“It was the cold outside air that woke her up. The incidents were happening more frequently now, she thought as she lay frightened in her bed in the dark. Windows and doors, opening and shutting. Lights turning on and off. Objects disappearing and then showing up. Now she heard the laughter, the voice in the breeze as it whispered around her. There was no mistaking it, it was the old woman.
She had worked in the woman’s decrepit mansion when she was younger, taking care of her and taking her awful abuse. All of that changed the day she met him and they hatched their plan. They would rob her one night and take all of her precious jewels.
That was when she first laid her eyes on it, and it wasn’t until many years later that she became aware of its terrible story.
It was a large black sapphire that centuries ago was pried from the eye of an stone idol found in a forgotten temple in a remote jungle in India. It became a gift to a young princess, who was soon beheaded. Eventually it found its way into Europe, where it was made into a necklace and known as “The Star of Sakkara”. Horrible misery and death followed its path. It was last thought to be have been onboard a shipwreck off the coast of Australia.
Somehow the old lady got a hold of it and its curse.
They stole it from her that night and she had run off with him. He left her unconscious and with a broken jaw in a motel room somewhere near New York City. Two days later he was killed in a shoot out with police in Chicago. She found herself in a hospital, where the authorities believed she had been an unwilling hostage. She didn’t disagree. They found all the jewels with him except that one piece. Where was it? What happened? Did he hide it?
Its curse had destroyed everyone who ever touched it, and now it was her turn she thought as she lie in the dark thinking of that night so long ago when she was wearing the necklace as she tightened her fingers around the old woman’s neck until she heard the laughing stop.
A desk lamp in the next room turned on. She climbed out of bed, walked over and saw a newspaper underneath its shining light, with a pen placed upon a puzzle.
She heard the woman’s laughter.”
You can check your answers for this puzzle on Geochecker.com.
