I pointed to the cargo cart beneath the plane. Loaded on the back end, crated and ready to go, were several bales of hay and barrels of water.
“I’m not certain, but it’d be pretty easy to hide the jewels between the bales.” I added how I had seen Nina feed the horses at the barn. They were fed flakes of hay. Each flake, the size of a doormat and weighing about five or six pounds, was a couple of inches thick, and they piled ten or twelve together into a bale for transport. “My guess is if we check between the flakes of hay, the jewels might be there.”
For a second, I thought Eric was going to kiss me. Instead, he yelled to one of the agents to pull the hay off the end of that loader and start going through it. “Straw by straw if you have to.”
Within minutes, the tarmac beneath the plane was covered in hay. Beneath the plane’s giant wheels, hay was tossed and quickly discarded, while agents tore through the bales searching for the jewels.
There was nothing. I walked beneath the plane. Like a kid tearing through Christmas wrap, I searched everything. The jewels had to be here. I couldn’t be wrong.
“Try the med packs,” I said.
Again, agents pulled off the prepacked medical kits from the cargo trolley and went through each pack, piece by piece.
Nothing.
I felt as though we had been looking for a needle in a haystack and come up empty. I thought for sure the jewels had been hidden in the food. They had to be. Where else could they be?
“What about the water? The bottoms of the buckets, they’re insulated. Maybe the jewels are hidden in the space between?”
I knew before they finished pulling apart the last water bucket I was wrong. I felt defeated. Stupid. Dammit, Tomas and Donatella were going to get away with it. I stared over at Donatella, seated atop the tack box. She was still on the phone.
“Eric, the tack box Donatella’s sitting on, did it come off the horse trailer this morning?”
“We checked everything. All the bags, the tack boxes. Right as they came off the trailer.”
“But what if the box Donatella’s sitting on didn’t come off the horse trailer? Look.” I pointed to the tack boxes lined up beneath the wing, waiting to be loaded onboard. “They all look alike. They all have Diaz’s logo on them, and there are at least twenty. One for each horse. With all these boxes on the tarmac, it’d be easy to mix them up. But if the box Donatella is sitting on didn’t come off Diaz’s rig, but came off the trolley cart, then—”
Eric and I both had the same thought, at the exact moment. “Then if the jewels are here, Tomas can’t be far away.”
I glanced back at the cargo hangar.
“Or wasn’t.” Eric nodded to the abandoned cart parked outside the warehouse. The door was standing wide open.
“And Donatella’s sitting on top of the jewels,” I said.
Eric whispered quietly into a wrist microphone he was wearing as he signaled the three agents closest to her. Donatella sat unsuspecting with her cell phone still clutched tightly in her hands as they approached. Then suddenly she stood up. She knew she had been caught. I could see the color drain from her face as she started screaming.
“It’s not my fault. I didn’t know anything.”
“Stand up.” Eric grabbed Donatella and shoved her into the hands of a waiting agent, then opened the trunk. Inside was an assortment of equestrian necessities, brushes, halters, a hoof pick, and miscellaneous riding gear. “Well, what do you know? Look what we have here.” Eric held up an unopened bag of copper sulfate. “Planning on treating any other horses for thrush, Donatella? Or were you saving this for another attempted poisoning?” The sarcasm in his voice caused me to almost laugh out loud. I bit my lip and turned my head away.
“I don’t know why that’s there.”
“I’m sure you don’t.”
Eric nodded for the agents to cuff her while he began emptying the trunk. We all watched as he removed several more items, a pair of stirrups, horse pads, and a halter, until there was nothing left inside. Then he reached inside and felt the bottom.
Eric addressed Donatella one last time. “Anything here you want to tell me about? ’Cause something else is here. There’s a false bottom. What am I going to find? Some hidden treasure maybe?”
Donatella shook her head, her eyes bulging. She knew she’d been caught. We all leaned forward.
“Bingo.” Eric ripped out a thin piece of plywood and tossed it on the ground. Beneath it was a pirate’s treasure chest of jewels. Gold bracelets, diamond earrings, necklaces, and rings, all wrapped in cellophane, heaped upon one another. “We’ve got it.”
With nothing more to say and the jewels clearly in her possession, Donatella looked helplessly in the direction of the line of the men waiting to board the plane, as though she were waiting for someone to rescue her.
Eric asked her, “Anyone you might like to reach out to?”
Before she could answer, three of the men who had been standing together staring at the cell phone took off, running across the tarmac in the direction of the runway.
Eric and four agents followed in quick pursuit, leaving me with Donatella and one of the agents to watch.
Within seconds, Sheri, Diaz, and Mimi were beside me, all of us watching the chase out onto the approaching runway.
Diaz leaned into me and whispered, “I guess I owe you a thank you, Ms. Childs. Your friend here’s been telling me all about you and what you’ve been doing and how much help you’ve been.”
Sheri smiled back smugly.
“I don’t think anyone needs to thank anyone until we’ve got your men,” I said.
“They’re not going to get far. The airport’s fenced and security’s not going to take kindly to them running across a runway.” Sheri pointed to the fencing surrounding the runway.
“I doubt they’ll get that far,” I said. “Look.”
Already Eric had grabbed one of the men, and the two others weren’t going to be much of a challenge. Coming in their direction was a huge Airbus A380, a double-decker cargo plane. The men stopped cold in their tracks and turned back towards the agents, their hands in the air.
Chapter 37
Four days after the arrests, I met Eric for lunch. We hadn’t talked in the interim. I knew he’d be busy with reports and debriefings, and I thought perhaps we each needed a little space until we were ready to center back into our personal lives. He’d finally called me today at work and said we needed to meet, that it was important. We had things to discuss, both personal and professional. He suggested The Blvd inside the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. The same hotel where Annabelle’s had held their Huguette Clark auction. I thought the location curious and slightly overpriced. He said I’d understand the significance later.
When I arrived, security was everywhere. Annabelle’s was preparing for another auction—this one with a selection of jewels by designers Rene Boivin and Suzanne Belperron, along with vintage pieces from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Henry Westin’s. I wondered if this was the significance at which Eric had hinted.
As I entered the hotel, a plainclothes security guard spotted me. He was dressed in an ill-fitting blue suit and looked like a former linebacker with a small audio piece in his ear. “Ms. Childs? If you’d follow me, please.”
Without waiting for an answer, he turned, and I trailed behind a set of broad shoulders past the hotel’s Christmas tree that looked like it could have answered Irving Berlin’s dream for a White Christmas in Beverly Hills. The dining room, a luxurious old-world affair with its dark mahogany furniture and gold chandeliers, had been decked out with Christmas wreaths and garlands. At least three more plainclothes agents were inside the room, their backs to the walls and eyes on the door. Eric was seated by himself at a table. He stood up as I approached.
“I’ve missed you.” With both hands he reached for mine and pulling me close, kissed me ligh
tly on the cheek, like an old friend. Appropriate for a public place, but not quite what I was hoping for. “It’s good to see you.”
Good to see me? I seated myself and took an immediate sip of water. I couldn’t explain why I suddenly felt uncomfortable. Was it the location, the fact Eric and I hadn’t been alone to share a meal or anything else more intimate in what seemed like forever, or that I sensed we weren’t alone? I glanced back at the door and the security guard standing next to it. “I take it we’ve got company?”
Eric didn’t answer. Instead, he said, “I promised after everything was settled, I’d give you the whole story.”
“I thought I had it all.” Eric had emailed me an unclassified document outlining the investigation, the FBI’s undercover role, and their work with the LAPD’s robbery-homicide task force. After the robberies in Paris, the FBI had begun to suspect something more might be about to happen here in Hollywood before the big awards season and began shadowing Carmen. Her deliveries were too coincidental to the robberies taking place and drew their suspicion. At first, they believed Carmen might actually have been a target. It wasn’t until the FBI was well into their investigation that they began to suspect Diaz’s polo team might be involved. And then, after I uncovered information about Carmen’s safe deposit box, they started to think of her as not only a target but also a possible suspect. In the end, her role was still somewhat unclear. I supposed we’d never know if she was a victim or an accomplice. But after reading the report, other than Tomas’ whereabouts, I felt it was pretty much a closed case and I knew everything.
“There’s more. It’s a bit more personal than what was covered in the report, and I thought you should know.” Eric reiterated that the easiest way for the FBI to get close to the operation was to infiltrate one of the escort services Carmen used. “And, as you know, I wasn’t supposed to be in the field the day I saw you in front of Henry Westin’s. I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry for all the confusion it’s caused between us.”
Eric’s blue eyes searched mine, his face like a hurt puppy. How could I refuse such an apology?
“Yeah, me too,” I said. “I mean, who knew? In a city of more than thirteen million people, what are the chances I’d see you coming out of Henry Westin’s with Carmen that morning?”
“Small world sometimes.” Eric looked uncomfortable. He fiddled with his collar, undoing the top button beneath his tie.
“Particularly between reporters and law enforcement, right?”
Eric reached for the glass of water in front of him and took a sip. “How about we table that conversation for the moment and talk about Tomas first?”
“You found him?”
“No, but just like we suspected, he was at the airport on Sunday. After we arrested Donatella and her three cohorts, we got a look at their cell phones. She was texting him that morning. Unfortunately, Tomas’ phone was a burner. We found it later in the trash, but he was there all right.”
“I knew it. I had a feeling. Where was he?”
“Operating the cargo trolley. We found the real driver tied up and hidden inside one of the cargo crates. It seems Tomas snuck into the hangar earlier in the morning, claiming to be looking for a lost dog. He got by that same new hire you got by at the front desk—no surprise there, huh?” Eric smiled and shook his head. “Then he attacked the trolley driver and stole his uniform.”
“So he delivered the tack box Donatella was sitting on?”
“He did. Right under our noses. You were right about the tack boxes. There were twenty of them, all monogrammed with Diaz’s logo and looking exactly alike. It was perfect. Just what a master thief and magician like Tomas Seville loves, a sleight of hand trick, right in front of us.”
I remembered the scene in my mind. Tack boxes and bags all lined up beneath the plane, just feet from where the cargo trolley was making deliveries. It would have been easy.
“And not one of us noticed that just three feet from the boxes Diaz’s team unloaded was another matching trunk. Our treasure chest, if you will. Tomas brought it in on the back of the cargo trolley about the same time Diaz’s horse trailer came in. There was a lot of activity going on—another big plane taxiing out to the runway—and we weren’t concerned about the delivery of food and water. We missed it, and then after we searched Donatella and her bags, she went over and sat down on top of the trunk. Everybody assumed it had already been searched.”
“So Tomas must have been waiting around to board once everything was loaded.”
“And once he saw us arrest Donatella, he took off. He either slipped out through the warehouse or managed to double back and climb onboard the plane to Europe. Either way, we lost him.” Eric exhaled and looked down at his hands on the table. I could tell he wasn’t happy; the case hadn’t gone as he’d hoped and he was still blaming himself.
“But you did get the jewels,” I said.
“We did,” he said. He smiled at me. “Which is one of the reasons I wanted you here today. It’s almost Christmas, and it’s not every day you get to celebrate.”
“Celebrate?” I hadn’t expected this to be a celebration. There was so much that had been left unsaid between us since the start of the investigation, it just didn’t feel right. I wanted to say I thought we should talk. But I didn’t get a chance.
“Carol, before you overthink this, there’s something I want to—” Eric stopped midsentence, glanced nervously around the room, then took a small blue velvet ring box from inside his coat pocket and slid it across the table. “I’ve never done this before. Go ahead, open it.”
“Eric? I…” I froze, staring at the box in front of me, unable to move. What was he doing? “What is this?”
“Just open the box, Carol. You’ll see.”
Slowly I picked up the box and lifted the lid.
“Oh my God. Eric!”
Inside the box was the largest square-cut diamond I’d ever seen. I had no doubt whose ring this was. It sparkled back at me like my own personal Milky Way, a thousand twinkling little shimmers of light dancing across the table.
“You can put it on if you like.”
“Oh yeah, I like.” I slipped the ring onto my finger and held my hand up to the light. “Is this it? Is this Huguette Clark’s ring? The two-and-a-half-million-dollar diamond? The one Carmen had in her possession the entire time?”
Eric nodded. “Only Carmen didn’t know it was Huguette Clark’s ring. She thought it was the ring Diaz brought back from Europe and had asked her to carry into Westin’s the day of the robbery.”
“But she didn’t. Instead, she put it aside, or maybe conveniently forgot about. So she could keep it for herself.”
“That is, until Churchill reminded her the night of Mimi’s party, and she sent me back to her hotel room to get it.”
I stared at the ring. I had never dreamed I would have something so big on my finger. It dwarfed my hand and was beyond gorgeous. Big. Square. And sparkly. The kind of thing that could turn a rational girl silly. I took a deep breath and forced myself to concentrate.
“So Carmen had this ring in her possession the entire time and never knew it?”
“Let’s say she never knew the value of it.” Eric took another sip of his water and nodded. “And if she had given it to Churchill like she was supposed to and waited for him to check the jewels she had brought into the store that day, she would have known it wasn’t the ring Diaz had given her, and so would Churchill.”
“But she didn’t.” I kept staring at the ring. “She kept it back and was probably going to put it in the safe deposit box with the other jewelry pieces she’d been skimming off the top.”
“And until then she was just enjoying it. Exactly like you are now.” Eric winked at me then stared back at the diamond on my hand.
I thought about the history of the ring. I wondered how often Miss Clark had worn it and where. How Tomas had be
en caught on videotape right here at this very hotel as Annabelle’s was readying for a private showing of her jewels. How Diaz had come in with Donatella to compare his lesser-value estate sale ring with the ring now on my finger and never noticed Tomas switch the two, and later gave the ring to Carmen to take to Henry Westin’s. How Tomas had expected it to be with the jewels she gave to Churchill. Or had he known Carmen would take it? Was it a payoff for her silence? I supposed I’d never know. The ring possessed as much mystery as it did brilliance.
Eric leaned across the table and gently took my hand in his. “You probably shouldn’t flash that around quite so much.”
“Why? Are you worried someone will steal it?” I laughed nervously and glanced over my shoulder.
Eric shook his head. “There’s more security in this room than you know. It’s why I wanted to meet you here, and Annabelle’s is fine with it.”
I stared back at the ring and took my hand from his. “All the same, I suppose I should take it off.”
“It does look good on you. You’ve got the hands for it, Carol.”
I put the ring back in the box and looked into Eric’s eyes. At one time, I could have locked into his gaze forever and built my life around him. I knew he was thinking the same thing. If this had been an engagement ring, another time, another place, we could have been perfect together.
“I’ve thought about it, Carol. You know, asking you. Making this thing between us permanent.” He took the ring box, his eyes going from it to mine. “Not with a ring like this, but maybe something slightly smaller.”
We laughed. I felt tears forming behind my eyes.
“Our differences with this case, Carol, weren’t the only reason I’ve been so distant. I’ve been doing a little soul searching.”
Without a Doubt Page 23
