“Fuck,” I muttered. “Where are we supposed to find it then? Just google cursed necklace and hope for the best?”
“Pete…” he warned. He was getting tired of me acting like a brat. I could tell.
“Fine,” I relented. “I’ll ask Alice more questions when she shows up again. I’ve been alone for two hours now, so it hopefully won’t be long.”
“Keep me updated. I need to know more about the pearls to find the exact ones. Like color or something.”
“I didn’t even realize there were different kinds,” I groaned.
He laughed. “Talk soon.”
I was starting to feel hungry again and quickly ordered a food delivery with my phone. When Rino had stopped by with my new phone yesterday, he’d brought me food and some toast I ate for breakfast, plus two bottles of water since we had no idea if the water was safe to drink or not. The new owner wanted to renovate and maybe even remove parts of the house, so we figured she hadn’t bothered with the pipes, not that she was inside for long. It seemedAlice didn’t appear before the new owner had bought the house, which led me to wonder where those damn pearls had gone.
I stood from the couch and walked into the bathroom to pee. I was glad the toilet at least worked fine, even if there was no soap for me to use. I would need to ask Rino to do another grocery store run for me if I was stuck here for longer. I could possibly bathe here too…
Just as I’d finished relieving myself, Alice popped into the bathroom, startling the shit out of me. “Fuck!” I yelped, tucking my dick away.
“I thought you had left,” she accused with a glare.
I refrained from rolling my eyes at her. “As you can see, I did not, in fact, leave.”
“Yes. I see that.”
I did another breathing exercise and remembered Rino needed information. “I need some details on how the pearls look.”
“Oh. Are there different kinds of pearls?” she seemed truly confused about it.
Not willing to admit I hadn’t known either, I continued. “Yes, there are several. I just need to know the color and their size, maybe how the clasp looked.”
“Well, they were small and off-white in color. The clasp was gold.”
“Thank you, I’ll let Rino know.” It had helped after I’d introduced myself and Rino to Alice. It seemed like she was warming up to us a bit and I felt less and less like I was about to get a picture thrown at me. Which was nice.
Daisy was feeling better after getting hit in the head and Kyle was already out of the hospital, having only a few bruises while Daisy had gotten a nasty concussion.
I was walking back into the living room with Alice behind me as I called Rino. He answered almost immediately. “News?” he asked as a greeting.
“The pearls were off-white and small. The clasp was gold,” I informed him.
“I figured. Seed pearls were popular back then, which will make it harder to track them down, sadly.” I was just about to suggest getting my mom to help, when he said, “hang on, Pete, someone is calling me.” Then he put me on hold and I was forced to wait.
I figured I might as well talk to Alice. “Rino found out how you and your sister died.” I knew this wasn’t a pleasant topic, but sheseemed to believe her sister might have killed her, which wasn’t the case.
“Okay? Enlighten me.”
“You died of scarlet fever along with your mother who passed away just a week before you did.”
“I remember that!” She smiled, which was really out of place considering we were talking about how she and her family had died. But who was I to judge? “Louise got sick first, then Mom, then me. Mom was the first to go and just before she died, she gave me her pearls, telling me she would always be with me if I wore them. She still believed we were young enough to survive it.”
“Was that why you remembered it as Louise killing you?” I questioned, hoping she would be willing to continue talking now that I was finally getting somewhere.
“I never said that. I just remember her taking it off my neck as I died… and then I woke up dead and she was gone, and so was Mom and the necklace.”
I nodded and was just about to ask more when Rino’s voice cut through the phone again. “Pete?”
“I’m here,” I answered.
“So, I believe I’ve found the pearls.”
