Page 200 of The Defiant Curse

“Gabby, I can spot a heart in the wild. Again, we determined that I know my shapes. That shouldn’t shock you. I do have kids who draw pictures.”

She giggled.

“Not what I meant, but I’m sure you can. If that’s what she was talking about, how do we find it?”

She was curious.

“Anyone see it in paintings after she died? Or maybe with her sister? Since she picked up the fake-wife duties after her sister’s death? Or did it disappear when she did?”

Gabby considered it.

“I don’t remember seeing it in any pictures, or with her sister,” she admitted. “If this was Ceit’s portrait, originally, and she’s wearing it with her finest things, it would seem her sister would do the same.”

Finn agreed.

“Same, Lass. Why do you ask, Elizabeth?”

Elizabeth was thinking all of this out, and she had a sneaking suspicion she knew where it had gone.

“Well, then, what if her greedy father took it before he killed her, or after? You mentioned that he needed the money, and that’s why he married his daughter off to Duncan. I’m sure jewelry would bring in cash. If he was willing to kill his own daughter, I doubt he’d scoff at stealing from her, too.”

That was feasible.

Gabby was curious.

“Who gave it to her?” she asked. “Because Duncan wasn’t into the ladies, and I doubt he’d spend that kind of dough back then on that necklace. If he wasn’t the giver, and her father was hard up for cash…”

That was a damn good question.

“Did you find it with her body?” Elizabeth asked. “When you dug her up?”

They shook their heads.

“No. She was in the dirt without it. Her casket rotted, so she would have been with the necklace if she was buried with it, right?” Michael asked. “I’m not into forensics, but that seems logical that metal doesn’t disintegrate. Then again, I got my GED and went into the military right out of the orphanage.”

Elizabeth knew that meant one thing.

It had to be taken.

But by whom?

Like any investigator, she began going back over the possible suspects.

“Did you find it with Oison? You said he was killed by his other daughter, so that means it can only be a few places. Oison, Ceit, or Cathrine. I don’t think Duncan would want it. She wasn’t his love.”

That was very true.

Finn was honest.

“We didn’t really look in the box with his skeleton. We found him, nailed the lid back on, and then dug a hole on the property to calm the ghosts down and get it out of here. Tony got the skull scans before we did all that, but then we dumped Oison in a grave so he wouldn’t haunt the house. We didn’t take his bones out or any of the scraps of material that were on them.”

She was considering it.

It seemed that they had to follow this lead—no matter where it led.

“Well, then, I think we know what we need to do,” she admitted. “Tomorrow, we have to dig up his remains and look inside the box. We’re going grave robbing.”

Which was ironic because the last person she chased had been doing the same—sort of.