9
A VISIT TO THE JEWELRY SHOP
It was early when the girls woke the next morning; the sun's rays were just peeking through Alice's bedroom window. Marie-Grace and Alice hurriedly dressed and ate breakfast, eager to go to town to begin their search.
Just as the two were finishing up their porridge, André, Alice's little sister, asked, "Alice, can you and Marie-Grace take me outside to play?"
Alice sighed. "No, André," she told the little girl. "Marie-Grace and I are busy."
André whimpered. "I want to play," she complained.
"Alice, take your sister outside to play for a few minutes," Aunt Isabelle ordered. She passed a bowel of oatmeal to Gilbert. "It will only be a little while." Marie-Grace's aunt smiled kindly at her. "And you can join them if you like, Marie-Grace."
Marie-Grace nodded enthusiastically. Although she was eager to get to Mr. Gregory's jewelry store so she and Alice could search for Mrs. White's stolen jewelry there, she didn't mind playing with little André for a bit.
In a few minutes Alice, André, and Marie-Grace were outside. André wanted to look for flowers to pick in the woods, so Marie-Grace and Alice watched as the little girl darted between the trees, stooping often to pick daisies, wild roses, daffodils, and fern leaves to put in the bouquet she had created.
"We shouldn't be going back this far in the woods," Alice said nervously.
Marie-Grace agreed. Secretly, she had never forgot the boys' ghost stories about Mr. Davis, or the glimmer of light she'd seen in the cabin, and she felt a bit scared.
"André, we didn't tell Maman we would be going back so far in the woods!" Alice called to her little sister.
The little, carefree girl paid no attention to her older sister, and skipped behind a large tree and disappeared from sight. When she didn't reappear a few moments later, Alice called in a panicked voice, "André!"
She and Marie-Grace ran to the tree, and when they looked behind it they saw Alice a few yards away, skipping deeper into the woods.
"André!" Alice called, but André seemed to be out of earshot from them.
Marie-Grace and Alice continued to follow the girl, and once they thought they had lost her, then spied her again a ways off.
When they finally caught her, Alice took her sister's arm firmly gave it a rough shake. "André, we shouldn't be this far in the woods!" she scolded. "What were you thinking, running off like that? What would Maman say?"
"But look!" André said, blinking her big blue eyes. She held up a large bouquet of beautiful flowers and fern leaves.
"That's pretty," Marie-Grace told her kindly, smiling.
Suddenly Marie-Grace looked up and saw the old Davis cabin close by.
"Oh, my, Alice, look!" Marie-Grace said, pointing. "We're much farther in the woods than I thought!"
Alice looked at the cabin and shrugged, still holding her sister's hand tightly. "Should we take a look at it?" she asked.
Marie-Grace didn't reply, so the three girls walked hesitantly toward the cabin. André whimpered and clutched her bouquet.
Alice suddenly gasped. "There are men inside!" she whispered in a strangled voice. She grabbed Marie-Grace's hand and pulled the three of them close to a tree.
"Why are there men inside the cabin?" Marie-Grace hissed to her cousin.
Alice whispered, "Maybe they're poorly, rough men. We should leave."
They crept slowly away. Marie-Grace glanced back at the cabin once, and she could see the figures of two men through the window. One of the men came quite close to the window, and Marie-Grace was able to make out his dark hair and tall figure.
She wasn't sure why, but the man reminded her of someone; though she couldn't make out his face through the dirty window. The other man was a bit back from the window, but he was obviously much bigger than the dark-haired man, though not much taller.
When they came back to the house, Alice whispered to André, "Don't tell Maman about the men in the cabin."
"Why not?" André asked.
"Because," Alice said, "I think those were rough men. The news would upset Maman—and we had been deep in the woods without her permission, too."
"All right," André agreed reluctantly. She looked down at her flowers and smiled. "I'll give these to Maman!"
"But don't tell her about the men in the cabin!" Alice reminded, putting a finger to her lips.
André shook her head. "I won't." She skipped into the house.
Alice followed after her little sister, but stopped when she got to the door. She glanced over her shoulder and told Marie-Grace, "I'll tell my mother we are going to town. Then we can look in the jewelry shop, and try to get a look at Mr. Anon's boots if we see him!"
She went inside, and was gone for a few minutes.
Marie-Grace waited outside patiently in the cold weather, shivering and stamping her feet to keep warm. I'm sure that tall, dark-haired man reminded me of someone, she thought. The other man was much bigger. I'm glad they didn't see us! They were probably rough men, like Alice said!
Just then Alice came back outside. She announced excitedly, "My mother says we may go to town! But we must return by noon, for the meal."
"All right," Marie-Grace said.
They walked down the path. Alice said, "My mother didn't seem very happy about us going to town. Ever since Mayor Potts's murder, she has been nervous about town. I'm glad she said yes, though. If she said no, we might never get to go to the jewelry store!"
"And Papa and I are only staying a more few weeks, or maybe even just one week," Marie-Grace reminded.
Alice was quiet. Finally she said, "And you've already been here four days."
"We need to find proof that Clancy Bond murdered the mayor and tell the police before I leave," Marie-Grace said. She added, silently, If the murderer is Clancy Bond.
"And we need proof against Mr. Anon, too!" Alice said. "I'm sure he's helping the criminal."
Marie-Grace felt hesitant.
They walked straight to the jewelry shop when they arrived in Cairo. Marie-Grace and Alice saw Mr. Gregory at his jewelry counter, through a window in the shop, before they stepped through the door.
The old man looked at them with a bright smile. "Good morning, girls!" he said.
They said their good-mornings to him, then Alice asked immediately, "Mr. Gregory, have you been sold any jewelry the last few days?" And she described Mrs. White's jewelry, from the newspaper.
Marie-Grace leaned against the counter, putting her elbow near a gold necklace.
Mr. Gregory thought a moment. "I'm not sure," he told them. He scratched the side of his graying head. "I make most of the jewelry in this shop, but sometimes people do sell some old jewels of theirs. I only buy it, though, if it's expensive or rare," he added proudly.
"You don't remember anyone selling you any jewelry?" Alice asked, sounding a little disappointed.
"I don't remember for sure the specific jewelry you mentioned," Mr. Gregory told them. "But," he quickly added, "a dark-haired man came in a few days ago and sold me some jewels."
"Was it the day before yesterday?" Alice asked.
"I don't remember." Mr. Gregory shook his head. "I'm sorry, girls, my memory is poor at my age."
Alice sighed. "Well, thank you, Mr. Gregory." She and Marie-Grace prepared to leave the shop, when Marie-Grace's coat sleeve caught the gold necklace on the counter.
She gasped as it slid off the counter, falling onto the floor.
"Be careful!" Mr. Gregory shouted, and rushed out from behind the counter, taking up the necklace. It had a beautiful ruby stone in the middle, and Marie-Grace was relieved when it appeared to be unbroken.
"I'm so sorry, Mr. Gregory," Marie-Grace apologized.
"Be more careful, next time," he ordered angrily, putting the necklace back on the counter, and beginning to examine it.
Marie-Grace studied the necklace from behind Mr. Gregory's fingers as he slid his hands along the chain, and felt the ruby stone.
Suddenly she gasped. She and Alice were near the door, and Marie-Grace whispered, "Alice, doesn't that necklace look like the one Mrs. White owned, described in the newspaper?"
Alice peered at it, then nodded. "Yes," she said slowly, grinning. She rushed over to Mr. Gregory before Marie-Grace could stop her, and asked, "Mr. Gregory, where did you get that necklace?"
"From the dark-haired man I told you about—" he began. Then his eyes grew big and he clamped his mouth shut.
"I thought you said your memory was poor," Marie-Grace accused, coming to stand by her cousin.
"Well, I remembered him," Mr. Gregory muttered under his breath.
"What was so different about his that you remembered?" Alice inquired suspiciously.
Mr. Gregory hesitated, then finally said, "He was quite tall." Then he ordered brusquely, "Now go outside, girls! I have to tend to this necklace."
The girls hurried outside. As soon as they were through the door, Marie-Grace stated, "I'm sure that's Mrs. White's necklace!"
"And Mr. Gregory seems to know something about it," Alice agreed. Her eyes widened. "Do you think he knows it was stolen?"
A new idea came to Marie-Grace. "What is he's helping the criminal!" she cried.
"No." Alice shook her head. "Mr. Gregory is grouchy sometimes, when it comes to his jewelry, but he wouldn't steal from an old woman or murder anyone."
"He seemed to know something about that necklace," Marie-Grace murmured again.
"And the dark-haired man was the one who sold it to him." She grinned. "Mr. Anon is dark-haired. I bet it's him!"
"Many people are dark-haired!" Marie-Grace protested.
"And he's tall," Alice went on. She stopped walking down the street, away from the jewelry shop, and froze rigidly. "There he is!" she cried.
Mr. Anon was walking down the street casually, wearing his black-polished boots.
"I can't see if the toes are pointed," Marie-Grace whispered.
"Let's go toward him," Alice suggested.
The girls walked slowly toward Mr. Anon, and the dark-haired man glanced suspiciously at them before the girls ran off in the opposite direction.
"He didn't have pointed toes on his shoes!" Marie-Grace gasped out, when they were out of his hearing. She was breathless from running.
"I'm sure he . . . changed his shoes," Alice panted. "I still think it's him."
Marie-Grace glanced down the street. "Look!" she said. "He is headed to the bank."
"Let's see what he's doing," Alice suggested.
They came a bit closer, then leaned against a shop and watched as Mr. Anon studied the bank, just as he had been doing on the day the crowd had been there about Mayor Potts, Marie-Grace realized.
Then he glanced down at the bush beside the backdoor.
"He's looking at the bush!" Alice cried excitedly. "He's probably making sure there is no evidence that he and Clancy Bond were there."
"But can't he see the string?" Marie-Grace asked.
Alice shook her head. "Probably not. Maybe it's not there anymore. You left it; maybe the police found it."
Marie-Grace sighed, frustrated. "We still don't have any real proof against Mr. Anon!" She suddenly realized that all of her earlier doubt about whether he was helping Clancy Bond or not was gone. She was certain of it now.
"We'll just have to think of something." Alice sighed, too.
The girls stood quietly for a moment, lost in their thoughts.
Marie-Grace glanced back at Mr. Anon again, but he was gone. Instead she saw Mr. Stevens walking along the bank. Marie-Grace realized she hadn't talked to the boat pilot since she'd been on the Liberty, and he hadn't visited her or Papa. Marie-Grace felt a bit hurt by this.
Alice looked up at the sky and squinted her eyes. "We should go home now. I think it's noon."
Marie-Grace followed her cousin as they walked away down the street of Cairo.