“What did he want with me?” Winifred asked.
“Milo sent him out lookin’ for the man BB was workin’ with. You know—Kit Mitchell. Somewhere out there he found out that he could make more money on his own. It’s my bet that he figured the money would come from you but he didn’t know your name. Fearless and me was just crows in the road.”
“I, I, I’m sorry,” she said.
“Sorry’s all good and well,” I replied. “But what I would like to know is what’s goin’ on?”
Miss Fine stood up. She walked toward a large rosebush until her face was in among the leaves.
She said something that only the flowers heard.
“What?” I asked.
“It was just a piece of colored crystal,” she said, turning back to us. “Green. An emerald surrounded by white sapphires. Have you ever seen a white sapphire, Mr. Minton?”
“I can’t say that I have.”
“They look like diamonds only the glow is softer. They’re beautiful. In the old days they used to give them for weddings. It meant good fortune and a happy life. My father got me a necklace with a single emerald surrounded by those sapphires.”
“He must’a been rich as you,” Fearless said.
“No. Not really. He had a farm. It was pretty large. But he sold a quarter of his acreage when he saw that pendant in a New Orleans jewelry store window.” Winifred was far away in a dream of days gone by. “He loved me and he was superstitious too. He believed that if he made a sacrifice and gave me that gift that I would have a blessed life. He never saw that the real blessing was his love.”
“So BB stole your father’s dowry?”
“He got Oscar to hire this Kit Mitchell. Mr. Mitchell worked for three weeks and then he left—at our request. A few days after that, Oscar realized that the pendant was missing.”
“And so,” I said, “they intended to use that to make you give up on the property.”
“I can’t see how,” she said. “I loved my father, not that piece of crystal. It’s worth no more than ten or twelve thousand dollars. Maybe because BB knew the story he thought that I would be swayed. But I can assure you that nothing would make me give up on my Compton properties.”
“Do you know a man named Brown?” I asked then.
“What is his first name?”
“I don’t know. He calls himself Brown, and when he wanted someone to call him he gave out Oscar’s number.”
“Maybe he worked here,” she said. “I wouldn’t know.”
“How about Oscar? Would he know?”
“Ask him.”
“Why are you looking for your nephew?” It was my last attempt to decipher this straight-faced woman.
“When I found out that Bartholomew had suggested this Kit Mitchell for the job, I assumed that he would know where to find my necklace. That’s why I need to talk to Bartholomew, to tell him to have my property returned.”
“How would BB know where you kept the necklace?”
“He and my niece, Leora, used to play with it when they were children. They both knew where all my jewelry was.”
“So what you want is the necklace and not your nephew at all.”
“That’s right. But I want to speak to Bartholomew, to tell him that I no longer consider him a member of our family.”
“Uh-huh. So if me and Fearless get the necklace and make it so you have your chat with BB, then we’re clear?”
“Certainly, Mr. Minton.”
“BB seemed to think that you would be willing to commit violence against him if he didn’t return your property,” I said as a primer for further discussion.
“That is ridiculous,” Winifred L. Fine said. “Violence is the last resort of the desperate.”
“Okay,” I said. “Let us go out there and see what we can see.”
I touched Fearless’s arm to indicate that it was time for our departure.
“One more thing,” Winifred Fine said. “What about the man who shot at you? Is he still after me?”
“Don’t you worry about him, ma’am,” Fearless said. “He came down with a chest cold and now he’s laid up for the season.”
30
FEARLESS DROVE US DOWN the dirt road toward the street.
