"I haven't been until today. I came back to pick up some of my things, and Pearl asked me to help out."

Emily was happy to see she had a little more fight in her than before. "Listen, Gabriel, I'm in a big hurry. Donald stole something from me. And uhm... would you help? Please? It was an inheritance of mine."

Gabriel smiled. "Oh, really. He punished me once and kept my bike for a week to make sure I was coming back." She glanced back at the staircase. "Okay, I'll help, but you'd better hurry 'cause Pearl's roaming the place. There's a key in her room. I'll try to get it for you."

The two waited back near the entrance to Schillings' quarters. When footsteps approached, Emily knew something didn't sound right and, sure enough, Pearl stepped around the corner.

"For crying out loud. What're you girls doing here? And why are you hangin' around Mr. Schillings' door?"

"H-he didn't tell you?" Emily said. "He was holding a necklace of mine. Of course he hadn't planned on going to jail. So now I've come to pick it up."

"Well this all sounds fishy to me. Why don't you gals just hi-tail it right out of here." She swung around and headed for the stairs, calling over a shoulder. "Come along, let's hurry it up. I'll walk you to the door so I can make sure it's locked this time. Dumb girl, forgot to lock it, I suppose."

The girls headed back up the hallway and around the corner, although they were lagging behind and Pearl stopped to shoo them ahead. "Stop dallying." She glared at Emily. "Some nerve, coming up here like you own the place."

As they passed Maria's bedroom, Emily leaned to Rose. "When we near that last door by the stairway, I'll run over and open it. You shove her inside. Nathan's got a pair of handcuffs a police officer gave him. We'll cuff her to the bedpost."

"Stop with the gabbing," Pearl snapped from behind. They hadn't quite reached Nathan's bedroom when Gabriel pranced up the stairs, dangling the key. When she saw them, she stopped in her tracks. While Rose and Pearl concentrated on Gabriel's open mouth, Emily rushed to Nathan's door and swung it open. Rose, realizing what was happening, grabbed Pearl, who might've gotten away, except that Gabriel got over her shock and joined in.

Once they had Pearl inside, Emily retrieved the handcuffs, and they pushed her kicking and screaming to the bed where they secured her to the bedpost.

Emily looked up the length of the post that reached at least seven feet. "I wouldn't try scaling that, you could hurt yourself. Anyway you'll be out soon," she said, patting her shoulder.

Pearl wasn't interested in her sympathy and tried to shake her hand off.

"Don't think you're getting away with this!" she called as the girls slipped out into the hallway.

"Here," Gabriel said, handing Emily the key.

"Thanks. Oh, and you mind keeping watch?" Emily said, already starting up the hallway. "We'll be back as quick as we can."

Emily was shocked when they entered Donald's quarters. It had obviously been ransacked. "I heard the police stopped by, but. . . why would they leave such a mess?"

"I think that's what they do," Rose said, looking around. "But mess and all, it's still quite impressive."

"It should be. He spent most of his time up here."

Emily began to look in and under couches, chairs, cabinets, and shelves, while Rose went to search the other rooms.

"Emily, you should see this, a view of the river. He even has a telescope."

"I'll bet it wasn't to look at stars," Emily hollered back.

They went from room to room, and then Emily walked into a closet and looked up. "Rose, come quick, there's an attic."

The attic was hot and dusty. Several small windows brought in enough light for the girls to find light switches. Cabinets and closets lined the walls. All the drawers had been pulled out and gone through. A few had given into the weight and lay upside down on the floor. There were half-empty boxes strewn about, clothes, and odds and ends everywhere.

Emily noticed a closet full of women's clothing, a few hanging, and the rest on the closet floor. Amongst the piles of clothes there were heels, flats, a pair of fluffy slippers, and several pairs of mesh slippers in various colors, the ones Maria described to her.

Throughout the room there were pictures on the floor and some hanging lopsided on the wall. Off in the corner were a couple of old statues and a sewing machine.

Emily moved about, rummaging, reaching over to put some things back in order, not really expecting to find anything now. Then something caught her eye, and she went to the middle of the room and stood with her arms folded, looking up and down the back wall.

"Are you giving up?" Rose asked.

Emily kept looking at the wall, thoughtfully. "Mm?"

Rose shut the dresser drawer she'd been poking through and went to stand beside Emily. "What are you looking at?"

"It's just a hunch, but take a look over there. What do you see?"

Rose looked puzzled.

"Go on, describe what you see."

"Well, I see a plain white wall with probably two-inch wide strips of wood from ceiling to floor, about every two feet or so. And then there's strips of wood from ceiling to floor, about every two feet or so. And then there's those vertical..." She crinkled her nose. "I don't get it."

"I'll show you," Emily said. She picked up a golf club on the way across the room and started hammering at a strip of wood. When it came down and exposed a slit in the wall, Rose picked up another club and joined in. They whacked until the outline of a makeshift door was uncovered.

"How'd you know this was here?" Rose asked.

"Maria told me there used to be an attic opening above her room. I can tell by just looking at the size of this area that we aren't above her bedroom yet. It's on the other side of this wall. Besides, all the other walls were so much different, like a red flag to me."

The girls ran their fingers along the inside of the slits for a latch of some kind.

"I've got it," Rose said. She hooked a finger around a piece of metal and yanked. There was a clicking sound, and then the door slid open.

"Just a bunch of boxes, Emily."

Emily went over and ripped one open, lifted a lid and pulled out a plastic bag filled with powder.

Rose went to look over her shoulder. "What's that? Is it...?"

"Drugs. Exactly what the police were searching for."

Emily recalled Peter's message, saying he'd been here during their search. Then it hit her. "I think I know where it is."

"Where what is?"

room. She headed straight for the closet, picked up the mesh slippers and felt inside.

"Emily, what are you doing?"

"Just wait a minute," she said, deep in thought. Suddenly she dropped the slippers and turned for the exit.

Rose was right behind her. "Now what?"

"I have a feeling that the necklace was here, and when the police were searching the place, someone saw it and took it to my old room."

"Why would someone do that?"

"Not just someone," Emily said, heading down the ladder. "It was Peter, a friend of mine."

By the time they reached her old bedroom, she had finished the story about the dance, and the message she received from Peter while she was in the hospital.

She flung the door open, rushed to the closet, and pulled out the pair of slippers. She tossed the lightest one back, then slipped her hand in the other and brought out the velvet necklace box.

"This is it, Rose. This is my necklace."

She dropped the slipper and opened the lid.

"Oh, Emily, it's beautiful." Rose lifted the necklace and laid it across her hand.

While Rose admired the necklace, Emily saw a tab in the box she hadn't noticed before. She pulled, and out came the velvet lining. Beneath, there was something wrapped in a piece of cloth. Both girls stared in disbelief as Emily uncovered four diamonds.

"So this is what he's after."

Rose picked up one of the diamonds. "Emily. These are real."

"You sure?"

"Look at them. My mother and I go out looking at jewelry just for fun sometimes, and I've seen a couple worth thirty thousand. These are real."

"Rose. I think this is what my aunt was talking about the day I went over in the storm. I'll bet my uncle won these gambling. Oh, poor Grandfather. No wonder he came all the way out here."

Rose handed Emily the diamond. "Uhm. I wouldn't exactly call him poor."

"Yeah, well, I was talking about a different kind of poor." Emily replaced everything and closed the jewelry box. "We'd better go."

They went back into the hallway, over to where Gabriel was patiently waiting. She seemed to be enjoying the curses coming from Pearl.

"Thanks, Gabriel," Emily said as she handed back the key.

"That's okay."

"Say, I heard what happened to your brother. I'm really sorry."

"Thanks. I still can't believe he's gone."

Emily touched her arm. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes. It's still tough, but... actually it looks like Mr. Schillings is going to have to pay my family some money."

"Good. That's real good."

The girls were ready to leave when they heard another round of curses.

"I guess I'll have to call Otto," Gabriel said. "He can let her out. She's supposed to catch a plane tomorrow. Good riddance, I say."

They had a good laugh, and then headed down the stairs, and up the hallway. Gabriel turned into the front office as Emily and Rose left through the front door.

They were about to start down the steps when her grandfather crept out from behind the bushes.

He lifted a gun from out of a cloth sack and pointed it at the case. "Just hand me the box, if you will. You can keep the necklace."

"You'd actually shoot me, Grandfather? I always thought you hated me, but... I'm your own flesh and blood."

She was amazed that even with the gun pointed her way she wasn't completely intimidated by him. He didn't answer her, just wagged the gun.

She moved out of the way. "I-I'm really curious as to why you've waited so long to do something about the diamonds?"

He gave her an odd look.

"I know they're in here." She jiggled the box. "I just found them."

"Oh." He lowered the gun, looking depleted all of a sudden, and then said more to her in just a few moments than he had in all her life. "I was waiting for Francine to die, if you must know. She never would've shared the profits with me. Your uncle Carl would've, but not her. Don't think she ever cared for me, and that's just as well. So now, just hand 'em over and I'll be on my way."

Emily noticed Gabriel coming up behind him. "What're you going to do with the all the money, Grandfather?" she asked. She saw the statue in Gabriel's hand and before she could stop her, she hit him over the head.

He fell in a heap.

Emily handed the case to Rose, hurried down the steps and knelt next to the old man. "You'd better call an ambulance."

Gabriel leaned over him. "He'll be okay. I could've hit him a lot harder. Anyway, the police will be here soon. I was using the phone in the den to call Otto, and when I saw him with the gun, I put in a call to the station. "

Gabriel went in and came back with a pillow for Emily to place under her grandfather's head. She loaded a sack with her supplies onto a bike-rack, waved goodbye, and headed up the road.

By then, the old man was groaning. He opened his eyes and Emily stood and moved back toward the gun that lay in the grass. She watched him sit up, realizing he was in no condition to put up a fight.

"Are you all right?" she asked, stepping closer again. He didn't answer, just stared into the distance.

A few minutes later, a police car drove into the yard. One of the officers picked up the gun. The other went over to Grandfather.

Emily explained what happened.

"Now, are you certain you don't want to press charges?" the officer asked when they were ready to leave.

"No, no, I don't. He was just trying to scare me." She looked down at her grandfather. "Will you have a doctor check him out?"

"We'll stop by the hospital. But we'll still have to talk to him about the gun."

"Oh... and, sir? He drove a rental over, it's probably parked up the road..."

"We'll take care of it, Ma'am."

They helped the old man to his feet, and placed him in the car. When they drove off, Emily looked over at Rose and noticed she was still holding the box.

"He forgot his diamonds. All that trouble and he's still without his diamonds."