called the cops, or at least hotel security.”
“I panicked, okay?”
“Fine, but learn from it. If it happens again, don’t try to handle it yourself.”
“You would have,” I said a little petulantly. “I don’t always need a big, strong man around to protect me.”
“In the first place, I was a cop for a lot of years. In the second place, I’m armed. And in the third place, if I weren’t either one of those things, I would have done the exact same thing.”
“As I did?” I asked, hopefully.
“No, that was just nuts. I would have stayed in the bedroom and called someone for backup.”
“I don’t believe you.”
He smiled broadly at me. “Well, shame on you, then.”
“When did you get in?” I asked my husband as I followed him into the master bedroom.
“Ten minutes ago.”
“Did you get any sleep at all last night?”
“There’s a great couch in Davis’s office,” he said with a grin as he got dressed. “I crashed there for about three hours.”
“That’s not much sleep.”
“I’ve gotten less in the past when I was working on a case, and we both know it.” He slipped on his shoes, completing his outfit. “I’m starving. Any chance you can have breakfast with me?”
“Sure. Let me make a phone call first.”
“Hang on a second. You’re meeting Lorna downstairs, aren’t you?”
I nodded. “I was, but I can cancel it. I’d much rather eat with you.”
“You canceled yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t exactly in concrete.”
He shook his head. “I won’t ask you to do it on my account. Tell you what. Why don’t I order a huge breakfast from room service, and you can keep me company. I want to hear about your day yesterday. Do we have time?”
I looked at the clock and saw that I had forty minutes before I was due downstairs. “We should be fine.”
He grinned. “Then I’ll place my order.”
After he got off the phone, I asked, “You did hear that I wasn’t eating with you, right?”
“I heard, but if I know you, you’ll graze anyway, and I wanted to be sure I’d have enough to eat.”
We walked out into the living room and took our usual seats by the windows. The city was overcast today, and rain tapped at the windows. It wasn’t a perfect postcard filled with sunshine, but it was still beautiful. There were days when I enjoyed a good gloomy overcast sky, and today was going to be one of them.
“How’s Thomas?” Zach asked.
“Confusing,” I said.
“That’s an interesting answer. What happened?”
“He gave me a box from my mother that he’s been holding onto since she died.”
“Why’s he giving it to you now?” Zach asked, the investigator’s stare in his eyes.
“He was supposed to wait longer, but I think something shook him up, and he wanted to get rid of it.”
“Did you look inside yet?”
“I checked it last night. There were some photographs, some old love letters from my dad, and a key to a safety deposit box. That’s not all. There was a note with it, too.”
I got the box from the end table, opened it, and handed him the note from my mother.
The second he finished reading it, he stood and said, “What’s Lorna’s phone number?”
“Why?”
“I’m canceling your breakfast and we’re driving to Hickory.”
“There’s no need to.”
“Savannah, I don’t know how you even slept after reading that note. What’s inside the box? Why didn’t Tom tell you about it sooner? It raises a lot of questions, doesn’t it?”
“Sit down,” I said. “I’ve got the contents of the safety deposit box, too.”
“You didn’t mention that your uncle gave that to you, as well.”
“I didn’t know it the last time we talked. He had to clean the safety deposit box out, but all he found was another box. Uncle Thomas hid it in the backseat of the car while I was there yesterday. He wanted me to have it, but I don’t think he knew how to tell me.”
“So? Don’t keep me in suspense. What was this great secret your mother was keeping from the world?”
