Fractured Past by Emily VanderBent

Author:Emily VanderBent [VANDERBENT, EMILY]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9798885040372
Publisher: Emily VanderBent
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

16

FEATHER AND INK

Adelaide walked into the room where the auction would be held. Intricate windows, interlaced with metal framework, spanned the length of an entire wall, flooding the room in midday light. It danced off the crystal chandeliers overhead, sending flecks of tiny rainbows around the room. The rest of the space was dark wood and bright gold, which shone like sunrays when the light glanced off the gilded surface. Though a fresh coat of polish covered the worn floorboards, she could almost hear the scrape of shoes wearing grooves into the wood from years of noblemen twirling women of prestige around the dance floor in a flurry of colored skirts.

She scanned the ballroom for Charlie’s champagne curls, but they weren’t yet among the few people gathered to help set up for the event. Adelaide recognized a few faces from the gala, but none enough to recall a name or approach them. Everyone bustled about, arranging elaborate bouquets and hanging banners that sported the name and logo of Harvard’s Center for Marine Biology. A woman on a makeshift stage tested the microphone as a few other volunteers placed the last few chairs in the rows that faced it.

Colden sat in the last row. He leaned back in his chair, one foot propped on his knee as he flipped the pages of a newspaper. Adelaide rounded the end of the aisle and plopped down in the seat beside him. “This seat taken?”

“Anson, just the woman I need,” Colden said, the blunt end of a pencil gripped between his teeth in thought. “What’s a five-letter word for stealthy kleptomaniac?”

“Thief,” Adelaide responded, after some thought.

Colden chuckled to himself as he penciled thief in the boxes for five across. “Bet the crossword team got a kick out of that one after last night.”

Adelaide quirked her head, propping her arm on the back of her seat as she turned toward him. “What do you mean?”

Colden shifted the paper so she could see the front page. Adelaide was just starting to comprehend the headline when he said, “Holyrood was broken into last night.”

Adelaide’s heart squeezed with tension as she gripped the paper and scanned the article. “What did they take?”

Colden shook his head, his eyebrows scrunched in perplexation. “That’s the thing. Security did a full sweep when the breech was discovered. Nothing’s missing. Guess the thief got scared off before he could nab anything.”

“Guess so...” Adelaide knew the history of Holyrood wasn’t the only rich part of the estate. Between the portraits on the walls and jewels throughout the rooms, enough items of value would fetch millions on the black market with the right buyer. If they had already broken in, it would have taken mere seconds to smash a glass case and pocket the item inside. What kind of thief breaks in but doesn’t steal? “Do they know who did it?”

“Not a clue,” Colden folded the paper and set it on the seat beside him. “The article says the investigation is still underway, but it doesn’t sound like they’re hopeful they’ll find anything.

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