“Yes, it is,” Ted replied. “Pictures don’t do it justice. It’s been in our family for many generations.”
The other stack of papers included a police report, surveillance photos of a woman with long dark hair, and crime scene photos of that same woman with a bullet in her head. I suppressed a shudder, quickly tearing my eyes away from the images. According to the police report, the woman’s name was Nadia Schmoll. She was a caretaker in the Summers’s household for several years before Ted’s grandfather passed away.
“This says it was stolen about two months ago? Around the time of the murder?”
“Yes. We have video footage of Nadia removing it from my grandfather’s estate. You’ll see that on the disc included in the file. We know she got off the subway with it, but she was shot about a block from the station.”
I winced.
“The police believe someone took the box after she was killed.”
“It wasn’t the murderer?” I asked.
“No. They have the suspect for the murder in custody. He was caught on camera pulling the trigger and walking away.”
I looked up at him in surprise. I’d never understand how people could take the life of someone else with such indifference, but to be able to just walk away unaffected too? The thought made my blood run cold and my stomach turn sour. Even during my years in the army, I hated death.
“Why did he kill her then?”
Ted’s face fell with sadness. “He says she was cheating on him.”
The way he said it told me there was more to it. “You don’t believe him?”
He sighed. “Nadia worked for our family for five years. She was as loyal as they come. We knew she was in a relationship, but we… well, we didn’t expect this. Her stealing like this. It just wasn’t like her.” He swallowed hard and looked away. “We had no idea her sister was so sick. That’s why we think she stole it, to help pay for her medical expenses. But we’ll never know for sure.”
“I’m sorry, Ted. For your grandfather and Nadia.”
He pressed his lips together in a small, appreciative smile. “Thank you.”
I sat back in my chair, pointing at the picture of the bejeweled box. “Since it wasn’t on camera, do you have any idea who could have taken it?”
“Not officially,” he said with a grim expression. “We have a vehicle’s registration of someone who they think drove away with it, but there’s no concrete evidence so the police aren’t investigating this any further.” He shook his head and scoffed. “They also said since they have their confession, they can’t waste any more time tracking down our family’s ‘trinket’.”
As much as I hated to admit it, I found this plausible. Crime in Atlanta was at an all-time high. The police weren’t going to use their valuable resources on the stolen property when drug lords and murderers ran the streets, especially when there weren’t even any solid leads.
Ted must have read my hesitation as doubt about taking the case because he quickly continued, “My family is going to make this worth your time, Beckett.” He slid another piece of paper towards me that had my brows rocketing to my hairline.
“That’s double my usual fee,” I blurted.
“That’s just our deposit. The second half will come upon the return of the box,” he said. “It’s very important to my family, so we would be eternally grateful if you could get it back.”
I gulped. I hated taking cases when I had so little to go on, and in this instance, I had next to nothing. “Do you want to press charges? Assuming I can find them.”
He ran a finger along the edge of the table. “We’ll make that call when we learn who we’re dealing with, but right now, I don’t think so. I can’t imagine someone would be in a good situation if they’re stealing items from a dead body. You know what I mean?”
I did. I shuddered to think of what horrible circumstances someone must have been going through to willingly rummage around on a dead woman. Only sheer desperation would make me consider it and even then…
“I hear you,” I said. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s inside the box?”
The corners of his mouth turned up in a mischievous smile. “Find the box, and I’ll show you, Detective.”
***
I stopped at the gym on the way home, needing to burn off some of the stress from the dream that had jolted me awake earlier in the morning. My buddy Jake was there, which didn’t surprise me at all. Like me, he lived at the gym when he wasn’t on duty. Jacob Thompson had been my friend for over eight years. We met in the army and he remains to be the only good thing I got from my time in the service. The military was supposed to guide me at a time when I felt lost and broken after my best friend Riley’s disappearance, but it had become my prison instead. Their strict schedule, lack of privacy, and ever-endless list of rules left me feeling even more isolated and suffocated.
Jake had been going through his own turmoil at the time and when our dark clouds collided, we realized we could find a momentary reprieve in each other. It went without saying there would be nothing between us beyond the physical need for a warm body and temporary distraction. When it came to Jake and me, our bodies were the only thing that fit together. Everything else was oil and water. It was only after we left the army and stoppedsleeping together that we discovered we actually made decent friends.
Now, Jake was one of the very few people I let in to my closed-off little world, and that was only because he had proven himself to be someone I could rely on if needed. He tried to get me to join the police academy with him after the army, but in the end, I felt like I would only be trading one prison for another. Occasionally, he’d help me out on a case, if they became more than my limited resources could handle. But for the most part, Jake and I were gym rats and beer buddies. He liked to go to clubs, too, but I’ve yet to set a single foot inside one of those ludicrous lust caves.
