Page 63 of Out of the Shadows
“Is your dad here?”
“Dad!” the kid shouted at the top of his lungs. “There’s someone else here!”
John came to the door and said, “Hello?”
Margo handed him her card. “Margo Angelhart. Did a man recently come by and give you an antique jewelry box?”
“Yes. I didn’t want it, I thought it was some sort of scam or something, and he left it on the doorstep.”
“You want it. Can I come in to explain? This is my sister Luisa.”
He stared at her card. “Angelhart. The name is familiar, but I don’t know you.”
“Your father knew my mother, Ava Angelhart, who had been the county attorney many years ago.”
Margo didn’t like dropping her mother’s credentials unless necessary, and now it was necessary.
“Oh? Well, come in.”
The interior of the house had been updated with one large great room that contained the living room, dining area, and kitchen. Mrs. Thornton was fixing a salad, and three kids were playing video games on the television.
The box rested on the kitchen counter.
“Have you opened the box?” Margo asked.
“No,” he said.
Mrs. Thornton walked over to them while wiping her hands on a dish towel. “The man didn’t even introduce himself. He just said the box belonged to my father-in-law. It was very strange.”
“His name is Charlie Barrett, and he found the box in a storage locker that was in default—a locker that housed your father’s office furniture and files. Charlie bid on the locker, won, and found the box.
“We have a letter at our office that explains your father was left an inheritance from Bernadette Willis,” Margo continued. “My mother spoke to her attorney this morning, and she left your father a sapphire-and-diamond necklace previously appraised at one hundred thousand dollars.”
Mrs. Thornton gasped. “Oh my.”
“And,” Margo said, “a two-carat Burma ruby that is worth upwards of two million dollars.”
John stared at her a moment, then walked over to the jewelry box and opened it. Luisa said, “The ruby is under a false bottom.”
John looked, closed the box. “You’re telling me these are real.”
“As far as I know, yes.”
“Why did he give them to me? If he bought them at auction, they’re his.”
“Because his ex-wife convinced him it was the right thing to do. He paid a little over five thousand for the contents, I assumed he asked for reimbursement?”
John shook his head.
“There’s a lot to the story and I don’t have time to go through it right now,” Margo said, “but you can call our mother for any information you need. However, we believe your father was killed by a man who was looking for these items. And that man is now after Charlie. I think it’s very important that you put them in a safe if you have one, or take them to your bank first thing in the morning.”
“My father was killed when he came home and interrupted a burglary.”
“He would have known his killer. Jerry Aberdeen, Bernadette’s grandson.”
Mrs. Thornton sat down heavily at the dining table. “Oh, no. That’s awful.”
“Aberdeen ran Charlie’s ex-wife off the road,” Margo said, “and then broke into her house looking for these items. I think Charlie gave them to you not only because it was the right thing to do, but because he’s trying to protect his wife. He’s going to tell Aberdeen he no longer has them. I don’t know if he’ll say what he did with them, that’s why I want you to take all precautions.”
