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“Oh yes. Everything’s fine,” Nora assured him. “However, I sent Kingston home before lunch. I think we should probably close the shop for the rest of the day. We haven’t had a single customer since yesterday morning, and given the weather...”

Ellery, standing at the kitchen window and watching the back garden shrubs and architecture slowly lose all shape and definition beneath the snow, sighed. “Yeah. I’m sure you’re right.”

Nora interpreted the sigh correctly. “After all, the snow may stop tonight.”

“Is that what the National Weather Service says?”

“Er...no.”

“I figured.”

Nora said, “To be honest, this is starting to feel a bit like the storm we had back in 1978.”

“Wasn’t that the most snow Rhode Island received in recorded history?”

Nora made another of those little hemming-hawing sounds.

“Terrific.”

“What are the chances of another historic snowstorm?” Nora asked reasonably.

“I’m starting to think, pretty high. Do you feel I should cancel the party now? I don’t want people driving out here in risky conditions.”

“There’s plenty of time to make that call tomorrow,” Nora said. “It’s not as though people will be turning down other engagements. We’ll all be snowed in, if it comes to it.”

“True, I guess. I did want to ask you something. I was reading up on the Dourdos Aquamarine—”

“Oh!” It was the tone of someone who has received an unexpected gift. “Excellent!”

“Do you know where in Rhode Island Cyril Dolph was when he was arrested for stealing the pendant?”

Nora did not question what some might consider an odd inquiry. “He was arrested in a little inn in Newport. The inn is gone now, sadly.”

“So not on the island?”

“No.” Nora added, “However.”

“However?”

“At the time, it was rumored that he had been to the island the day before. That was never substantiated, but the Dolph home in Pirate’s Cove was searched top-to-bottom.”

“And?”

“There was no sign of the Dourdos Aquamarine.”

“Which doesn’t mean...”

“It doesn’t mean anything either way,” Nora agreed. “What matters in this case is what Edwin Dolph mightthinkit means.”

Ellery mulled that over. “Do you have reason to think Edwin believes the aquamarine is on the island?”

Nora admitted, “I know very little about Edwin. Sadly, he lost his marbles when he was quite young.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not a medical term.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re right. However, while I know little of that unfortunate man, I can tell you that Dolphs have been sneaking back to the island to hunt for the aquamarine since the 1940s. Which would lead one to conclude that the family knows something that no one else does.”

“Not enough,” Ellery pointed out. “If they’re coming back, generation after generation, to search for it.”