Emmett sat on the sofa for a long time.
The pearls in his pocket dug painfully into his thigh. He took them out and counted them one by one. There were 24.
He remembered Celia saying there had been 28 pearls in the necklace.
Four were missing.
Almost at once, he rose to go back to the hotel and keep looking. As he did, a sharp cramp seized his stomach.
He'd been so busy preparing Nadine's wedding that he hadn't had a proper meal all day.
Without thinking, he called out.
"Celia, where's the medicine for my stomach?"
There was no answer in the empty house.
In the past, however late he came home, the medicine was always in its usual place, with a glass of water beside it. Celia would rub his stomach while scolding him.
He would tell her she was nagging, and she'd pull her hand away
