Ruby Red Herring

by Tracy Gardner

  * * *

  Halston’s sitter, Stefanie, was on the front porch at seven forty-five the next morning. Under one arm was a brand-new plush leopard-print dog bed, a large bag hanging from her hand with the Pampered Pet logo on the front.

  Avery led Stefanie into the family room, where Halston was set up like a king on his perfectly fine old dog bed, surrounded by pillows and toys and his water bowl and snacks. “I’m so glad you were free today,” she told the girl, who looked to be close to her own age. “He’s getting around on the cast without much trouble, and he doesn’t act like he’s in pain. He tried to chase a squirrel this morning. I’m sure I wouldn’t be doing as well.”

  “I’ll swap out the beds when he gets up to go out later,” Stefanie said, smiling. She unpacked the bag, setting out several new toys and treats and a new, handsome red collar. “Your aunt had all of this paid for and ready to be picked up last night; she insisted he needed it. Hi there, boy! How’s my buddy doing?” Without a word to Avery, the girl pulled couch cushions onto the floor beside the dog, building a makeshift little couch for herself near Halston, careful to avoid the blue cast on his leg. The daughter of one of Aunt Midge’s many friends, Stefanie was halfway through veterinary school and had been Halston’s exclusive sitter for the last three years. He loved her.

  Avery had no qualms at all about leaving the dog as she rode with Micah and Noah into the city. Noah dropped Avery and Micah at MOA on his way home to the brownstone in Harlem. Francesca was at the elevators, waiting, when she and Micah arrived.

  “I was on my way up to see you! The elevators are taking forever today.” Francesca changed her large Chanel bag to her other arm and flipped her long, shiny black hair over one shoulder. “Are you okay, Avery? Goldie said you had a break-in. How awful.”

  She nodded. “Yes, I’m fine, thank you.” She’d explained just a little of what had happened when she’d called yesterday to let Goldie know she and Micah wouldn’t be in as planned but would be back to MOA Thursday.

  “Good! Well, I’m excited you two are back. Oh! Finally,” Francesca said as the elevator doors swished open. Once their trio was in, she pressed the third-floor button and continued. “Goldie says today might be the day? She’s so hoping the gem Renell submitted will be a perfect match for the eye socket in the medallion. Have you finished the appraisal yet on our potential ruby?”

  “Almost. We have a little more to finish on the gem, but we should be looking at the medallion by this afternoon.”

  “Wonderful! Fingers crossed for an easy task once you’re at that point,” Francesca said. “I’ll come up with you. I’d love to see the gem without the gold housing on it.”

  The elevator car stopped on the second floor and they shifted, making room. The doors opened and Tyler Chadwick stepped in, registering surprise as he saw them.

  “Well! Hello there,” he said, smiling. “Oh no, are we going up? I keep getting lost in this place; it’s like a maze.”

  “You all know each other, right?” Avery asked. She had mixed feelings about the man, after their date and then seeing him speak so closely with Francesca the next morning.

  Francesca glanced at Avery. “Oh! Um—”

  Avery looked at Tyler, who was studying his coffee cup.

  “We do,” Francesca said, sighing. “Please don’t say anything to Sir Robert, Avery. I know how he’d feel about this.”

  Avery’s eyes widened. Holy wow. She’d half thought she’d been overreacting, wondering what they’d been talking about, but now it seemed she hadn’t. Poor Sir Robert!

  Francesca went on. “I’m secretly an enormous superhero fan. I collect the Firefly comics, I’ve seen the first movie four times, and then when I found out the Tyler Chadwick was at my museum, well . . .” She looked sheepishly at Avery and Micah and then rolled her eyes over to Tyler. “I couldn’t help asking for an autograph. I know it’s silly. Sir Robert won’t watch anything except French art films and documentaries. He’d judge me so harshly if he knew I went all fangirl on a movie star.”

  Avery chuckled. “His movie tastes are a little pretentious. Don’t feel bad.”

  “Thank you,” Francesca said, relief in her tone. “And you were so great,” she told Tyler.

  He flashed his gorgeous movie-star grin. “No big deal. I love what I do.”

  “He even took a selfie with me,” Francesca said sheepishly.

  “Nice,” Avery said.

  Tyler stayed on when their trio exited at the third floor. “Have a good day, all,” he said as the doors closed.

  “He must have to deal with fans all the time,” Francesca said. “He was so gracious about it, even though I’m sure it gets old.”

  She nodded. “He really doesn’t seem to mind.” That exchange she’d witnessed sure made a lot more sense now, especially knowing that Francesca felt self-conscious about being mildly starstruck.

  “Not a word to Sir Robert, please,” she reiterated. “He’d never let me live it down.”

  Avery smiled at her. “Don’t worry, your secret superhero crush is safe with us.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Francesca had left for her office after marveling at the striking red jewel, all of it now fully visible. Avery and Micah had been focused and relatively silent, working, when Micah sucked in his breath and straightened up. “We’ve got it. Check this out.” He pointed at the screen on the laptop that was connected to their Raman spectrometer, a lab tool used to show the molecular structure and chemical composition of material. “There’s virtually no iron or lead at all in this stone. We know that lead, even in trace amounts, can point to a lab-created ruby. And when we’re searching for growth lines, curved lines that can betray a synthetic, there just aren’t any. And look at these readings.”

  Avery bent and scanned the screen more closely. “The iron content—or lack of it.” She pulled cotton jeweler’s gloves on and lifted the ruby using the locking tweezers, peering at it through her handheld loupe. “I’ve never seen this level of fluorescence. It’s so much more apparent now that it’s out of the gold housing. This can only mean one thing. This is a Burmese ruby, isn’t it? Oh my God, Micah.”

  He nodded. “I know.” His eyebrows were raised in excitement, mirroring Avery’s. “But I’m not jumping to conclusions. We still have to get the exact cut dimensions and angles and do a full comparison to the existing ruby and the empty medallion setting to know for sure if this is the ruby.”

  “Yes. But this.” She looked at him. “This is a sixteen-carat natural Burmese ruby. I mean, that in itself is incredible. I’d say the odds are pretty darn good that it’s the missing dragon’s eye.”

  Twenty minutes later in the lab, Avery and Micah explained their findings to Goldie Brennan, who stood between them, hands pressed together palms to fingertips in a prayer position at her chin. The septuagenarian looked from Avery to Micah and back, grinning widely.

  “I knew it,” she whispered. She shook her head before either of them could speak. “I understand you’ve still got to evaluate the medallion. But what a find. Goodness.”

  “I expect our collector’s going to be pleased,” Micah said, glancing at Avery.

  “Oh yes,” Goldie said. “I’ll notify him today. Our tentative contract wasn’t contingent on it being the dragon’s eye. I believe he’ll accept the generous MOA purchase offer.”

  There it was—her shot. Avery widened her eyes at Micah and jumped in. “Goldie, Oliver Renell and I have been emailing back and forth quite a bit. He’s an interesting man. Relatively new as a collector, at least here in the States.” She was winging it a little too well, her tongue running on before she could reel the lies and half-truths back in. “It’d sure be great for us, for MOA, to work with him again sometime. I mean, look at his first submission.”

  “Absolutely. Impressive, to say the least. I agree.”

  “Right. Did you know I literally go right past Beckworth Suites where he’s staying every single day?” That wasn’t a complete lie.
She passed it whenever she was going to Midge’s Fifth Avenue apartment. “Why don’t I stop by today and give him the good news in person? Judging from our correspondence, I highly doubt he’d agree to come here in person to sign the purchase contract.”

  Goldie turned toward her. “Hmm. That’s a nice idea. Much better than an email or phone call. Yes, if you don’t mind, I think that’d be perfect. We’ve already sent over the boilerplate terms, so he’ll be familiar with the details. I’ll draw up the contract for you by this afternoon. You’re a third-party contracted appraiser, so you’ll be able to sign as a witness. Are you comfortable with that?”

  “Of course. I’ll stop by your office before we leave today and pick it up, along with his contact info—room number and phone number. And,” she rushed on, to keep Goldie from thinking too much about releasing that information to her, “I’ll shoot him one more email and let him know I’m stopping by to discuss some good news.”

  “Perfect,” Goldie said again.

  The guards arrived to take the ruby; Avery had called for them so she and Micah could go to lunch. She looked up hopefully when the door opened, expecting to see her new friend Art, but she was disappointed. Well, he’d said he worked minimal hours there, and it was basically to keep tabs on her. She should hear from him eventually; he’d promised to update her on the break-in investigation.

  They might as well not even have gone down for lunch. Neither she nor Micah could focus on eating. Twenty minutes after taking the ruby away, the same two guards brought it back, along with the Emperor’s Twins medallion. Avery donned her gloves and carefully took the medallion out of its case and set it on the thick black velvet jeweler’s cloth. It was heavy with the weight of not only the twenty-four-karat gold but also the many jewels and ornate design. She stepped back and stood with her hands clasped behind her, taking in the large, striking medallion, inlaid pearls and small sapphires and jade gemstones surrounding the ferocious dragon looking back at them with one beautiful ruby eye. She was at a loss.

  “How do we begin?” she asked Micah. He’d been in this line of work a lot longer than she.

  He also stood back a bit from the medallion in reverence. “Not sure I know. I’ve never worked with something this intricately designed before.”

  Nate Brennan came through the door. “Grandmother told me! Oooh. Let me see.” He joined them at the lab counter top, standing between them to look at the piece. He rocked back on his heels and then forward, peering more closely at the medallion and the possible missing ruby eye. “Dang. Sure looks like it matches to me! This should be easy, right?”

  Avery rolled her gaze past Nate toward Micah.

  “It really does!” Micah read Avery’s mind with no effort at all. “Let me show you how we determined for sure this morning that we’ve got a sixteen-carat natural ruby on our hands here.”

  It worked like a charm. Nate followed Micah to the laptop still connected to the spectrometer. While Micah launched into explanations about chemical makeup and molecular structure, Avery gently handled the medallion as she put it through preliminary tests, including weight, dimensions, dimensions of the raised dragon, and dimensions of the empty eye socket, entering each value into her own laptop as she went.

  Nate finally got bored with the science end of things and came around the counter, pulling up a stool to watch Avery’s process. She glanced at him. “Tyler Chadwick said you two bonded in the smoking area the other day. He was almost as excited about the ruby and medallion as you are.”

  Micah cleared his throat loudly. “It’s fascinating, I agree.” He frowned at Avery.

  She didn’t care that Nate was Goldie’s grandson. If he was going to work in this job for the long haul, he needed to take it seriously. She turned back to the medallion.

  “I, uh . . .” Nate became still on the stool, quieting his bouncing knee. “Should I not have mentioned it to him? I don’t think I gave him any secret details. I don’t actually know any secret details about all this.” He chuckled.

  “Goldie typically likes to keep things close to the vest while we’re in the middle of the appraisal process, that’s all,” Avery said. What was it about this guy that just pushed her buttons?

  “Oh. Sure, that makes sense.” He was quiet for the next minute or so. “What do those measure?” he asked, eyeing the calipers in her hand.

  She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, then resumed her work. “These are vernier calipers. They measure distance between points on the gemstones down to point-oh-two millimeters.”

  “Wow.” He fell quiet again.

  Avery could tell he was making a concerted effort not to irritate her. Keeping her eyes on the medallion, she spoke. “Your grandmother probably has something big planned to announce the restoration of the medallion at the charity gala, if we’re able to confirm this is the long-lost dragon eye.” To be fair, Goldie seemed just as excited as her grandson. But she was nowhere near as annoying.

  “She does!” Nate leaned forward on his stool. “She’s already talked to several potential advertisers for when she does the press release. She wants to add a silent auction to the event, with a pair of annual all-access passes to MOA and exclusive viewing of the Xiang dynasty exhibit when the medallion is unveiled.”

  Avery stopped working and turned to look at him. “Oh. That’s um . . . a lot. I hope this all pans out,” she said, looking at Micah on the opposite end of the lab. That had gotten his attention as well; he was already staring at her.

  “I think it will. She doesn’t seem worried, anyway; it’s not like it’s her money she’s working with. It’s all marketing and advertising dollars or whatever. Oh. Sorry,” he said as his phone rang. He jumped off the stool and answered it as he walked to the door. “Hey. No, I don’t have it all yet, I told you. Just go ahead and do it; you know I’ll come through.”

  Nate was quiet for a moment, listening. He spoke again into the phone as he opened the door. “Not until, uh, hold on.” He stopped talking, and the door to the lab swung shut behind him.

  Micah moved to Avery’s examination area. “That makes me a little nervous,” he said.

  “What does? Goldie planning an unveiling of something we haven’t even verified yet? Setting up advertising and a silent auction for tickets to an exhibit that could very well end up being no different than it’s been the whole last year? Or that?” She moved her head in the direction of the door Nate had just exited through, her hands still full with the calipers and medallion.

  “All of it. And that phone call—I’m sure I’m reading too much into it, but it sounded like he owes someone money.” Micah raised his eyebrows at her.

  “It sure did. What was the you know I’ll come through, just do it about? I mean, we don’t really know Nate at all,” Avery said.

  “True.”

  Nate came back through the door, off the phone. “So sorry about that.” He returned to his stool beside Avery’s work area. “You don’t mind, do you? If I hang out for a bit and watch? I’ll try to be quiet.”

  By four PM, Avery could no longer say she didn’t know Nate Brennan. She was now an expert on all things Nate. She knew, for instance, that he’d been raised by his nanny while his mother climbed the social ranks and his father did something or other in stocks. He was sent away to boarding school at age fourteen. The rumor about him dropping out of art school to travel Europe was only half true; he’d graduated from Cambridge University with a fine arts degree before embarking on his two-year trek through Europe. The expedition was a soul-searching effort to discover his path in life, and he thought he found it at the age of twenty-four in Monte Carlo. For three straight months, Nate seriously entertained the idea of becoming a professional blackjack player. He was on fire, his winning streak the stuff of legends—until it ended. He’d wound up back in New York, broke, tan, a string of broken-hearted girlfriends left behind in Europe (as Nate told it), and in need of a reboot. His father had put him on an allowance and his grandmother had installed h
im as assistant acquisitions liaison. “I’m not like my dad; I’m just not smart when it comes to money. And I don’t know anything about acquisitions,” he said candidly. “Francesca is teaching me.”

  In addition to the detailed history of Nate Brennan, Avery and Micah now also knew his favorite color, food, cocktail, vacation spot, and designer. Surprisingly, she liked him a tad better than she had before. And she had finally pinpointed what she didn’t like about him. He’d been handed everything. Which gave him very little appreciation for anything. Plus, the man had no clue how to be quiet.

  What should have been accomplished with the Emperor’s Twins medallion in three or four hours of lab time was pushed to Friday. Avery picked up the contract for Oliver Renell from Goldie and headed out to Beckworth Suites once she and Micah had finished for the day. She had the most nauseating combination of anticipation and dread, making her stomach do flips; she was about to see either her father, after a year of believing him dead, or Oliver Renell, who’d said there was something important they needed to discuss once the ruby was certified.

  Micah had pushed her for details on how she thought she was going to see Renell, but she’d just said she had a plan. She did, sort of. And she hadn’t emailed Renell to tell him she was coming; it was crucial that she arrive unannounced.

  Avery pulled down the visor in her car and generously applied the makeup she’d stopped and bought at CVS on the way to the hotel. She took her hair down from the ponytail and mussed it, back-combing and then smoothing the crown and fluffing the long strands around her face. Shedding her tan blazer, she reached into the back seat and grabbed Aunt Midge’s sparkly pink cardigan with feathered lapel. Midge kept a sweater in both their cars for whenever they were out to dinner or a movie; she tended to get chilled. On Avery’s long limbs and frame, the cardigan was transformed into a trendy, cropped shrug, perfect over her all-black ensemble today. She checked the mirror once more. The look was more date night and less antiques expert. Now for the finishing touch. From the inner zippered compartment of her purse, Avery took out her dummy cubic zirconia engagement ring. She hadn’t worn it since her last girls’ night out with Brianna and Jenna in Philly. It always came in handy toward the end of the night. That diamond ring on her left hand spoke a thousand words to any overly persistent guy she just wasn’t into.