The Engagement Ring

Colin and Sandra Meadows, along with their son David, were lounging in front of a fire in the communal area of the hotel after a satisfying day on the slopes, when his dad nudged him gently in the ribs.

“Looks like you dodged a bullet there, Son!” he exclaimed, causing David to look up from his phone and stare at the TV his dad was pointing at.

“Oh my god!” squawked Sandra while squeezing her husband’s hand tightly in her own.

“Ouch Sandra, easy on the old grip strength there,” Colin said playfully.

David couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The TV was muted and if the mugshot didn’t give the game away, the text running below the news feature certainly did. Talk about a blast from the past, and yes, talk about dodging a bullet.

Just then, David’s wife Lizzie appeared and took a seat on the spacious sofa.

“What are you guys watching? You look mesmorised.” Lizzie said.

David was the first to break out of his transfixed state. He looked at his wife and a rush of relief flooded over his face. He smiled at her earnestly, all the love in the world held in his gaze.

“That specimen of a human being you see before you is seventeen year old me’s ex-girlfriend.”

“Wow, talk about dodging a bullet.”

“Exactly!” Dad exclaimed.

“What’s her name? I’ll google her to find out the deets.” Lizzie said.

“Cass, Cassiopeia Rivers.” Dad said.

“Here she is,” said Lizzie after quickly typing the name and clicking on the most recent news article. “Cassiopeia Armstrong, nee Rogers, nee Smith, nee Rivers has been arrested on suspicion of several murders. Police became suspicious when her most recent husband recently confided with a friend that he thought his wife was going to kill him shortly before falling victim to his wife’s plan. Looking into her past, she revealed a string of ex-husbands dead across the country.”

It was David’s turn to adopt the family’s latest mantra. “Talk about dodging a bullet.”

“I’ve got to say David, she’s hot. I’m guessing she dumped you when she realised that you didn’t have access to daddy’s money?”

“No, actually. I dumped her because of that.” He said, pointing at his wife’s hand.

“What?” she asked.

“Your engagement ring. The Meadow’s family engagement ring.” Dad said. “Let us tell you the story over dinner.”

Once they were seated and had started to progress through the 14 courses, Dad started the tale.

“So it was back when our David was just seventeen, so 11 years ago give or take. Things were good for us due to my trading cards becoming more and more valuable, but I still did a bit of gardening and tree surgery part-time in the summer just to keep the sun on my back and the fat off my front,” Dad started.

“We’d been living in the house only a year or two. By then I’d got used to living so far away from the city but I still yearned for the bright lights every now and then,” Mum added.

“So back then when our David was just a lad, going to high school, where he meets this Cass, and she seems lovely but something about her was a little sickly sweet, and I got the impression that she was only interested in David because he was a gentleman and paid for everything when they were together, which was a lot.

“I remember I’d been away for the weekend on a fishing trip and was driving up our driveway when Sandra bursts through the front door looking distraught.

““I’ve lost the ring!” she screams as she runs out to meet me. She hugs me and says something like “I’m sure it’s been stolen, we’ve looked everywhere for it.”

“I knew exactly which ring she was talking about. That ring’s been in our family for five generations. Anyhow, I take Sandra’s hand and walked her back into the house, not bothering to unpack my fishing gear or even lock the car up. I was thirsty so after I’d got a glass of orange juice we got down to the mystery of the missing engagement ring and I asked her when she last saw it.”

Mum chipped in, “Saturday morning, an hour or so before he left to go fishing. I took it off to do the dishes like I always do and put it in the glass on the windowsill. Anyway, I was doing the dishes and daydreaming, watching nature do its thing. The squirrels were out squirrelling and the magpies were out collecting sticks, and it got me thinking that they were kinda helping us out tidying the garden like they were. And it gave me the idea to do a bit of spring cleaning.”

“That’s definitely believable,” Lizzie joined in; Sandra’s cleanliness was a running joke in the family.

“So once I’d finished with the dishes I came up and cleaned our bedroom, remember I made you rush your packing and I was still cleaning your side of the room when you kissed me goodbye. Once I’d done with our room I went back to the kitchen and made a start on the cupboards, then the floor, then I moved on to the living room and dusted everywhere before opening up the windows to give the place a good airing. At some point Cass came round to see David and they spent the day in his room.”

“Listening to music.” David added.

“Setting the mood were you, loverboy?” Lizzie asked.

“I tried to take no notice of her, pretended as though she didn’t exist. You could tell she was a wrong one. No manners at all, must’ve been dragged up for sure.” Sandra reflected before continuing, “when I’d got done with the cleaning it was early evening so I went to the kitchen to make a start on dinner and that’s when I remembered the ring and noticed it was gone.”

“That’s when I noticed that she was still wearing her other rings…” Dad started.

“And I told him that was the darnest thing. I took them all off and put them in the glass but only the engagement ring was missing.” Mum said.

“So I thought about it for a moment, being good at applying logic as I am, and I ask about when she first opened the windows…”

“And I told him early in the morning, after cooking breakfast. But there was no chance of an opportunist thief coming past our window and snatching it because we’re too remote, plus what fool of a thief steals one ring but leaves three others?

“I put two and two together and the only possible explanation was that Cass had taken it.”

“And I was inclined to agree with my darling wife because she was clearly a gold digger if ever I saw one, as the news has now confirmed. However, there was a little seed of doubt in my mind because I thought Cass was smart and couldn’t be so dumb.

Mum continued, “When I first noticed I called David down and told him my suspicions and that I wanted her out of the house. He said he’d check in her bag when she wasn’t looking and if he found the ring, he’d return it and break up with her.”

“But she didn’t have the ring, did she?” Lizzie asked, interested to hear this story for the first time, despite being married part of the family for years now.

“No,” mum confirmed. “But she did have one of your father-in-law’s trading cards in her bag. David broke up with her and spent the rest of the weekend crying in his room.”

“Your mother-in-law,” Dad said, taking back control of the story, “wanted to go to the police and have them search Cass’s house, but I told her we didn’t have any evidence that she actually took the ring, plus I had the start of an idea, an idea of where the ring might be. So after I went up to see David and make sure he was all right, and after I unpacked the car and hung out my fishing gear to dry, I got down to the business of finding the ring.” 

“The next thing that I know,” said David, joining the story. “Mum is knocking on my door, telling me dad needs my help out back, and to bring my drone.”

Dad took over, “Once outside, David got the drone ready and connected the camera to the app on his phone and he’s asking me “What’s with the suspense Dad? Why can’t you just tell me what you want the drone for?” so I says to him“All will be revealed shortly my young apprentice. Consider this an exercise in patience.”

“More like an exercise in enduring annoyance if I remember correctly,” David added.

“A couple of minutes later and the drone was airborne and David’s asking me ‘where to Captain?’ and I reply ‘I think we’re going to need a ladder,” and I left him flying his his drone backwards and forwards, up and down while I got a ladder and set it up next to one of the old trees at the back of our garden and then I says to our David ‘Okay Son. I want you to fly up high above that tree where I’ve put the ladder and see if you can take a sneaky peek into that nest that’s up there.”

“And I said ‘Dad, you don’t think a bird has stolen the ring, do you?’” David added. 

“And I remember considering my words before saying “I’m 99.9% certain that we will find the ring in a magpie nest.””

“We looked at each other and I said ‘Only one way to find out. Here goes,’ and with that said I quickly flew above the tree while Dad held the phone up so that I could see the camera clearly. I got it in position but it was empty.”

“That was okay though,” said Dad, “there was more than one nest and I took my ladder to the next tree and told David to work his magic with his drone. I placed the ladder against the trunk and was about to turn around and make my way back to David, when I hear him shouting “I see it Dad, I see it!””

“So, with practised ease I set up the ladder and climb up it to retrieve the ring. When I get to the bottom there’s David, looking up at me amazed.”

“I was. I asked you how you knew and you told me magpies often have a soft spot for shiny things. You put on your Sherlock Holmes hat when mum told you she’d seen them collecting sticks for their nest on the morning the ring when missing, and put two and two together.”

He thought back to last Saturday, when he’d made sure that his valuable trading cards were safely under lock and key and left a couple of lower value cards lying around for any opportunist to swipe and sell later on eBay. He had thought that the cards would be enough, but when he had seen his wife’s rings in the glass and then looked out to see the magpies, he had quickly made up his mind and hid the ring in the nest.