“When did you look inside?”
“Sunday morning. After I heard the news. I knew he wasn’t coming back for it.” She hung her head. “Two years together—that’s a long time. Enough that he trusted me with that bundle. I had to see what it was, because I didn’t know if it was something that would get me killed too. When I saw it was his mom’s ring, I figured he bought it out of hock. I know it was wrong of me to put it on and act like we were engaged, but he wouldn’t have asked me to keep it for him unless maybe he thought that one day he really would give it to me.”
“Why did you leave when I asked for your name?”
“You were asking too many questions. I thought you somehow knew the ring wasn’t mine to wear and I didn’t want to get in trouble with Blitz’s family.”
“So when the Cannons were robbed on Monday, you talked to the police.”
“I had to. They thought the robbery on Monday was the first one. I was the only person who could tell them that the ring had been hocked sometime last week. I told them when I saw the ring at the pawnshop, and I told them that I told Blitz. I gave the ring back to Mrs. Cannon on Wednesday.”
“That’s why you acted so funny when I asked about it at the memorial.”
“I didn’t tell them that I wore it for a few days. Nobody knows that but you and me.”
I bit at my lower lip. “Amy, there’s just one thing I don’t understand. Why did you come to my store on Sunday?” If everything Amy was telling me was true—and it did have a note of authenticity to it—then showing up with her torn costume while wearing Blitz’s mother’s ring was a pretty dumb move.
“Gina wanted me to donate our costumes to Candy Girls. After she helped Blitz cheat on me, I wanted to make her mad. I knew it would drive her crazy if I sold it to you.”
I thanked Amy for talking to me and drove home. Back at Disguise DeLimit, I changed out of the security officer uniform and into my alien-printed pajamas. I sat at the kitchen table, staring at my clues. Piece of plaid fabric. Empty can of black hair spray. Twenty thousand dollars. And now Ebony’s medallion. Four things that told the story of who murdered Blitz Manners—or rather, who didn’t. Amy’s story explained away the hair spray and the fabric. They implicated her in the vandalism, but not the murder. I separated them from the money and the medallion so I wouldn’t consider them evidence. Amy had also said that Blitz got the ring out of hock on Friday. But the supposed robbery hadn’t taken place until Monday. Maybe I’d been right about someone had been stealing from Linda Manners all along.
I added a piece of paper to the table and wrote Columbo trench coat along the bottom. It was a clue that would have pointed the finger at Grady if I had it, but I didn’t. It had been incinerated along with everything else that came out of the fire hall after the party. That cleanup crew had made sure the crime scene could never be revisited.
I picked up the chain of the medallion and let it dangle from my fingertips. What had Willow called it? A talisman. Something that Ebony wore to give her strength. I didn’t have a talisman. I changed my accessories and my overall look the way most people changed nail polish. If it was true that a person’s identity could be gleaned from their personal style, then I was a lost cause. I put on and shed identities of fictional characters because they were easier to adopt than to look inside myself and identify what made me who I was. And here, it was Ebony’s talisman that poked a hole in the story that the pawnbroker had told the police.
I called Detective Nichols. “This is Margo Tamblyn. I have some new evidence in the Blitz Manners murder case.”
“Why does that not surprise me?” she said. “What do you have?”
“Ebony Welles’s necklace. She wore it all day on Tuesday when we were at the Moxie Hospital, and the chain must have broken when she helped me unload the trailer we brought back here. I found it in the costume shop this morning. The pawnshop owner said that a black woman with a medallion pawned the jewelry, but that’s not possible. Ebony didn’t have her medallion on Wednesday or today. He’s lying.”
“I think it’s safe to say that Ms. Welles might own more than one gold necklace,” she said.
“But this isn’t just any old necklace. It’s a talisman. She wears it everywhere.”
“Ms. Tamblyn, I can appreciate that you don’t want your friend to go to jail, but I’ve already taken the evidence to a judge and I’m expecting a warrant for Ms. Welles’s arrest to come through tomorrow morning. That means she stays in the county jail. And don’t worry too much about that necklace. We don’t allow inmates to wear jewelry.”
I was so angry I wanted to scream. “You’re going to let a killer go free because you’re too caught up in believing Ebony is guilty. What do I have to do to show you she’s not?”
“Ms. Tamblyn, I’d say we have a pretty solid case. I wouldn’t waste any more time if I were you.”