The Necklace V: Strawberries & Wine

By Linda S Rice

After Susan and Michelle return in despair from their time-travel journey back to 1999, Michelle resigns herself to a life of loneliness and Susan accepts the fact that she’s lost James forever.
James, a former member of the most famous band of all time, and Susan, the woman who’s loved him for over fifty years, were to be married in a double ceremony on Christmas Day, 1999 with Thomas, James’s son, and Michelle, Susan’s daughter. It was not meant to be, however, when a gold-digging ex-courtesan, determined to have James for her own, exposes Susan as already being married.
It’s now August 2016 when Thomas is preparing for a move from London to Los Angeles and discovers the mobile phone Susan left behind. The “mysterious object,” as he thought of it seventeen years earlier, is at the bottom of a box in his closet that he’d packed up with Michelle’s things shortly after she and her mother vanished.
When Brett, Thomas’s friend who works for Apple, examines the phone, telling him it’s an iPhone6 and there’s no way he could have had it for seventeen years, both men are puzzled.
Will the mystery of the phone be solved and will it lead Thomas back to Michelle? And, if Michelle and Thomas are reunited, is it possible that Susan and James will once again find themselves in each other’s arms? After all, we know from Susan’s previous forays into the past that history could not be changed, but what about the future? Will there finally be a “Happily Ever After” for James and Susan?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Linda S Rice
• Release date: Mar 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463439135

Linda S Rice

As a child, I was mesmerized by story tellers and my mother always made sure I had a supply of books close at hand while I was growing up. Sitting on her lap and listening to her read to me is one of my earliest memories. I remember drawing pictures and then making up stories to go with them, and as I got older, my stories became longer and more fanciful. At age ten, I began to write them down, and when I was twelve, I wrote my first "book," all handwritten. I wrote during rainy days in gym class when we all had to stay in the locker room and sit on benches. I had a small cult following of friends who waited for me to finish each page which I would then pass down the row. When I got a typewriter for my thirteenth birthday, I typed up my "masterpiece" and put it in a 3-ring binder then hid it away. The story was actually quite silly. Having a typewriter, however, made it possible for me to write even more, which I did on almost a daily basis.But, as happens to many young, aspiring writers, reality grabbed me and when I graduated from high school and headed to college then into the workforce, the dream of becoming an author washed away. It wasn't until I turned 62 and experienced my 3rd job layoff, that I decided to try and make my writing dream come true.Writing has since become an addiction to me, and I'm finding that ideas for numerous scenarios and characters keep flooding my brain, with the characters screaming, "Write about me! Write about me!"And, that's what I intend to do.

Book preview

Necklace V

Strawberries & Wine

Linda S. Rice

The Necklace V

Strawberries &Wine

After Susan and Michelle return in despair from their time-travel journey back to 1999, Michelle resigns herself to a life of loneliness, and Susan accepts the fact that she’s lost James forever.

James, a former member of the most famous band of all time, and Susan, the woman who’s loved him for over fifty years, were to be married in a double ceremony on Christmas Day, 1999 with Thomas, James’s son, and Michelle, Susan’s daughter. It was not meant to be, however, when a gold-digging ex-courtesan, determined to have James for her own, exposes Susan as already being married.

It’s now August 2016 when Thomas is preparing for a move from London to Los Angeles and discovers the mobile phone Susan left behind. The mysterious object, as he thought of it seventeen years earlier, is at the bottom of a box in his closet that he’d packed up with Michelle’s things shortly after she and her mother vanished.

When Brett, Thomas’s friend who works for Apple, examines the phone, telling him it’s an iPhone6 and there’s no way he could have had it for seventeen years, both men are puzzled.

Will the mystery of the phone be solved, and will it lead Thomas back to Michelle? And, if Michelle and Thomas are reunited, is it possible that Susan and James will once again find themselves in each other’s arms? After all, we know from Susan’s previous forays into the past that history could not be changed, but what about the future?  Will there finally be a Happily Ever After for James and Susan?

Contents

About The Necklace V: Strawberries & Wine * Acknowledgments

Prologue

Part I

Chapter 1 * Chapter 2 * Chapter 3 * Chapter 4 * Chapter 5 * Chapter 6 * Chapter 7 * Chapter 8 * Chapter 9

Part II

Chapter 1 * Chapter 2 * Chapter 3 * Chapter 4 * Chapter 5 * Chapter 6 * Chapter 7 * Chapter 8 * Chapter 9 * Chapter 10 * Chapter 11 * Chapter 12 * Chapter 13 * Chapter 14

Part III

Chapter 1 * Chapter 2 * Chapter 3 * Chapter 4 * Chapter 5 * Chapter 6 * Chapter 7 * Chapter 8 * Chapter 9 * Chapter 10

Epilogue

Excerpt from The Necklace VI: Snow on the Mountain * Other Books by Linda S. Rice * About the Author * Copyright

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to friends, acquaintances and relatives, who encouraged me to move forward with publishing The Necklace – The Dusky Club, June 1962, the first book in the series, the sequels, The Necklace II – Back to Brighton, November 1962, The Necklace III – London, 1967, and The Necklace IV – Brighton, December 1999, and now this fifth book of the series that continues the romance between James, a member of the most famous band of all time and Susan, the woman who has loved him since she was 12-years old.

Special thanks to my sister-in-law, Nancy Flood, for her editing help and my numerous Facebook friends for their encouragement and time spent previewing this work

Lastly, and most importantly, I’d like to thank my husband, Michael, for his patience while I wrote, re-wrote, revised, and edited over the many months it took me to complete all five of these books.

Stay tuned for a possible sequel series that will carry James and Susan back into their prior lives during an even earlier place in time…the Regency era…

To contact the author, e-mail Linda at [e-mail]

Prologue

December 2015 – James Remembers

When the leasing agent called James in September 2015 to let him know that the tenants who had been leasing his house outside of London were not going to be renewing the lease for another year, he resigned himself to the fact that the house would have to either be leased again or sold. He thought selling would be the best option, and when the agent told him he might have an interested buyer, James instructed him to evaluate the house once the tenants vacated and come up with a fair sales price.

Three months later, a week before Christmas, 2015, the agent called to say the tenants had moved out, and he was making arrangements to have the house inspected for repairs, painted and cleaned before showing to any prospective buyers. He told James he’d drop off a key to the property if he wanted to drive out and take a look at it while it was vacant. At first, he declined but then changed his mind, and the agent dropped off the key the day before Christmas Eve.

Sherry, James’s daughter from his second marriage to Hilary, was coming to spend Christmas Day with him, the divorce settlement and custody agreement stating each would have Sherry for Christmas Day every other year and Christmas Eve on the opposite years. This year it was James’s turn to have Sherry on Christmas Day, and he was looking forward to it. She had recently turned 12-years-old and was a very precocious and enjoyable child to be with. And, although he despised Hilary, he had to admit that she’d turned out to be a decent mother during the time Sherry spent with her, which was 20% of the time per the custody agreement. His new wife, Darcy, who he’d been married to for almost three years now, was also flying in from Boston, where they usually made their home, but James had been in England for the past week meeting with his publicity team regarding a new album.

It was Christmas Eve day when, on impulse, key in hand, James decided to drive out to the house to take a look. He wasn’t sure what prompted him to do it… it was forty-five minutes outside of London, and the weather was windy and rainy. The roads would be slick, but there was something niggling inside him urging him to go, if for nothing else, old memory’s sake. Once he made the decision, he packed a small case with his toothbrush and change of clothes just in case he got stuck out there due to bad weather.

James originally bought the house when his first wife, Susan, was battling a brain tumor, thinking she would be recovering there, but it never came to pass. They were in their retreat in Colorado with their three grown children, Carrie, the oldest, Thomas, the middle one, and Robert, the youngest, when Susan succumbed to the tumor. She never got to see the house, and it stood vacant for almost two years until James decided to leave Colorado and try to resume life and his music back in England.

He hadn’t been to the house for almost sixteen years now…not since the disastrous Christmas Eve day in 1999 when his life had once again been torn asunder by a woman he’d loved deeply but who had once again deceived him with lies and betrayal.

Susan.

Not his wife, Susan, who he’d been married to for twenty-nine years before she passed, but the green-eyed sorceress he’d first met at the Dusky Club in June 1962 before the band he was part of became over-the-top famous, not just in England and the UK, but all around the globe.

He involuntarily flinched thinking about her.

She had captivated him at first sight as she sat at a small table against the wall in the Dusky Club in 1962 where the band first started, her golden blonde hair spilling down across her shoulders, her incredible green eyes pierced to his, her soft and kissable lips parted in wonder as she watched him sing and play his bass guitar.

Looking at her that first night, he’d wanted her with a passion he’d never felt before, and when she agreed to go out to tea with him after the band quit for the night and also allowed him to walk her back to the hotel where she was staying, he was quite certain she’d allow him into her bed. After all, girls were constantly throwing themselves at him, and, at age twenty, he’d come to believe that no female could resist his charms.

Susan, the 17-year-old American history student in England for a history tour, however, wasn’t like other girls. She thwarted him the first night in the hotel lobby, teasingly allowing him to kiss her hand but refusing to let him up to her hotel room. The second night had been no different, even though he managed to get up to her hotel room door. The kiss in the hallway, however, sealed her fate, and when James took her out to his Auntie Annabelle’s cottage the next day for a picnic, knowing Auntie Annabelle wouldn’t be there, she quickly surrendered herself to him in a passion he’d never before experienced. Not only did she take him to sexual heights he’d never felt before, but she’d been a virgin, and he’d been the first man to breach her. It wasn’t long before he’d fallen headlong in love.

There was so much more…her return with her brother in November 1962, his proposal to her…her reclaiming her necklace at the Ted Flannagan show in 1964 and her coming back into his life in July, 1967 then again in 1999 with her daughter, Michelle…

He pushed the flood of memories from his mind, shaking his head.

The double gates in front of the long driveway to the house were open when James arrived shortly before 3:00 in the afternoon. There had been a break in the rain on the drive from London, and he could see patches of blue among the clouds in the sky. He hoped the weather might clear so he could take a walk around the grounds before it got dark.

James parked in front of the steps leading up to the front door of the house and got out. He stood looking at it for a few minutes, wondering if he’d made a mistake by coming here. There were nothing but bad memories here after all, weren’t there?

Sighing heavily, he walked up the steps and inserted the key into the lock. It stuck, and he had to work it back and forth a few times to get the door unlocked. The hinges squeaked a bit as he pushed the door open. Maybe the tenants didn’t use the front door often enough to keep it oiled.

A patch of sunlight streamed onto the entry floor from the skylights high up in the ceiling, and James had to blink a few times to accustom himself to the space. His eyes first lit on the large fireplace that dominated the room. He remembered Susan insisting that the Christmas tree be placed to the left of it and planning to have the wedding ceremony held to the right as the tree lights sparkled and a warm fire blazed in the hearth.

He felt his heart clench and his breath catch as the memories poured forth from his brain, one after the other…Susan greeting the staff in this very entry hall when he first brought her to the house. He knew she felt out of place and a bit overwhelmed, and that the staff had at scoffed at her naiveté, but she’d conquered them with her kindness just as she seemed to conquer and overcome many things that were thrust at her in the days that followed.

He remembered her perched on top of a ladder trying to place an angel on top of the Christmas tree when he’d specifically told her not to climb the ladder but to get someone else to do it. As usual, she’d ignored him, and when he walked into the entry and saw her precarious position, one foot on the top of the ladder as she leaned out to place the angel, his heart skipped a few beats fearing she would fall and break her neck. She didn’t, however, and teased him when he scolded her, which was what she always did.

He recalled chasing her up the staircase to the right side of the entry while she laughed, telling her she deserved a spanking after another one of her rebellious moments, and the memory of their fiery love-making after he caught her in their bedroom almost made him harden in his trousers just thinking about it.

It was almost as if Susan were still here in this very house, maybe down in the kitchen baking him a batch of chocolate chip cookies or in the library curled up on the couch reading a book in front of the fireplace…or in the yellow parlor waiting for him to come to have tea with her and to make his exactly how he liked it with two sugars and just a spot of milk…or up in their bed, naked under the covers, watching him with those sultry green eyes of hers as he walked through the door unbuttoning his shirt.

James sat down on the bottom step of the staircase and covered his face with his hands. Why wouldn’t Susan go away? Was he cursed to think of her forever? Despite her deceit and lies? And despite the fact that he was now married again to a loving and caring woman?

He stood up quickly and walked back to the front door, where he opened it, then closed and locked it behind him. He was soon on his way back to London. It had been a mistake to come to the house; he wished he hadn’t done it.

By the time he got back to London, the clouds had covered the sun, and it was pouring down rain.

Part I

August 2016 – December 2016

Chapter 1

The Mysterious Mobile Phone

It was August 2016, and Thomas, age 43, was clearing out boxes from his London flat in preparation for a move to Los Angeles, California. He’d been offered a position with the Los Angeles Symphony, where he would have the opportunity to share the role of conductor as well as maintain a position as a concert pianist. It was a prospect he couldn’t turn down and, to be honest, he was anxious to move to a sunnier climate.

Although he’d grown up in England and his father, sister and brother lived there, he was ready for a change in his life. His failed marriage haunted him. The London fog and rain depressed him, and the sameness of his position with the London Philharmonic bored him. He was given very little freedom to perform his own works, and the politics had become intolerable.

There was one box left at the back of his closet when he heard his mobile phone ring out in the living room. He brushed the dust off his hands and went to answer it. It was his sister, Carrie.

All packed up yet, Thomas? I’d offer to come to help you, but I’m hands deep in clay. I’m almost done with the bust of Adonis…finally!

Haven’t you been working on that for over a year now? And, no, I’m not all quite packed up yet. I had a few boxes left in my bedroom closet that I’ve been going through. Most of everything else, though, has been sent ahead to my flat in L.A.

Won’t you be sad to leave England? You know I’m going to miss you.

Come on now, Carrie, you won’t miss me. We hardly ever see each other with your gallivanting all about the globe.

We see each other at Christmas when Dad’s in town, and we had dinner at Robert’s restaurant just last month. Plus, since my traveling companion, David, got married, I haven’t been doing much exploring. No fun to go by myself.

Still, I’ve only seen you two or three times in the past few months. No, I’m not sad to leave England. I’m ready for a change in my life. I need to brush all of the cobwebs off me, plus I’m ready for some California sunshine.

Dad is going to miss you. I think he’s rather enjoyed working with you on a few classical pieces for piano. It’s diverted him from that awful marriage to Hilary. God, Thomas! I’m so glad that woman is out of his life. What a disaster she was!

Not only a disaster, but she took nearly half his fortune, especially when Dad insisted on having full custody of Sherry.

Well, he wanted full custody of Sherry, but the witch only gave him 80%. I think he would have given his entire fortune to her if he could have got full custody.

Probably, but it would have made her look bad…you know, a mother who gave up all contact with her child…and you remember how she loves the limelight.

Yeah, horrible, hideous woman. Carrie shivered on the other end of the phone. Dad said he’s enjoyed spending time with you when he’s been in London. Like I just said, I know for sure he’s going to miss you.

Well, now that he’s married again, he won’t be missing me or any of us very much. He seems to be quite happy. I told him to bring Sherry on over to the states and stay with me in L.A. for a bit. He’s talking about recording another new album before he goes back out on tour and said he might even record it in L.A. You should come too. We could all take Sherry to Disneyland.

Hmmmm…let me think on it, okay? Sounds like fun.

Well, don’t think too hard. Talk to Dad about it and let me know. I’ll call you as soon as I’m settled in.

Okay then, Tom-tom; I’ll talk to you later. She giggled.

Don’t call me that!

Carrie laughed again. No promises, Thomas. Bye.

They disconnected, and Thomas went back to his closet for the one last box. It was way in the back and had been there for years. He knew what was in it, and for a few moments after pulling it out, he just stared at it, beginning to feel melancholy.

It was a box containing some clothing and personal items that had once belonged to a young woman named Michelle, the woman who had been his first true love, a love he’d never been able to forget. Just thinking about her and picturing her in his mind brought sadness to his heart. He sighed heavily as he sat down on the floor next to the box, lifted the lid, and looked inside.

The scent of a sweet perfume wafted up from the contents, and Thomas closed his eyes, picturing a blonde girl with aquamarine eyes looking at him with a wistful look on her face. He blinked his eyes open and began lifting items from the box…a couple of dresses, blouses, jeans, intimate apparel, cosmetics, and a bottle of perfume that he’d bought for her. He wasn’t sure what had made him pack her things away after she left, but here they were, and the longer he sifted them through his hands, the clearer the memories of the girl he’d once loved so passionately came flooding into his head.

Ahhh…lovely, feisty, intelligent, and passionate Michelle…the woman he thought he would spend his life with…the one who was supposed to marry him in a double wedding ceremony with her mother and his dad on Christmas Day in 1999.

Was it really almost 17 years ago? It didn’t seem that long. Seeing, smelling, and touching her things made it seem just like yesterday.

He dug deeper into the box, removing a few more items of clothing before coming across another object at the bottom. It looked like a mobile phone, and as he examined it more closely, he realized that it must be the object he’d discovered out at Auntie Annabelle’s cottage shortly after Michelle and her mum vanished into thin air on that disastrous Christmas Eve Day, the day before he would have made Michelle his bride. At the time, he wasn’t sure what it was, never having seen a mobile phone of that type before.

He noticed that the phone had the image of an apple on the back of it and found that to be very curious, as Apple phones didn’t exist back in 1999 when he’d found it at the cottage. Amazingly, it appeared to be an Apple iPhone, but it didn’t quite resemble his mobile phone, which was a Samsung.

He turned it over in his hands a few times and tapped on the screen, but nothing happened. He wondered how it had come to be in the cottage in the first place and who might have placed it in the bathroom cabinet wrapped in a towel. No answers came to mind, making him even more intrigued.

Deciding it was a mystery that needed to be solved, he stood up and put it in the backpack he planned on taking on the plane to Los Angeles. He had a techie friend who worked for Apple in L.A. and thought he’d show it to him. Brett would certainly be able to tell him what it was.

He glanced back at the box of Michelle’s things and sighed again as her vision passed through his head and heart. Sitting back down on the floor next to the box, he lifted one of her dresses to his face and breathed in the scent.

Knowing she was from Southern California, would it be possible to find her once he moved there?

Dare he even try?

Chapter 2

James and Sherry

James hit the End button on his mobile phone, an annoyed expression on his face, before shoving it into his trouser pocket and sitting back down at the table in the kitchen of his Boston condo.

What’s wrong, Dad? Sherry, his 13-year-old daughter asked, watching his expression. Isn’t Darcy going to come to California with us to visit Thomas? Carrie is still coming, isn’t she?

Yes, sweetheart, Carrie is still coming, but Darcy is having problems at the newspaper, so will probably be staying here in Boston.

She always says she’s having problems at the newspaper. Why can’t she get them fixed and go with us? I have to go back to London in just two weeks, and she’s only spent one day with me since I’ve been here.

I know, I know. I don’t like it any more than you do. Maybe I can talk to your mum and see if she’ll let you stay an extra week or two.

She won’t, you know. She doesn’t like me being with you at all. She says you put bad things about her in my head.

You know I’ve never done that, Sherry. I would never try to turn you against your mother. We weren’t suited, that’s all.

She says you were mean to her and got drunk a lot…

James slammed his fist on the table hard enough to make his tea mug jump. Sherry sucked in her breath and looked at him, eyes wide.

I’m sorry, sweetheart, he said, reaching out his hand towards her. I didn’t mean to do that. It’s just that your mum and I agreed not to say bad things to you about each other or about the past. I’m upset that she didn’t keep her word.

It’s okay, Dad. I try to ignore it when she says bad things about you. I like being with you better, and I think she knows it and it gets her all upset.

Well, it’s not right for you to tell her that, you know.

I know, but it’s true. I do like being with you more. You do fun things with me, like take me places, just you and me, and maybe with Carrie or Robert…that is when Darcy isn’t with us too, like when you’re on tour. And, now we’re going to California to visit Thomas and go to Disneyland. Mum would never take me to Disneyland.

She’s busy with her causes.

And her boyfriends. It seems like she has a new one every week… She paused and bit her lip as if she were going to say more but changed her mind. I don’t think they like me around.

I’m sorry, Sherry. The custody agreement gave me a certain amount of time to have you, and it gave you mum time. I hate having to share you, but that’s the way it is. When you turn fifteen in a couple of years, you can decide if you want to be with me full-time, but until then, you need to split time with both of us.

I know, but I keep thinking that when I’m with you, Darcy will want to spend time with me like a mum would, but she’s always busy with that newspaper of hers. She told me last time I was here she’d help make chocolate chip cookies with me, but then when it came time to make them, she just sent me into the kitchen to have your chef guy show me.

Darcy doesn’t like to cook all that much. She tells Phillipe what to make, and he makes it. Don’t you like his cooking?

Yeah, it’s okay, but I think Robert is a better chef. Remember when you took me to his restaurant, and he showed me how to make that Crème Brulee dessert? We even had to use a fire torch thing on it. It was fun! I’d like to learn to cook.

Robert’s mum loved to cook too. She even published a cookbook… James sighed as he thought back to his first wife, Susan. She’d been the love of his life, and he still missed her. Thinking of Crème Brulee, however, gave him a fleeting memory of another Susan. He quickly brushed it out of his mind.

Well, I’ll tell you what. When I take you back to London, we’ll go see Robert and you can spend the day with him at Le Fonda and he can teach you how to cook some other things. How does that sound?

That would be utterly awesome, Dad. I’d love it!

James looked at his watch. Are you all packed for our trip to California?

Almost. What time does our plane leave?

In about four hours and we need to leave for the airport in two. Go on and get finished. I need to make a few more phone calls before we go, and maybe we can stop and get some luncheon on the way to the airport.

Sherry jumped up out of her chair, came around the table, and gave James a hug.

You’re the best, Dad! I can’t wait to get to California!

As she ran out of the room, James smiled. The only good thing to come out of his marriage to Hilary was this beautiful daughter. He was going to enjoy taking her on this trip.

He pulled his mobile phone out of his pocket again and tapped in the number for Darcy’s mobile. It went straight to voice mail. He dialed her private number at the newspaper. Her secretary answered the call saying Darcy was closeted in with Charles, her new chief editor. It seemed like every time he called lately, she was in a meeting with Charles. He told the secretary to interrupt the meeting, that he had to talk to her, but after waiting for almost five minutes, the secretary came back to say that Darcy and Charles had left for an early lunch, but that she’d leave a message for her to call James as soon as she returned. James sighed and hung up.

James then called Carrie, who was already in Los Angeles staying with Thomas. She and Thomas were doing the tourist thing in Hollywood when she answered, and she told him that she saw his star on the Walk of Stars and danced around on it for a minute or two while people looked at her like she was crazy. She said that no one recognized her or Thomas.

James told her that he and Sherry would be in around 5:00 in the afternoon and that they should be at Thomas’s condo about an hour later. She said she’d order pizza in when they got there, knowing how much Sherry liked it.

The last call he made was to Hilary. He gritted his teeth when she answered her mobile, doing his best not to light into her about the things Sherry had told him, asking if she could stay with him a couple of extra weeks. Incredibly enough, she readily agreed, saying she had a trip to Paris planned and that Sherry likely wouldn’t care to go anyway. James felt disgusted when he hung up.

Four hours later, James and Sherry were winging their way to Los Angeles.

Brett, Thomas’s techie friend who worked at Apple in Los Angeles, turned the iPhone Thomas had brought to him from London, over in his hand, a curious look on his face.

You said you found this in a box in your closet, Thomas? And that it’s been there for almost seventeen years? This version of the iPhone…it’s a 6…wasn’t released until September last year! It’s impossible that it could have been there that long?!

Thomas looked up from his Samsung Galaxy, where he’d been reading a text message from his sister, Carrie.

What do you mean it hadn’t been released yet? Isn’t it some kind of iPhone? And yes, I found it in a box of…a…a box of things in the back of my closet in London. It’s been there since 1999…December 1999.

That’s not possible…really, Thomas…this is an iPhone6. I should know; I work for Apple! It wasn’t released until September 28, 2015! So, tell me…how did you really get this?

I am telling you! I found it in a box in my closet. It’s been there for sixteen, almost seventeen, years. Why would I make it up?

I don’t know, but it can’t be almost 17-years-old! Totally impossible!

Well, I’ll tell you more about it then. I originally found it in the bathroom at a cottage owned by my dad’s auntie. I went there for a while in December, 1999 after a…difficult and painful time. I wanted to be alone. I spent a week at the cottage, and I discovered this, if you can believe it, hidden in a towel under the bathroom sink.

I’ve known you for a long time, Thomas, and I’m saying again that it’s not possible you’ve had this for sixteen years!

Well, I don’t know what to say then other than I’m telling you the truth as to where I found the thing. I was hoping you could open up the screen somehow and tell me who it belonged to. There was…there was a woman staying out at the cottage with my dad for a while, and my first thought was that it must have belonged to her. Why she’d wrap it in a towel and put it under the bathroom sink, I don’t know, but I’m telling you again that’s where it was.

Brett turned it over several times in his hands, noting that the phone appeared to be slightly worn with scratches on the screen. It was obviously an iPhone6. But, that still didn’t explain how it got into a box at the back of Thomas’s closet in London. Or, that Thomas swore it had been there for over sixteen years.

He looked up at Thomas. Can I hold onto this for a while? I have another friend in research, and I can have him look at it. We’ll need to get it charged up first, but I think we could break past the passcode, if there’s one set up, and figure out where it’s been. These phones have GPS built into them, so we can track its original location and all the places it’s been used for calls or texts or apps.

Fine with me. I have a lot to do getting my flat set up here…or condo, as you call it. And, I imagine I’ll be busy morning, noon, and night with my new post with the Los Angeles Symphony. Not only do I have new pieces to learn for the winter season, but I’ve been given a chance to work towards a conductor position, something I would never have been offered with the London Philharmonic.

I’m happy for you, Thomas. It all sounds like a great opportunity and exciting as well. I’ll get in touch with my friend in research and get back to you as soon as we figure out this mystery,

Appreciate it, Brett. I’ll give you a call in a couple of weeks once I’m settled in, and we can maybe get together for a few drinks and dinner.

Sounds good to me. Brett pocketed the phone and reached out a hand towards Thomas, who shook it before turning and walking out the door of Brett’s private office at Apple.

As soon as he was gone, Brett took the mysterious phone out of his pocket again and looked at it. It was definitely an iPhone6, no doubt about it. He reached for the phone on his desk and dialed his friend in research, determined to figure out the puzzle of who it belonged to.

Chapter 3

Thomas Tracks Down Michelle

Other than having his dad, Sherry and Carrie visit for a week at the beginning of September, Thomas was busy for the next couple of months, practicing night and day for his performances with the Los Angeles Symphony. Brett, his techie friend from Apple, had left him several phone messages that he’d meant to return, but even though he meant to, his schedule kept him so busy, he barely had time to eat or sleep, let alone return phone calls.

Three days before his debut performance on November 20th, 2016 at the Los Angeles Center for the Arts in downtown Los Angeles, he received another phone message from Brett. When he heard the message, he immediately picked up his mobile and tapped in Brett’s number.

You cracked the phone?! he asked excitedly when Brett answered. Who does it belong to? What were you able to find out?!

Slow down, Thomas. Yes, I found out who it belongs to, but what I discovered about it is crazy based on where you told me you found it. Can I maybe bring it over to your place along with a bottle of wine, and I’ll tell you what I know so far?

"Can you come today, like maybe this afternoon? I’m taking