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Tait followed him to the table, knowing there wouldn’t be anything. There couldn’t be. But if it helped eliminate Marcus’ worry over it, she’d go along.
Leaning in for a better look, Marcus turned it over several times, studying both the front and back as well as the slightly loose bail, the clasp, edges and even the tiny dent Tait had told him about. “The chain is new, aye?” he asked, examining the length of fine gold links.
“Yes.” Tait watched closely, shifting her attention between the locket and the intensity of Marcus’ examination. “But the rest is original. I’ve been meaning to get that loose bail fixed. I just can’t seem to part with it long enough. Or trust anyone to do it.”
“Okay if I open it?” he asked.
“Of course,” she pointed to a tiny notch in the side. “Right there.”
Gently, Marcus opened it, spreading it apart to resemble two butterfly wings. Tait watched him examine the tiny engraving on the left side.H&Tand beneath that,4ever. “Hannah and Tay forever,” she whispered. “Our code to say we’d always be there for each other when life got really hard.” She blinked back the moisture pooling in her eyes. “But that didn’t turn out to be true.”
Marcus shifted his gaze to her, leaned over and kissed her cheek. “ ’Tis easy tae understand why she loved ye so much.”
Tait managed a small smile as Marcus turned his attention back to the locket and studied Hannah’s picture a moment before lightly tracing his finger over the image. Puzzled, he repeated the process, even slower, pressing harder, before handing the locket to her. “Will ye take the picture out, please? I dinnae want tae damage it.”
“Is something wrong with it?” Tait glanced at Hannah’s picture but couldn’t see anything different. Carefully removing the thin inner edge that held the picture in place, she laid them both on the table. “This one, too?” she asked showing him an identical picture beneath the original.
Surprised, Marcus looked down at the second image. “Ye’ve two?”
“Yes,” Tait nodded. “Remember I told you Luca had a duplicate made in case something happened to the original? But the original was fine, so he added the second one to keep them together. He said that was the safest place for it and I agreed.”
“I ken ye were both right,” Marcus said holding out his hand. “May I?”
Tait handed him the locket and watched him remove the second picture, much thinner and flimsier than the first. Odd that Luca had used such poor quality.
“Och!” Marcus cried, his eyes widening in surprise.
Leaning in to see what caused his reaction, Tait’s own gasp sounded thunderous in the small room.
“What do ye ken that is?” Marcus queried.
Tait grabbed the locket, unable to believe what she was seeing imbedded in a small piece of thin cardstock—apparently meant to help disguise its shape and size. And padded by the two pictures, it had worked perfectly. She hadn’t noticed a thing.
“That,” she snapped, as anger surged through her veins, “is a microchip!That jerk!”she cried. “He used me!” Fury tightened her fists and sharpened her voice. “That…” she snapped her hand toward the locket. “…thing, got a good man killed. And it just might collect two more if we’re not careful.”
“What is a microchip?” Marcus queried.
Stalking across the room, fists clenched, Tait whirled to retrace her steps when Marcus’ question registered. “You’ve never heard of a microchip?”
“Nae.” He sat the locket on the table and shot her a wide-eyed look. “ ’Tisnae goin’ tae blow up, is it?”
She didn’t have the energy to wonder why he wouldn’t recognize a microchip, but the look on his face took all the fight out of her. It wasn’t fear she saw in his eyes. And he wasn’t mocking her. He was concerned for her safety, pure and simple.
“No,” she said, as a new level of fear replaced anything she’d felt before. “Not literally, at least. But who knows what information it’s hiding that might.”
Crossing her arms to suppress a shiver, Tait moved back to the table and glared at their discovery. “A microchip is a tiny piece of material that holds a lot of encrypted information. And it seems, in this case, information so valuable someone’s willing to kill for it.”
She stared at the locket unable to absorb the reality of what lay in front of her. “What could Luca have been into that cost him his life, Evan’s life, and who knows how many more? How did I not see signs of something?” She shoved her hands through her hair. “Was I that oblivious?”
Turning to Marcus, she sought answers where she knew there weren’t any. “And most of all, why give it tome?”
“I cannae ken his reasoning,” Marcus replied, leaning both hands on the table as he scowled over the chip. “But we’d best figure out what tae do wi’ it. Whatever ’tis, ye cannae leave it there. If we figured out all this had somethin’ tae do wi’ yer neclace, so will they.”
“I don’t know who to give it to.” Tait turned to him, chewing on her bottom lip. “How can we know who to trust?”
Picking up the locket, she gently pried out the chip. “But you’re right, we need to get it out of the necklace, and hidden somewhere until we decide.” She looked at their meager belongings. “But where?”
Marcus followed her gaze, his expression as bleak as hers. Suddenly, he grinned. “I ken a spot we can put it.” He pulled off his boot and removed the sgian dubh tucked into a sheath on the inside lining.
