“Who is it?” I said groggily into the phone, still not entirely awake. It had gotten dark out, but not so dark that it was already night. Late afternoon at worst. “Okay,” I replied. “We’ll see you soon then.”
“Who was it?” Cookie asked sitting up from the couch. Her hair was matted towards one side of her face, in one large knot.
“Lightning,” I said. That was enough to make her pop up from the couch. Verny was still half asleep in the chair. “Lightning called,” I said a bit louder and in her direction. She opened her eyes and straightened up a little.
“Did he talk to Horace?” She asked. Her voice was thick with sleep, and gravelly.
“He did.” I stood from the couch. “He’s coming to us this time,” I said, grateful that he had offered. My feet were sore from all the walking we had done. It was a hard thing to make someone who stood on their feet all day long sore, but we had managed it.
“I should call Cici and find out if they’ve gotten anywhere,” Verny said. “We’ve been out for a few hours.”
“It feels like seconds,” Cookie said, trying to brush her hair out with her fingers. When Cookie’s hair was done, I couldn’t be more jealous of it. Thick and curly with more volume than I could ever dream of getting. When it wasn’t done though, it was the trickiest hair I’d ever seen, and I was glad for my stick straight strands that only ever required a brush.
“I’ll put on another pot of coffee, that way it’ll be ready for when he gets here,” I assured her.
“Make it two pots of coffee,” Cookie said with a laugh. “Anything?” She asked Verny who had walked back into the room after a short call with Cici. Judging by the length of the call, I didn’t imagine that they had found anything yet.
“Not yet, but they have hundreds of photos to sift through,” Verny shook her head. “After we talk to Lightning, we should go help them look through everything.”
“Nothing at all suspicious?” I asked.
“They said they pulled a few pictures of people they didn’t recognize, or thought might be suspicious. They definitely didn’t see Horace from the description I gave them and haven’t found any pictures of people hanging out too close to the dagger or anything like that.”
About twenty minutes passed before Lightning arrived. We all waited with bated breath, hoping that he would have found something, anything about where the dagger might be. If Horace didn’t take it, he might have even been approached by who did trying to sell it to the highest bidder. When he did arrive, our hopes were dashed.
“He knows nothing?” I asked, disappointed. Recovering stolen items is not a common occurrence, like with kidnappings, if they didn’t pop up after the first 24 hours, it was likely they never would. It had already been longer than that.
“No,” Lightning sipped his coffee. He looked healthier than he had when we visited him in his house. I couldn’t tell if it was just the effect of him getting out of his hoarder house, or if he had actually gotten some rest.
“And you believe him?” Verny asked, incredulous.
“Not even close,” Lightning scoffed. “I’ve never believed a word out of that man’s mouth.” He shook his head. “I don’t think he stole it, but I do think he knows who did and where the dagger is now.”
“He’s probably bidding on it as we speak,” Cookie said with an unusual amount of vehemence for her.
“Or he’s already bought it,” I suggested.
“It’s certainly possible,” Lightning said, sounding defeated. “I hope that Cici and Mike find something.” We had told him about our plan before he even told us about what he had found out from Horace. He seemed touched that we would go through so much trouble to help him out. A knock on the door made us all jump. I knew who it was just from the sound of their fist pounding against my door. Gideon had a terrible habit of always knocking as if he were about to break down the door.
“Heard you were canvassing,” Gideon said as a greeting, though he didn’t sound particularly angry about it.
“We were asking for photos from the dance,” I explained. “We’re making a memory album for the whole town.” Gideon looked unamused and unconvinced by my explanation. “Okay, we are looking through them to see if we can find anyone suspicious.” It wasn’t as if he hadn’t already figured it out. Still Verny looked astounded that I had given in so easily.
“We know,” Abel said. I led them into my house and to the living room, which was about three steps considering how small my house was. “It’s a good idea,” he added with a smile clearly directed at Cookie. She blushed.
“One you should have brought to us,” Gideon said, giving Abel a look.
“Would you have listened?” I challenged. “We are only doing this because it didn’t seem like you were taking it seriously.”
“You just thought that I was guilty,” Lightning accused. “It was the easiest answer, so it was the one you went with.” Gideon and Abel looked offended by his words, but neither moved to defend themselves.
“It did seem like an easy, open and shut case,” Gideon admitted. “It seemed obvious that you would make it disappear for the money.” Lightning looked like he was about to defend himself, Gideon held up a hand to stop him. “We looked into it further and it doesn’t look like you’re guilty.”
“Thanks for that,” Lightning said sarcastically.
“We found something,” Abel offered.
“What did you find?” Lightning asked, suddenly curious. “Is it about the dagger, or just something to prove me innocent, which we already know I am.” He remained offended by the two officers.
“Well, we’ve been monitoring sites like Amazon and eBay for new posts by private sellers that match the description of the dagger,” Abel started. “We figured if we could find it being sold, then we would be able to trace it back to the seller.”
“No one is dumb enough to sell it on eBay or Amazon,” Lightning rolled his eyes.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “This kind of thing would be on, like the dark web or something. If it was online at all.” The thief would have to be very foolish if they were trying to sell it online. By all accounts, the person who must have stolen it either worked for or in relation to a museum. They wouldn’t have even needed a buyer in the first place. We hadn’t considered the possibility that just a normal person looking to make some quick money had taken the dagger.
“Well, we found it,” Abel said, making Lightning drop his mug of coffee, shattering it on my floor.
Chapter Eleven
There was a lot of commotion after Abel dropped that news on us. Lightning breaking the mug, the lot of us shocked by the revelation. To add to it, Mike and Cici burst through the doors at just about the same moment.
“We’ve figured it out!” They announced, only to be stopped dead in their tracks by Verny.
“There’s glass on the floor,” she said, putting up her hand to stop them from trampling over Lightning’s smashed mug. I was busy mopping up the coffee with a tea towel. It was still too hot to touch, so it wasn’t the easiest job to do. Abel was attempting to get all the pieces of the mug off the floor.
“Can we not discuss this and clean up at the same time?” Cookie asked, sitting at the edge of the couch. The conversation had stopped with the crash of the mug. Lightning had apologized profusely, even though I told him that it didn’t matter. It wasn’t one of my favorite mugs. That meant that not much had been discussed beyond the knowledge that Gideon and Abel might have found the dagger.
“What did you figure out?” I asked standing up. It was as clean as it was going to get for now. Mike and Cici were allowed inside by Verny, and Abel left to throw out the shards of porcelain.
“We think we know who took the dagger,” Cici said. “We went through all the photos, found a couple that we think are the thieves crowding the table and then leaving the party not long after Lightning discovered the dagger was missing.”
“Thieves?” Verny asked. Everyone had sat back down now. My living room full of people,
more than it had in quite a while. It was a small room, with a couch big enough for three and two arm chairs. Lightning and Verny occupied the armchairs. Cici was leaning on the arm of the chair with her mother and Mike on the other. Gideon sat with Verny and I, and Abel rested on that arm. It was not exactly comfortable.
“Three of them,” Mike said with a nod.
“You found them in the photos?” Lightning asked. “Who are they?” He seemed to be going through all the possibilities in his head. Mobsters, museum curators, archaeologists and then the run of the mill neighbor.
“Well, they aren’t exactly clear images,” Cici admitted. “We don’t know exactly who is in them.”
“So you don’t know who did it,” Lightning pursed his lips. Cici was about to respond, but he turned his attention away from her. “What do you have?” He asked Abel.
“We found a listing on Amazon for your dagger,” he said, pulling out a laptop from his briefcase. The laptop was old, and at least a few inches thick. I couldn’t believe it when he pressed the power button and it actually whirred to life. With a few clicks he had the page pulled up. “See,” he turned it so everyone could see.
“That’s it!” Lightning yelled when he saw the image. “That’s my dagger.”
“Do you know who posted it?” I asked, shocked that someone had been stupid enough to post something like that online.
“The user name is GamerGuys3,” Abel said, it sounded as foreign to him as if he were reading Latin. “It’s going for $750 dollars.”
“That’s it?” Lightning sounded more offended from the price tag than when he found out that the dagger was stolen. “These idiots stole my dagger, worth thousands – even hundreds of thousands – and are selling it for less than one thousand dollars? I'm appalled.” It didn’t make sense. Whoever stole the dagger must not have known how much it was really worth. That ruled out any professional from the suspect pool, though I was glad that Horace hadn’t found the listing. He would have bought it in a heartbeat.
“GamerGuys3?” Cici asked with a small chuckle at the stupid user name. “Three,” she repeated, connecting the dots.
“We have pictures of three suspects,” Mike said. This time, they were going to finish telling us what they had found. He pulled his own laptop from his backpack. It was in hilarious contrast to Abel’s. Mike's was a few centimeters wide, and a slick silver. They didn’t even look like they were the same thing. He pulled his pictures up and turned to show us.
“I know they aren’t great, but they’re better than nothing,” Cici said. She wasn’t kidding, the pictures were poor quality, definitely not taken by the professional photographer. The first photo showed three silhouettes standing by the dagger. All we could really see in the second was three dark figures, with their backs to the camera. Nothing to go on.
“They are nothing,” Gideon said with a sigh. “We’ve taken the posting down from Amazon and we're trying to trace it to who posted it and where from.”
“You don’t know them or recognize them?” I asked, squinting at the photo. I didn’t see how he could, but it was worth a try.
“How could I?” He asked.
“They look pretty short,” Cookie observed.
“Almost like kids,” Verny agreed with a nod.
“That makes sense,” Abel agreed. “If kids took the dagger, they may have not realized what it was actually worth. They might not have even realized the consequences of what they were doing.”
“Probably boys,” Cici said rolling her eyes. “Only boys would do this and not realize what they were actually doing.”
“How much did you say they were selling it for?” I asked, something tickling a memory locked at the back of my mind.
“750 dollars,” Abel said, making Lightning scoff again.
“Can I see that?” I asked him, pointing to his laptop. I googled something quickly. “It seems to me that the cost of a new Xbox and three controllers and maybe a couple of games would cost $750,” I said hoping that they would follow my train of thought.
“So you think they might be selling it for a game console?” Mike asked. I shook my head.
“I know they are selling it for a game console,” I replied.
“Those brats!” Lightning shouted. “Those terrible kids.” He followed my train of thought exactly. The three boys, Luke, Mark and Kyle who had come into the deli the day before the dance had been talking about how to earn enough money to buy an Xbox. They had also heard us talk about Lightning’s dagger and had even gotten into a bit of an argument with him. It seemed that they settled on a different way to get the money for their console. An illegal way.
“What brats?” Gideon asked.
“You know who did it?” Abel asked at the same time.
“I think if you go to the school and talk to a Luke, Mark and Kyle you’ll find the dagger,” I said. “They took the dagger.”
“I know of them, they’re underclassmen at my school,” Cici said. “I wouldn’t put it past them either. I don’t know them well, and I know that they want an Xbox. They were offering to clean out people’s lockers for a few bucks a piece.”
“I guess they thought of an easier way to get their hands on some money,” Verny chuckled darkly.
“We’ll get their information from the school and track the boys down,” Gideon assured Lightning. “We’ll get your dagger back.”
Chapter Twelve
Even after everything, Horace attempted to make Lightning an offer for the dagger. Lightning refused using a few choice words I don’t think I’d ever used in my life. Horace didn’t press it too much, for once. Though I guessed we would see him again. He didn’t seem like someone who would stop trying. He probably would hope that he’d be able to wear Lightning down and get him to say yes one day.
“Are you going to show the dagger at next year’s dance?” I asked, curious for the answer. I wasn't sure I would display it after everything that happened.
“I’m going to invest in a glass box to put it in and maybe my own security,” Lightning responded. “But, yes, I will display it.”
“Really?” Cookie asked surprised. We were back at the deli, before opening. I had decided that Lightning might as well come in before opening. He usually arrived before we opened as it was. Buttercup was sitting at Verny’s feet, curled up into a little ball. The pup was almost smiling while Verny stroked her fur.
It had been a couple days since the boys returned the dagger to Lightning. He had chosen not to press any charges against them, not wanting to set them up for a difficult life for a stupid choice they made. They hadn’t actually hurt anyone and I did suspect that they were sorrier they got caught and less sorry for taking the dagger. They did seem shocked when they discovered how much it was actually worth.
“I don’t think anyone will try anything like that again,” Lightning said shaking his head. “If anything this proved how much I care about the dagger and that no one will be able to get away with taking it from me.” There was nothing to argue with there. Anyone who was paying attention could see that he had a posse who had his back.
“I guess that’s true,” Verny said. “What about the boys? You didn’t press charges?”
“No, but I was able to choose what their community service and punishment will be,” Lightning said with a chuckle.
“I imagine they’d almost rather have been charged,” Cookie laughed.
“Well, they have to volunteer at the historic society for the rest of the school year and throughout the summer. They also have to write essays on the history of the dagger, and why it was wrong to take it,” Lightning said, sounding satisfied with his choices. If I was those boys I'd rather have a stick to the eye than that punishment. But they deserved it and hopefully they would learn a valuable lesson.
“That all sounds fair to me,” I said. I prepped ingredients for the day. Finally done with the corned beef, I was able to move onto something new. I thought I would try and experiment with some spring greens, burr
ata cheese, tomatoes and balsamic. The smell of the ingredients told me that I was going in the right direction.
“I might have been harsher, if I were the one choosing,” Verny said. She didn’t have tolerance for that kind of thing. Because I thought they weren’t actually sorry for what they did, I might have been a bit harsher as well.
Buttercup yipped at the door, barking loudly at someone on the outside. That was another reason why we kept her in the back when we were actually open. “Loverboy is here,” Verny said pointing through the window at Abel.
I moved to unlock the door for him before he even had the chance to actually knock. “How are you?” I asked. Buttercup jumped on his legs to say hi. She was beside herself with joy at his arrival.
“Good, thanks,” he replied with a stiff nod. He sounded too formal, uncomfortable even. I knew exactly why he had dropped by. He managed a smile as he bent over to pet Buttercup. It was little things like that which convinced me he would make a good match for Cookie. If you love dogs you can't be all bad.
“Cookie, I think Abel is here to have a word with you,” I said with a giggle. The both of them turned a deep scarlet.
“Oh,” Cookie said with a smile. “Are you here to talk to me?” She asked. No Cookie, here's here to take Buttercup on a date.
“I am,” he said nodding.
“Why don’t you two go out to the courtyard?” I suggested to them. It would be more private for them instead of talking in front of all of us. Abel nodded and they went towards the courtyard. Verny gave me the stink eye. She wanted to be all up in their business.
We tried to give them some privacy, but none of us could take our eyes from the pair of them. Even Buttercup whined at the two of them. At first, they stood awkwardly far apart, and then Abel said something. His posture still stiff, he looked like he was holding his breath waiting for Cookie to answer. I hoped that she would say yes. In all our conversations about him, she always seemed on the fence, never completely certain. I didn’t want to be responsible for his heartbreak. Verny made some tisking noises, making her disapproval known even from inside.
The Leprechaun's Loot Page 7
