Nine Lives (Lily Dale Mystery #1)(99)
She jams the knife back into the crack and begins to pry.
It isn’t easy. She has to wiggle and tug for a long time before anything happens.
At last, it comes free: a rectangular wedge of wood camouflaged as floorboards.
Beneath lies a shallow hidden compartment.
Probably empty, she thinks, as she pokes her hand into the shadows. Or maybe she’ll find a ninety-year-old bootleg stash.
But there’s a box inside.
A small box that fits into the palm of her hand. It’s wrapped in white paper imprinted with golden angels and tied with a blue ribbon.
Slowly, she tears it away and lifts the cardboard lid.
Inside, on a rectangle of cotton, is a necklace.
A delicate tourmaline pendant that exactly matches the color of her eyes.
There is no wilted bluebell tucked beneath the ribbon.
It doesn’t come with a note from Sam.
It isn’t even a Christmas present. Not really.
No, she thinks as she fastens the chain around her neck, it’s an Independence Day present.
She smiles through a flood of tears, tilting her face upward, bathed in rainbow light falling through the circular window.
“Thanks, Sam.”
Acknowledgments
This series would not have come to fruition without my editor, Matt Martz, who may not be able to communicate with the Other Side but makes incredible things happen on This Side, and my agent, Laura Blake Peterson of Curtis Brown, who’s held my hand, picked up the pieces, hit me over the head, and carried me through for over twenty years now. I also extend deepest gratitude to Laura’s assistant, Marnie Zoldessy, and to my film agent, Holly Frederick, at Curtis Brown; to Dan Weiss, who published my first novel back in 1993 (we’ve come full circle twenty-two years later!); to John Lippman for this fantastic opportunity, Nike Power for wrangling and wrestling many Wendy things, and to the rest of the gang at Crooked Lane; to PR powerhouse Dana Kaye; to Carol Fitzgerald and the gang at the Book Report Network; to Peter Meluso; to the Atwell/Cody family—Laura, Todd, Diana, and John—who lovingly fostered Chance and her six newborn kittens while I was away on my summer book tour; to Penelope Smith-Berk and her Community Cats Rescue Organization in Bedford, New York, who help save the lives of hundreds of strays every year (Chance and her babies included); to Doug Halsey and Ready For Rescue, for pulling my fosters Frenchy and Cha Cha and Sunday and more from the kill shelter; to my husband, Mark, who read, reread, and reread again. And again. And—you get it. Finally, to my readers, who can never get enough Lily Dale. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been inspired to make this mystical place come alive again in my work. Thank you for believing in me and in Lily Dale. Stay tuned!