Time Thieves Read online

  Chapter 6

  It was ludicrous, and still she couldn’t get the idea out of her mind.

  Should she try it now or wait for the anniversary day? No. She needed to wait.

  She stared at the markings that were so much clearer on this timepiece. She grabbed her notepad and camera and took a series of close up shots for her computer. She wanted to research the markings to see if there were any language or meanings she could find. They had to mean something.

  The phone rang. She groaned, not wanting to leave what she was doing. Her mother. She ignored the call, hoping she’d give up. After fifteen rings, she finally did. Sari glanced at her voicemail, playing the recording. Her mother’s voice was disturbingly high-pitched. “Call me. Something odd has happened. I know you’re there. Please call me.”

  Shit. Something was wrong. Her mother never said please.

  Sari dialed, waiting impatiently for her mother to pick up. Nothing. Sari dialed again, this time fear making it hard to punch the right buttons. Thankfully her mother answered. “Mom, what’s the matter?”

  “We had a break-in. I’m okay, just a little nervous. The police have just left. Boris is staying to keep me company.”

  Boris? Sari didn’t want to know. “Did they take anything?”

  “I don’t know. I tried to take a close look, but it’s so hard. They were in my bedroom. My bedroom.”

  Sari could almost see her mother’s delicate shudders. This time, she was in full agreement. “I’m so sorry, Mom. I had one a couple of days ago and know exactly how you feel.”

  “What?” her mother shrieked. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I didn’t want to worry you. I’m getting a new security system installed, and that should deter anyone else looking for quick cash.”

  “That’s terrible.” Her mother’s voice was outraged. “Both of us in the span of a couple of days? How unbelievable.”

  Yeah, a little too unbelievable. It was a big coincidence, something Sari had a hard time believing in anyway. Surely the two break-ins couldn’t be connected. “Mom, any idea if they were looking for anything specific?”

  “The police asked the same thing. I don’t know. Of all the rooms in this house, why my bedroom?”

  “What do you keep there?”

  “Nothing expensive. My clothes and a few personal trinkets from your father. Everything valuable is in the safe, you know that.”

  “Obviously the intruders didn’t, though.” But her mind had glommed onto the personal trinket comment. Since when did her mother have anything personal of her father’s? And if she had, why keep them a secret from Sari?

  “Harrumph. I don’t like it, I can tell you. I feel violated. And I have a security system.” She sniffed. “Little good that did.”

  “Did it not go off?”

  “They cut the wires or something like that. Disabled it, I think the police said. Now I’ll have to get that fixed, too.”

  Sari couldn’t shake the idea that was hammering away in the back of her mind. “What kind of trinkets from Dad do you have, and did they take any?”

  “I never checked. Why would I – it’s not like they are worth anything. Your father never had any money to spend on the good stuff.” There was that born with money, raised with money, and with the exception of the years she lived with Sari’s father, lived with money snobbery.

  “No, but he had the house, Mom. It’s not like he had nothing. Many people have so much less.” Sari rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Could you check to see if any of those trinkets are missing, please?” She waited a moment for her mother to sigh heavily. “And how come I don’t know anything about them?”

  “Because you are too obsessed as it is about your father’s disappearance, that’s why. I didn’t want to show you anything that would set you off on another of your rampages.”

  Rampages? Sari rolled her eyes. She dared any other child to have experienced what she’d gone through and not be obsessed. But there’s no way she’d gone on any rampages. Trust her mother to exaggerate.

  “I’m looking now. I don’t know that the thieves would have even gotten to this drawer. I’m sure they were looking for cash or jewelry or electronics.”

  “Maybe, but one never knows these days what people are thinking. They might have known about Dad.”

  “So what if they did? Your dad was a jewelry repairman, and that’s all he was.”

  “He was so much more, Mom.” The waspish tone of voice set Sari’s back up. “I’m sorry you weren’t happy with him, but he was a good man.”

  “Well, he’s been gone a long time, so whatever he was no longer matters.”

  But it does, the small child who’d watched him disappear cried out. He matters. Sari knew the old echo wouldn’t be well received by her mother. Lisbeth had moved on, and that’s what she wanted Sari to do.

  And Sari would, as soon as she found out what happened to her father.

  “I can’t see anything missing. There was only an old ring of his, and his first watch that he got from his great-grandfather.”

  “A watch?” Sari hopped to her feet and stormed around the small room. “He left you a watch?” Her heart threatened to jump out of her throat. Why was she just hearing about his now? “Do you still have it?”

  “I just said so, didn’t I?” Lisbeth snapped. “Besides, they wouldn’t have found it anyway – it was under an old set of books of his. I’m sure they weren’t anything of interest.”

  “What kind of books?” Sari marched over to the bookshelf in the shop. The top shelf was only three quarters full. She’d often wondered if more had belonged there. In her memories, the bookshelf was stuffed full.

  “They were books from his great-grandfather. The only reason I took them was he told me they were very valuable.” She snorted. “I had them appraised when we first arrived in France. Worthless. They are all worthless. Like everything else he had.”

  Oh good Lord. Sari closed her eyes against her mother’s mercenary streak. Her mother was so wrong.

  “Then if they are worthless, can I have them?” Sari held her breath. Her mother had a crafty mind. She wasn’t the most open and generous soul around when it came to something you really wanted. If it was money, now that she handed over in buckets. But something sentimental, as if understanding it was worth so much more…you were so not going to get it.

  “Why?”

  This was the tricky part. “I’d like to keep his stuff all together. I just put everything on the one wall in the shop. It’s behind glass so I don’t have to dust it.”

  She winced. It was also behind glass so she could lock it up. Not that a thief wouldn’t be happy to break glass to get at it. “The books should join his other books. Who knows, maybe someone will need them one day.”

  Lisbeth sniffed again. “I suppose. At least it’s one less thing for me to cart around. Don’t be thinking they have any value though. I told you they were assessed.”

  “That’s fine. I don’t care.”

  Her mother grudgingly agreed. “Fine, then. But you’ll have to come home to pick them up.”

  Sari rolled her eyes. Of course she would. “I might be in England next week.” She mentally calculated the time she had at the end of her trip as to how she could swing home and get her father’s stuff. In truth, she wanted to rush across the ocean today and get it. She couldn’t believe her mother had been keeping this from her all these years. When she went home this time, she’d make her mother hand over everything.

  It could very likely be what the thieves had wanted after all.

  *

  Ward drove up to Sari’s house and parked in the driveway. He got out and walked to the front of the house, staring up at the new window. From where he stood, there was no way anyone could have known that small room had existed. Now with the window already in place, he had a hard time imagining it had never been there.

  As he stood there, Sari opened the front door. “Admiring my new window?”

&nbsp
; “And roof.”

  She smiled and joined him on the front lawn, turning to look up at the front of the house. “It looks good, doesn’t it?”

  “Yup. Find anything of value in the attic?”

  She shook her head and led the way back inside. “Not really. There appears to be old clothes and belongings from people long gone. I’m hoping to trace some of them and learn more about my family history, but they didn’t leave much behind.”

  “If you have anything recent, I might be able to run them at the office. Of course, if they’ve never had any run-ins with the law, nothing is liable to pop.”

  “True, but it would be a place to start. Some of the stuff appears to be quite old. Maybe fifty years. It’s hard to say at this point. I’ve only gone through one pile of stuff. A tall male is about all I know.” She grinned. “I doubt there’s a database for that, huh?”

  “Only if he’s missing, then we have a height and weight description along with any other discerning marks.”

  “Hmmm, but how far back? Computers have only been around for what – fifteen, twenty years?”

  “Some of the other material is in microfiche, and some of it is in files.”

  “Actually, the library is probably a good place to look – after the Internet.”

  “And don’t forget to check genealogy sites. They would probably be the best resource.”

  “I’d never thought of that.” She grinned. “This is great. I could learn all kinds of things there.”

  He smiled. God, she was pretty. Then again he was biased, having been smitten for years. And it showed no signs of easing now. “What are you up to today?”

  She glanced at the shop. “I’m leaving for England and France in a few days and have a few pieces to work on, so I’ll be taking them with me.”

  “Jewelry pieces?”

  “In this case, yes.” She smiled. “I’ll be gone for three to four days this time.”

  “Did you get your security system set up in the meantime? After the last break-in, it would be a shame to leave the house wide open for them to have a second try.”

  She winced. “Thanks for the reminder.”

  “Just trying to be careful.”

  “Well, I’m happy to say the security system upgrade is supposed to happen tomorrow.”

  He grinned. “Good.” He hesitated a brief moment. “Are you going to see your mother on this trip?”

  That made her wince. Sari sighed, propping her chin on the palm of one hand. “I hadn’t planned on it, but I just found out that my mother’s house was broken into last night as well. She’s finally told me she has some of my father’s belongings she’s been keeping safe all these years. I’m going to retrieve them.”

  “Valuable?”

  “My father said they were, but she had them appraised and found them to be worthless.”

  “But not to you?”

  Her face softened. “No, not to me. I’m wondering if the books she has of his are the ones from that shelf.” She pointed up to the open space in the bookshelf.

  “Does it matter?”

  She shook her head. “No, not really. It would be just another mystery solved. In my head, I see the bookshelf full from the last time I saw it as a child. When I came back, the shelf was no longer full.”

  “Then it probably is those books.” Ward walked over to take a look at the volumes. “Wow – time travel, time space continuum, timepiece repair. Crossing time.” He turned back to look at her. “Really? He believed in time travel?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know what he believed. I was too young back then to discuss it with him. Now I’d give anything for a day with him.” She sighed. “The things we don’t value until it’s gone.”

  “Except you did value him. And he knew it,” Ward said seriously.

  She smiled, the shadows in her eyes lightening. “Thanks. I hope he did.”

  Chapter 7

  Before he left, Ward helped Sari to haul more boxes from the small attic down to her shop. She’d planned to give away or recycle anything that was of no value, and hopefully she could find something personal to identify those who’d owned the various belongings. She had a family tree somewhere around, but she didn’t think it went back very far. Maybe four generations. She spun around in the shop, wondering where it had last been.

  Her eyes lit on the half empty bookshelf. She needed to get those items back from her mother. Who knew what information her father had deemed valuable? She would have them in a couple of days, but that was too long. Maybe she should have had her mother priority ship them. No, they were too valuable. What if something went wrong and they were lost or damaged?

  In the meantime, she stared at the orderly mess in her shop. Maybe she should have left everything upstairs like Ward had suggested. No, of course she couldn’t do that. It would have been the easy answer.

  Time to get to work. She packed the clothing and other items she wasn’t keeping neatly into boxes, then set them against the back wall to deal with later. Grabbing another box, she opened it up and dug in. This set of belongings all appeared to be from a woman. There were dresses, underclothes, shoes, hair clips, and handkerchiefs, putting the belongings somewhere in the sixties as far she could see. Interesting. This person should be on the family tree then. She continued to go through box after box, but outside of a few trinkets, there were no books, journals, pictures, or any other identifying items. There was a beautiful handheld mirror. It appeared to be real silver, and there were tiny jewels or cut glass pieces inlaid in a delicate pattern around the edge and the front of the handle. On the back in a big ornately carved circle were the initials MH.

  Sari sat back on her heels. MH? Offhand, she couldn’t think of any relative with a name starting with that letter. Not that there were many relatives. Her father had been an only child. His mother had also been an only child. His father had a sister though, who’d died as a young woman. Damn, she couldn’t remember her name, but she’d have lived about the right time. Sari stared down at the mirror.

  This was likely to be her belongings.

  Maybe the parents couldn’t bear to part with them. As Sari surveyed the sad pile, she decided there wasn’t much here to remember a child by. As she repacked the various items of clothing, she searched pockets and creases, looking for anything she might have missed. Still nothing. She shrugged and packed it all away again – except for the mirror.

  The mirror was special. She laid it out on her shop desk and studied it. She had no plans to sell it, not when it was from a family member long gone, but it looked old. Very old.

  Sari realized that although she’d barely started in on the piles of stored belongings, she was already tired. Tea time, then. Maybe she’d recoup enough energy to continue. She wandered into the kitchen and filled the teakettle, and as she waited, she checked her emails. There were several responses she’d been looking for, one from the customer she’d emailed about the necklace and another about a small statue. Good…sales.

  There were several business emails that she took a moment to answer before she clicked on the last one. It was from Brodin, her father’s old friend. She’d kept in touch with him over the years. In fact, he’d been a big help to her and her mom back when her father disappeared. He’d been on the fringe, not quite a friend but also not quite a stranger.

  She read the message. Stopped, leaned forward, and read it again. “Found any interesting watches lately? I hear you came home with a special one from your last trip. Interested, as always.”

  Not possible. How could he have known? Then Sari laughed. The collector’s world was small and if she’d been at the show, chances were good he’d been there too. Maybe not at the same time, but who knew – although she’d like to think he’d have come up and said hi to her.

  She read the short three-sentence message again then started to type out her response. “Not sure how you knew, but I did indeed make an interesting find on my last trip. Too early to tell how interesting,” and she sent it
off. He was also one of the few people to have heard her and her mother’s garbled version of events as he’d come by with the second watch in the set soon after her father disappeared. Her father was supposed to wait for his return so they could compare the two watches. Instead, her father had been so interested he’d taken an early look.

  Lucky for Brodin that he hadn’t been there at the time. Maybe they’d both have disappeared.

  Brodin had given her and her mother both long, disbelieving looks at the time, deciding they were hysterical females, and that her father had finally washed his hands of them. He proceeded to come up with a more factual version.

  Then he’d called the police.

  As she’d grown older, she hadn’t been able to forget his watch had supposedly been one of the matched set. She’d asked him about it early on, but his had been stolen a few years after her father’s disappearance. He’d been looking for it ever since.

  So had she. It was likely her closest link to finding out what happened to her father.

  *

  Four days later, she sat back in her plane seat and waited for the hubbub around her to die down. She’d finished her business in England and should be at her mother’s in time for dinner. She patted her oversized purse in her lap. Business had gone well. Very well, actually. She grinned. In fact, it had gone excellent, if her new purchases turned out to be half as good as she thought they would. Now if only her mother’s visit went half as well.

  After stowing away her bag, she leaned back and closed her eyes. To her surprise, she slept. She came awake at the sound of the Fasten seatbelts signs coming on and the captain’s voice pouring through the cabin.

  She blinked several times to reorient herself. Straightening her seat, she buckled up. Looking out the window, she saw the bright lights below. Sunlight twinkled and caught on the glass surfaces.

  A beautiful sight, and still nothing inside called to her. For her entire life, she’d been trying to get back home. The home she’d grown up in. The home she’d been forced to leave. The home she’d loved.