Oct 11 2022 Plot Rising Action

Longwood knew that he should not take the case, should have told the former Francesca DiGiovanni, his first love and a titian-haired beauty wearing two rings on her left ring finger, to leave him alone. But there was something in those grey-hazel eyes, something that was in search of his help.

He knew the story of the three rings, one for each mythical Magi king. His great-grandmother told him, his siblings, and their cousins the story every Christmas Eve and each time they gathered for the Feast of the Epiphany. There were the stories of how his great-grandfather smuggled the three rings from the Russian Empire and hid them in England while he worked for a locksmith on Woodland Street.

He knew where they were: research for an essay in high school told him that all three were in the United States. He knew that the last one not in possession of Hathorne Industries, specifically not in the hands of its CEO Daniel Hathorne, or she would not be there to beg for his help.
Tish played on his love for her, begged him to at least listen to her more. Her husband, a folklorist and author of several books on the Rings, had been taken and unless he did not find the last one, the man would be killed.

He had to take the job. Yes, he still held resentment towards the man who took her away from him, but he was not a man who could allow the death of an innocent man. He agreed to take the job but warned her that he had a general idea of where it was, and nothing was guaranteed.