About as long, actually, as my boyfriend had been dead.

“What’ll I get for this sterling silver buckle?” Andy wanted to know. “A real piece of old-fashioned craftsmanship. Look at the detail in the ornate D carved into it.”

Shannon, sitting beside me, suddenly went, “Does your brother ever talk about me? Dave, I mean.”

I was idly watching my stepfather. The sun was beating down on us kind of hard, and it was difficult to think about anything except how much I wished I were at the beach.

“I don’t know,” I said. I could understand Shannon’s pain, of course. She had a crush on a guy. All she wanted to know was whether or not she was wasting her time.

As the sister of the object of her affections, however, all I could think was… ew. Also, that David is way too young to have a girlfriend.

“One of the members of the historical society—don’t think I don’t see you there, Bob,” Andy went on laughingly, “even ventured that this belt buckle might have belonged to someone in the Diego clan, a very old, very respected family that settled in this area nearly two hundred years ago.”

Respected, my butt. The Diegos—or at least, the ghosts of the two members of the family I had had the misfortune to meet—had all been thieves and murderers.

“I believe that for that reason and not just because of its intricate beauty,” Andy continued, “this piece is going to be highly sought after by collectors someday… and, who knows, maybe even today!”

“David doesn’t really talk about girls at home all that much,” I said to Shannon. “At least, not to me.”

“Oh.” Shannon looked dejected. “But do you think… well, do you think if Dave did like a girl, it’d be, you know, someone like me?”

“Let’s start the bidding for this fine piece of authentic period jewelry at a hundred dollars,” Andy said. “A hundred dollars. Okay, we have a hundred. How about a hundred and twenty-five? Does anybody bid a hundred and twenty-five?”

I thought about what Shannon had asked me. David, a girlfriend? The youngest of my stepbrothers, I could no more picture David with a girlfriend than I could picture him behind the wheel of a car or even playing soccer. He just isn’t that kind of guy.

“Three fifty,” I heard Andy say. “Do I hear three fifty?”

But I supposed that one day David would drive a car. I mean, I could drive now, and there’d been a time when my whole family had despaired of that ever happening. It made sense that someday David would be sixteen and do all the same things that his older brothers Jake and Brad and I were doing…. You know, drive. Take trig. Make out withmembers of the opposite sex.

“My goodness, Bob,” Andy said into the microphone. “You weren’t kidding when you mentioned how important you thought this piece was going to be to our auction today, were you? I have seven hundred dollars. Does anyone— Okay, seven fifty. Do I hear eight?”

“Sure,” I said to Shannon. “I mean, why wouldn’t David like you? I mean, if he liked anyone better than anybody else. Which I’m not saying he does. That I know of.”

“Really?” Shannon looked worried. “Because Dave’s really smart. And I think he’d probably only like smart girls. But I’m not doing all that well in math.”

“I’m sure David wouldn’t care about something like that,” I said even though I wasn’t sure of it at all. “So long as, you know, you’re a nice person, and all.”

“Really?” Shannon flushed prettily. “Do you really think so?”

My God, what had I said?

Fortunately at that moment, Andy brought his auctioneer’s hammer down hard, and distracted Shannon by shouting, “Sold for eleven hundred dollars!”

“Wow,” Shannon said. “That’s a lot of money.”

She wasn’t the only one in shock. There was an astonished hum through the crowd. Eleven hundred dollars was the most any item on the block had brought in so far. I craned my neck to see what kind of fool had that much money to burn on a piece of junk, and was a little startled to see that Andy was still holding up the belt buckle Jake had found in the attic…

…and that Paul Slater, of all people, was striding up through the crowd to claim it.

I watched as Paul, looking pleased, shook Andy’s hand, took the belt buckle, then whipped out his checkbook. What a loser, I thought. I mean, I had known Paul was a weirdo for a long time. But to throw away his hard-earned money—well, not so hard-earned, actually, because I was pretty sure he was paying for the belt buckle with funds stolen from the Gutierrezes—on a piece of junk like that….Well, that was just insane.

It didn’t make any sense. Why would Paul Slater spend 1,100 bucks on a banged-up old belt buckle… even if it had been polished and its linage could be traced back to its original owner, someone in the Diego clan?

And then, as if someone had brought Andy’s auctioneer’s hammer down on my head, finally banging some sense into me, it all became clear.

And I began to feel as if I might throw up all those baked goods we’d secretly been scarfing down behind Sister Ernestine’s back. I guess it must have shown on my face, since Shannon suddenly sucked in her breath and went, “Are you all right?”

“Bad lemon bar,” I said. “I’ll be right back.” I got up and hurried away from the bake sale table, around the back of the rows of folding chairs, and then up the aisle, toward the dais where Paul was standing, collecting his bounty.

But before I could get anywhere close to him, someone grabbed me by the arm.

My heart was beating so fast on account of the whole Paul-trying-to-keep-my-boyfriend-from-dying thing, that I almost jumped a mile in the air, I was so startled.

But it turned out it was only my mother.

“Susie, honey,” she said, smiling beatifically up at Andy, behind his podium. “Isn’t this fun? Isn’t Andy doing great?”

“Uh,” I said, “yeah, Mom.”

“He’s a real natural, isn’t he?” She’s so in love with this guy. It’s totally gross. In, like, a nice way, I guess. But still gross.

“Yeah,” I said. “Look, I have to—”

But I shouldn’t have worried. Because Paul found me.

“Suze,” he said, coming down the steps from the dais. I was too late. The transaction had been completed. In his hand was the belt buckle. “Fancy meeting you here.”