“What happened?” I asked.
“The cleaners found something.” His eyes dropped to the small plastic bag in his hand. “It was wedged behind the booth. They nearly missed it.”
A gold ring lay inside the bag.
He held it out but didn’t release it when I reached for it.
“I’m sorry about last night,” he said. “I should’ve checked the cameras. And after seeing this…” He swallowed. “I think you need to see this.”
Then he let go.
A gold ring lay inside the bag.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
It belonged to my mother.
The thin band was scratched near the setting. Three tiny diamonds surrounded a pale blue stone, and one of the gold prongs bent slightly inward.
I knew every imperfection. I had stared at photographs of that ring until the image followed me into my dreams.
It belonged to my mother.
She had worn it every day for twenty-three years. She slept in it, showered in it, even kneaded bread with it on. After she disappeared, we found her purse, clothes, and jewelry untouched at home.
Only the ring was gone.
Of course he remembered.
“You recognize it,” Jett whispered.
I nodded. Of course he remembered. I had shown its photograph to every coworker, begging them to tell me if they ever saw it.
My fingers closed around the bag.
The couple had possessed the one thing my mother still had when she vanished.
Whatever they had done to her, they knew where she was.
Jett unlocked his office and pulled up the security footage without another word.
“She didn’t even notice.”
We watched the couple finish their meal. At first, nothing seemed unusual beyond the man’s constant glances at his phone. Then the woman reached into her purse, searching for something. As she withdrew her hand, a small object caught briefly on the clasp.
My mother’s ring dropped onto the seat.
It rolled into the narrow gap between the cu
shion and the wall, disappearing from view.
“She didn’t even notice,” Jett murmured.
A minute later, the man’s phone lit up. He answered, listened, and went rigid. Whatever he heard drained the color from his face. He turned the screen toward the woman.
“They weren’t running from the check.”
Her hand flew to her mouth.
They stood so quickly that the woman knocked her chair sideways. The man seized her coat and purse, and they hurried toward the entrance without looking at the bill.
