Maggie and the Black-Tie Affair

by Barbara Cool Lee

  The dog circled them all looking worried about the tension in the room.

  And Lieutenant Ibarra placidly ate his cake.

  Maggie and Reese stood by the door and compared notes.

  "We've got nothing," she moaned. "Nothing at all."

  "We've got too many suspects," he agreed, keeping his voice low.

  "Yeah. But we don't have a single bit of evidence against any of them." She counted off on her fingers: "Sam is jealous of Felicia, but I can't imagine him doing something so petty."

  Reese nodded. "Before we have the police question a BAFTA-nominated director, we'd better have something more than a harmless crush. But I still have my doubts about Mrs. Queen," he added.

  "Based on what?"

  "She had access," he insisted. "She's as likely a suspect as Abby." He said thoughtfully, "there really isn't anybody else."

  "Not true," Maggie said. "Cassidy Carter is thrilled at Felicia's misfortune. But I don't know if she could have gone to the bathroom without being noticed. And I'm not sure she's a good-enough actress to pull off the surprised expression she gave me when I told her about the theft."

  "And the same goes for Felicia," he agreed. "She's not a good enough actress to pull off such a huge lie. She's really scared about losing those earrings. So we're out of options."

  Lieutenant Ibarra cleared his throat.

  "And we're out of time," Maggie said.

  They headed back to the group.

  Lieutenant Ibarra took the last bite of chocolate cake, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and set his plate in the sink.

  "Can't we get this over with?" Felicia said. "I'm gonna have to find a way to explain this to…." She trailed off.

  "To your boyfriend?" Maggie said.

  "Yeah," Felicia said. "And he's gonna kill me if I don't have those earrings."

  "Is the boyfriend insured?" Ibarra asked Felicia.

  "I don't know. What if he isn't?"

  "Then we need to find where this girl hid the jewels. If he's insured, he can collect the insurance. If not, maybe he'll kill you."

  "And maybe he won't kill you," Maggie said. "Though his wife might."

  "We've looked everywhere," Maggie said to Abby. "I'm really sorry."

  "Thank you for trying," she said. "I don't know what I'm going to do. I could get expelled. My parents are going to be so upset."

  "We still haven't searched the guests," Reese pointed out.

  "I don't think we can get away with strip-searching the most powerful people in Hollywood," Maggie said.

  "Some of them might like it," Reese said absently.

  "You're right about that. But if we even suggest it, every person in there is going to speed-dial their lawyer and we'll never hear the end of it."

  Lieutenant Ibarra came over to Abby. "Stand up. It's time to go."

  Maggie whispered to herself, "Hong Kong."

  Reese turned to her. "Yes?"

  She motioned to him.

  He bent down and she whispered something in his ear.

  She then put one hand gently on Lieutenant Ibarra's arm. "Give us one more minute?"

  He raised an eyebrow, but waited.

  Reese went over to Felicia. She gazed up at him warily, but he just took her in his arms and leaned down as if to kiss her. She smiled and closed her eyes and lifted her face to his.

  He ran his hands seductively over her body, and then stopped at her bra.

  "Do I rip it off you, or do you hand them over?" he said, his voice icy.

  She reached into her neckline and pulled out the earrings and ring.

  Mrs. Queen gasped, Abby burst into tears, and Lieutenant Ibarra slapped his hand on the granite counter so hard the dog jumped.

  Reese handed the pieces to Maggie. "Is this the missing jewelry?"

  Jasper came back to hug close against Maggie's side again. She gave him a quick pat on the head, then ignored him and examined the jewelry.

  Up close, Maggie saw that the ring was just a simple half-carat solitaire, the kind you could get in any mall.

  "Your birthday is in April?" she asked, and Felicia nodded.

  "Why?" Detective Ibarra asked.

  "Because diamond is the April birthstone, and little rings like this one, with a white sapphire, make an affordable birthstone ring, since most people can't afford real diamonds." She glanced up at Felicia. "This ring is yours, isn't it?"

  She nodded. "It's my stuff."

  "That's not exactly what I meant," Maggie muttered. She handed the ring to Felicia, who put it on her finger.

  But when Felicia held out her hand for the earrings, Maggie said, "Not so fast."

  She held up one of the earrings. It glittered in the halogen spotlight that illuminated the breakfast bar.

  "Wow," Lieutenant Ibarra said. "Those are really something. So you think it was insurance fraud?"

  Maggie held the other earring up to the light, examining the brilliance of the diamonds.

  Then she laughed. "I was right." Then she glanced at Ibarra. "No, it's not insurance fraud."

  Reese stared coldly at Felicia. "I figured you must be telling the truth because you weren't that good of an actress. I guess you're better than I thought."

  "No," Maggie said. "She isn't that good. She just found the kernel of truth in her character and played it to the hilt."

  "What are you talking about?" Lieutenant Ibarra said. He stood in front of Felicia. "Explain yourself."

  Felicia crossed her arms over her ample chest and glared at Maggie. "You think you're so smart. You explain."

  "Okay," Maggie said. "It had nothing to do with Abby. Nothing to do with the party, or anyone here. This was all a last-ditch effort to save herself from Daniel Krakower."

  "Daniel Krakower?" Reese said. "That little guy? I've known his family for years. He wouldn't hurt a fly."

  "He might, if she borrowed earrings he couldn't afford to lose and refused to return them."

  "I still don't get it," the lieutenant said.

  "I'll explain," Maggie said. "Felicia Dalton was messing around with a married man, a jeweler named Daniel Krakower. She wore different diamond earrings every time Cassidy Carter saw her. There is no way he would give her a different valuable pair like this every day. He must have been letting her borrow jewelry in exchange for… whatever she exchanged for the privilege. Then she got a modeling job in Hong Kong and left for several months, taking some of the borrowed pieces with her."

  "That's right," Reese said. "Sam said she'd been modeling in Hong Kong."

  "So did Cassidy," Maggie said. "But she said Felicia wasn't succeeding at it and headed home after losing some jobs. So she came back to town, thinking she could just waltz back into her old life: getting commercial and modeling work, and using Krakower for her fancy jewelry habit. But something had changed. The spell was broken with Krakower. Maybe his wife got suspicious. Maybe he just got tired of her."

  "That could happen," Reese said dryly.

  "Yeah. So suddenly she's in a bind. He wants the borrowed stuff back. So she has to scramble and find a way to explain why she can't return the pieces to him."

  "You lost me," Lieutenant Ibarra said. "They're right there." He pointed to the earrings Maggie was holding.

  She turned back to Felicia. "I mean, the pearls are really nice. Majorca, right? But the cubic zirconia is just too perfect."

  "Too perfect?" the lieutenant asked.

  "Yes. Real diamonds have a color tinge to them. You can actually see a rainbow in them in the right light. And they have flaws—little inclusions and features that give them the unique charm of a real stone. A cubic zirconia is cold white, clear as glass, and assembly-line perfect."

  "Are you sure?"

  "Oh, yeah," she said. "I'm sure. And more importantly, any jeweler would be. And there's more. The white gold plating must be very thin—one of the settings is chipped and the base metal is showing through."

  She glanced over at Felicia's very red face. "I think you got a bit ripped
off there."

  "They're fakes," the lieutenant said.

  "Good fakes. But these aren't Miyamotos. They aren't the quality of the real thing. Oh, sure, if you see them from a distance, they look beautiful. But if you know pearls, if you know diamonds, and if you know the little details of jewelry, it's clear these are counterfeit."

  "You're not suggesting Krakower sells fakes?" Ibarra asked.

  "Of course not. He's a reputable jeweler. But I am saying some of the best jewelry forgers in the world live in Hong Kong. Real artists, who can recreate designer pieces for a fraction of the cost. Their work can fool everyone at a glance—except a jeweler who knows his business. Krakower would have spotted these as fakes the moment she handed them over."

  "So where are the real ones?" the cop asked Felicia.

  "I have no idea what you're talking about," she said innocently. She gave an exaggerated shrug.

  "That's the bad acting I recognize!" Reese said. He turned back to Maggie. "You said she wasn't acting before."

  "She said she was scared of what would happen if she lost the earrings. Scared of what her boyfriend would say. Said he would kill her, figuratively speaking, if she didn't return the missing pieces. That was all true. That was her motive. That was the whole reason for this crazy game we've been playing all night."

  She smiled at him. "She was using you, just like you said. She pushed you to invite her to this party, Reese, but not to further her career. She needed to set up this robbery tonight, because she was running out of time to very publicly 'lose' the earrings so she wouldn't have to return them to their rightful owner."

  "You can't prove any of this," Felicia said.

  "Of course I can. You intended for some innocent person you didn't even know to take the fall for the crime, just to get you off the hook with your ex-boyfriend. In the meantime you'd also have the money you got from selling the real earrings on the black market in Hong Kong."

  "You can't charge me with anything," Felicia said.

  "She's right," Lieutenant Ibarra said with a sigh. "Unfortunately."

  "What about filing a false police report?" Maggie asked.

  "She hasn't signed a complaint yet. It's going to be hard to prove."

  "You could sue for slander," Maggie said to Abby, but she shook her head.

  "I just want to go home," she said.

  Maggie started to argue with them, but Reese stopped her. "They're right. There's nothing we can do here."

  "Maybe not here," Maggie said. "But I can call Best Jewelers tomorrow and tell Daniel about this, and he can go after her for stealing his jewelry."

  "Wouldn't work," Reese said.

  "I suppose not," Maggie said. "He wouldn't want his wife to find out, so he'll probably let her get away with it."

  "No. It wouldn't work because Daniel doesn't have standing to file a complaint against her." Reese grinned. "I said I'd known his family for years. Nora, my manager, is really good friends with Debbie Best."

  "Nora's really good friends with everybody, but who's Debbie Best?"

  "Debbie Best Krakower," Reese said. "Owner of Best Jewelers. Didn't you know? Daniel's only an employee. He works for his wife's family business."

  "And Debbie Best would be quite willing to call the cops about the loss of her merchandise," she said, the light dawning.

  "Yeah," he said. "And I think Daniel will be willing to testify about what really happened once Debbie has finished with him."

  Felicia began to sputter. "But—but—wait—"

  "Bye, Felicia," Reese said.

  "She left," Mrs. Queen said a little while later. "Burned rubber pulling away," she added with a smirk. "Right in front of Lieutenant Ibarra, so I think she's going to hear about that."

  Maggie laughed.

  "You're that movie star," Abby was saying to Reese.

  "His body double," he said. "You can tell us apart because he's an egotistical jerk, and I'm sweet as pie."

  "Yeah, right," the girl said. "I don't care who you really are. You stuck up for me when you didn't have to. Thank you."

  She held out her hand and he shook it. "You're welcome," he said, and seemed genuinely touched.

  Abby gave Maggie a big hug. Then she backed away. "Oh. I'm sorry if I wrinkled your fancy dress."

  "Don't worry about it," Maggie said. "I don't care about being fancy."

  Jasper circled around the group. He was thrilled to have a job, bumping them with his hip to keep his herd of people together.

  Jasper bumped the petite teenager, almost knocking her over. "And is this Lassie?" she asked.

  "Her body double," Maggie said, and they all laughed.

  But Abby still seemed a bit sad, and Mrs. Queen said, "it's all over, miss. You don't have to worry anymore."

  Abby nodded. "I'm glad I'm not going to get arrested. But I still got fired. I'll have to find a new job right away."

  "They fired you?!" Maggie said. "But not after your name has been cleared. Surely they'll take you back."

  "No. The temp agency said I caused trouble and they don't want me back."

  "Of course they did," Reese muttered, patting his tuxedo pocket for his phone. "I'll talk to them."

  But Maggie put up her hand. "Don't worry about it." She turned to the girl. "They'll always treat you disrespectfully. You deserve better than that."

  "Respect doesn't pay my tuition," Abby said. "I've got to have a job."

  "But I've got a better job for you. Flexible hours, and it's right in downtown Carita. Probably won't pay any more than the temp job, but you'd work for a truly lovely woman. The salt of the earth."

  "What do you mean?" Abby asked.

  "There's a new bead shop going in on the main drag in Carita. Across from the coffee house, in an old barber shop that's sitting empty. The shop has a job opening for a part-time clerk, someone who can work there between classes and on weekends."

  "But I don't know anything about beads."

  "I don't know how to act," Reese said. "And look how far I got."

  "And I don't know anything about running a bead shop," Maggie said. "But we'll figure it out as we go."

  "Okay," Abby said, smiling for the first time. "Okay. I'd love that."

  "Maggie," Reese said when Mrs. Queen took Abby to the buffet for a big plate of prime rib, "is this the wrong time for me to point out that you don't own a bead shop?"

  "I will tomorrow. Right after I talk to my husband over breakfast." She grinned. "I think that's the least I should get in the divorce settlement, don't you?"

  Maggie headed down the long stairway to the beach, with Jasper sticking close by her side and Reese bringing up the rear.

  The party roared on behind them. The crowd mingled, making deals, frantically celebrating at the top of their lungs, all either genuinely oblivious, or pretending to be, that a marriage had ended tonight, that a kid had almost lost her future over a false accusation tonight, that most of them would go home alone to start it all over again tomorrow.

  Maggie took off her Manolos when they reached the beach. The sand was cool and silky beneath her feet, and she didn't care that the hem of her silver gown would never be the same after this. There would be no place to wear this kind of dress in the new life she was about to begin.

  They walked out to where a dark line marked where the sand met the sea.

  Maggie sat down on the sand just above the tide line. Jasper plopped down next to her on one side and rested his long, bony head on her knee. She petted him absently from nose to forehead, and he sighed contentedly.

  Reese sat down on her other side. The hems of his tuxedo pants were covered in powdery sand.

  "He didn't deserve you," Reese said.

  "We made our choices and we have to live with them, remember?"

  "So what's next?"

  "Next I'm going to stop wearing high heels. And I'm quitting the fruit juice diet so I can eat everything that's left on the buffet table." She pulled off the fake nail that had been snagging all night. "An
d I'm going to cut my nails short so I can hold the needles when I do my beadweaving."

  "Good for you." He watched the sea. "But it's a nice house. It's a shame to give it up."

  "I'm not giving it up. We had a prenup. He cheated, so I get a house. I'll take Casablanca."

  They watched the water for a while. "Our tenth anniversary would have been January fifth," Maggie added softly.

  "I'm sorry," Reese said.

  She cocked her head to listen to the laughter in the house at the top of the cliff. From here the sounds were faint, fading away in the face of the ocean's deep rumble. "I guess I don't feel much like celebrating," she said.

  "You can celebrate with me," he said. "Tonight is my eleventh anniversary."

  "You're not married."

  "Nope. I'm sober."

  "Wow. For eleven years."

  He stared at the water, but saw something a million miles away. "Eleven years ago tonight I took my last drink of whisky, shot up my last speedball, and slit my wrists."

  She shivered at the brutality of the simple words, trying to imagine the desperation that drove someone to that low point.

  He watched the sea, and she watched his magnificent profile, chiseled by the moonlight like a Greek god's. She knew the official story. He had started as a teenage rock star all those years ago. Toured and partied and followed the drugs down a rabbit hole until it all ended when he crashed into a tree on Christmas Day, with his whole band in the car with him. He'd killed the guitar player and ruined all their lives. And worst of all, his bandmates had been his best friends since childhood. A week later Nora had found him just in time to keep him from succeeding in that suicide attempt. It had been a long battle back to sobriety, back to stardom—but back to happiness? She wasn't sure about that.

  "It's been a long trip," he whispered.

  "And look at you now," she said. "Clean, sober, and full of yourself."

  "Yeah." He flashed a grin. "Look at the two of us now. Two regular kids who made it to the top." He leaned back and gazed up at the stars. He added in a whisper, "if I'd died eleven years ago, I would have missed half the journey."

  "I'm glad you stayed, Stanley."

  "That may be the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. I'm glad I stayed, too."