Angel Face

Where Is It?

XXXIV

"You do realize that it's my face and not my legs, that's hurt, right?" I asked clearly amused while Duncan carried me bridal style to our front door, with a smile etched on his face. "I can walk, Dunky." I added in a baby voice, which was followed by his boisterous laugh.

"Seriously? You couldn't find a better nickname?" He chuckled as he pushed the door open after unlocking it with his eyes. I rolled my eyes. "Well, I'm sorry if I couldn't find a better shorter version for your already short name." I retorted sarcastically. "Or would you prefer Canny more?" I suggested with a straight face, secretly enjoying how he was failing miserably to suppress his laugh. "I would prefer anything you wish to call me, even if it suspiciously sounds a lot like donkey. But first, do you mind if we take a detour through my office?" He said after clearing his throat.

"Or you could just put me down." I suggested with a smile.

"Nah, I'm good." He declined before bouncing me in his arms, to get a better grip.

We were finally back home on Tuesday, once Sam did all the necessary tests and cleared me to go home. Monday morning while I was sent to take the tests, Duncan took that opportunity to get a beautiful bouquet of gladiolus, yellow roses and white magnolias, and visit Jack's grave to pay his respects since he missed the service because of me. And while he was gone, he made sure Richard was there to accompany me. 

The swellings, in my jaw and cheeks, had also gone down a lot thanks to which I could speak now. Although it was still painful, if I talked for too long at a stretch. Duncan had made sure to contact Nick and inform him that I was going to take a few days off, much to my chagrin. Duncan still refused to discuss anything about work which was making me queasy since I wanted to get this off of my chest as soon as possible. 

Once we entered his office, Duncan placed me down on his chair before walking away to a cabinet. I leaned back on the chair with a sigh as I watched his back while he went through a few files. Taking my eyes off of him, I looked at his desk which was tidy as ever. My eyes fell on the pile of papers that conveniently lay in front of me. But what caught my attention was the open shell of the package that was on top of them.

It was the same package that Leroi had given Duncan the first night we went to the shooting range. I sat up straight as I stared at it, It had the shooting range's address on it with the receiver's name completely struck of, making it ineligible, but it was clear that the name was much longer than Duncan's.

But what seemed more odd to me was that there was no return address on it. I slowly pushed the package away to reveal a handwritten letter which was written in some foreign language that I didn't recognize. Pushing that away too, the paper I saw below it made my eyes widen.

"Duncan?" I called as I lifted the paper up with shaky hands. I heard Duncan hum in response. "Why do you have this?" I asked in disbelief. "Have what?" That seemed to catch his attention as he asked confused, nearing where I sat too see what I was talking about. I felt him still behind me when he saw what I was talking about. I looked up at him to see him tense. "Duncan?" He looked down at me before turning the seat around and kneeling before me. 

He took the paper which held the perfect and beautiful sketches of a familiar wooden box with engravings of flower and words, along with that of the most gorgeous and elegant necklace that a woman can only dream of possessing because a beauty like that could only be a myth and legend. But it was not a myth nor was it a legend. It was real and it was currently locked away in my safe, 173 feet below the Historical Society building, in my office inside the fire box.  He laid the paper on my lap and looked into my eyes before asking. "Do you recognise this necklace?"