The Secret of the Peony Vase — Ethel Bangert

From the moment she tried to bring it aboard the plane at the airport in San Francisco, the antique vase brought trouble to turquoise-eyed redhead Julie Weston. Tall and slender, decorated with flaming peonies, the valuable objet d'art had been a prized possession of the family of Mishi Haruko-san, a close friend of Julie's father. When Sam Weston, an antique dealer, was able to purchase the vase, which had been stolen during World War Two, he looked forward to returning the cherished heirloom to his dear friend.

But now Sam Weston was dead, the victim of a boating accident, and it was up to Julie to travel to Kyoto with the vase. She had another purpose for her trip to Japan, and it promised to be considerably less pleasant than being Mr. Mishi's guest at the gracious House of the Evening Wisteria. The Kyoto branch of her father's antique business, which was now hers, had been doing poorly for several months, and Julie had promised her partner, Hugo Grant, that she would review the situation at the Moongate Shop.

Under the managership of Hugo's son, Tab, and ex-movie actor from Hollywood, the store had moved to a run-down location and was displaying merchandise so shoddy that Julie was horrified. Though she wished it were otherwise, she knew that this was one problem that could not be solved by handsome, capable Bill Thompson, the industrial filmmaker who had come to the rescue of Julie and the peony vase in San Francisco.