Elizabeth.
Megan remained quiet, and Elizabeth put her arm around her friend. “This is hard for you, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Not really. I mean, I never knew my grandmother. It’s just strange that she and my mother were both young widows.”
The girls heard the walker approaching and ended their whispered conversation. Jean Louise followed her mother, carrying several old notebooks. She handed them to Megan.
Mrs. Wilson was seated once again and took a moment to get settled. “These are my journals from that time. The whole story should be there, from the time Foster began coming to the restaurant, until…”
Megan looked at the books. It seemed she had just been handed her own treasure.
“You take them home and read them,” the woman told her. “I hope they’ll help you find what you’re looking for.”
Megan placed the journals on the coffee table in front of her, then walked to Mrs. Wilson’s chair. She leaned over and hugged the woman. “Thank you so much,” she said.
The old woman patted her on the shoulder, then wiped a tear from her wrinkled cheek. “You’re welcome, my dear. You are more than welcome.”
Back at the Big Texan, Megan had to report for work. “Here,” she told Elizabeth, handing her the journals. “We can’t afford to waste any time. Y’all start reading through these and see what you can find.”
Elizabeth and McKenzie spent the better part of the morning by the Texas-shaped pool, reading through the yellowed pages and looking for clues. Much of what they found was insignificant—Mrs. Wilson’s thoughts about her husband, her children, her job, even the price of groceries. Finally, McKenzie sat up in her lounge chair and said, “I found it! Listen to this: ‘A man has been visiting the restaurant regularly and is obviously smitten with Emily Marie. He seems like a kind man. I hope she gives him a chance; she’s been so sad since Paul died.’”
Elizabeth read over her friend’s shoulder. “Jackpot!” she cried. “Now we have our starting point. Let’s keep reading.”
McKenzie wiped the sweat from her brow. “Okay,” she said, “but can we continue this in the restaurant? I’m burning up out here, and I’m starving!”
“Me too,” agreed Elizabeth.
They gathered the journals and headed toward the restaurant. Passing the stables, they noticed a regal looking horse across the paddock. “Wow, what a beauty,” said McKenzie. “Let’s get a closer look.”
They were about halfway there when they heard a man’s voice. It was Mr. Jacobs, leaning against the stable and talking on his cell phone. The girls shrank into the shadows of one of the stalls and remained silent.
“Yes, that’s right,” he said. “There were twelve marbles in a variety of gemstones. I tracked them to Amarillo, but it’s been thirty years since anyone has seen or heard of them. They just vanished.”
Jacobs began pacing in agitation. “I don’t know how a set of priceless gemstone marbles can simply disappear. Surely somebody has to know something about them.”
The man paused again, and then said, “I’ve got to find those marbles. I’m tired of all this rodeo business, never spending more than a week in the same place. I’m ready to settle down and live the good life, and those marbles will help me do it.”
More silence, and then he said, “Okay. Let me know what you find out. I’ll keep asking questions here.” The man shut his cell phone and strode out of the stables and toward the hotel rooms.
“Whoa,” said McKenzie. “That proves he’s a crook.”
“Not necessarily. But it does sound suspicious,” said Elizabeth. “One thing is for sure. We’re running out of time. We’ve got to locate those marbles before he does.”
The girls kept their noses buried in the journals for the rest of the afternoon. The entries about Emily Marie were sporadic, interspersed with entries about housework and life as a waitress. It was like a treasure hunt—wading through the boring stuff to find the jewels.
Elizabeth liked the way Mrs. Wilson ended each journal entry with a one-sentence prayer. She felt she knew the old woman’s heart better from those sentence prayers than from the actual journal entries.
Finally, after hours of searching, she found the following entry:
It seems that Foster, humble as he is, is very wealthy.
Tonight he gave Emily Marie a bag of marbles. But these aren’t just any marbles, they’re priceless gemstones!
The paperwork is even there—they’re in her name.
She wasn’t sure if she should keep such a gift, and fretted all evening. But after the restaurant closed, he showed up again and asked her to marry him!
Of course she accepted. But they won’t make their plans known until he gets to know her children. He is a wonderful man, and I know he will be a good father to Ruby and Jack.
He’s leaving town tonight. He told her to keep the marbles in a safe place, and he’ll help her set up a safe-deposit box for them when he returns. She’ll worry herself to death, carrying around something so priceless.
We talked about hiding them in the restaurant, but for tonight, she took them home. I’ll bet she looks at them all night long.
Dear Father, please bless Emily Marie and her children with Your goodness. Amen.
“That’s it! They’re hidden in the restaurant!” shouted McKenzie.
Elizabeth shut the book and stood to stretch. Her eyes were tired from reading. “Maybe. Just like Alex suggested. But she could have gone ahead and put them in the bank too. Why don’t we head over and tell Megan what we’ve found. Maybe she can start snooping around.”
“Yeah, and maybe we can get some more of that pie!” McKenzie added.
Later that night, the group sat in the stands at the Greater Amarillo Livestock Show and Rodeo. Mr. Jacobs had generously given them his entire section of box seats. “I’d love to have someone cheering for me,” he’d said with a smile. His eyes had rested on Megan’s mom.
James and Evan sat two rows in front of the girls, exclaiming over the horses, and making their own plans to be cowboys someday. Elizabeth was glad that, for now, her brother had a distraction.
Ruby Smith sat with the ladies making small talk, and the two dads seemed absorbed in a conversation about the Old Testament book of Isaiah. The three girls, satisfied they wouldn’t be overheard, huddled together.
“So, did you find anything?” whispered McKenzie.
“No,” answered Megan. “I need more information. I have no idea where to begin. I did examine the floor boards in the kitchen area, but I couldn’t find any loose ones. I’m just not good at this detective business like the two of you are.”
Elizabeth patted her friend on the knee. “You’ll be fine. We just need to find more clues. We’re not even sure they’re at the restaurant. She might have put them in the bank or something. Do you think you can ask your mom if your grandma left any accounts open?”
“I’ve never heard her talk about any accounts. It seems that anything like that would have been closed out long ago. But I’ll ask Mom tonight,” Megan said.
“Ask Mom what?” Ruby Smith asked. The girls were surprised to find that she’d moved down and was now sitting directly behind them. Her hair was fixed in a new way, and she was wearing makeup.
“You look pretty tonight, Mom,” Megan said. Mrs. Smith smiled.
“What did you want to ask me?” the woman persisted.
Megan smiled sheepishly. “You remember those jewels I talked to you about? We’re still trying to find them.”
Surprisingly, Mrs. Smith laughed. “Well, I’m afraid you’re going on a wild-goose chase. But go ahead, ask me anything.”
“Did Grandma leave any bank accounts open?” Megan asked. “We’re wondering if she might not have stored the marbles in an account somewhere.”
“Oh, you mean like in a safe-deposit box?” Mrs. Smith responded.
Elizabeth jumped in. “Exactly! Did your mother leave behind any kind of safe-deposit box?”
Mrs. Smith shook her head. “Not that I know of. But come to think of it, my grandmother did mention a small checking account. She never touched it. She said she wanted to leave it for me and Jack someday. It’s still there.”
“Bingo!” McKenzie shouted with excitement. “We’ve found the—”
Elizabeth clapped a hand over her friend’s mouth. “Let’s not announce it to the whole world,” she said.
“Oh yeah, sorry!” McKenzie whispered. “I tend to get a little excited.”
The others chuckled good-naturedly. “It’s okay,” said Megan. “It is pretty exciting.”
Mrs. Smith continued, “I have some business at the bank tomorrow anyway. I’ll ask about the checking account. And since this is official mystery business, would you girls like to come with me? I’ll take you all for ice cream afterwards.”
The girls nodded, and Mrs. Smith returned to sit with the ladies.
Megan looked a little stunned, and Elizabeth asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Who was that woman?” she asked.
Elizabeth turned and looked at Megan’s mom, not sure how to respond to the question.
“My mom is fixing her hair, wearing makeup, coming to the rodeo…she’s smiling! What has gotten into her?”
Elizabeth’s and McKenzie’s eyes swung to the handsome cowboy, sitting tall on a horse and getting ready to enter the arena.
No one answered Megan’s question, but the looks of concern stayed on their faces for the rest of the evening.
The next morning, Elizabeth and McKenzie stared gloomily out the window of the Phillips’ motel room. Rain poured down outside.
“I guess we won’t do much sightseeing today,” said McKenzie.
Elizabeth leaned over and lifted the stack of journals from the bedside table. “Well, as long as we’re stuck here, we might as well read some more. Megan has to be at work at ten a.m., but she was going to come early and do some more snooping,” she said, looking at her watch.
“Not snooping—investigating,” McKenzie corrected her friend.
Elizabeth chuckled. “Same thing,” she said. “But investigating does sound more official, doesn’t it?”
The girls settled in, sharing the same journal page, skimming for more clues. Before long, they found what they were looking for.
Emily Marie might go ahead and put the jewels in a safe-deposit box. She thought about doing it today, but it was late when she got off work, and the banks were already closed. Carrying around something so valuable is making her as nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers.
She’s anxious to put them in a safe place.
She was headed to work a party at the Cadillac Ranch this evening. She said the pay is good and the tips are even better. She tried to get me to go with her, but I was just too tired tonight. I told her I’d go with her next time.
McKenzie shut the book and hopped from the bed. “There you have it. She deposited the jewels. What time is Megan’s mom taking us to the bank today?”
“I think at three thirty, when Megan gets off work. Why don’t we walk to the restaurant and see if she’s there yet?”
The two sleuths quickly headed toward the Big Texan Steak Ranch, staying close to the buildings to keep from getting wet. They rushed through the swinging saloon-style doors, straight into a plaid cowboy shirt. Leaning their necks back, they looked up, up, up to see the owner of the shirt. It was Mr. Jacobs.
“Good mornin’, ladies,” he said, and tipped his big white cowboy hat. True to form, he winked at them before he strode out the door.
The girls didn’t know whether to be angry or giggle. “I wish he didn’t look so much like a movie star,” McKenzie said.
“Why?” Elizabeth asked.
“Because it would be a lot easier not to like him,” she replied seriously.
Just then, Jean Louise appeared. “What is it with you early birds this morning?” she asked. “Megan’s already been here for twenty minutes, cleaning every nook and cranny of the supply room. She’s not even clocked in yet.”
The two girls looked at each other and then at the red-haired waitress. “Um, could we, uh…” Elizabeth stammered.
“Go on back,” she said, pointing the way. “But if the manager catches you, she may put you to work.”
The girls dashed through the kitchen area to the dark storage room. They pushed open the door, and Megan gasped.
“You scared me!” she whispered, looking guilty. “Quick, close the door!”