The Inmate

by Freida McFadden

Margie grabs her coat and takes off for the night. It’s only after she’s gone that I dare to approach the blue rectangular box left behind on the kitchen table. It looks like either Tim or Margie put it back in the box, so all I need to do is toss it in the garbage. But instead, I find myself opening the box. I hold up the necklace, letting the snowflake charm swing back and forth. It looks exactly the same as the one I used to wear—the one Tim bought me for my tenth birthday. It’s a gold chain with a gold snowflake with white diamonds set into the six spokes of the snowflake. I look closer at the necklace and notice something else that makes my heart stop. The second spoke on the snowflake is missing a diamond from the edge. Exactly like the one I used to wear. This necklace is identical to the one I wore in high school. And it has the exact same defect in the exact same place as that necklace did. Is it possible that it’s the same necklace? I never found out what became of that necklace. After it broke, I never saw it again. I had assumed the police kept it as evidence, but maybe they didn’t. Maybe somebody else had it this whole time.