The shelves of a cabinet in the game room were lined with all sorts of game boxes: Gomoku, Xiangqi, Chinese Checkers, Ludo, Jungle, military chess, and so on. Pretty much any game you could name was here. The piece Stella Lockwood was searching for was in the military chess set.
At first glance, it didn't look special; the piece blended in with all the others. But Stella Lockwood recognized it instantly. The lettering was slightly different.
Niles Shelby had bought this particular set. He had purchased it for her specifically because Stella Lockwood had once forgotten to bring her military chess set to the Vaughns' home. The pieces were roughly the same size, but the font was a little different.
She plucked the piece from the center of the box, her heart pounding wildly. She kept searching for the second piece, but it wasn't there. There was only one. 'Where did the other one go?'
She dumped all the pieces onto the coffee table and searched through them meticulously.
