Look Closely - Laura Caldwell [87]
“Well, keep calling the number and all,” she said, “but you’ve got to concentrate on work, too. You’ve got partnership elections coming up.”
“I know.” I picked up one of Maddy’s rings, spinning it around my index finger, thinking about my niece, about how she said her dad was in Orleans.
As Maddy came back into the room with my aspirin and a glass of water, I went to put the ring back on the nightstand, but for the first time, I really looked at it. It wasn’t one of Maddy’s after all. It was a man’s ring. I raised it closer, and I felt that pounding of blood in my ears again.
The ring was gold and oval, with the shape of a black diamond on its face.
“Hailey,” I heard Maddy say, but I couldn’t look at her. I kept staring at the ring, and I saw it in my memory, resting on my mother’s blue shoulder, while she stood at the door. The hand gripped her shoulder tighter, the man who wore it murmured something to her. My mother swayed, pitched sideways. The man caught her, the back of his dark hair bending over her.
“What’s up?” Maddy said.
“Where did you get this?’
“It’s Grant’s.”
“What? Are you sure?” I turned it around and around in my hand.
“Of course. He took a shower before he left, and he forgot it. Why? What’s wrong?”
“Maddy, this is the ring,” I said, ignoring the water and aspirin she was still holding.
“What ring?”
“That ring I saw on my mom’s shoulder. Remember, I told you?” I was talking fast. “That night before she died, she had on the blue suit. She was talking to a man at the door, and he had a ring on just like this.”
Maddy sighed and put the glass down on her nightstand. “Girl, you are getting way too into this.”
“No, I’m serious. It was exactly like this.”
“Well, so what?” She took the ring out of my hand. “This ring could be any man’s. It’s not that complicated.”
“But that’s exactly like the ring I saw. This could be the same one.”
She sighed again. “Seriously, you’ve got to take a step back. I mean, c’mon, you’re getting paranoid.”
“Maybe.” I had only been a kid, after all and I’d been yards away from my mom. I took the ring from Maddy’s hand and held it close to my face. The gold back, the black diamond design—it was exactly how I remembered. In the center, there were four little etches, facing out, details I couldn’t have seen that night because of the distance.
“I think this could be it,” I said again. “Where did Grant get it?”
“Honey, please. You’ve got to take some time off.”
“I can’t.”
“You have to.” She reached over and squeezed my hand. “Hailey…”
I groaned. “I guess I am going crazy.”
“Just a little.” She took the ring and sat on her bed. “Listen, I think I know what this is about. I haven’t been around as much since I’ve been dating Grant, and I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s not that. I want you to be happy, I want you to spend time with Grant. I’d like to meet him for once.”
Maddy laughed. “That’s fair. Look, I’ll find out when he’ll be back in town. The three of us will go out, we’ll give him his ring, and you can see for yourself. You can get to know him. How does that sound?”
She flipped her wet hair over her shoulder, her face full of hope. She was probably right about me being paranoid. And I owed her—she’d always been there for me.
I nodded, and tried not to look at the ring as Maddy set it back on her nightstand.
On Monday morning, Lev Werner, the head of the partnership-election committee, stuck his shiny bald head in my office just as I was about to dial that New Orleans phone number again. I’d tried it at least five times that morning. Still no answer. I had even called one of my investigators and told him to find out who’s number it was, the address it was associated with, anything.
“Hailey,” Lev said, “got a second?” There was no mistaking his businesslike tone, making it clear that even if I didn’t have a second, I had better make one.
“Of course.” I put the phone back in the cradle and