“Does he?”

“Oh yes. You can tell a lot about a man from his eyebrows. Nice eyebrows mean he’s wise.”

“Interesting…”

“Also,” she adds, “he has a nice butt.”

Oh my God. Although she’s right—Tim does have a nice butt, but I’m sort of embarrassed that Margie noticed. “Uh, thanks?”

“And that’s such a beautiful necklace he got you! But you should put it in your jewelry box, where it will be safe.”

My stomach drops. I had abandoned the necklace on the kitchen table and then forgotten all about it. Well, I didn’t forget about it so much as I hoped it would vanish into thin air while I was out with Tim. Or at least, he would know enough to throw it in the garbage bin, where it deserved to be.

But he didn’t. He left it there for me.

Margie grabs her coat and takes off for the night. It’s only after she’s gone that I dare to approach the blue rectangular box left behind on the kitchen table. It looks like either Tim or Margie put it back in the box, so all I need to do is toss it in the garbage.

But instead, I find myself opening the box.

I hold up the necklace, letting the snowflake charm swing back and forth. It looks exactly the same as the one I used to wear—the one Tim bought me for my tenth birthday. It’s a gold chain with a gold snowflake with white diamonds set into the six spokes of the snowflake.

I look closer at the necklace and notice something else that makes my heart stop.

The second spoke on the snowflake is missing a diamond from the edge. Exactly like the one I used to wear.

This necklace is identical to the one I wore in high school. And it has the exact same defect in the exact same place as that necklace did.

Is it possible that it’s the same necklace?

I never found out what became of that necklace. After it broke, I never saw it again. I had assumed the police kept it as evidence, but maybe they didn’t. Maybe somebody else had it this whole time.

Tim claimed he got it at the town flea market. A flea market? What flea market is he talking about? I have lived in this town since I was a baby, and I never once heard about any sort of flea market.

Was he lying?

Stay away from Tim Reese. He’s dangerous.