“What jig?” Gretel hoped there wasn’t some hidden surveillance system that they hadn’t known about. No, surely the police would’ve paid her a visit by now. Kent had said he switched off everything and he was the best at what he did.
Monica looked over at Jack. “Look at her. She’s wearing my earrings.”
“What?” Gretel frowned at her, raising her hand to touch her earrings. “Me?”
“Monica thought she saw you after the robbery. Her building went into lockdown last night because of a fire alert, and then someone busted through her door with an ax.”
Gretel’s mouth fell open in shock. “That’s awful for you, Monica. Is that when your gun went missing?”
“No,” Jack answered for Monica. “Well, it might’ve been but someone broke into her safe and stole her gun and a pair of diamond earrings. We don’t know if it was before or after the fire alarm was raised.”
“They are a very expensive pair of earrings and I can’t believe you've got the gumption to wear them right in front of my face.”
Gretel frowned at her. “These are my earrings. They were a gift from an old boyfriend. I never even thought they were real. They probably aren’t. I don’t think he would’ve been able to afford diamonds of this size. Anyway, they’re mine not yours.”
“You’d know whether they were real or not because of your past occupation. If you can call stealing jewels an occupation. Don’t play dumb with that stupid story. I saw you and I know it was you.”
Jack leaned over his desk and put his hand up to try to calm Monica. “There’s a simple way to solve this. Gretel, do you mind if we have someone take a look at those earrings?”
“Not at all. As long as I get them back.”
“Each of them has a lasered number on it.” Monica reached into the handbag on her lap and produced a couple of diamond certificates. Gretel knew what they were right away.
Gretel took the earrings off. “I’m sorry that I don’t try to estimate the value of the gifts people give me. Maybe mine have a number on them too. I wouldn’t know. I don’t normally take gifts anywhere to be appraised.” She dropped the earrings into Jack’s outstretched hand.
“Thank you, Gretel. It won’t take long to get to the bottom of this.” He handed the earrings to Monica. “Take a look for those numbers.”
Monica grabbed the earrings, and then held one up to the light.
Now it was Gretel’s turn to retrieve something from her handbag. She grabbed her 10x jeweler’s loupe out of her bag and handed it to her. “Try this.”
Monica frowned, and took the loupe from her without a word of thanks.
“You’re welcome. I take it everywhere with me. You’d be surprised at how often it comes in handy.”
“No, I wouldn’t be,” Monica said. After she studied the earrings for a moment, she said to Gretel, “You’ve put them in different settings.”
“They’re not your earrings. Admit it.”
“Is the number there, Monica?” Jack asked, now sounding bored with the whole thing.
“There’s no number on this one.”
“Try the other.”
“No.” Monica shook her head. “She must’ve got the numbers polished off.”
Gretel sat there without saying a word.
“And, how would she have done that?” Jack asked.
“Got a diamond cutter to do it, I guess, which might have made them smaller, hence having to put them in new settings.”
“The robbery was last night. We have to be practical about this, Monica. There wouldn’t have been time enough between last night and now to do anything like that, to put the diamonds in other settings and for Gretel to find a diamond cutter.”
“You can search my apartment if you want, if you think I’ve got your gun. I can tell you that I was home all night. Check my cell phone signal. Those earrings are mine.”
Monica stared at the diamonds. “They look like mine.”
“All diamonds look the same. That is, if these are even diamonds. As I said, I wouldn’t even know.” Gretel sensed Jack looked doubtful at what she said. “I just wear them because I like them. It’s nothing to do with the value.”
“I know they’re mine,” Monica said through gritted teeth.
“If you’ve got certificates for your diamonds, take my earrings and have them checked by a diamond appraiser. I don’t mind.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind, Gretel?” Jack asked.
“Of course not. I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Thank you. There you are, Monica, you can take them and have them checked.”
Monica laughed. “I can see where this is going. I’ll bring these back to you and you’ll say I’ve switched them and they were really some valuable kind of diamonds.”
“No. I just said in front of Jack that I don’t even know if they are diamonds. I trust you, take them.”
Monica placed the earrings down and then rested her hands on her bag. “I’m not falling for it. Jack, can you take them and the certificates and have them checked? You’re impartial.”
“If that’ll solve the issue, I will.”
Monica then glared at Gretel, and Gretel offered what she hoped was a genuine smile back.
“I’d say just keep them, but now I’m kind of hoping they are diamonds.”
“Do you have the name of the man who gave them to you, Gretel?” Jack asked.
“No. It was a million years ago. I dated quite a few men in the past.”
His dark eyebrows rose just slightly.
“I’m sure you have,” Monica blurted out before she bounded to her feet. “Let me know as soon as you learn anything, Jack.”
Jack stood while Monica flounced out of his office. “I will,” he said just as she was at the door. She turned and gave him a smile. As Jack sat down again, he said, “I’m sorry to put you through that, Gretel.”
“That’s okay. I’d be upset if I’d lost diamonds that size too. I would’ve thought, though, she’d be more upset about the gun. Won’t she get into trouble if that’s an FBI-issued weapon?”
He nodded. “The bureau won’t be happy, but if it’s stolen she can’t help it. She had a safe and a home security system, and made every effort to keep it out of the wrong hands.”
“Didn’t her security system work?”
“No. It just happened to fail that day.”
“Who would’ve broken in? Was it an opportunist who broke in, like a looter, with the fire happening?”
He shook his head. “It’s unlikely, but it’s hard to know for sure. No one else in the building was robbed that night. It seems that her apartment was the target. And, her security system had been tampered with.”
“The security system in her apartment?”
“That’s right.”
“Oh, that’s dreadful. I feel so sorry for her. I hope she finds a nice place to stay while they’re fixing her apartment.”
“It was just her door. It’s already been fixed. The thing that worries her is that someone knew the safe’s combination.”
“Hmm, that is a worry.”
He stared at her for a moment. “Knowing the criminal mind as you do, what would you say about the case?”
“Oh, well … it sounds like the fire department was called to create a distraction. You said there was no fire?”
“Correct.”
“That’s all I can say.” Gretel leaned forward. “I wonder if Monica made the whole thing up.”
“Not likely. If it was only the earrings then that would be a different matter, but she’d never say her firearm was missing if it wasn’t. That really is a big issue.”
“That’s a shame. I’m serious about searching my apartment. If I’m under suspicion in even a small way, I don’t mind having my place searched—seriously.”
“It’s fine, Gretel. No one suspects you.”
“Good, but it doesn’t sound like that’s true. Monica suspects me. She just accused me of having her earrings.”<
br />
“I’m sorry about this whole thing.”
Gretel smiled. “It’s fine. Diamonds that size would be worth a lot. That’s why she’s so upset. I wonder where Monica got the money, did she say?”
“No, and neither did I ask. She probably saved up and bought them for herself. Come on. It’s not my business, or yours.” He rose to his feet.
“Where are we going?”
He looked down at the earrings in his hand. “We have to get these checked out.”
Chapter Three
Gretel still hadn’t heard back from Kent about what had gone wrong the previous night. Kent had gotten into Monica’s computer remotely, retrieved all her dating data from the various sites she was using, and hired the perfect man. He wasn’t the perfect man, but Kent had schooled him on how to present himself as Monica’s perfect match—what to say, how to act and what to talk about.
He’d certainly looked the part when he’d set off to meet her, and it had worked at the beginning when Monica responded to him on the dating site.
Monica had created a whole different persona for herself. The only thing real on the dating sites was her photo, and even that had been heavily altered to make her look moderately attractive.
Now it was clear that something bad had happened for Monica to leave the dinner so quickly. It didn’t matter now because there was nothing they could do about it. Monica must have picked him for the fraud he was. Maybe she was a good intelligence agent after all. At least it had gotten her away from the apartment for a while.
Gretel slipped into the front seat of Jack’s car. Before he started the engine, he looked over at her. “Nervous?”
“No. Why should I be?”
“You’re one hundred percent sure the earrings aren’t Monica’s?”
“No. It’s not even possible. I thought you of all people trusted me.”
He laughed. “I’m joking. Still, this will put Monica’s mind at rest and show her we can trust you.”
“It’ll also show her how ridiculous she’s being.”
“Yes, that too.” He started the engine and then made his way out of the parking lot. “Where are we going?”
“To get the earrings checked, aren’t we?”
“Yes. But I don’t know anywhere that could do that. I thought you would.”
“Take a left.” She directed him to a jewelry store close by.
When he found a place to park, the last thing she wanted was to go in with him. “How about I wait in the car?”
“It’s too hot. You’ll fry.”
“I’ll wait outside, in the shade.”
“Okay, but it’ll still be hot.”
“I just don’t want to go in. They might recognize me and think I’m going to rob them or something. You know how some people can be. Even Monica accused me of stealing those stupid earrings. Everyone will forever be untrusting of me. Just let me avoid it where I can, okay?”
“All right. I’ll go in. I just give them the earrings and ask them to check them against the ones in the certificates, right?”
“Yes.” Gretel grabbed a certificate from him and opened it. “See how they’ve plotted the internal inclusions on the map?”
He stared at it and shrugged his shoulders. “If you say so.”
“These marks here correspond to inclusions in the diamonds. They’re tiny crystals and things the carbon would’ve picked up when it was in a molten state, when the original crystals were forming. Each diamond is unique, like a fingerprint. Unless, of course, it’s internally flawless and has no inclusions. The internal inclusions are usually good identifiers, though.”
“So if they are Monica’s diamonds, they’ll have those marks?” He pointed to the red marks on the diamond’s map.
“Yes, they never leave the stones. They’re permanently embedded inside. Unlike the lasered identifying number on the perimeter of the stone, which could be polished off.”
“Got it. Wish me luck.”
She frowned at him. “Whose side are you on?”
He smiled at her. “I know these aren’t Monica’s. She tends to be a little dramatic at times—a little intense. Still, it’s that intense focus that makes a good agent.”
“Thanks for trusting me.”
“I’m sorry she accused you. I can’t wait to see what she says when I tell her they aren’t her earrings.”
“They’re not and it’s a waste of your time and mine.”
“It won’t take long. We have a job coming anyway.”
She stared at the odd expression on his face, a mixture of happy, startled and amused. “Can’t wait to hear about it.”
“That’s why I wanted you in my office.”
“So, you didn’t want me there this morning to discuss Monica’s robbery?”
“No.”
She was more than a little relieved about that. “What is the job?” She noticed he didn’t call it a case.
“It’s something you should be very happy about.”
“Tell me.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Let me get the earring fiasco out of the way first.”
They both got out of the car, and Gretel took her handbag with her. She might just see something she wanted to buy while she waited. Jack left her and went into the jewelry store. Gretel wandered down the road and stood in the shade of a shop’s awning.
She had just spotted a handbag store and was walking toward it when a white SUV pulled up suddenly in a no-parking zone next to her. She couldn’t help looking because the brakes had screeched as it came to a halt. Then she kept walking. Before she knew what was happening, she was grabbed from behind by large hands and lifted clean off the ground. All the kicking and screaming didn’t make a difference because by the time she opened her mouth she was already in the vehicle surrounded by three large men. She was forced to the floor of the vehicle and one man held something over her face.
Chloroform. She could smell it and tried to hold her breath.
Just as she raised her hands to pull the man’s hand away from her face, everything around her faded.
When Gretel opened her eyes, she was in a darkened room.
“She’s awake,” a male voice yelled out.
When she was able to focus, she saw three men sitting around her staring at her.
“Can she hear us?” one guy asked another.
They were all solidly built, dressed in black and all balding. She tried to move her arms and legs, but soon learned she was strapped to a chair. “Where am I?”
“Never mind about that. We need you to do something for us.”
Her heavy lids closed and she hoped against all hope that this was one of her bad dreams.
“She’s still out of it,” someone said.
Then she felt a hard stinging slap across her face. All her breath left her and her body heaved for air.
“Why did you do that, idiot?” she heard one man say to the one who'd struck her.
“We don’t have all day,” the one who slapped her grunted.
“Gretel!”
She opened her eyes to see a man’s face, six inches from her own. “Who are you?” The voice that came out of her mouth sounding like someone else’s. It only made her feel stranger, as though she was in a truly weird dream. Something told her this was no dream.
“You are now working for me.”
“I work for myself.” Even in her weakened state, she had to stand up for herself.
“That’s where you’re wrong. You’re now working for me until you get me the Purple Promise.”
She remembered the news article from that morning. Even in her weakened state she knew one thing, if she was going to steal the Purple Promise she’d do it for herself. “It can’t be done. There’ll be too much security. It’ll be impossible.”
“That’s your problem.”
“Can’t be done. The security’s too high.”
“I told you this wouldn’t work,” a voice said from somewhere within the dark room.
“Shut up, Mondee.”
“He’s right,” Gretel said. “It won’t work. It’s totally impossible.”
“Watch this.” He held a cell phone up to her face. It played Jack Fletcher walking into the building where he worked. “We’ll kill your friends if you don’t get us the Purple Promise.”
She shook her head. “I have no friends. I can’t do what can’t be done.”
“Jack Fletcher,” one of them said as though further impressing upon her that they’d kill him.
“He’s no friend of mine. He’s just like you, trying to make me work for him. Trying to make me a puppet, but I still can’t do what can’t be done.”
“Keep watching.” Then they showed her a picture of her sister, Hazel, going into their parents’ home.
“Howsa about a bomb? Keeling your whole familae?” a voice from the darkness said in broken English.
Gretel gulped. She couldn’t risk anything happening to her family. Although she didn’t get along with her folks, she didn’t want them dead. She certainly didn’t want Hazel dead, the only sibling she got along with. Now, she knew she had to appease them. They hadn’t kidnapped her and taken a video of her sister for fun. “What’s the plan?”
“You’ll have to come up with it yourself. We heard about your reputation. We know if anyone can do it, you can. If not, you will face the consequences of the music.”
“Yeah, if we had a plan we wouldn’t need you.” She heard men laughing in the background. How many of them, she couldn’t tell.
“What am I supposed to do? Are you going to keep me captive?” She moved her body the best she could, but she was bound tightly to the chair.
“No. You go about your everyday life. We don’t want to raise suspicion.” He showed her a cell phone. “We’ll contact you on this.”
“Do you have any resources?” she asked. “Someone on the inside?”
“You just work out a plan. I’ll get what you need.”
The only way something like this would work was if they had someone on the inside. “How long have we got?”
“It’s on limited display from next Monday. Auction’s on Thursday.”
Limited display meant only the people with money would even see it. Not the general public. That gave her a whole week since it was Monday today. “What if I can’t do it?”
Controlled (Gretel Koch Jewel Thief Book 2) Page 2
