Diamond Deceit (12 page)

Nancy nodded. “Right now I'm going to take a long, hot shower. I'll be fine,” she assured George.

While George spoke to Mr. Menendez, Nancy grabbed some fresh clothes and stepped into the small, steamy bathroom.

“Bess is here with breakfast,” George yelled just as Nancy finished dressing and rewrapping her ankle with the Ace bandage.

“How'd the movie turn out last night?” she asked as she joined Bess and George at the small table set up in the kitchenette.

“Trish Tottenham solved the mystery and caught the bad guys,” Bess said with a grin. “As usual.”

George finished up her apple muffin, then stood up. “Sorry to eat and run, but I've got to meet Mr. Menendez in the lobby in about two
minutes,” she said. “Leave a note if you guys go anywhere, okay?” With a quick wave she grabbed her golf clubs and left.

“So what should we do today?” Nancy asked, smiling at Bess. “I'm glad you've got the day off.”

Getting up from the table, Bess went over to Nancy's bed and flopped down on it. “I think I need a break from that place.”

“The restaurant?” Nancy asked. “I thought you loved it there.”

“I do—I mean, I did.” She sighed, tugging at the hem of the open-weave sweater she wore over her red tank top and bicycle shorts. “It's not the work that's getting to me. And I really like Ted, too. It's just that, well—he gets pretty jealous when you guys are around. It's kind of hard on me.

Nancy wasn't sure of what to say. “He does seem kind of possessive about you,” she finally ventured.

“He doesn't mean anything by it,” Bess hurried to add. “But—”

She broke off as the phone rang. Reaching over, Bess picked up the receiver and said, “Hello? Hi, Ted.”

Nancy sipped on a glass of orange juice and poured milk over her cereal.

“You promised me you'd put those tarts away so they wouldn't spoil,” Bess said into the receiver angrily.

Nancy saw Bess's face turn red. “Nancy and
George have been here two days, and we haven't done any of the things I'd planned. Can't you order something from one of the bakeries? Oh, okay, I guess I could do that,” Bess said reluctantly. Then she slammed the receiver down.

“I can't believe it,” she told Nancy. “I asked Ted to do one simple thing—put the pastries in the refrigerator when he closed up last night. Well, he forgot, and they spoiled. So I have to go make something to serve today.”

Nancy felt awful for her friend. Bess was obviously upset that their day together was being interrupted. “Did he say why he couldn't get desserts from someplace else?” Nancy asked.

“He said some people are coming just to try my desserts,” she said.

Nancy frowned. She wouldn't be surprised if Ted had lied. Then, smiling at Bess, she managed to say, “Go on and make the desserts. You can probably be done before George gets back. Then we can all do something together this afternoon. It will do me good to rest my ankle a little longer.”

Bess came over and gave Nancy a hug. “Thanks for being so understanding. What will you do all morning?”

“I think I might watch the end of the Trish Tottenham movie,” Nancy said.

“Good idea. I'll set it up.” Bess went over to the TV and turned it on. “Tell me when you want me to stop.”

Nancy moved over to the bed, carrying her juice. She watched the high-speed action on the screen until she saw a scene she didn't remember. “Stop,” she said.

“Call me at the restaurant if you need anything,” Bess said, and then she left.

Settling back on her bed, Nancy turned her attention to what was happening on screen. In the movie, Joanna Burton in her Trish Tottenham role was searching for a stolen diamond. Nancy wasn't exactly clear as to who had taken the gem, but Trish seemed to know exactly whom she was after. Trish carefully searched a house as music played to a crescendo in the background. When she found the diamond, Nancy was struck by the simplicity of the hiding place.

“I don't believe it!” she exclaimed, staring at the screen. “I know where Joanna Burton hid her diamonds! I've got to get out to her house now!”

Nancy stood up, ignoring the slight twinge of pain in her ankle. She grimaced as she slipped her swollen left foot into her sneaker, but she finally managed to get it on, leaving the laces very loosely tied.

Nancy scribbled a quick note to Bess and George telling them where she was going. Then she grabbed her purse and rummaged for the keys to the rental car.

She limped out to the car. As she unlocked the door, Nancy heard furtive footsteps approaching her from behind. Fear shot through her. Nancy
whirled around and found herself face-to-face with Cy Baxter's assistant.

“Rachel!” Nancy exclaimed, fighting down her fear. “What are you doing here?”

On second glance Nancy saw that Rachel was as frightened as she'd been. She was still wearing the navy dress she'd had on the day before. Her dark hair was a mess, and she wore no makeup.

“You've got to help me,” Rachel pleaded, grabbing Nancy's arm. “My life is in grave danger.”

W
HAT ARE YOU
talking about?” Nancy asked. “How did you find me here?”

Rachel kept her hand on Nancy's arm. “I got the address from the guest register at Baxter's Fine Jewelry,” she said. “Please, you have to help me!”

“Shouldn't you talk to the police if your life is in danger?”

“You don't understand. I can't go to the police. Besides, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't even know I was in any danger,” Rachel said. Her eyes flitted around nervously as if she were afraid someone would pop out of the parking lot to attack her.

Nancy stared at the jeweler's assistant, totally puzzled. “If it weren't for me,” she echoed. “Why
don't you start at the beginning and tell me why you think you're in danger?” Nancy suggested.

Rachel took a deep breath before beginning. “I'm the one who replaced the diamonds in Joanna Burton's necklace with cubic zirconia,” she confessed.

“You?” Nancy said, startled.

Rachel nodded. “I knew it was wrong from the first, but I had to do it.” Her eyes started tearing up, and she wiped at them with the back of one hand before continuing.

“I used to work for Grand Central Studios in Hollywood, in the wardrobe department. It was so exciting, and I got to meet all the stars. One of my favorites was Michael Davis. I idolized him.

“I worked on a movie he was starring in, and one day when I was getting the costumes from his dressing room, I found a fake sapphire ring that Mr. Davis had worn in the movie. They'd finished shooting that day, so I thought no one would miss it. I picked it up and stuck it in my pocket.”

Nancy didn't see what any of this had to do with Joanna Burton's death or the stolen diamonds, but she listened patiently. “When was that?” she asked.

“About three years ago, just as he was making his comeback,” Rachel replied. “Anyway, it turned out that the ring wasn't an imitation. The sapphire was real and worth a lot of money, and the ring belonged to Michael!” Rachel's eyes
widened. “Was there ever an uproar on the set when he found out it was missing!”

Rachel pushed her hair out of her face, then took a deep breath. “I was afraid to admit I'd taken the ring, so I decided to sneak it back into his dressing room. Wouldn't you know his agent walked in and caught me with it?”

“His agent?” Nancy echoed.

“Stephanie Cooke,” Rachel said, nodding. “She saw me with the ring. I tried to explain, and she was very nice about it. I put the ring back, but the next day I was fired. No one mentioned the ring, but I knew that Stephanie had something to do with it. That was when I moved here.”

Nancy felt sorry for Rachel, but she still wasn't sure what the point of the story was. “What does all that have to do with Joanna Burton or the necklace or me?” Nancy asked.

“I'm getting to that part,” Rachel said, holding up a hand. “I moved to Carmel and got a job with Mr. Baxter. He's been teaching me how to work on jewelry. One day Stephanie came into the shop with Miss Burton. I hoped that she wouldn't recognize me, but she did. A few weeks later she called me.”

Tears began to run down Rachel's cheeks. Nancy opened her purse and handed Rachel a tissue.

“She said she had a job for me,” Rachel continued, wiping her eyes. “Miss Burton had a diamond necklace she wanted to wear, but it was
so valuable she didn't want to wear it in public. She hadn't yet had time to get an imitation of it made, so she wanted to know if I would take out the real stones and reset the necklace with fakes.”

Nancy was beginning to see where this story was going. “And?” she prompted.

“I didn't want to do it, but when I hesitated, Stephanie reminded me that Mr. Baxter probably didn't know about my tendency to take things that didn't belong to me.”

So Stephanie had been in on the insurance scam with Joanna, Nancy now knew. Still, Stephanie must not know where the real diamonds were hidden. If she did, she would never have asked Nancy about
her
theories of where the gems might be.

“Stephanie brought me the paste, the fake stones, that had been in Joanna Burton's old necklace,” Rachel continued. “She told me to take the real diamonds out of the new necklace and replace them with the fakes.”

“Is that the way it's usually done?” Nancy asked.

Rachel shook her head. “Usually the paste and the original are two separate pieces. I'd never heard of taking apart an original and making it a fake,” Rachel said. “But I didn't feel that I had much choice in the matter. I like it here in Carmel. I'm trying to stick it out with Mr. Baxter until I learn enough.”

“So you replaced the diamonds with the fake
stones,” Nancy said. That explained why there were scratches on the necklace—Rachel wasn't very experienced as a jeweler. “Didn't you wonder why you were asked to do it?”

“Of course,” Rachel replied, “but with Stephanie threatening me, I figured it would be better not to ask. I did all the work when Mr. Baxter wasn't there. He wouldn't have liked me doing work without its going through him first.” She shook her head and added, “I must have been out of the store when Miss Burton brought the necklace in to have Mr. Baxter appraise it. I didn't know he had found the fakes until you and your friends came in pretending to be customers.”

“Why didn't you go to the police then?” Nancy wanted to know.

Rachel glanced nervously over her shoulder. “Stephanie called me from L.A. on Thursday night. I was still in shock about the whole thing then and hadn't decided what to do. She told me that you were investigating the gem switch. She said that if I told anyone about my part in it, she'd make it look as if I was behind the whole scam.”

Suddenly another piece of the puzzle fell into place for Nancy. “So that's when you sent me that smashed cuckoo clock, to try to scare me off the case.”

A blush came to Rachel's cheeks as she nodded. “After I heard about Miss Burton's death, I
was scared. That clock had just come in for a customer, but I sent it to you instead. Cy will kill me when he finds out.

“And when I saw that picture of Michael Davis yesterday, I really panicked. It's not mine. I know Stephanie left it for me as a threat. That's when I decided to talk to you and tell you the truth. I guess I was hoping you could help me decide what to do. I called you first at the inn. The woman there said to try the Café de Carmel. When I got down by the beach I saw a big rock tumbling down toward you. I knew it wasn't an accident because I saw someone running away.”

“You saw the person?” Nancy asked, grabbing Rachel's arm. “Who was it?”

“I wasn't close enough to tell, but I think it was a man. Anyway, I got out of there as fast as I could. I've been driving around in my car all night, too afraid to even go home. What if someone's waiting for me there?” Rachel said in a voice edged with panic.

A man, thought Nancy. Morgan Fowler? He seemed to be around when anything was happening in the case. Nancy recalled his sudden appearance outside Marcia's store and the way he had popped up in the video store.

Now that she thought about it, there was something else suspicious about him. He'd asked about her fall from the rocks. How could he have known about that unless he was there? Nancy hadn't had the impression that Bess or George
had told him—she'd have to check with her friends.

Nancy tore herself from her thoughts. Giving the jeweler's assistant an encouraging smile, Nancy said, “Rachel, it's important that you go to the police with this information. From what you've told me, I don't think you've done anything really wrong. And the police will definitely go easier on you if you cooperate with them. Your information will probably help them catch Joanna Burton's killer.”