Pushing Up Bluebonnets

Shauna.'

'Give Cooper a chance to figure it out,' Aunt Caroline said. 'He's former FBI. They know how to solve everything.'

Jeff looked at Aunt Caroline with a knowing smile and said, 'You are so right, Caroline.'

His sarcasm was lost on her because she said, 'You are most certainly correct, Jeffrey.'

'Jeffy knows how to solve, too,' Doris said. 'He says that's his job. But I don't know what solve means. Can we look on the Internet, Abby?'

Aunt Caroline actually had a momentary lapse in narcissism and said, 'I never meant to imply that Jeffrey is not a very excellent police officer.'

Doris certainly gets right to it, I thought.

Jeff grinned. 'Don't worry about it, Caroline.'

'Did you eat, Abby?' Kate, true to her family role, deflected attention from another awkward moment courtesy of Aunt Caroline.

'I ate a few cookies.' I held up the now half-empty bag of shortbread.

I don't know who eyed that bag more hungrily, Doris or Aunt Caroline. Kate noticed, because she took the bag from me and handed it to Doris. 'You ate all your stir-fry, so here's dessert.'

Aunt Caroline watched as Doris opened the bag and dug in. She wanted those cookies, but knew she couldn't steal one with Kate watching. Cookies and diabetes don't exactly go together and Aunt Caroline needed to learn that lesson.

'Did you say stir-fry?' I was hungry, despite the recent high intake of butter and sugar.

Kate stood and so did Cooper. He said, 'Kate and I cooked—she said you'd be fine with me bumbling around in your kitchen. We saved some for you.'

'Vegetarian?' I said warily. Tofu is not my idea of a happy protein.

'We made a batch with chicken and one without,' Kate said.

'While we heat it up, tell us about this lead,' Cooper said.

I glanced at Jeff and asked if he wanted to be in on this conversation.

'We can hear what you're saying from here,' he said. 'Doris might beat me to the punch and finish this puzzle.'

'Is there punch?' Doris said. 'With ginger ale and orange juice?'

'Not that kind of punch,' Jeff said. He began to explain.

Meanwhile, Aunt Caroline sat on one of the barstools at the counter separating the kitchen prep area from the dining area. Seems she was keeping as close to Cooper as possible. 'What's this clue?'

I said, 'JoLynn had a piece of jewelry with her the night Shauna Anthony picked her up from the bus station. I guess it was pretty unusual.'

'Unusual how?' Cooper held out a plate and Kate spooned on a mound of chicken teriyaki and brown rice. She knows I'm a white-food fan, but I was famished and not about to complain.

'We'll find out after I eat,' I said. 'We've had a photo of this necklace since I got the foster-care file.'

The teriyaki turned out to be better than any takeout and I silently credited this to Cooper's touch. He probably added enough of another white food on Kate's banned list—salt.

After I put my plate in the dishwasher, I went to my office and pulled up JoLynn's foster-care photo file. I enlarged a few shots of the necklace that appeared around her neck in not one but every single picture.

Some of the photos couldn't be sharpened, but I finally ended up with a pretty decent close-up of the owl jewelry. Shauna never mentioned the owl eyes were tiny jewels and that rhinestones outlined the pages of the open book the owl perched on.

When I emerged from my office, Doris's attention was now on a DVD playing—The Little Mermaid. Everyone else was still in the kitchen and Aunt Caroline's small cream leather bag was slung on her arm. She was getting ready to leave. I hoped this picture didn't renew her interest in the case and make her hang around. I was tired and might say something I'd regret should she stick her nose in my business.

'Here's what Shauna described.' I handed the picture to Cooper.

Aunt Caroline set her bag on a barstool and peered around his shoulder. Kate flanked him on the other side.

'Was she wearing that necklace when she was pulled from the wreck?' I asked Cooper.

'No way. I went through all the belongings the paramedics bagged, hoping to ID her. I would have remembered this,' he said.

Cooper handed the photo to Jeff. As he looked at it, Jeff said, 'Why didn't she have any ID, Coop? Seems strange to take off without anything. You found her license later at the ranch, right?'

'Yeah . . . in her purse,' he said. 'We found out this afternoon that Dugan called her the night of the crash, scared her. She drove off in a panic and I'm guessing that's exactly what he wanted.'

'I don't doubt it for a minute,' I said.

'The phone company finally sent me the records this afternoon and I have a stack to go through. Since we now know he called, we can see if the phone number on the incoming call right before the crash appears on the records earlier. JoLynn claims she never talked to him before that night, but maybe someone else in the family did.'

'The family members all have their own phones, Cooper,' I said.

'True, but guess who pays the bills? Elliott Richter. I've got everyone's records.'

Just then Aunt Caroline tapped the printout of the necklace. 'I can tell you what this necklace means to me.'

'Yes, Aunt Caroline?' I said politely. But I was wondering why she always had to be the center of attention.

'This is probably custom-made. Very intricate, very detailed. If your JoLynn was some street urchin, where did she get something like this?'

We were all stone silent for a second. If anyone knew about jewelry, it was Aunt Caroline. I finally said those words she always loved to hear. 'Good question.'

'I know,' she said with a smug smile. She then held out her right hand to show off her ruby and diamond ring. 'This was designed for me. In fact most of my important pieces are custom-made. I once had a good friend who showed me how jewelry like this is created. Believe me, this precious little owl didn't come from any store.'

'You are a fountain of knowledge,' Cooper said.

Don't encourage her, I wanted to say. But she was off and running and she did hold everyone's attention. She said, 'Since these owl eyes have to be canary diamonds— I can tell by the color—I'm certain the other stones are diamonds as well. Too bad they're small because they'd sparkle so much more with added facets.'

Aunt Caroline went on, but finally tired after a fifteenminute lecture on handcrafted jewelry. I could see the fatigue in her eyes.

Once again she was ready to leave, but Kate stopped her, saying, 'Please check your blood sugar first? For Abby and me? We don't want you driving into any trees.'

But she complied only after Cooper nodded and said, 'Kate, that's a great idea.'

Kate, Cooper and I arrived at the hospital on Sunday morning around noon. Last night we'd all agreed JoLynn needed to come clean abut her past. It seemed like the only way to protect her while we continued to follow leads like the necklace and the phone records.

We discovered most of the Richter family at Ben Taub. Matthew and Piper were hanging around near the elevators and offered snooty hellos when we passed them. Adele and Leopold were waiting outside JoLynn's room along with strongman Henry. Their greetings were warmer, but not by much. We found Ian and Richter visiting JoLynn and they actually seemed happy to see us. No Scott or Simone. There wouldn't have been room for them anyway. I was betting Ben Taub wanted this family out of here as much as Elliott Richter wanted JoLynn transferred out. Probably a very demanding clan.

The picture of the necklace was folded in my bag and I'd also brought along the sketch artist's work as well as Simone's photo of the fake security guard, which Adele had sent to my computer. JoLynn's bed was rolled up to a