Chapter Twenty-Three

“Hmmm.” Mr. Lavelle, the small, stern man that had arrived with Rachenstein’s entourage, made the noise again and breathed deeply through his nose. His lips were tight, his forehead wrinkled, and one eye was partially closed while the other was entirely obscured by a small, black lens. He turned the stone over, repeating, “Hmmmm!”

At the back of the conference room, deep within MPD, I hardly dared breathe. I’d waited several tense days for this. Garrett glanced over his shoulder, catching my eye, and raised his eyebrows.

We’d been in a tense wait for confirmation these past several minutes after Rachenstein’s representatives filed in with an entourage made up of their jewel expert, a representative from the royal family, and four armed bodyguards. More security personnel waited downstairs with the limousine that had brought them. Much to my disappointment, there wasn’t one titled member of the royal family.

Finally, Mr. Lavelle set down the ruby, then his lens, and looked up. “Madame Rousseau?” he called, beckoning to the representative. She stepped closer, her glossy, black hair swinging around her chin, stooping to listen as he whispered into her ear, her expression not changing at all.

When he finished, Madame Rousseau said something I couldn’t hear and motioned to his equipment. He packed away his items into a small, leather bag and scraped back his chair, standing.

“Mr. Lavelle says this is not the Queen’s Ruby,” she said, her words precise and hinting of a slight English accent.

“Our experts say otherwise,” said Chief Davis, a tall, broad man in uniform boasting several stripes. Garrett’s chief rarely made an appearance but apparently, priceless jewels and royalty dragged him out from his spacious office. Or not, as it now seemed.

Stunned silence filled the room.

“I’m afraid our expert is most clear. This is not the Queen’s Ruby. It is a very good imitation but it is without value. However, all is not lost,” said Madame Rousseau, holding her hands up to halt the sudden eruption of confused voices. “We are quite sure the emeralds and sapphires are from our collection. You may, of course, double check but we are quite certain and we have brought with us the necessary documents to have the jewels repatriated to Rachenstein immediately.”

“And the diamonds?” asked Garrett.

“They are mostly real but they are not ours,” she said. “We will not claim them.”

“Mostly?” choked Garrett in bewilderment.

“Come through to my office,” said Chief Davis. “We can talk more in there.” He flashed an angry look at Garrett.

“First, Rachenstein would like to express thanks to the officer who recovered the items. Lieutenant Graves, we understand you were in charge?” Madame Rousseau’s gaze swept over the small assembly, searching for my brother.

Garrett stood. “I was. It was a team effort involving several officers, members of the public, and our consultant, Lexi Graves-Solomon.” He gestured to me and her gaze roamed over me. I popped my hand up in a half wave and wondered if I should curtsy out of politeness. Or for the sheer fun of it. When would I ever get another chance to curtsy to a royalty-adjacent person again?!

“Then I should like to thank you both for your efforts in recovering the jewels so precious to Rachenstein. They have great importance to our country’s heritage and you have partially solved what had been a great mystery.” She smiled, at last, seeming to break some of the tension in the room. “Furthermore, the king and queen have instructed me to issue a commendation and thanks. We will arrange for a personal letter to be sent to both of you, and those also involved. I am sure you are aware that the full reward cannot be paid out under these circumstances but a partial one is in order. Please be assured how grateful we are to you both, Lieutenant Graves and Ms. Graves-Solomon.”

“Let’s refine those details in my office,” said Chief Davis. Another officer had already opened the door, and the chief indicated for Madame Rousseau and her entourage to proceed from the room. “We’ll need to return the jewels to the evidence locker.”

“We will take possession of the emeralds and sapphires,” said Madame Rousseau, indicating with a nod of her head to Mr. Lavelle. He selected each jewel with a gloved hand, adding each to its own small, velvet pouch.

“That won’t be…”

“Rachenstein’s diplomatic envoy and the state senator are on their way,” she added warningly.

The chief nodded. “Understood,” he said. “Let’s work out those finer details.”

Instead of leaving the room directly, she moved across to Garrett, said something briefly, and shook his hand, then crossed the room to me, shaking mine too. “Good work,” said Madame Rousseau. “Rachenstein is grateful.” Then she was gone, Mr. Lavelle, the bodyguards, and rank and file following close behind her.

“Wow,” I said when the room was empty of everyone except Garrett and me. Outside the door remained a duo of uniforms, our entourage for the unclaimed stones. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“The fake ruby or the grateful thanks of an entire European nation?”

“Both. I’m not sure which I’m most stunned by.”

“Me neither. Let’s get Laura Reynolds in here,” he said, scratching his head. “I want to know what the hell just happened. She said the ruby and all the diamonds were real.”

“She’s waiting downstairs. She’s been so excited about it and I’m sure she wouldn’t get something like this wrong,” I said, thinking about the ruby.

“That’s what I can’t figure out.” Garrett picked up the phone on the table at the side of the room. “Lieutenant Graves,” he announced, “can someone bring Laura Reynolds to Conference Room B? Yes, right away. Thanks.”

When Laura arrived within minutes, Garrett waved me to silence, instead instructing she should sit in the seat Mr. Lavelle had just vacated. “Can you look over the remaining jewels?” he asked.

“Of course! I see the emeralds and sapphires have been removed. Did Rachenstein take them?” she asked. “Gosh, I can hardly contain my excitement!”

“Yes,” I said, “but we’d like you to take another look at the remaining ones.”

“Of course! I assume there’s some question of their ownership from their own experts. I’m not sure what else I can add but I’ll do whatever I can. I’m surprised they didn’t take the ruby. I’ve been researching it and I’m convinced it’s the Queen’s Ruby too. Why didn’t they take it?” she asked as she pulled out her own magnifying lens and plucked the ruby. She looked at it, turning it over in her hand and frowned. “I don’t understand.” She glanced up. “What is this?”

“What do you mean?” I asked, playing innocent.

“This isn’t the ruby you brought to me.”

“What do you mean?” I repeated.

“Well, just that. It’s… it’s not a ruby. It looks like one but it’s not.” Laura glanced around. “Is this a joke? Are you playing a trick on me? Is there a camera in here?”

“Tell us what you see,” said Garrett.

“It’s a fake,” she said, peering at the ruby again, turning it this way and that before putting it down. “Yes, I’m sure of it. It’s fake. Take a look for yourself.”

I picked it up, turning it over in my palm but I couldn’t see a thing different from the ruby I’d handled before. It was beautiful but was it lighter? I couldn’t be sure. I passed the gem to Garrett and he did the same.

“Paste?” said Garrett as he tossed the jewel onto the depleted stack with a sigh.

“Not quite. Lab grown. It’s one of the best lab-grown jewels I’ve ever seen,” said Laura. “Expensive.”

“Not Queen’s Ruby expensive,” I said.

“No, definitely not that. A fraction of that.”

“How am I supposed to explain this to Rachenstein’s representatives? And Chief Davis? I told them it was a ruby and handed them a fake.” Garrett ran a hand over his hair and covered his mouth with his fist.

“I can’t tell you that,” said Laura. “All I know is the first ruby I examined was real. I will swear to it. There is no way I could make a mistake like that. And you said they took the other stones? It was easy to match them to Rachenstein’s collection once I knew where to look.”

“And the diamonds? Apparently, they’re mostly real but they didn’t claim them. They said they weren’t theirs,” I added.

“Decent of them. I got a call on my way here. The diamonds were stolen from a merchant that went out of business a long time ago. Insurance paid out on the theft so I imagine the insurers will want to collect them now they’ve surfaced. Wait a second… You said mostly?” Laura pushed the diamonds with her finger, then examined them one after another, pushing some out of line with her fingertip. When she finished, six gems were out of line. “These six are fakes. I know every one of them was real when you called me in.” She looked up. “How could this have happened?”

“Dammit!” snapped Garrett. “I’m going to chew the evidence sergeant out for this!”

“Did I get someone into trouble?” Laura asked.

I shook my head. “No. Trouble just walked in and helped itself,” I said, thinking back to a few days ago when Cass Temple walked out of the police station and feigned innocence.

Laura stood. “I can’t say I know what that means but I hope you get to the bottom of it. I’ve sent you an email about the diamonds and I’m happy to add that I authenticated the ruby and that it’s not the one you showed me today,” she continued. “I hope we can work together again, although under better circumstances.”

“I appreciate that. I’ll get someone to walk you out,” said Garrett. “Then I need to work out exactly what happened.”

“I think I know,” I said. “I have a theory I still need to iron out but you’re not going to like it.”

“And an arrest to make,” he added, “but I’ll like that.”

“Sounds like a busy day,” said Laura.

When Laura had gone, I explained my theory to Garrett and he took it a heck of a lot better than I thought he would before instructing me to remain in his office while he went to prove if I were right.

By the time he returned more than an hour later, I’d made several calls, thought in great detail about lunch, purchased a dress online, and aced the next level of my current phone game obsession.

“Let’s go,” he said, appearing in the doorway. “I’ll tell you everything on the way.”

“I’m all ears.”

Garrett didn’t talk again until we were turning out of the police lot in a black sedan with a peppermint scent tree hanging from the rearview mirror, not quite masking the lingering stale odor. “You were right about the stolen police uniform you saw our lady thief wearing,” he said. “No one would own up to theirs going missing so I hauled in every officer who went into the evidence locker that day and had the desk sergeant identify them. He has quite the eye for faces. He didn’t recognize one of them. A rookie named Walsh. Yet there was a log-in with her badge, depositing evidence. Walsh confessed to her uniform going missing from her locker. She found it in a trash can around the corner from here the same day so she figured it was some kind of weird hazing she was going to get in trouble for.”

“She must be the female police officer I overheard saying her uniform had disappeared. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Walsh didn’t report it so no one knew there was a uniform floating around, unaccounted for. Cass Temple must have stolen it to use to gain access to the evidence locker. I knew it!” My voice rose with excitement. Then the image of another woman flashed into my head. A uniformed woman I’d seen inside the police station and thought I’d recognized. Had that been her too? Or was my mind playing tricks on me? I wasn’t sure I’d ever know.

“I should have done this when you insisted you saw her exit the station. Man, I screwed up! I saw the sealed box and the sergeant counted out the jewels.”

“We saw what she wanted us to see,” I said. “She must have grabbed tape from somewhere, unsealed the box, and resealed it.”

“Damn,” said Garrett, shaking his head.

“What happens to Officer Walsh now?” I asked.

“An official reprimand and six months of traffic duty. She won’t make a mistake like that again.”

“I feel sorry for her.”

“Don’t. She should have reported it the minute she realized her uniform was gone.”

“What I can’t fathom is how Cass Temple got into the building to even get the uniform. I know I saw her wearing it. I’m sure of it.”

“I checked the cameras. A pregnant lady came in that afternoon. Big, floppy sun hat, tote bag, and begged to use the restroom. No pregnant lady ever came out so I figure she ditched that disguise in the trash and just strolled around until she could access the women’s locker rooms. She probably caught the door as it was closing and picked the lock on lockers until she found a uniform her size. She probably put it on and walked out.”

“Unbelievable.” But even as I said it, I knew it was. I’d talked my way into buildings, and broken into them when necessary. I’d even gone undercover as a plush pony to access areas crucial to my investigation. If I had limits, I wasn’t sure what they were.

“I’ll say. Ballsy.”

I monitored Garrett for a few seconds, wondering if he were impressed but I couldn’t quite tell. “So Cass Temple dresses in the uniform and goes to access the evidence locker but she didn’t want to set off any alerts from accessing that box since its contents were already attracting attention, so she requested access to deposit an item in a different one,” I said, guessing now.

“Yeah, that’s how it went down. The fake Officer Walsh requested to log in a pair of gloves and a crowbar purportedly used in a home robbery. I’ve sent them to be fingerprinted but I already know we won’t find anything. She was on her own for long enough that she located our box, slit open the seal, swapped the rubies, stole the diamonds, and resealed it. I noticed a roll of tape under the shelving unit so you’re probably right about that. As far as anyone knew, no one ever accessed our box. We wouldn’t have known until we attempted to repatriate it to Rachenstein.”

“By then, Cass Temple would be long gone, leaving us looking like fools. It’s her bad luck you’d already called Rachenstein’s reps and made arrangements to show them the jewels.”

“Cass Temple is long gone and we do look like fools,” pointed out Garrett. “I’m lucky I’m going to get to keep my job over this. Rachenstein’s commendation saved my butt there. Annoying as it was, Gideon Black did us a favor deflating the tires to keep us out of the way. Since I was out of town when the evidence locker was accessed, it’s officially not my fault that the jewels were stolen. Temple really pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes. If I weren’t so damn pissed at her, I would be impressed!”

“With the tracker you found, and the one Solomon found on my car, I figure Gideon had another plan to get the jewels that involved keeping us out of the way,” I said. “Whatever it was, it tanked, which is why he came after me.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll never know.”

“At least we have him. Although I’m not sure where MPD falls in the queue to prosecute. Plenty of other states must want their turn.”

“Ah.” Garrett winced.

“Garrett? We do have Gideon Black, don’t we?” As I asked, Garrett winced more. I groaned, repressing the urge to scream. What else could possibly go wrong today?!

“I got the call minutes before we had the meeting with Rachenstein. Black escaped the hospital sometime in the early hours of the morning. There’s no telling where he is now, except I’ll bet it’s hundreds of miles away by tonight. If not thousands.”

“He escaped his guards?” I asked, amazed, yet somehow not. Of course he escaped. There was no way Gideon Black was going to wait around to see what his future had in store under the auspices of MPD.

“Guards, handcuffs, and a particularly flappy hospital gown.”

“Unbelievable,” I huffed. That guy was a one-man nightmare, not to mention more slippery than a snake. I’d hazard a guess he probably charmed at least one nurse or doctor in his short stay at Montgomery General. Even if he hadn’t. Picking handcuffs was nothing to a thief like him.

“At least we’ll make one arrest out of this,” said Garrett, pulling over. We’d fallen into silence, each of us contemplating the case as the miles flew past.

We stepped out of the car, waiting on the side of the road near Barnham Correctional Facility. Behind us, arrived Jord in a squad car with two officers. I was surprised Lily and my parents hadn’t turned up too since this kind of overwatch appeared to be turning into a family affair.

“Nice day for it,” said Jord, grinning. “Thanks for having me along for the ride. Now I get to say I was part of this case.”

“It comes with bragging rights,” I said.

“I’ll say.” Jord grinned.

We didn’t have long to wait for Kelvin Huff to take the long walk from the prison walls, past the last checkpoint, and through the tall wire tunnel, to reach the sidewalk. When he stepped outside, with barely a few words from the guard who closed the gates behind him, he stopped, put his hands on his civilian-clothed hips and smiled up at the sky. I could only imagine he thought he was going to have a great day. He looked around, searching for his ride and spotted us.

“Let’s get this over with,” said Garrett.

“After you,” I said, and followed him, two of the officers only a few steps behind us.

“Hello, Lieutenant,” said Kelvin, his eyebrows rising. “And Investigator. I suppose you have a few more questions for me, although I’m sure I’ve told you everything I know. You’ll have to excuse me. My ride should be here any minute.”

“She’s not coming,” I said bluntly. “Amybeth doesn’t want anything to do with you. She’s made that very clear.”

Huff started to open his mouth to protest but Garrett cut in.

“I do have some more questions for you as it happens, and you’re definitely going to answer them, but first I’m going to read you your rights. I’m arresting you for the murder of Charles Black,” said Garrett before reeling off Huff’s rights. “Cuff him.”

“What the heck?” Kelvin gasped as one of the officers moved to shackle him. “I don’t even know who that is.”

“Sure you do,” I said. “You knew exactly what your buddy Timothy Wright was up to, and his alias as Joe Smithson. You knew he stole the jewels from the museum you both helped renovate and you followed him here to get your cut. He double-crossed you nearly two decades ago and you’ve been waiting for this day a long time. The day you get to collect your jewels. Only we got there first.” I didn’t add and someone got there right after us . Kelvin didn’t need to know that. “We know everything,” I told him.

Huff paled. “You’ll never make this stick.”

“I’m confident we will,” said Garrett. “Take him to the station.”

The officers walked Huff to their squad car and put him in the back, slamming the door shut on his loud protests.

“Is this the fastest arrest after release from jail or what?” asked Jord.

“I’m fairly proud of it,” replied Garrett.

“Heard you lost Gideon Black.”

“Don’t rub it in,” I said.

“Should we be worried?” asked Jord. “I couldn’t find any sign of anyone watching Poppy but a heads-up on any more intel would be good.”

“I doubt Gideon actually had anyone watching Poppy,” I said, “I think he just said that to scare me into doing what he wanted. He gambled and lost.”

“Good to know. Shotgun,” called Jord as he headed to our car and the squad car pulled out, making a U-turn and heading back the way we’d come. On the backseat, Huff turned his head, looking forlornly through the window behind him.

“He won’t have time to miss his cell,” said Garrett. “He’ll be back in it soon.”

“I have a feeling if he ends up back here, he’ll request a transfer as fast as he can,” I said.

Garrett huffed, amused. “Let’s head back. Where should I drop you?”

“How about the FBI field office?”

“Maddox?”

“Maddox,” I confirmed.