Thorn, a werewolf tale of love and obsession

Chapter 13 ~ sleeping dog ~

Thinnakorn woke up early, washed and dressed then went downstairs to make a hot drink and get something to eat and even though he was loath to admit it, he was looking forward to seeing Thorn again.

He made a couple of slices of toast and spread it thinly with butter then munched it down while staring out of his kitchen window and washed it down with coffee.

He grabbed everything he was likely to need for the day including the book he had put aside then he loaded up the car and drove the short distance to his office, it seemed strange after not being here in over a week but he would soon get into the routine again.

He locked the door as usual and turned on his computer then left it updating while he went to make himself another coffee, his mother would often nag and tell him that he drank far too much of the bitter brew but he enjoyed it.

When his coffee was made and his computer was up and running he looked in his appointment book to see what he had to do.

He had an appointment with a guy from the local museum this afternoon at his lab, he was bringing in a few pieces that had been donated and they needed them identifying, grading and of course valuing but until then he had a few pieces in his safe to work on.

He had a small case of antique paste pieces that had belonged to an old lady's grandmother and she wanted to know if they were worth anything and he was happy to help. 

Apparently her British grandparents had moved to Hong Kong in the late 19th century early twentieth century as a young, newly married couple and her grandmother had brought the pieces with her from England. 

Their son was born a couple of years later and when he grew up he had married a beautiful Thai girl whom he had met when he had travelled here on business and when his parents had passed away, his wife had inherited the pieces

Those pieces had been passed down and now his client who had no children of her own was considering selling them and donating the money to charity.

Even though the pieces were paste, they were antique and had been looked after and quite often paste jewellery commanded reasonably good prices at auction because of their timeless style and rarity, even more so if there was a paper trail with them, receipts and invoices from the designers and sometimes there might even be photographs of the people wearing the pieces.

Korn went to his safe and pulled out the small box, he had kept the woman waiting over a week already but she had been so kind about it so he would be sure to do a good job for her. 

He went back to his desk and grabbed his gloves and loupe and pulled out the first piece which was a dress ring and identified it as green lead glass which was foil backed and set in a silver band.

The next piece was a pair of drop earrings, translucent paste stones set in silver and Korn worked his way through the box identifying the different pieces and makers marks if they were present and making notes of his findings.

He was typing up his findings to hand over to the client when he heard a knock on the door and saw the handle turn.

"are you in there Korn?" a voice called out.

"Thorn, is that you?" Korn called back as he stood up and walked across to the door.

"yes" the voice replied and Korn unlocked the door then stood back to allow him access.

"hey" Thorn smiled.

"hey" Korn said not really knowing what to do.

"so ... can I get a hug?" Thorn asked