Kelly shrugged uncomfortably.
“No f**king one.” He looked back at Nick almost sadly.
“Didn’t take a f**king genius to figure out his old man was knocking him around, so I asked him, big kid like you, why don’t you knock back? He meets my eyes again and he says, ‘’Cause I got people more important than me at home to take care of, Paddy.’ He f**king knew who I was. Wasn’t afraid of me.”
Kelly glanced at Nick, his heart aching. “With a father like his, why should he be afraid of anyone?” he asked softly.
“You damn right,” Paddy snarled. “Damn right. I told him I’d help him out. I’d protect his sisters if he’d protect me. He was good on his word, and I was good on mine. Even gave him a ride to the airport and paid for his f**king ticket to go to Parris Island when it was time. I had pride in my heart for this boy just like he was my own son.”
Kelly’s eyes widened. He’d never heard any of this. Nick was stone-faced, though, not reacting at all to the information being revealed, or to the almost kind words the notorious criminal was saying about him.
“He came back home and went to work for the other guy,” Paddy said with a sigh. “Always were the good egg no matter how hard I tried to boil you. So you come to me asking for help, I’m giving it to you. No questions asked.”
Nick swallowed hard. “Mikey told you what we’re looking for?”
“He did.” Paddy gave Mikey a nod.
Kelly didn’t like the fact that Mikey was moving around behind him, but he was trying not to be tense or appear nervous. He had to trust Julian to watch their backs for them, which was admittedly a little hard to do.
“You have a lead for us?” Nick asked, growing impatient.
“Better.”
Mikey set a reinforced suitcase on the table between them, and Paddy leaned over to put in a code, then prop the lid open. He turned it to display the contents to them with a flourish.
On the cushioned interior of black felt sat a sparkling piece of jewelry. Roughly four inches wide, with bright-blue enamel that was covered in diamonds, emeralds, and rubies.
Kelly recognized it as the star brooch from Julian’s photo.
“Jesus Christ,” Julian blurted.
Nick lowered his head, rubbing his hands over his face.
He’d just been shown stolen goods and was powerless to do anything about it. It had to be killing his sense of duty. Kelly put his hand on Nick’s knee.
“A replica, of course, of the one stolen and smuggled into Boston a century ago,” Paddy said cheekily. “I keep it to . . .
honor our Irish roots.”
“Right,” Nick grunted. He sat forward, looking but not touching.
“What exactly is it you need from this?” Mikey asked.
Nick gave him a wary glance. “It’s supposed to point to a location.”
“Like a treasure map?” Mikey asked.
Nick nodded.
JD slid off the sofa to his knees, his fingers gripping the table. “May I touch it?” he asked. It was the first thing he’d said since the elevator. He’d obviously forgotten he was scared.
Paddy merely chuckled. He waved for JD to go ahead.
They crowded around it, scowling at the priceless piece like it was a Rubik’s Cube instead of a treasure that had gone missing over a hundred years ago. The emeralds were stunningly green, and they made up a clover in the center of the field of diamonds. Brilliant red rubies formed an X behind it. But there was nothing else. Just precious gems. No message, no sign. Nothing that would point in any way to a location or clue.
“I don’t understand,” Julian said. He was leaning over the back of the couch, breathing down their necks. “They said it would be there.”
Nick massaged the bridge of his nose. “Is it possible these people wanted you to locate this instead of something more?”
he asked.
“Good luck to them, if that’s the case,” Julian said with a salute toward Paddy.
“Why did they think it would be here?” Kelly asked.
“The man responsible for the design was a descendant of the soldier who hid the stolen goods,” Julian explained.
“There were several accounts, private accounts, that the clues to its whereabouts were passed along.”
JD tore his attention away from the star to turn it to Paddy. “Do you have a loupe?”
Paddy rubbed his finger across the tip of his nose, nodding.
He gestured for one of the men at the door to retrieve it.
Nick still had his head down, his thumbs massaging his temples. “This treasure hunt is just as pointless as the one we send those kids on every summer.”
Kelly patted his knee, trying to offer some sort of comfort.
Nick had just sold his soul to get a look at this thing, all for nothing. The memory of Nick’s notes for that treasure hunt flashed through Kelly’s mind. Then it hit him.
“Oh my God, it’s a pigpen cipher!” he blurted.
Nick raised his head, blinking rapidly at Kelly then glancing at the star in JD’s hand.
“Look it,” Kelly said, reaching to take it from JD. He drew his finger across the rubies, then pointed at each tip of the clover so they could envision it. It formed a perfect piece to a pigpen cipher, with the shapes of the clover creating the message.
“Motherfucker,” Nick breathed.
“What does it mean?” Julian demanded.
“Pigpen ciphers are usually dots, but this is shapes,” Nick told him. “Three circles and an arch. I know arches are supposed to represent power, monarchy, manliness . . . sometimes the warrior class. But this one’s on its head, I have no idea what that means. And circles, I don’t know.”
“You said there were more pieces stolen when this was?”
Kelly asked. “I bet together, they form a complete cipher.”
Nick nodded toward Paddy. “Any ideas?”
“The other pieces, I can’t help you with,” Paddy told them.
“You can imagine that stealing the Irish Crown Jewels brought enough attention; keeping them together as a collection would have been . . .”
“Stupid,” Nick provided.
Paddy gave them that crooked grin again, and again it made Kelly uneasy.
“Where the other pieces ended up, I don’t know. You could speak to our . . . brethren in New York. Chicago. But even I can’t get a cop through their doors for a treasure hunt, kiddo.”
Nick’s jaw tightened and he nodded.
“Maybe there’s more etched in the stones,” JD said. He pointed to the jeweler’s loupe Nosebleed was bringing them.