ALL THAT GLITTERS, chapter 1

chapter 25

Chapter 25

Sunlight in her eyes and the aroma of coffee brewing gave Lucky a moment of feeling safe, as she rolled over and turned off the insistent ring of her cell phone’s alarm. She saw Roger’s sleeping form a few feet away, and smiled.

Then all the rest of the situation came rolling back at her, and she struggled out of the tangled afghans on the sofa and ran her hands through her hair. So much to do – first a toothbrush, then coffee, then lists, and there was something she knew she’d forgotten yesterday. Something about her mother’s computer. And maybe another thing, too, about her dad’s. Oh, the magnetic strips in the money bag, that was it.

She tiptoed across the living area and exchanged blown kisses with Michelle, who was setting out mugs and watching a steaming pot while also texting.

“How can you be so awake already?” Lucky whispered to her friend.

Michelle shook her head, a faint smile in place. “I didn’t drive up from Boston early yesterday, you know. Don’t worry about it. Anyway, your brother’s been texting me on and off for the past half hour. Go wash your face and I’ll catch you up on what he’s been sending.”

When Lucky returned to the kitchen area, she found Michelle draining a dozen boiled eggs, and Sandy and Terry fixing coffee.

“Jon’s still asleep?”

“No, he’s gone up to the hospital. The roads are pretty clear, and Jake wanted coverage there for an hour or so, so he could come down here for clothes and stuff. He’ll be here in another ten minutes, I think.”

“Is that all he was texting about?” Lucky rubbed her eyes and accepted a cup of coffee with cream.

“Not exactly. He says a state police officer is hanging out at the hospital, asking questions. The nurses won’t let your dad be questioned until a doctor’s seen him today, so your mother got woken up to answer things, and Jake says she’ll probably be down here around ten o’clock, after the doctor talks with them.”

“Makes sense.” Lucky closed her eyes for a moment, letting the coffee warm here and wake her a bit more. “Michelle, when you were in my mom’s office last night, was the computer on or off?”

Michelle paused. “I don’t know for sure. The screen was dark, but it could still have been on, in sleep mode, right? Why?”

“Sean,” Lucky said grimly. She saw understanding on Sandy and Terry’s faces. “We don’t know when he got there, right? What if he got into her shipping files?”

Sandy asked, “Didn’t you say you were going to set up a LAN, to connect your mom’s computer to yours? Can we check from here?”

“I never got around to it, between Sean and the police and all. I’ll do it after we all talk with Jake.”

Nodding, Sandy added, “And what about the pigeons? Are we going to set a trap for whoever is feeding them?”

“It’s probably Sean who was feeding them,” Lucky admitted. “It explains why birdseed keeps turning up wherever he’s been. So there won’t be anyone to trap today, as long as the police hold him. But I think we’ve got to investigate Sean’s father. That seemed like the one part that really scared him, and maybe that’s who’s been threatening my dad.”

From the rug by the front door, where he was now sitting up, Roger disagreed. “Whoever keeps calling your dad is into things on paper. And politics. That can’t be Sean’s dad. I was out there once, when we were all in grade school, and Sean’s dad is just your basic chicken farmer. Doesn’t talk much, is either in the barn or fixing some machinery or, you know. Farming.”