Poisoned Prose (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

to find her friends gazing expectantly at her. “Diamonds. I think the family treasure is diamonds.”
    Harris pushed his cheesecake aside and flattened a piece of wrinkled paper with his palm. “The genealogical info I got? It was about Josiah’s dad—the one who moved to Appalachia from New York.” When Millay gave him a hurry-up gesture, he frowned but continued. “Quentin Devereaux worked for Cartier Jewelers. And guess what happened the year he left New York? The store was robbed. It was one of the biggest jewelry heists in history, and the thieves were never caught.”
    Laurel whistled. “What does the chief always say about coincidences?”
    “He doesn’t believe in them,” Millay said and studied Harris. “Were you able to find exactly what was stolen?”
    “Loose gems, mostly. The thieves were in and out in a matter of seconds.” He passed Millay the printout. “That’s why they got away. They weren’t greedy.”
    “And they had an inside man,” Olivia pointed out. “Quentin Devereaux.”
    Harris shrugged. “I have to agree, but he never fell under suspicion. He was a night-shift guard and was on duty when the robbery occurred. Was knocked out cold by one of the thieves. Must have been a convincing blow because he went back to work a week after the robbery. That’s all I could find on him until he bought the land in Whaley three months later.”
    “He played it smart,” Millay said with a hint of admiration. “And he was patient. They probably watched him like hawks for weeks, but he just did his job and went back home until his bosses were certain that he wasn’t one of the bad guys.”
    Laurel drummed her fingers against the list of words. “Half of these could be used to describe diamonds. What about ‘granddaddy’ and ‘Pa’? Do those terms refer to how the treasure’s been passed down?”
    “Possibly,” Olivia said. “And I think ‘blue’ and ‘curse’ point to their blood disorder. The Methemoglobinemia was also passed down from Quentin to Josiah to Violetta and Elijah.”
    “And that only occurred because Quentin’s Appalachian wife must have been a carrier too,” Harris added. “Do you know how slim those odds are? They’re like, ridiculously small.”
    Laurel shook her head. “I can only imagine how Quentin felt when Josiah was born with his blue skin.”
    “I’d say he felt cursed.” Millay grabbed Laurel’s hand and pointed at her wedding ring. “Maybe he thought his son was born blue because he ripped off the jewelry store. I seriously doubt the Appalachian docs could explain where the blue skin came from. I bet Quentin saw himself as a freak. But when his
son
wasn’t normal, he probably thought he was being punished for his crime.”
    Millay’s explanation struck a chord with Olivia. “Cursed. If so, it explains why Quentin hid his haul. And why Josiah never touched the diamonds either.”
    “I don’t know.” Harris was clearly dubious. “When Elijah got sick, Josiah already had two kids with blue skin, so why would he care any more? Why wouldn’t he use the diamonds to save his son?”
    “What if Mrs. Devereux was pregnant?” Laurel said. “How badly would the couple want to deliver a healthy, normal baby?”
    Millay nodded. “For a blonde, you’re pretty sharp. But someone tell me this: how does the word ‘silver’ fit into all these totally unfounded theories?”
    “Or the word ‘cold’?” Harris asked and picked up Laurel’s list of words. “Alfred Hicks was out in the ‘cold,’ searching for the ‘heart of a trunk’ by ‘moonlight.’ And since Violetta’s murder and Lowell’s attack happened
after
Hicks was killed, there’s only one explanation as to why the murderer hasn’t stopped.”
    The friends stared at Harris until Olivia demanded, “And what’s that?”
    “Violetta had the diamonds on her. Whoever pushed Hicks off the cliff figured that out and followed her here.”
    Millay snorted. “Why would his killer wait six months?”
    “Why indeed? Unless your store is going under, and you’ve arranged a storyteller’s retreat in your own back-yard? A retreat that would bring an old flame and a fortune in diamonds into town,” Olivia said and finished her drink.
    “You think Flynn murdered Hicks? And then lured Violetta here for a second chance at the diamonds? There are some serious holes in that theory,” Harris pointed out. “Then again, he’s gone missing. That makes him look pretty