“How about the case of the missing Cinderella shoes?” Mina told them.
“What did you say?” Holt asked his mother. His eyes were wide with shock.
“Yes, what slippers?” Suddenly, Ace was at the door again.
“Are you all on about my slippers again?” Willa wandered back into the room.
“Willa?” Rad called from the door. “You didn’t tell me if you could pop past and pick up some of the equipment.”
“Wait,” Willa said, “There’s something going on in here.”
Then Rad was back at the door. “What’s up?”
“We’re going to be ditching our last promo for Hidden Truths,” Harvey told them. “Mina is going to give us a story about missing slippers.”
“Not just any slippers,” Mina said. “Cinderella slippers, and they’re worth a small fortune.”
“Are they glass with jewels in them?” Rad pushed his way into the room and gaped at Mina.
“Mother,” Holt said, standing and pulling out his phone, then flipping through some photos. “Would these be the slippers?”
“You found them?”
Holt walked toward her and showed her the picture.
“Oh, yes, that’s what they looked like,” Mina said.
“Looked like?” Rad asked. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“That pair is clearly the knock-off pair,” Mina told them. “It’s easy to spot. The knock-offs had a normal diamond on the front of them; the real pair had rare pink diamonds on them.”
“Are you sure these are knock-offs, Mother?” Holt asked. “They look kind of real to me.”
“Oh, yes, honey, I’m sure,” Mina told him. “Because I had them commissioned the same time I had our jewels done.”
“Grandmother…” Rad walked toward her and looked at his father’s phone. “Did these shoes belong to our family?”
“No,” June said. “You see, the knock off went missing around the same time our family jewels did. The real ones went missing about eleven years ago.”
Margo’s spine straightened as tingles started to zap through her fingers, and it had nothing to do with how close Rad was now standing to her.
“So the real ones were stolen?” Margo asked.
“Yes, and the owner of them was convinced they knew who’d taken them and sold them,” Mina told them.
“Okay, so Holt, where did you get that picture from?” Willa asked, then turned to Rad. “And how do the two of…” Her eyes widened. “These are the glass slippers from the safe?”
“Sienna’s safe?” Ace and Harvey asked at the same time.
“Yes,” Mina said. “But, I still don’t think that Sienna is keeping that safe for her father, and if those shoes are in that safe, it probably proves my point about Tom not being the thief.”
“Why, Mother?” Holt asked, and Margo could now hear the impatience in his voice.
“Because, dear,” Mina tilted her head. “The actual crystal and rare diamond sprinkled glass slippers, known as the Cinderella Slippers, were designed and made for Miss Sandpiper Shores from forty years ago!”
“Oh my word,” June breathed, her hand going to her mouth as her eyes shot to Holt. “I remember now.”
“Want to fill us in?” Ace asked. “We’re on a timer here.”
