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“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Frost. May I carry your bags for you?”
“No, we’ll be fine, thank you.” I move toward the elevator. “Howard, has anyone been to the penthouse?”
“No one other than Miss Blanchard,” he announces before pushing the elevator button for us.
“Okay, thank you.” Once inside, I insert my key, which allows access to my penthouse.
“Who’s Miss Blanchard?”
“My best friend since childhood. She’s the only person who can access the penthouse without me being here.”
The elevator doors open to my spotlessly clean living quarters. “Where’s the crystal?”
“Back here.” I lead him to my bedroom and the box that’s kept it safe since I can remember. To my surprise, the box is empty, and the crystal is gone.
“Piper?”
“Emma,” I whisper. Looking around the apartment, nothing else is out of place. “Maybe whoever took the crystal took her too?”
“Piper, how well do you know Emma?”
“She’s been my best friend since childhood. Her mother was one of my nannies. We grew up together. She knows everything about me.”
“What do you know about her?”
“She works as a lawyer downtown. She’s…she’s never dated anyone longer than three weeks and…” I can’t think of anything to add. I have to know my best friend better than that, don’t I? Oh, my God. Am I so selfish that I know nothing about her?
“Is there a chance she could know what you are?”
I look around the penthouse, confused. “I don’t even know what I am.”
He takes my shoulders into his hands. “Piper, I need you to think. Did Emma ever pay unusual attention to the stone?”
My mind flashes back to the day I left. “She touched the case the day I left. But other than that, not that I remember.”
He turns toward the empty case, shining a flashlight around all sides. “There are fingerprints.” He pulls out his phone, takes a picture of the fingerprint, and scans it into an app. “Alex will find out who they belong to.” He looks around. “Is there anything else that’s been disturbed?”
“The clock.”
“What clock?”
I rush to the space where the clock always sits. It’s been moved, and the back has been pried off. “This was handed down through my mother’s family, or so I thought.”
“What was in the back?” he asks, pulling the clock closer.
“I have no idea. Clock guts?”
“Piper, call Emma.”
“What am I going to say? Hey, did you, by any chance, take the priceless crystal from my penthouse?”
“That’s a good start.” He smirks.
“I can’t say that!”
“She doesn’t know you’re back in town. As far as she knows, you’re still in Norway. Use that to your advantage.”
“I’m a horrible actress,” I argue.
