Page 39 of Defending Love
A very distinctive part of me wanted her to be ready to do what she’d said earlier and discuss other fucking options. However, I knew that wasn’t what she meant.
“Okay, I’ll bring the bag back in here. The kitchen table will be the best place to get a good look at what we found.”
In the living room, I picked up the blue and white striped bag and carried it back to the kitchen. Dani’s expression was blank as I came closer, as if she was unsure how she should feel at this moment.
“What will I tell Damien?”
I placed the bag on a chair between us. “I suppose that depends on what we find.”
Squaring her shoulders, Dani nodded and donned the pair of latex gloves. I did the same, having retrieved another pair when I was upstairs. I removed my phone from my pants pocket. “I’m going to take pictures of everything for our team at Guardian. Sometimes they see things that can be missed in the moment.”
Dani nodded and reached into the bag.
Some of the smaller items were the first to come out. She opened a velvet-covered square box. The diamond and emerald necklace inside was probably valued at over a hundred grand.
When she looked up, there were tears in her eyes. “This belonged to my father’s mother. She left it to Mom, but Mom only wore it once. At Grandma’s funeral.”
“Didn’t your mom like it?”
“There’s more to it.” She inhaled. “In a nutshell, Dad didn’t have a sister, and the story was that originally, the necklace was to go to Sharlene.” When I didn’t respond, she added, “Darius’s mother. According to Damien—I’m not sure how he knew—Sharlene asked for it in the divorce.”
“Had your grandmother passed?”
“No,” she said, aghast. “But she wanted it written in the divorce decree that upon Grandma Sinclair’s death, the necklace went to her.”
“Did you ever meet Sharlene Sinclair?”
“Oh yes.” Dani wrinkled her nose. “She wasn’t the nicest person.”
“Today?”
Dani shrugged. “She went MIA about eight to ten years ago. Weird thing. No one knows where she is, nor have they heard from her.”
“Even Darius?”
“He doesn’t comment about her much. I remember Dad offered to pay a private investigator to find her. Darius said if she didn’t want to be part of his life, good riddance.” Dani lowered her voice. “The rumor was that she met someone—someone wealthy, no doubt—and didn’t want to share her newfound bounty with her son.”
Dani reached for a stack of small journals all tied together with twine. “These are what Dad had in the desk drawer. There were literally hundreds of them.” She pulled on the twine. “Why would anyone steal them?” She opened the one on top.
The aged binding no longer held the pages in place. Carefully, she laid it open on the table. “1968.” Her bright blue eyes stared at me. “Dad was born in 1953. This was probably Grandpa Sinclair’s journal.”
“What does it say?”
Chapter
Fifteen
Eli
* * *
Dani stepped back as I took a picture of the first page. The cursive writing was faded by time. There were few words. Mostly the text consisted of lines of letters and numbers.
“Those are chemical compounds,” I said.
Dani leaned closer. “Formulas.” She winked. “Basically, the same thing.”
“When it comes to science, I bow to your superior knowledge.”
