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That piece of news didn’t surprise me. After all, we’d already found out from Ruby’s uncle that my father had financed the future lawmakers. Tom Simpson’s ring was not a cheap piece of metal, either.
“Did he? Why are you all of a sudden telling me things? Usually you’re so close-lipped.”
He chuckled. “I have no idea. I just haven’t thought of that ring in years.”
“Wendy says she didn’t have one.”
“I’m pretty sure we all had one. Hers was smaller, made for a woman.”
My mother wasn’t known for her truthfulness, so I’d take Larry at his word. For now, anyway.
“There’s a symbol on the ring. Do you know what it signifies?”
He looked thoughtful. “I don’t recall a symbol.”
“Oh, come on.” And then I remembered. I had the ring! I pulled it out of my pocket. “This one belonged to Tom Simpson. Look here.” I gestured. “What does this bizarre symbol mean?”
He took the ring from me and examined it. “Oh, yeah. I don’t know. Someone else designed it.”
“Who?”
“I can’t say.”
“You don’t remember? Or you won’t tell me.”
He stayed silent.
“My father?”
Silence.
“Tom Simpson?”
More silence.
“Mathias?”
His lips twitched slightly.
“Okay. Mathias. That figures. Did he tell you what the symbol meant?”
“I didn’t say he designed them.”
I wished Ruby were still here. She’d be able to read him better than I could with her cop instinct. “Up to this point, you’ve refused to even say his name. But we all know it was him, that he’s the third of your heinous trio. And it doesn’t surprise me one bit to know he’s the brains behind this symbol.”
“You’re wrong. I don’t know what the symbol is. Or what it means. Or who came up with it. And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“We have our own theories,” I said. “So you’re telling me that you wore a ring that you had no idea what its meaning was?”
“Hey, it was a ring. It was camaraderie, you know? We all had one.”
“Where’s yours now?”
“I hocked it long ago. I had some lean years in there. They deserted me after I let your brother go. After they tried to kill me, that is. I didn’t get back into their good graces until a few years ago.”
I’d already heard that part of the story, so I tried to steer back to the ring. “He never told you what the symbol meant?”
“Nope.” Larry twisted his lips into a sly smile. “But I can see why you want to know. The devil is in the details. Just ask your mother.”
