What Rock could they mean, I wondered with a bit of a panic. I was standing in a living room with two armed mob-looking types and a dead body. They couldn't keep me in their memories long enough to deal with me, so I was able to look for the rock at the same time as they did.
What rock they could mean, though, was anyone's guess. I tried looking for a literal rock, and then I started to wonder if it was a metaphor for something else. A relic like something in the Shop, called by a nickname to belie it's true purpose.
I slid papers to the side, opened desk drawers, and even went into the bedroom to look through the deceased's dresser. Nothing to me was a rock, other than the obvious gem stones and geodes all over the guy's place. A new age shrine with assorted crystals was in plain sight, but if the gangsters hadn't taken them by now, I doubted they were the ones being looked for.
So I paused, closed my eyes and thought for a second. Rock, rock, rock. Rock music. Rocking back and forth. A rocking chair. What a rock! Then it hit me. The ring.
In my vision, the woman who killed our fellow on the ground here, she was happy about an engagement ring. There's no way he would put something valuable on another person.
My heart sank into a pit. What if the rock everyone is here is looking for is a stone on the hand on the murderess. I wondered if these guys knew her. Knew to come by because she had told them the coast was clear to come find the rock.
If that's the case, then they don't know they already have it. Or maybe... maybe she thought she had it. Maybe these guys were sent to make up or her mistake...
I decided to creep back over to the old man on the ground, who was all but being ignored by the two others who were turning the place over. I wondered if they were still looking for the stone, making this look like a robbery gone wrong, or both.
I knelt beside the corpse and looked at his left hand for a wedding ring. Nothing. The right hand, bingo. A silver band, tarnished, with a big old chunk of yellow crystal in the setting. It didn't look polished at all, rough and opaque with little light getting through.
Exactly the sort of thing I'd see on the shelves at the Shop.
You smart bastard, you gave her a fake and kept the real one for yourself. Good for you.
I slid the ring off the finger and slipped it into my pocket before standing back from the body slowly. Coop was looking in my direction.
'I think the body just moved,' he muttered, suspiciously squinting at me.
Okay, that's enough, I'm out of here. My fear rang into my head as the gun was revealed once more. I trusted Pendragon's charms this much, but what if there was a time limit. Anything still here, they can have...
On my way out of the apartment, they only seemed to briefly notice that the door had opened, and by the time I slipped out they had gone back about their business.
My heart hammered as I reached the elevator, and waiting for it seemed to take forever with me looking over my shoulder. I kept expecting to see a gunman.
Once safely in the elevator, I breathed a sigh of relief and leaned back against the wall. My head was throbbing, my feet vibrating. Every part of me felt charged and alive with adrenaline! I wanted to run out of the lobby as fast as I could and scream at the top of my lungs.
Contrarily, I put my hands in my pockets and kept myself together as more people filled the elevator. They still didn't seem to be able to remember me after their initial glance in my direction, and so I came up with a new idea.
Once the elevator doors opened and people started spilling out, I put my hand on the shoulder of a nice looking old lady and looked her in the eyes.
'Oh!' she gasped, 'I didn't see you!'
'And you won't remember me,' I said calmly, 'But I need you to tell the police there's been a murder in 23-E.'
Her face went white and she backed up with a gasp. My hand slid off her shoulder and she began to look confusedly back and forth in front of her. 'Oh dear,' she said, 'Someone call the police!' she shouted. 'Murder! Murder!'
I was sure that her age would prevent her from being a suspect even if she did miraculously know about the body's location. And with the police coming to meet Coop and his friend, I decided to make my way back to the Shop with the yellow stone.
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