floor. “Well now, lookie here! And there’s even a library ladder. I’ll do the climbing, Nick.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to fight you for that honor. Are they listed in alphabetical order by author or title?”
“Looks like by author. Lots of first editions here. I see
Nick peered up at the top shelf. “If I remember correctly,
Patty was already on the ladder. “I think there’s a T in his last name. But I get your point. I’ll drop them one at a time, and you catch them, okay? Wow! Someone paid out a lot of money to have these bound in this luxurious leather, and the letters are all gold embossed. Nothing chintzy going on here, that’s for sure.”
“For sure,” Nick muttered as he opened the first book. “And what we have here are Audrey Star’s missing journals! Are we a team or what? You have to admit, this is pretty damn clever on someone’s part, and my money is on Adam. I bet he did this for his wife as a gift or something. Maybe after her accident to perk her up or something,” Nick said, pointing to the six books on the floor.
Patty nodded, beyond excited. “You take those three, and I’ll take these three. From what I remember of the report, Audrey probably started writing journals around the age of sixteen, maybe earlier, can’t be sure. Let’s just find the earliest date and go on from there. What we’re really looking for, though, is the last one, dated ten years ago, the year of her death.”
They worked in silence, riffling through the pages, and finding a lot of the entries nothing more than chicken scratches. “She really couldn’t write,” Nick blurted. “This is like some pidgin English. But look how beautifully she writes her name. It doesn’t compute.”
“Rosenberg said she could sign her name for everything, which is what she did. I guess she had a lot of practice. I feel terrible pawing through this and talking about her like she was some dummy. She was a real person with limited abilities. This is really sad. What do you suppose was the attraction for Audrey and Adam? And don’t say money.”
“Maybe he wanted to help her, save her from herself. You said yourself there was never any scandal about the two of them until her car accident, and that wasn’t a scandal. It was just a tragic accident that had its run of a week in the
“I guess that makes sense,” Patty said, stacking the leather-bound books into a neat pile. Now what?”
“We keep searching until we see if there’s anything else to uncover. This might just be the tip of the iceberg. Let’s take another look at these books. Adam hid the journals in plain sight, so he might have hidden other things here as well.”
Patty scanned the shelves until she came to the Js, then said, “You know what, Nick? You are an absolute genius. Look at this! Four books, bound in the same leather as the journals and written by someone named J. J. Jewel. Thick books, too, from the size of their spines. Bigger than your traditional hardcover book. More the size of a reference book. And look at this-they’re hollowed out. Jewelry! Oh, this is some really gorgeous stuff! Look at the sparkle on these diamonds! Do we take them or leave them? I don’t know much about costly jewelry since I never had any, but I don’t think we should leave them since the house is empty, alarm system or not. What do you think, Nick?”
“I say we take them. Do you think Sophie will wear all this stuff?” Nick asked anxiously.
Patty glared at Nick. “Never in a million years. Sophie had a string of fake pearls and a bracelet she bought herself and, of course, her most treasured necklace, the locket you gave her. She never took it off until she was arrested. I have it to give back to her, and I bet that’s the first thing she asks about.”
Patty tried to hide her smile at Nick’s sigh of relief.
“I think we can leave now. We found pretty much what we were looking for, the diaries and the jewelry. If Kala wants us to, we can always come back. I hate this place,” Patty said, looking around. “I wonder why Adam never redid it after his wife died. Hey, wait a minute, I want to see the room where Audrey died before we leave, and no, I am not being morbid. I just need to see the layout. You want to come with me or wait here with our loot?”
Nick looked out the door at the stairway and shook his head. “I’ll wait here. I can start taking all this out to the car if you like.”
“Okay, good idea. Be back in a flash.”
Upstairs, Patty walked down the hallway till she came to a suite of rooms that obviously belonged to Audrey. Minus the dark blue walls and all the stars, it would have been a beautiful luxurious suite. Patty thought she could probably fit her entire little house into just those two rooms.
Patty stood in the doorway and winced at the sight of the hospital bed. Adam had left it just as it was, right down to the rumpled sheets and light blanket on the bed. It looked to her like he had just closed the door and walked away. There was dust everywhere, the sheer curtains were gray and limp looking. A vase of what had once been flowers, which had petrified, sat on one of the night tables. She’d seen pictures of this very room at the trial, but seeing it in person was altogether different somehow. The pictures in court were of the furnishings and didn’t show the bizarre walls and ceilings, with all the gilt stars of all shapes and sizes.
Was this room a shrine? Did Adam come in here and… do what? Stare at the bed? Did he close his eyes and see his wife propped up on the pillows wearing a pretty nightgown? Sophie had told her once that she had to change Audrey three times a day so that when her husband came to visit, she always had on a gown that was freshly ironed and scented with her favorite perfume.
Patty turned to look around the huge room. An ugly wheelchair sat in one corner. An artificial tree or plant of some kind partially hid the chair. The plant was thick with dust, almost obliterating the green color of the silk leaves.
A tear formed in the corner of Patty’s eye. How sad all this was.
Patty walked around one more time, into the sitting room, the dressing room, the giant bathroom that was bigger than most people’s living rooms, hoping to see something that would be of significance. There was nothing to see. Her shoulders slumped.
“Rest in peace, Audrey Star,” Patty murmured as she closed the door behind her.
Out in the hallway Patty called Kala to report in. “Depending on traffic, we’ll be back at the office in thirty minutes, forty-five if we hit the wrong lights. Have Bobby meet us in the garage with a dolly. The books are really heavy, and Nick can’t lift them except one at a time. Saves us a bunch of trips if he can meet us.”
Kala said she was excited with the news, and Bobby would be waiting in the parking garage. As always, she warned Patty, or in this case, Nick, to drive carefully.
Chapter 24
IT WAS SHORTLY PAST THE NOON HOUR IN HAWAII. THE GOLDEN sun was high in the cloudless blue of the sky. The brilliant sapphire ocean was calm as the tide rushed out. Even the sand glistened from the glorious golden sun as Sophie and Sula made their way back to the little house they shared. The warm breeze that caressed Sophie’s body felt like a mother’s gentle touch.
It took only minutes to make a sandwich and pour a tall glass of pineapple juice and carry it out to the lanai, her favorite place. She set down a small bowl of food for Sula to reward her for the ten-mile hike across the sand. The big dog ate daintily, then moved to a shady spot near where Sophie was sitting. They talked then, or at least Sophie did, and Sula listened.
“I have to say, Sula, I have never been more content than I am right now. However, I’m itching to get out and about. To see people, to say hello or smile at a stranger. I want to walk into a store, buy something even if it’s just a trinket. Mostly, though, I want to buy a tube of lipstick. You probably don’t know this, Sula, but girls need lipstick.
