Page 56 of The Night Nanny

My heart palpitating, I storm out of the closet. I think I’m going to have a coronary. Die young like my grandfather. Maybe I should call my cardiologist.

“AAAAAVA!!” I scream at the top of my lungs. “WAKE UP!” My wife stirs under the thick duvet, but her eyes stay glued shut. Is she taking sleeping pills? I scream her name again and this time give her a nudge. More than a gentle one. I shake her.

Her eyes flutter open. “Ned, why did you wake me up?”

Her voice groggy, she rubs the sleep out of the corners of her eyes while mine blaze into hers.

“Did you touch my grandfather’s gold watch? Put it somewhere?”

Fully awake, she sits up. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s gone! G-O-N-E gone!”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.”

Fury flares inside me. My tone is razor-edge challenging. “Ava, are you positive you didn’t touch anything in my closet?”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“I mean like opened one of my shoeboxes. The Amedeo Testoni.”

Perplexed, she looks at me like I’ve spoken to her in a foreign language. “Ned, I never go into your closet.”

My heart beats so fast and hard it may beat out of my chest.

Call an ambulance. Ava holds me in her gaze. “Ned, what’s going on?”

“My grandfather’s Hamilton is missing. I think someone stole it.”

Ava’s face pales. Her lips quiver.

“Ned, I have a confession to make.”

She stole it?

My diamond ring and wedding band are missing too.”

“What?! When did you discover this?”

“Yesterday afternoon when I went to look for them…to put them back on my finger.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?” I bark.

She responds, her voice small. “I was afraid to. First, I thought I’d misplaced them and you’d be mad at me, but now I think we’ve been robbed. Maybe by that gang that’s been terrorizing the Hills.”

Slapping my forehead, I pace the room, then pull out my phone.

“What are you doing?” asks Ava.

I pull out my phone and punch 911 on my keypad.

“Duh! What does it look like? I’m calling the police.”

I hold the phone to my ear. To my utter frustration, I get a recorded message: “Thank you for your patience. Please hold and the next available operator will be with you shortly.”

I have no patience. I want to kill someone.