“Precaution, you know,” he said, turning to Jesse. “We store our most valuable small pieces in here that are not currently on display. We store our artwork at a different facility. Please, have a seat.”
Running down the center of the windowless room was a long, black marble-topped island. Six high stools on poles bolted to the floor were on either side of the island. At the center of the island were six magnifying lamps mounted on spring-loaded articulated arms. The walls of the room were actually drawers of varying sizes. Each drawer had a keypad on its face. Wilmott walked over to a large drawer opposite Jesse and punched in a code. A buzzer sounded, a lock unlatched, and Wilmott pulled out the drawer. He reached in and pulled out a foot-square blue velvet — lined tray and placed it before Jesse.
Featured on the tray were a pair of earrings, a necklace, a brooch, a bracelet, a decorative hair comb, and three bangles. All of the pieces were of a dragonfly motif, but the brooch was especially beautiful. All of the jewelry was exquisitely crafted in gold and featured diamonds, rubies, and emeralds.
“Breathtaking, aren’t they? René Lalique himself designed these pieces for Zachariah Cain Junior, who presented them to his wife, Emma, as a birthday gift. Emma left them to Maude, who donated them to the museum in 1973.”
Jesse had no idea who René Lalique was, but the beauty and craftsmanship of the pieces were undeniable. He noticed something else: an empty spot on the tray. He pointed that spot out to Henry Wilmott.
“Yes, the ring. It was the one piece in the set Maude could not part with. We are to receive it upon the execution of her will.” Then Wilmott made a face, not a happy one. “Oh, no, Jesse. Are you telling me you haven’t found the ring among her possessions? What a tragedy. You see, the endowment the Cains left to us has been drained away over the years as a result of foolish spending and poor investments. The auctioning off of this set was to infuse the endowment with new cash. With the ring, the complete set would be worth millions.”
“But even without the ring—”
“Yes, it is still a valuable collection, no doubt. But the ring and the brooch are the stars of the set. It would be like Casablanca with Bogie and no Bergman. No, no, the ring is of premium importance to the set and the future of the museum. We must get it back. We simply must.”
“Have you got an image of it?”
“I do. Come up to my office.”
Following behind Wilmott, Jesse asked, “Do you know why Maude was selling her house?”
“She was too old to manage any longer and it was falling into terrible disrepair. She knew it was time for her to take whatever funds she could get out of the place and find an assisted-living facility.”
“Did she have any takers?” Jesse supposed he was thinking as much about his inability to sell his place as he was about the late Maude Cain’s prospects.
“You’d have to ask her agent. The fate of the house wasn’t part of our concern.”
Back on the street, Jesse stared at the image of the ring. He hadn’t had the heart to tell Wilmott that the chances of recovering the ring intact weren’t very good, though that wasn’t what was troubling him at the moment. None of what Jesse had learned from Henry Wilmott, nor the questions that information raised, had done a thing to dissipate the buzz of negative energy he’d felt while waiting outside the curator’s office. If anything, it made it worse.
46
Back at the office, Jesse was working off some of his energy by pounding a hardball into the pocket of his old glove. Then, as suddenly as he had started, he stopped and called Alisha into his office.
“What is it, Jesse?” she asked, closing the door behind her.
“I’m sorry about yesterday. You shouldn’t have been put in that situation.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me, Jesse. Where would I be if you didn’t hire me? I know I wasn’t who they wanted you to hire. I was happy to help. Proud that Molly trusted me enough to ask.”
“I’m grateful, but that’s not the point, Alisha. It’s not your job to babysit me. It’s not Molly’s, either. I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted.”
There was a knock at the office door and it opened before Jesse could answer.
“This a private party or can anyone join?” Molly asked, stepping in and closing the door behind her.
Alisha said, “Is that all, Jesse?”
“Sure.”
Molly was curious, but waited until Alisha had gone back to the desk. “What was that about?”
“Yesterday.”
“Oh.”
“‘Oh’ is right.”
“If you’re going to bite my head off for—”
“Relax,” Jesse said, interrupting her. “I was apologizing to her.”
“Why? I was the one who got her in the middle of the situation.”
“But there shouldn’t have been a situation. I was responsible for that.”
Molly wasn’t going to argue with him, so that’s where they left it.
Jesse asked, “Are you in for the day?”
“For as long as you need me or until the overtime budget runs out. I’ve cooked enough food for my family for the next two days and everyone knows where they can find me.”
Jesse waved Molly over to his desk and handed her the photo of the missing dragonfly ring.
“My goodness, it’s gorgeous.” Molly held out her left hand next to the photo as if imagining the ring on her finger.
“It’s also missing from Maude Cain’s house.”
Jesse told Molly about his visit with Henry Wilmott. As he explained it to her, he could see Molly’s wheels turning.
She asked, “You think Curnutt and Bolton ripped Maude’s house apart to find this ring? It would explain why one might kill the other if they found it.”
“In L.A. I handled more than one case where friends killed each other over pocket change, so something worth as much as that ring would be reason enough.”
Molly saw the look on Jesse’s face. “But this isn’t L.A. and that ring isn’t pocket change. I can tell you don’t like it.”
“You do know me.”
“Too well,” Molly said with a laugh. “So what’s bothering you about it?”
“Everything.”
“That narrows it down.”
“Okay, how do two low-rent guys like Curnutt and Bolton know about this ring? You read their sheets. Either one of them strike you as a master jewel thief?”
“You know what it’s like inside. All those guys do is talk about big scores.”
“But only a very few people even knew she had the ring or about her deal with the museum.”
“Maybe someone hired Bolton and Curnutt.”
Jesse smiled. “I like that better, but unless you suspect Henry Wilmott, Maude’s lawyer, or Maude herself, who hired them? And it doesn’t explain why Bolton would make Curnutt come back to Paradise to kill him.”
“Maybe they never left town and maybe Bolton just picked the wrong place to get rid of his partner.”
“And maybe he just happened to decide to call it in to the police to make sure the body was found. I’m also pretty sure the person who called it in to the station was the killer. Why would Bolton do that?”
“Okay, so then what?”
“I don’t know. I read the ballistics report,” Jesse said. “The bullets that killed Curnutt were .22s, most likely fired from a Walther.”
“Yeah, Jesse, I read it, too. The slug recovered from the head was badly distorted, but the one recovered from the chest was in pretty good shape.”