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"Certainly, dear. She considered California the land of opportunity. That was why our ancestor Arlen came here, according to the journals." |
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Abby leaned forward, but Mike motioned to her to wait. |
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"Where did Myra put papers that showed how important her home in California was?" Mike's face remained impassive, but his body tensed as he waited for an answer. |
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"In the box under her bed, of course," Jess replied. |
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"I didn't find boxes or anything else in her room," Abby told him in a low voice. |
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He nodded, then continued, "You don't suppose she put the journals in a safe-deposit box, do you?" |
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Jess waved her small, wizened hand in a gesture indicating Mike's foolishness. "Heavens, no. Oh, she kept some old jewelry at the bank, since our lawyer Mr. Peebles insisted, but we looked in that box after . . . when she left us. There wasn't anything but the jewelry. Remember?" |
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Mike nodded. "Did she have more than one box?" |
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The discussion continued, and Abby was caught up in it despite her unfulfilled wish to focus on the journals. According to Jess, Mike had been quite a rapscallion while here, frequently getting into scrapes from which his great-aunts took enormous pleasure from extracting him. "Why, there was that time when you had promised two young ladies a night on the townthe |
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