Page 24

“Operation: Sapphire” read Lily, over Dad’s shoulder. She was perched on the edge of his armchair in the living room a week later, attempting to read the front page article after he’d raced inside, brandishing the newspaper, and plopped into the easy chair. “I like it. We should have called it that from the beginning.”

“I’ll read it out for everyone,” said Dad as he held up the newspaper, obscuring every part of his head except for a tuft of his almost gray hair. From behind the pages, he continued in his best newsreader voice, “‘In a remarkable feat of serendipity, Alan Reynolds and Laura Reynolds of Reynolds’ Fine Jewelry were able to identify and assist in the return of an engagement ring stolen from the Mendelsons, a Jewish family, prior to their escape from Poland in the run-up to World War II. The Reynoldses returned the stunning sapphire and diamond ring to its rightful owner, the Mendelsons’ daughter, Ruth Abrams, also a Montgomery resident. Investigators from the Solomon Detective Agency assisted in the effort.’ Well! What a story!” Dad collapsed the paper, his smile a mile wide. “I am so proud of you, honey!”

“Thanks, Dad!” I returned his grin with one of my own. “It was a team effort.”

“Serendipity is such a lovely word,” sighed Mom. “Perhaps we should have called Serena that.”

“Then we could call her Aunt Dippy,” said my nephew, Sam. “Except everyone will think she’s a Diplodocus.” He snorted. “Like a dinosaur because she’s so old!”

“Can’t you make your children behave? Ever?” asked Serena, giving the stink eye to Garrett and Traci who were both suddenly very interested in an apparently missing button on Garrett’s shirt. “When you have a baby, I hope yours will behave better,” she added, turning her attention to me.

Everyone’s eyes landed on me. It was like the air had been suddenly sucked out of the room.

“But I doubt it,” Serena added, returning her focus to her little girl, Victoria, who was busily stacking blocks and smashing them with her little, chubby fist, then clapping gleefully as they tumbled to the floor.

“Are… are you…” stammered Mom, her eyes widening as her gaze went from my face to my stomach.

I sucked it in and rolled my eyes. “I’m not pregnant.”

“I thought you’d have seven children by now,” said Serena, her gaze returning to me. “It constantly surprises me that you waited until marriage and you’re still not pregnant.”

I restrained my hands behind my back, fighting my desire to flip her off. Well, not the desire, just the action. The desire to flip her off remained.

“Oh.” Mom’s shoulders sagged. “I hoped for a double whammy of good news. The icing on this case would have been another grandbaby.”

“There’s plenty of time for babies,” said Dad, putting the newspaper aside, dislodging one of his grandchildren from climbing into his lap, and standing to wrap his arm around me. “This is a fascinating case. I’m so glad I got to be part of it.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you, Dad,” I said, leaning into his hug.

“Or me,” said Lily, flashing her hands like I could forget her.

“Or Lily,” I agreed. “You were both excellent consultants on the case.”

“That’s right,” agreed Lily, nodding sagely. “And I did it out of the goodness of my heart for no fee.”

“Because you were bored and nosy and there was no fee,” I corrected.

“That too,” she agreed.

“Your dad was also bored and nosy,” said Mom. “Thankfully I’m never either of those things.”

“Thankfully,” I deadpanned.

“I have neither the time nor the inclination,” continued Mom.

“Absolutely.”

“I’m a very busy woman.”

“Yup.”

Her phone trilled and she checked the screen as her eyes widened. “The new class program at the Adult Ed Center has just been announced!” she said, thrilled. She nudged my dad. “There’s a two-for-one offer on so many of them.”

“Is that right?” said Dad, collapsing back into his chair to bury his face in the sports section.

I was spared from saving Dad and his imminent sign-up to a class he had no idea he wanted to take by Solomon walking into the room, arriving so stealthily, I hadn’t heard the front door open or close.

“Hi,” I said as he wrapped his arm around me and kissed the top of my head. “I wondered when you’d get here.”

“What’s happening?” he asked.

“We’re reading about the case,” Dad said, waving the newspaper and pointing to the headline. “It’s a great resolution.”

“I just wish the ring had never been stolen in the first place,” I said. “But I’m glad Ellie and Ruth and the Reynoldses are teaming up to raise awareness. Perhaps there are others who can still be helped.”

“Whatever happened to that woman who stole the ring?” Dad wanted to know. “Did Maddox catch her?”

“No, he said they caught sight of her outside the Feldmans’ and she had the backpack, but she disappeared pretty quickly. They eventually found the empty backpack on a bus heading downtown but the thief was long gone. I assume she had several exit routes planned before she even approached the Feldmans’ house with the ring.”

“She’s a wily thing,” said Mom, looking at her phone. “Do you think she does parkour? There’s a Parkour for Seniors class here. What do you think? Two-for-one?” She looked at my dad and a ripple of fear spanned his face.

“I doubt it was parkour,” I said. “She probably had disguises stashed in every direction and a vehicle to circle back to. There was no way she would trust me.”

“She does seem very untrusting. Not a way to live,” decided Mom.

“To be fair, Lexi did double-cross her,” said Lily.

“I didn’t double-cross her! I just alerted Maddox to the plan should he happen to be in the area,” I said. “And the tracker in her bag was simply a precaution.”

Lily snorted.

“That sounds like a double-cross,” said Mom, looking up from her phone. “Your dad said she was an honorable thief. A real life Robin Hood.”

“She stole diamonds from under our noses in our last case,” Garrett reminded them. “She might do some good deeds but she stole gems that didn’t belong to her.”

“Exactly,” I agreed.

“And nearly got me fired,” Garrett added.

“She’s so smart,” said Lily. “Imagine putting one over a seasoned detective.”

“Gave you the slip too,” said Garrett.

“I’m strictly an amateur,” replied Lily. “I can’t be blamed.”

“There isn’t any blame to be had,” I said. “Cass Temple isn’t just a professional thief, she’s a formidable opponent. She’s perfected her craft over many years and she has a lot of resources. She plans all of her heists very meticulously.”

“I am not allowing Victoria to listen to any of this,” said Serena, scooping up her daughter and striding from the room. She paused at the door. “You don’t all have to talk shop at home, you know.”

“Now who’s a fangirl?” said Lily, ignoring Serena’s huffy fit entirely. Serena huffed again and stomped into the kitchen. Then to my mother, Lily said, “You should try the parkour. Cass Temple jumped off a balcony to get away from Lexi.”

“I’ve felt like that,” said Mom. “Do you want to take the two-for-one offer?”

“Absolutely, so long as it fits in between Poppy’s daycare, my shifts at the bar, and Jord’s shifts at work.”

“I’ll request the course information and put you down as a maybe,” said Mom, already enthusiastically tapping the screen.

“If she breaks a hip, it’s on you,” said Dad, pointing a warning finger at Lily. Then to me, “So you’ve no idea where this Temple woman is now?”

“None. Maddox figures she left town that same day. He said the building we tracked her to, which we think she owns through various shell corporations, was put up for sale yesterday so his guess is she won’t be back.”

“That’ll make your life easier,” said Dad. “It’s better for your case completion rate to work against amateurs.”

Next to me, Solomon laughed.

I frowned, uncertain if my dad were casting doubt at my abilities or considering Cass Temple’s formidable ones. Regardless, he was right. Life would be a lot easier without Cass Temple outsmarting me. Not only that, but she had the knack for looking good while she was doing it. It was infuriating and admirable. Not for the first time, I wondered if we’d be friends in another life.

“Who’s that?” called Dad when the front door opened.

“It’s me, Tara,” replied my cousin, walking in, hand-in-hand with Special Agent Sadiq Farid. She brandished a large box of chocolates, which she handed to my mother and they hugged. “Thanks for inviting us to dinner,” she said.

“And me,” said Maddox, walking in after them. “How’s my favorite Graves?” he said, embracing my mom while she blushed pink. “You’re not my favorite,” he said pointedly to me. “You lost my thief.”

I threw my hands in the air, exasperated.

“Lexi handed Temple to you on a platter,” said Solomon. “You lost her all by yourself.”

“Not true,” said Farid. “I was next to him in the car.”

“We have a lead on her,” said Maddox. “She was spotted in Buenos Aires two days ago.”

“What’s she doing there?” I asked.

“My guess is either she’s taking a much needed vacation or she’s targeting a yacht that got into port that same day. It’s owned by a Russian billionaire with a taste for fine art and stolen Far East antiquities. One doesn’t want to assume she’s planning a heist,” he added with a shrug that wasn’t nearly as nonchalant as he intended, “but she probably is.”

“We’re hoping to head down there,” said Farid. “I’ve got my bag packed in anticipation. Just waiting for the okay from the big boss.”

“It’s a hard life,” said Maddox, “but someone has to do the tough jobs like these.”

“Say hi from us,” said Lily.

“Send us a postcard,” said Dad.

“I’ll bring you a treat,” said Maddox to my mom. She giggled and fanned herself.

“We could go salsa dancing at the Adult Ed Center,” said Mom, preening now.

“Nothing would make me happier than whisking you around the dance floor,” said Maddox smoothly.

“Hands off,” said Dad, folding the corner of his newspaper to fix Maddox with a stern look. “I might be retired but I’m still a crack shot.”

“If Grandpa dies, you can marry Gran and then you’ll be my grandad,” said Sam and Maddox paled.

“Yeah,” snorted Dad, retreating behind his newspaper once more to laugh.

“No one is dying, and no one is getting married,” said Mom. “But there might be babies.” She shot a pointed look at me.

“Are you…” Maddox trailed off as he gazed at my abdomen.

I sucked it in once more. “No!” Before I could say anything else, a movement caught my eye from outside the house. A brown-haired woman had been walking past but now she stooped, perhaps tying a shoelace or picking up something she dropped. She’d looked directly into the window, then disappeared out of sight, yet for a few seconds I’d had a full, clear view of her sweetheart face.

I glanced around me to see if anyone else had noticed the passerby but everyone was engaged in conversation. Solomon with my mom, Maddox and Farid were inquiring about some sporting event from my dad, Traci was reprimanding the children as they raced around, and Garrett was attempting to extract his foot from the Lego cage Sam had built around it. Only Lily, still perched on the arm of the armchair, was giving me a quizzical look.

The woman hadn’t arisen. I beckoned Lily to follow as I took a long, careful step over two nieces and narrowly avoided collision with a nephew, to stand at the window overlooking the street.

Slowly, the woman arose, pulling a hat over her brunette bob, one hand on the top as if to keep it from flying away in the breeze. She wore a pretty, green summer dress, a small, cream purse slung across her shoulders. Instead of continuing her walk, she turned and looked directly at us.

“Is that…” started Lily softly.

“It can’t be,” I said, equally surprised.

The woman smiled warmly and waved her free hand, giving us a little finger flutter, before she turned and strolled away.

“We’ve got to tell—” Lily began to turn but I caught her arm.

“It can’t possibly be her! You heard Maddox. She was sighted in Buenos Aires only two days ago,” I said softly so only she could hear.

“She could have turned right around and got back here before they even confirmed she was ever in Buenos Aires. A wild goose chase to convince everyone she was thousands of miles away,” said Lily. “Her air mile points must be astronomical!”

“Surely not,” I muttered, but I wasn’t sure if I were replying to Lily or considering whether Cass Temple had just waved to me outside my parents’ house.

If she had, was she challenging me? Or warning me? Telling me that she knew where my parents lived? That she could come here any time? It was eerie and disconcerting, yet I’d never considered Cass a creep. Formidable, wily, conscientious, all of those things… but taking the time to send a vaguely threatening message didn’t strike me as something she would do.

That left one option.

She was actually saying goodbye.

Not to the Reynoldses, nor to the Feldmans, nor to Maddox, but to me.

She could have done that in a number of different ways: a message through the detective agency’s website, a postcard in the mail, even a note on my windshield. But no, she knew where I was and when, and she made sure I saw her.

“We should…”

“No,” I cut in, deciding it was too ludicrous to be real. “It can’t be her. It was just someone who looked like her. A neighbor or someone who knows my parents. That’s why she waved. She was just being friendly. We’re seeing things that aren’t there.”

“Yeah,” snorted Lily, “That was Cass Temple and she had chutzpah.”

I glanced back at the crowded room, the detectives, the FBI agents, and the PIs. I could have a full-scale search underway in minutes and we still wouldn’t catch her.

“She’s gone,” I said. “Whoever it was.”

“If she came earlier, she could have had dinner,” said Lily, patting her stomach.

“In handcuffs,” I said, smiling now.

“Yeah. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it wasn’t her.”

“Maybe,” I said, as we turned back to the chaos that was my family squashed into my parents’ living room. “Maybe we’ll never know.”

Poppy toddled over to Lily at that moment and cried out for her, distracting her. I left them to their comfort cuddles, circling back to Solomon.

“What do you say we get out of here?” asked Solomon softly.

“I say yes. Where do you want to go?”

“Home.”

We paused as the kids dived into the toy box my parents kept for them and emerged triumphantly, and loudly, with foam swords and light sabers.

“In need of a quiet night?”

“Not really.”

“Huh?”

“I thought we’d get back to our side project.”

I frowned. What hadn’t I remembered, what paperwork hadn’t I completed? Then… “Oh!” I smiled and lowered my voice. “Oh! That side project. Project Baby?”

“Exactly that. It’s time we got this show on the road.”

I glanced at my family, all occupied, all happy with the families they’d made, and extended family we’d created. I wanted to make mine. I wanted it so badly, I couldn’t imagine not having what they had. I couldn’t imagine not having what we wanted.

“Let’s go,” I said, and took his hand as we headed for the front door. “Perhaps you could square a long weekend away with the boss soon?”

“I can do that. Where do you want to go? Somewhere special?” asked Solomon as we slipped away, not wanting to suffer through any lingering goodbyes.

“Yes. Home.” That was the most special place I could think of and I was lucky to have one. To never have to roam. To always have a base that welcomed me. We’d made that together.

I pulled the door shut behind me and we took a step towards our future.