Jason whistled as he unlocked the door to J&J Antiques and walked into the quaint, cozy shop. And stopped short. Jason couldn't believe the setting before him. The shop was mostly serene—except for the shattered jewelry display case. Jason wasted no time in making his way to the case. Within the shards, resting atop a selection of antique rings was a succinct message that shocked him to the core.
The edges of the white paper fluttered as the bold type of the note taunted him. Sheep's Clothing. It seemed impossible that those two words could evoke myriad words in memories. Jason felt himself drifting back to a night, years ago, in a quaint cabin in Alaska. Monica was there, helping him with the dishes. He felt like he might be falling for her, and wanted nothing more than to pull her in his arms and kissing the living daylights out of her. But Walter, the pest, kept coming in and out of the room. Later, after Monica had left, Jason had noticed a ring left behind. It had lain innocently on the counter. Little had Jason known that that simple ring would turn out to be the sheep's clothing of a wolfish homing device.
A knock at the door brought Jason from his reverie. He spun around to see Eugene on the other side of the door, and motioned him in. "Hi, Jason, I just came by to install an update on the softwa—What happened?!" Eugene cried.
"Looks like someone wanted to leave me a message," Jason said, gesturing toward the note in the case. Eugene slowly came forward and read the message.
"Sheep's Clothing? What kind of threat is that supposed to convey?" Eugene questioned.
"I think someone was trying to get me to remember an incident that occurred in Alaska during the days when Andromeda was still at large. Do you remember Monica Stone?"
"Of course! She was the red-headed young woman that often dealt with espionage—and also did frequent field work for Bennett Charles." Eugene answered, "As I recall, she not only planted a secret modem at Whit's End, tapped my phone, rammed her car into Whit's, but also had something to do with you, am I correct?"
"You are correct. But you should also remember that she was a pawn in the larger game. She was in the scheme to do what she could to help her brother. Not that that makes breaking the law right, but she had a heavy load to carry. She acted as Charles' wolf in sheep's clothing, which I believe the note is referring to," Jason explained.
"Are you sure? Why Monica directly, and why would someone write you a note, and put it in a ring case now?" Eugene asked.
"I've been working on getting Monica paroled. In fact, she will be in a few weeks. She knows what she did was wrong, and she's repentant. I hope she can get out and find some relief from the guilt of what she did to cause her brother's condition." Jason answered. He thought about the placement of the note some more. "I think the person who did this chose the ring case for one or two reasons. One, Monica had given me a ring that was a homing beacon at one time, and two, I, uh, kind of got a little romantically entangled with her. Or would have."
"What are you going to do about it? Are you going to involve the police?" Eugene queried.
"I think I will, because the break-in happened to Jack and Joanne's store, and it's not my property. Plus, I'm done chasing this sort of thing. I retired. I think I'll let Detective Polehaus handle it." Jason replied, whipping his phone out of his pocket. He quickly found the detective's name and hit "call".