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Clapper’s Ridge, Virginia

Three weeks later

As they walked along beautifully kept rock paths past the graves, Elizabeth put away her mobile and wiped away a tear.

Rome stopped, lightly touched her cheek. “You all right, sweetheart?”

She thought of John Eiserly’s belief that her mother’s attempted kidnapping was a ruse, designed to bring Elizabeth rushing back to England, where she’d be vulnerable again, after Adara’s recruiting Aboud had failed in the States. He believed Tommy had arranged for the alarm to be installed in his mother’s Bentley only to make it plausible her mother would escape the kidnapping. And what did that matter now?

She heard Sherlock say, “There it is, the grave of Florence Torrence, Ballou’s grandmother.”

“Nope,” Sherlock said. She patted her stomach. “Beau and I discussed this, and he thinks it’s bearer bonds.”

Savich said, “Are you sure it wasn’t Felicity?”

She shook her head, gave him a smile. “Nope, it was Beau, loud and clear.”

Rome and Savich took turns digging. They didn’t have to dig far before the shovel struck metal. Rome went down on his hands and knees and swiped away the soil. He pulled out a small metal box bound with duct tape and grinned maniacally. He cut through the duct tape and paused, looked at everyone. “Sherlock, you told us what Beau thinks. Elizabeth, what do you think?”

“Okay, I’m with you. Diamonds. We’re all in, five bucks, right? Savich, do you want to do the honors?”

Savich said, “Since you’re the only reason we’re here, Rome, have at it.”

Sherlock studied the strange stamp. “Well, look at that. No five bucks for any of us.”

Savich took a picture of the stamp, texted it to the CAU for MAX’s help. Three minutes later, he read, “It’s the only surviving British Guiana one-cent magenta stamp from 1856. It was stolen in 1978 from the Ellison Tussey collection.” He looked at them and smiled. “It’s valued today at nearly ten million dollars. Either Wilson Ballou stole the stamp from the Tussey collection himself or, more likely, he stole it from someone he was investigating and they killed him for it. I hope Mr. Ellison Tussey is still alive. He or his heirs are in for a surprise.” He looked at the note again and shook his head at the endless vagaries of life.