Roses are Red and Diamonds are Blue CHAPTER 1

The wayward winds
Blast through life
On a whim
Changing everything

      Jane lifted the lid on the old trunk and the musty smell of trapped time permeated the air. She carefully removed the folded linen that kept the contents within covered and placed it beside her on the dusty attic floor. There were layers of clothes carefully wrapped in tissue paper that had yellowed with age. She took each wrapped article from its resting place and, without unwrapping it, placed it on top of the folded linen beside her. She wasn’t interested in what hidden fashions were so painstakingly tucked away because she was on a mission, searching for something much more important. Somewhere in this tattered, travel weathered, trunk was something she desperately needed; something she’d been seeking for a long time and it was finally in her reach.

The creaking of a step alerted her to an intruder, Jane quickly placed the wrapped clothes and linen back in the trunk and quietly closed the lid, locking it and pocketing the key. She took the faded blanket that had lain across the trunk and shook the dust from it onto the floor to hide her scuffed shoe prints then she laid it back across the trunk and stepped carefully around it.

She tiptoed quietly around the large furnishings and stepped behind an old bookcase extending her hand along the wall behind it she found and flipped the concealed latch on the wall’s molding. The secret passage in the panel opened and she stepped through. Mere seconds after it closed, a tall dark haired man entered the attic.

The man’s flashlight scanned the room as he tried to navigate around the haphazardly stacked furnishings. He stubbed his shin on the edge of a table he hadn’t seen and cursed harshly under his breath.

Behind the thin paneled wall, Jane heard him and her heart pounded anxiously. She’d recognized the voice, it was her cousin Mark. He must have followed her here but now she worried he’d find it. She couldn’t let him but at the moment, she didn’t have a plan as to how to stop him. She waited in silence, hoping he didn’t stumble upon the trunk and pry it open. She knew he didn’t have the key or the clue she’d found, so he might not even know it was in the trunk but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get lucky.

Mark stopped in front of an old oak desk and thought it looked promising; maybe it had a secret drawer. He began opening the drawers and rummaging through them. He found bits of old string, dried ink pots, broken pencils and several old news clippings within the drawers but they weren’t what he was looking for so he slammed the drawers shut. He felt along the sides and under the desk looking for a hidden key or a pull knob, something that might release a concealed drawer but a few minutes later, he kicked the leg of the desk disgustedly; he’d found nothing.

“What the hell am I looking for, what is it hidden in?” he said out loud, not expecting an answer but he did hear something. A sound came from downstairs. Someone was here. He quickly shut off his flashlight and got down low to the ground. He crawled around the piles of furniture and hid behind a large armoire. He hoped he wouldn’t be discovered but he was damn curious to know who was walking up the steps.

He held his breath with each footfall and his hand gripped the gun in his pocket.

Jane, from her hiding place, heard the footsteps on the stairs, as far as she knew only her and Mark had even a hint of where to look. She pressed her ear to the wall with worriedly curiosity, who else had been watching them?

A tall and rotund man entered the attic and called down to someone below. “There’s no one here, you can come up,” he said gruffly.

Two more sets of heavy footsteps could be heard. The three men wore full face masks. The first man pointed to a piece of furniture and the two others nodded. They walked over to it and lifted it easily off the floor and without a word they turned and carried it out of the attic and down the stairs. The first man looked suspiciously around one more time before he followed them out.

The footsteps receded and Mark rose from behind the armoire, he didn’t recognize the man’s voice and he’d been too afraid of being seen to look around the armoire to try to see the others. He looked around now.

Obviously they had taken something but he didn’t know what was missing. He kicked blindly at the furniture near him and nearly caused an avalanche as the wooden pile swayed threateningly but it didn’t fall.

He had to figure out who they were and what they were doing here. Could they be connected to it? Or were they here for some other purpose? His hand twitched with frustration as he walked across the attic and down the steps. He was determined to follow them.

Jane heard Mark’s footsteps and waited until she heard the front door close, sure that Mark had left. She quickly pushed open the paneled wall and stepped out. Her heart raced with apprehension as she stepped from behind the bookcase and made her way back to the trunk, praying she’d have time now to go through it.

“Oh no,” she cried out as she stared at the empty spot where the trunk had stood. Someone had taken it and she knew it wasn’t Mark.

She began to hyperventilate and felt the room closing in on her. This couldn’t be happening. She’d been so close to it and she hadn’t a clue who’d taken it, or who else had been on the hunt.