“In the first place, I was a cop for a lot of years. In the second place, I’m armed. And in the third place, if I weren’t either one of those things, I would have done the exact same thing.”
“As I did?” I asked, hopefully.
“No, that was just nuts. I would have stayed in the bedroom and called someone for backup.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He smiled broadly at me. “Well, shame on you, then.”
“When did you get in?” I asked my husband as I followed him into the master bedroom.
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Did you get any sleep at all last night?”
“There’s a great couch in Davis’s office,” he said with a grin as he got dressed. “I crashed there for about three hours.”
“That’s not much sleep.”
“I’ve gotten less in the past when I was working on a case, and we both know it.” He slipped on his shoes, completing his outfit. “I’m starving. Any chance you can have breakfast with me?”
“Sure. Let me make a phone call first.”
“Hang on a second. You’re meeting Lorna downstairs, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “I was, but I can cancel it. I’d much rather eat with you.”
“You canceled yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t exactly in concrete.”
He shook his head. “I won’t ask you to do it on my account. Tell you what. Why don’t I order a huge breakfast from room service, and you can keep me company. I want to hear about your day yesterday. Do we have time?”
I looked at the clock and saw that I had forty minutes before I was due downstairs. “We should be fine.”
He grinned. “Then I’ll place my order.”
After he got off the phone, I asked, “You did hear that I wasn’t eating with you, right?”
“I heard, but if I know you, you’ll graze anyway, and I wanted to be sure I’d have enough to eat.”
We walked out into the living room and took our usual seats by the windows. The city was overcast today, and rain tapped at the windows. It wasn’t a perfect postcard filled with sunshine, but it was still beautiful. There were days when I enjoyed a good gloomy overcast sky, and today was going to be one of them.
“How’s Thomas?” Zach asked.
“Confusing,” I said.
“That’s an interesting answer. What happened?”
“He gave me a box from my mother that he’s been holding onto since she died.”
“Why’s he giving it to you now?” Zach asked, the investigator’s stare in his eyes.
“He was supposed to wait longer, but I think something shook him up, and he wanted to get rid of it.”
“Did you look inside yet?”
“I checked it last night. There were some photographs, some old love letters from my dad, and a key to a safety deposit box. That’s not all. There was a note with it, too.”
I got the box from the end table, opened it, and handed him the note from my mother.
The second he finished reading it, he stood and said, “What’s Lorna’s phone number?”
“Why?”
“I’m canceling your breakfast and we’re driving to Hickory.”
“There’s no need to.”
“Savannah, I don’t know how you even slept after reading that note. What’s inside the box? Why didn’t Tom tell you about it sooner? It raises a lot of questions, doesn’t it?”
“Sit down,” I said. “I’ve got the contents of the safety deposit box, too.”
“You didn’t mention that your uncle gave that to you, as well.”
“I didn’t know it the last time we talked. He had to clean the safety deposit box out, but all he found was another box. Uncle Thomas hid it in the backseat of the car while I was there yesterday. He wanted me to have it, but I don’t think he knew how to tell me.”
“So? Don’t keep me in suspense. What was this great secret your mother was keeping from the world?”
“There was ten thousand dollars in the box, all in hundreds, and a note from my uncle.”
“Why would Tom give your mother that kind of money?”
“Not that uncle. The other one.”
“Jeffrey? I thought he was lost forever.”
“Evidently he contacted my mother, and he wrote her a note along with the cash. This is it.”
I handed him the second note.
After he read it, he said, “No wonder you were jumpy when you heard me in the bathroom. Having ten grand in your room will make you paranoid if anything will.”
“It’s not here. I put it in the hotel’s main safe downstairs as soon as I knew what I had.”
“That’s smart thinking,” he said. Zach tapped the second note. “That answers at least some of my questions.”
“I don’t see how. Why didn’t my mother spend the money? Why did she leave it to me? And why did she ask for my forgiveness?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Zach said as there was a knock on the door.
After the bellman identified himself, Zach let him in. He directed that the cart be set up by the window, and as soon as the worker was gone, he started lifting lids.
“This looks great. You can have a bite or two, but most of it is mine.”
I moved between him and his food, a dangerous maneuver even when my husband wasn’t starving. “You don’t get a bite until you explain what you just meant.”
“What are you talking about?” he asked as he looked at the food.
“You said it answered questions, but all I can see are more things I don’t understand.”
He held up his index finger. “Think about it, Savannah. Your mother didn’t forgive her brother. She didn’t even get back in contact with him, and she felt bad about cutting you off from your family.”
“How do you know that?”
“The money was still there, so she didn’t forgive him. If she had, there was no way Astrid wouldn’t spend it. Your mom knew how you felt about your Uncle Thomas. Do you honestly think she didn’t agonize over keeping Jeffrey out of your life? She had to be really conflicted by all of it, and lastly, she dumped it all in your lap.”
“She didn’t want me to contact J.B., did she?”
Zach smiled. “You noticed that the envelope with a return address wasn’t with the letter, didn’t you? I’ll make a detective out of you yet.” His stomach grumbled as he looked at the food. “Can I eat now?”
“Go on. Sorry, I didn’t mean to get in your way.”
“Feel free to join me,” he said as he dug in. I was tempted; it looked awfully good, but if I ate a big meal now, I would never be able to have breakfast again in fifteen minutes with Lorna.
“Maybe I’ll have one cinnamon stick,” I said, taking one from his plate and dunking it in maple syrup.
“They’re great, aren’t they?”
After I ate one, I was debating about grabbing another when I asked Zach, “What do you think I should do?”
“I definitely think you should stop eating those cinnamon sticks. You wouldn’t want to spoil your appetite.”
“You saw me eyeing them?”
“Hey, I’m a trained detective. Not much gets past me.”
“Well, I wasn’t talking about the food,” I said. “I mean the money.”
“Beats me,” he said after a moment’s thought.
“You’re a lot of help.”
“This has to be your decision. You can’t really contact your uncle, since you still don’t know where he is. Unless Tom knows. Have you asked him?”
“He denies having any contact with his brother since the day he walked out.”
“Could he be lying?”
I was surprised to hear my husband ask that about Uncle Thomas. “Why would he possibly do that?”
“Think about it. If he was trying to protect you, I can see it, can’t you? After all, those boxes have been in his hands for a while, but you’re just getting them now, aren’t you?”
“I’m sure he had his reasons.”
“Okay, let’s say he has no more idea than you do about how to find Jeffrey. That means you couldn’t return the money, even if you wanted to. The way I see it, you have three options.”