“So I thought back to after Jake was shot. He pretended to be holding onto my jacket—but he was really dropping the Margaret Rose into my pocket.”
“Which is where we found it,” Detective Gagel said, “when we searched your house.”
He flipped the coin up one last time. Then he held it out to me.
And there she was, the late Princess Margaret Rose of Britain, captured in profile on a solid gold coin.
“Dated 1952,” said Detective Gagel, holding the coin so I could read the print. Her Royal Highness Margaret Rose, younger daughter of King George VI. “What makes the coin so valuable is that only a few were minted. The King died that year, so the coin was immediately out of date.”
“She sure was pretty,” I said, studying the young princess’s profile. “Kind of sad-looking. Maybe she didn’t like being a princess.”
“Not an easy job,” agreed Detective Gagel. “Why, I recall my mother telling me that Princess Margaret Rose couldn’t even marry the guy she wanted to.”
I remembered VanDusen Gardens, and Hugo’s wife gossiping about somebody’s unhappy marriage. I thought she’d been talking about a friend.
Then I forgot about princesses. Amy walked up to us. She smiled shyly.
I wanted to smile back, but decided not to risk a worse skull ache.
“I hope you don’t mind that I talked to the police,” she said.
For a long moment I just looked at her. “I hope I’m not hallucinating again,” I said at last. “That you’re here, I mean. I thought you’d be…I mean, what with Skip…”
“I wanted to tell you about Skip,” she blurted. “About why I had to see him. I was afraid you’d be angry, though, being his best friend.”
The detective lifted his eyebrows. “Catch you later, Mojo.” He sauntered off.
“Huh?” I said to Amy. “I guess my brain is powering down faster than I thought. Do you mind explaining?”
She hesitated, then said in a rush, “Skip plagiarized an essay of mine. I thought he should admit it and redo his essay. We had a big argument about it.
“That’s why I wanted to see him,” she finished. “I’d decided to report him if he didn’t admit it himself. I wanted to give him one last chance.”
“And you thought I’d be upset at you?”
“Sure.” Amy gazed at me, her dark eyes worried.
I knew I’d be upset at Skip for a long time, maybe my whole life. I’d liked him. I’d trusted him. And he’d betrayed me.
But I wasn’t upset at Amy. I’d tell her that.
First, however, I just grinned at her. Let the skull ache.
Melanie Jackson is the author of the popular Dinah Galloway Mystery series. The Big Dip is her first entry in the Orca Currents series. A creative-writing mentor for the Vancouver School Board, Melanie lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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