Breath of Dawn, The Read Online Free PDF

earth rise up and the one enthroned in heaven laughs.

CHAPTER
3
    V era’s second bedroom smelled of ancient sachets and floral body powder, a whisper of spring on an autumn day. No guessing what color the room was painted or if it had a window. Quinn pressed between folded piles of textiles, including bolts of fabric and batting for apparently unfinished projects. It made her think of Grandma Pearl’s quilts, none fashioned from store fabric but from dresses and shirts no longer worn. Maybe she got her penchant for salvaging and recycling from the woman she’d loved only second to Pops.
    Without the pocket doors on the closet, she’d have never gotten to the clothes inside. She pushed them into their slots and dug her fingers between hangers packed so tightly the polyester had nearly fused. Better insulation than a prairie soddy, but she had to wonder, what made the woman fortify her home this way?
    Gripping a wooden hanger, she used her weight to pull a woolen blazer free. The first in a battalion of forgotten clothes, it yielded only a grocery receipt. On the receipt she read a penciled reminder to call Ray. RaeAnne, she assumed—Vera’s bright ray of sunshine.
    With that first chink in the wall, the next hangers offered lessresistance. In the chartreuse dinner jacket she felt a lump in the cuff of one sleeve. Turning it up, she found the lining held closed by a safety pin. She removed the pin, and a pearl earring fell into her hand.
    Though RaeAnne had relinquished everything but the locket, originally she said to leave all jewelry, so this find needed clarification. Quinn took out her phone and called. “Sorry to bother you at work.”
    “Please, bother me.” RaeAnne’s throaty twang brought a smile. “Did you—”
    “I haven’t found it.”
    RaeAnne made a long, heartfelt sigh.
    “But that ring you found in a sock isn’t the whole story. I just found an earring pinned inside a sleeve.” As she spoke, she felt the other cuff, but didn’t find the match. “It’s a good-sized pearl, but I don’t know whether it’s real.”
    “I doubt it. She only ever bought costume.”
    “You went through the jewelry she had accessible.” Quinn fingered the earring, thinking. “But this was hidden, and I’m wondering why.”
    “You can’t ask why with Vera. She just did things.”
    “You said she had all her faculties.”
    “No old-age issues. But she wasn’t what anyone would call typical.”
    “Maybe someone gave it to her, someone important.”
    That gave RaeAnne pause. “There’s only one?”
    “So far.”
    “Maybe you could hold onto the things she’s done something stranger than usual with.”
    “Okay.” She laid the jacket on the pile. “I’ll keep those objects together, and you can make a decision when I’m done.” She didn’t want RaeAnne to come out of the situation with regrets from choices made in haste. Or grief. Or the anger and disillusionment of unresolved issues.
    Getting back to work, Quinn realized as the clothes went down in size they increased in style and elegance. At size twelve, there were vintage designer gowns she would definitely sell through heronline store. Easier to believe the pearl real when paired with a gold lamé gown. Vera would have looked quite the dame in that.
    The pockets of the polyester pantsuits with slinky Qiana blouses and wide ’70s lapels yielded nothing more interesting than handkerchiefs, emery boards, and ticket stubs, but the hem of a shoulder cape had been loop stitched over a Venetian-glass necklace. Holding it to her chest, Quinn pictured Vera in a gondola with the opera-style cape over her shoulders and the beads glittering in moonlight. She imagined the man in the locket perched beside her on the cushioned seat.
    “Do you like the necklace, my dear?” she asked the empty room.
    “I adore it.”
    Laughing, she placed the necklace with the earring. Everything had a history, even if no one knew it. Confident she’d find the locket