The Mission Inn-possible Cozy Mysteries Box Set: Books 1-3 by Rosie A. Point

Author:Rosie A. Point
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-05-21T22:00:00+00:00

15

“There’s blood on it,” Lauren said, skin whitening around the mouth.

“Yes, dear, there’s blood on the ring.” Gamma patted her employee on the arm. “But do you think it’s a man’s ring or a woman’s?”

“I—I—”

“Give her a minute,” I said, between chews of my strawberry cupcake. I wasn’t excited for the Valentine’s Day Festival tomorrow, but man, Lauren sure knew how to bake a tempting cupcake.

“We don’t have that many minutes.” Gamma pursed her lips.

We couldn’t be sure when Brian would make an appearance—Gamma had given him a task in the greenhouse, but he liked to pop up at the most inopportune times. “It’s OK, Lauren. Just pretend the red stuff is rust or whatever.”

“Are you going to give it to Detective Crowley?” Lauren asked.

I shrugged. “Sure.”

“At some point in the future. But first, we wanted to get your opinion on this. You know, the police seem to believe that I’m the one who killed Hannah, but this ring isn’t mine and it was at the crime scene. If you can positively identify it for me as either a man’s or a woman’s, well, that would be a great help.”

“I need a glass of water.”

“I’ll get it.” I scooched out of my chair, spraying crumbs everywhere. What a waste. And just extra work for me to clean up. I poured Lauren a glass of ice-cold water.

Lauren down the water and set the glass aside. She picked up the plastic bag and held it in shaking fingers. “It looks like a man’s ring. See? The thickness of the band. It has a jewel in it, though, a garnet.”

“Garnet? That’s not a very expensive stone, is it?”

“No. People usually wear them if it’s their birthstone.”

I whipped out my phone and looked up the month that coincided with garnet as a birthstone. “January,” I said. “Someone born in January.”

“Wonderful,” Gamma said. “Now, all we have to do is find out every Gossip resident’s birthday.”

“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit,” I said.

“I wasn’t feeling particularly witty, Charlotte. What else do you see, Lauren? Anything important?”

Lauren turned the ring over and pressed the plastic flat to better make out its details. “Here, look at this,” she said, holding it out. She gestured along the inner ridge of the ring with her pinkie finger. “There’s an engraving. It looks like initials, but the mental is too tarnished to make out what they are.”

“Shoot,” I muttered.

“But that does tell you that whoever wore this ring, wore it a lot. Maybe every day.” Lauren put the plastic bag down and wiped her hands on her apron, grimacing. “That’s all.”

“Thank you,” Gamma said.

I got Lauren one of her cupcakes and snagged another one for myself. We both ate, but Lauren picked at hers rather than taking whole bites. Very unlike her. She loved baking and she loved eating.

“Are you all right?” I asked. “Did the ring freak you out that much?” Gamma had already taken it off the table and into her pocket. I struggled to be in a bad mood about what we’d found.

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