“Are you sure you want to rush out of here?” Sharon asked, not for the first time this afternoon.
Lauren nodded as they walked up the front walk together. The acrid stench of smoke filled the air, reminding her of everything painful. “I’m sure. And I’m not rushing. If anything, I gave everything and everyone here plenty of chances. It’s past time for me to leave.”
Using her key, Lauren unlocked the front door and stepped back, letting Sharon precede her inside.
“Lauren, is that you?” Jason called out to her.
“Yes. I’m here with Sharon.”
“You’re never going to believe what I found.”
Lauren glanced at Sharon.
“Any clue?” her friend asked.
Lauren shook her head. “Not one. Let’s go find out.”
Lauren hadn’t been in the bedroom since last night and she wasn’t thrilled about going in there now.
Turned out she didn’t have to. Jason met her in the hall, the cat under one arm and what looked like a black velvet pouch in his other.
“What’s going on?” Sharon asked.
“That’s what I’d like to know!” Lauren said.
“Let’s go somewhere where it doesn’t smell so bad.” Jason handed Trouble to her and they followed him back down the hall.
“I couldn’t find the cat,” Jason said as soon as they were in the kitchen. “Last time I saw him he was stalking mice, but he was nowhere to be found. Of course he was in the last place I checked.”
“The bedroom.” Lauren placed Trouble on the kitchen floor.
“Actually your grandmother’s office. But he escaped on me again and I just recaptured him in the bedroom. Anyway, the mice had apparently been nesting in the office fireplace.”
“Thank God we didn’t light a fire in there!”
“You’re telling me.” Jason laughed. “Look what the mice had stashed in there.” He held up the jewelry pouch. “Trouble here found it when he was sniffing after the rodents.”
Lauren shuddered. She might have spent one night alone with the mice but she hadn’t grown to like them.
Jason opened the threadbare pouch and poured a handful of diamonds onto the kitchen table.
“Are they real?” Sharon asked, leaning closer for a better look.
“They’d have to be appraised to know for sure,” Jason said.
Lauren couldn’t tear her gaze from the diamonds. “Tell me where you found them again?” she asked.
“Inside the fireplace,” Jason said. “What’s wrong?”
“In the hearth! Of the house!” Lauren cried, pieces of an old family puzzle suddenly coming together.
“I’m confused,” Sharon said.
“Hang on and you won’t be.” Lauren’s heart pumped in excitement. “I found an old diary in my grandmother’s night table. We think that’s what my sister was looking for when she came back here.” She glanced at Jason. “Remember the diary mentioned an offering. And then it said something about the heart of the house. Maybe it really read the hearth of the house! Don’t you see? Those diamonds are the offering my ancestors used to place the curse!”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
LOUD BANGING woke Jason. He tumbled out of bed, his head pounding as if a freight train was rolling through it. Why did he have a hangover the likes of which he never wanted to experience again?