Page 86 of Save the Date
She showed Cara a photo of Lillian Fanning’s missing family heirloom.
“Yes,” Cara sighed. “That’s the epergne. As I told Lillian, the last time I remember specifically seeing it was Sunday morning, when we went back to Isle of Hope to finish taking down everything used in the reception. It was placed in a bin in the back of my delivery van.”
“If the wedding was held at the Fannings’ home, why didn’t you just take it back into the house?” Detective Peebles asked.
“It was the morning after their daughter’s wedding, they’d had a late night, and I didn’t want to disturb their rest. Anyway, I wanted to take everything back to the shop, and make sure it was cleaned up before I returned everything. The candlesticks still had wax on them, and some of the bowls had been used for flower arrangements.”
“And did you bring everything back here and clean it up, as you’d planned?”
“No,” Cara admitted. “We had an incredibly busy week, another huge wedding, and time… just got away from me. To tell you the truth, I’d forgotten we even still had the silver, until Lillian called on Friday to ask about it.”
“So… where was this bin of silver during that next week?”
“In the van.”
“And who had access to the van?”
“Just me. And Bert, my assistant.”
Detective Peebles frowned. “Where is the van usually parked?”
“Sometimes, if there’s a parking space out front, we park it on Jones. But usually we park in my dedicated slot in the lane.”
“Lot of break-ins in this neighborhood,” Detective Peebles observed. “Probably not the best idea to have a boxful of valuable silver in a van parked in a lane where any wandering crackhead could check it out.”
Cara sighed. “No, it wasn’t. I can’t tell you how much I regret that. But the bin was at the very back of the van, and there are no windows there, so a thief wouldn’t have known it was there. And the van was locked.”
“All the time? You’re sure about that?”
“Reasonably sure.”
Detective Peebles was scribbling notes.
“Can I take a look at the van?”
“Right now, my assistant is out making deliveries. I can call him and ask him to head back here as soon as he’s done. But I can tell you right now, the van hadn’t been broken into. And all the rest of the Fannings’ silver was there. Why would somebody take just that one piece, and not the rest of it?”
“Because it was the most valuable piece?”
“Was it?”
The detective flipped some pages in her notebook. “Mrs. Fanning says she had it appraised at the Telfair Museum a couple years ago, and it’s valued at a hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars.”
“What?” Cara felt her jaw drop. “Lillian never told me it was that valuable. I never would have used it at the reception. And I certainly wouldn’t have just piled it in a bin with those other pieces. Or left it in the back of the van for a week.”
“Hindsight,” Detective Peebles said. “I looked at the picture she gave me of that epergne. Am I saying it right?”
“I think it’s pronounced ‘ay-purn,’” Cara said.
“Not my kind of thing at all. Kinda ugly if you ask me. But from what Mrs. Fanning says, that doohickey is worth more than my house and car put together.”
“And mine.”
“Okay,” the detective said. “That’s about all I needed to ask you. Oh yeah, your assistant’s full name?”
“Bert Rosen. Hubert, actually.” Cara hesitated. “Look, Detective. I know Lillian probably told you she thinks Bert stole the epergne. She said as much to me when she came in here Monday. But I know him. He’s not a thief. He wouldn’t do that.”
“How long have you known him?”
