Dan stopped the car in the driveway and turned off the engine. Garnet sucked in her breath. The BMW was still parked in the back.
“You all right to go in?” Dan asked.
Garnet looked up at Elizabeth’s house and nodded. “Stan’s in police custody. I know I’m safe. The strange part now is knowing that I’m the descendant of the one everyone was trying to hide the jewels from in the first place.”
“Yeah, I guess that is a little weird.” Dan reached for his New King James Bible in the back seat and they got out of the car.
Gerdie had already cleaned up the library. The books that had been strewn over the floor had been replaced on the shelves and the white plaster had been swept away as though nothing had ever happened. Only the hole in the ceiling remained as evidence. Garnet shivered at the memory and hugged herself. Dan walked up behind her and put his arms around her. “Sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Garnet reassured him, comforted by the warmth through his shirt. “Let’s get started.”
She slid open the wooden panel of the mantel and reached into the pocket of her jeans. With the key, she unlocked the iron box and pulled out the crucifix.
“How’d you ever find it?” Dan asked.
“See that clock?” Garnet said, pointing. “If you look carefully, the word Rev is painted in the leaves. I had a hunch the hands might be stuck for a reason, so I looked up a bunch of Bible verses in Revelation.” She went on to tell him how she had uncovered the secret knob that opened the mantel and had concluded that the key in the clock would unlock the box.
“Not only is she gorgeous, she’s brilliant, too,” Dan said, shaking his head. He tapped Garnet lightly on the head with the Bible and opened it up.
“What are you looking at?” she asked, leaning in.
“This afternoon I checked the Bible dictionary for all the places where Thomas is mentioned. Most were just references to him being one of the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus. Another one was about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. But listen to this one in John 14.”
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”
“Hmm.... That one part kind of sums it up, doesn’t it?” Garnet remarked. “We don’t know where the jewels are, so how can we find them?”
Dan nodded and looked up the next passage. “This one’s from John 20, starting at verse 24.”
Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of those nails, and put my hand in His side, I will not believe.”
And after eight days, His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
“Go back to the part about putting the fingers on the nails,” Garnet said, picking up the crucifix.
“Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here and put it into My side ... “
“Yeah, that. Okay, let me try something.” Garnet pressed the silver nails in the hands and the drop of blood where the slash in the torso was. “These kind of look like buttons or something, like on the carving of David. When my mother found the divorce papers from her parents, they were hidden in a secret compartment of an old desk. She pressed a button at the back of it and that’s how it opened. These don’t seem to be doing much, though,” she added.
Spreading her hand, she pressed her thumb and middle finger on the nails in the hands simultaneously. The buttons moved downwards and made a clicking sound, but nothing else happened.
“Why don’t you keep pushing on those while I press on the knob in the torso at the same time,” Dan suggested.
“Okay.”
They set their fingers in place. Garnet felt something give, as though a spring had been released. “Did you feel that?” she asked. With her other hand, she tugged at the silver figure, jiggling it to and fro. The upper wooden part of the crucifix gave way and slid over, opening it up. Garnet drew in a sharp breath.
Nestled in the centre was the egg-shaped sapphire pendant. A strand of smaller sapphires and diamonds hung down in the dark-blue velvet lining in the lower portion of the cross. Pushed into the ends on either side were the earrings, firmly fixed into place. Garnet plucked the necklace out and held it up. She moved to the mirror and with shaking hands, placed the jewels on her chest, admiring them next to her skin and marvelling at their exquisiteness. She caught a glimpse of Sofia in the portrait behind her as she fastened the clasp. “I can’t believe it! It’s gorgeous!” she exclaimed.
“It sure is,” Dan said, at a loss for words.
Garnet returned to the crucifix and pulled out the earrings, then went back to the mirror.
As she clipped the earrings to her ears, Dan picked up the crucifix. Inside he noticed a white wad that had been wedged under the pendant. He lifted it out and carefully unfolded the thin paper.
“Look at this,” he said, holding it up.
Garnet reluctantly turned away from the mirror. “What is it?”
“A note.”
Garnet walked over and tilted her head to read the black scrawl. They looked at each other.
“We need to show this to Elizabeth!” Garnet said. She glanced at her watch and frowned. “My watch — it’s gone completely blank. What time is it?”
Dan glanced at his wrist. “It’s after nine. Visiting hours are only until eight.”
Garnet bit her lip. “Darn. And I don’t want to tell her on the phone.”
“Let’s bring everything to her tomorrow after church.”
“Great idea! I can hardly wait!” Garnet said.