by Dale Mayer
“It’s been a rough couple days for you,” he said gently. “And what’s this I hear? You’ve lost another necklace?”
“I hope not,” she muttered, glancing at Dezi. “Any updates?”
“Lots, but nothing leading to the culprit,” he said. “I’ll grab my laptop and start working on the city cameras.”
As Dezi filled in Vince with the latest details from the courier, they walked into the living room and set up their electronics. Dezi sat down with his laptop while Vince brought out the bug detector. He slowly walked around the living room, finding it clear. With Diamond leading the way, Vince and Diamond walked through the kitchen and dining room.
As they headed toward her office, Dezi listened from the living room. And then he heard it. He slowly put down his laptop, got up and joined them there.
Diamond stood in the middle of the room, her hand over her mouth. She stared up at Dezi with tears in her eyes. He put his finger to his lips and pulled her close. Vince found one bug up on the wall behind her desk chair.
Vince lifted a large photograph in its heavy ornate frame from the same wall and disconnected a small camera. “So they were watching you,” he said. He checked with the bug detector again but found nothing else in that room. He turned to look at her. “I hope you were just working in here and not entertaining Dezi.”
She shook her head. “No, just working,” she whispered. “But this is where they would have seen my computer monitor, even my laptop. They would have seen my sketches. Everything.”
Vince nodded. “That’s probably what they were most interested in, their primary objective. It wasn’t about the gems,” he said. “It was all about you and the jewelry you create.”
Without another word, she turned and walked out.
Vince looked at Dezi and shrugged. “I hope she can handle this,” he said. “She’s had a lot of hits lately.”
“A lot of hits in an unending sequence of blows,” Dezi said softly. “We’re still figuring out if it’s a friend or a family member or if it’s a complete stranger.”
“Whoever it is,” Vince said, “they really are after her. Nobody installs cameras like this if they don’t have money and motive and a lot of time to get what they really want.”
“The problem is figuring out exactly what their ultimate motive is.”
Diamond called from the other room. “They want to ruin me,” she said sadly. “What else can it be? It took money to do all this, so they don’t need mine. It took time, so the vendetta could be old, even from years ago. But the end result would still be the same. It’ll still shut down my jewelry design business. Permanently.”
Chapter 13
“I want to check out my store,” Diamond said. She glanced over at Dezi. “Do you want to stay here, and I’ll go with Vince?”
He raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “No, I’ll go with you. We’re tracking a vehicle seen outside your store, after the man photographed the courier slip and took off. I just got an email from Levi. They caught a license plate of the white truck on one of the city cameras. They are checking it with the DMV. It’s a rental. And they’ve matched it to a parking lot at the time the package with the second necklace was picked up at the courier office. No decent shots of the driver though.”
“Of course not, and the rental is likely stolen,” Vince said. “They haven’t made too many mistakes yet.”
“No, but we have three assholes in custody,” Diamond said in frustration. “Why won’t they talk?”
“Because the fear of talking is greater than the fear of not talking,” Dezi said quietly. “Somebody’s behind this. The fourth guy who stole your sketches from your home vault. Probably the same guy who stole the necklace being returned to you from the courier’s office. Those three guys in jail are his hired help. So either they’re rewarded for their silence, or they’ll be punished for speaking up.”
“That makes sense.” She shrugged. “I could bribe them myself, offer them a reward,” Diamond offered, “but I suspect nobody would let me.”
“Nope,” Dezi said. “Nobody would let you. Plus those three are in jail right now. They’re looking at an easy ten to fifteen years, if not more.”
“Probably more,” Vince said. “Kidnapping alone would be worth that.”
“We still have to prove they’re connected to the initial stolen necklace and its forgery and the theft of my design sketches.”
Vince patted Diamond’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go check out the store. Then we should check out Sammy’s place. If no cameras are there, then it’s a sign not in his favor. If something is there—like your hidden camera we found or a bug—then it’s a good chance Sammy was a victim.”
She nodded as the three of them walked out of her house.
Dezi locked it up, then looked at Vince. “We should split up, take two vehicles.”
Vince nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll check Sammy’s place. Stay in touch. We’ll meet at the store.” He hopped into his truck and backed down the driveway onto the street.
He asked Diamond, “Your car is in the garage, right?”
She nodded. “I saw it this morning.”
“Good enough,” he said and headed in the opposite direction from Vince.
“Why are we going this way?”
“To make it more difficult for our bad guys to follow us.”
She sat back, thinking about that. “I’m not sure I like that train of thought.”
“We don’t know how many people are involved,” he said, “but maybe they don’t have enough to trail both Vince and me around town, and yet, still do their own mischief.” Just then his phone rang. He put it in the holder and turned on the speaker. “Levi, what have you got?”
“The truck was stolen two days ago,” he said. “It’s been found abandoned on the side of the street about four miles away from the store.”
“And no sign of the necklace inside?”
“Nope, but the box was there,” Levi said. “So they opened it, took the necklace and left.”
“Did any of the street cameras get a good look at his face?”
“No better than the ones you got from the courier company,” Levi said. “We’ve already sent that to the police. We’re hoping for an ID from somewhere.”
“Like Interpol and MI6,” Dezi said. “I suspect we’ll find a connection there,” he said into the phone.
She sank back and mumbled, “And then the question is, does it end there, or does it carry on further to my sister? As an odd thought but maybe someone could check with the courier company and see if they ID Ronnie as the man who picked up the package?”
“Good idea,” Dezi said. “We can do that today.”
Levi’s voice was gentle when he said, “We’ll get our answers soon. Don’t jump ahead. We’ll connect the dots and find out what’s going on.”
After the call ended, she looked up in surprise to see they were already at the store. Dezi had somehow pulled into the parking lot and parked without her noticing. “I’m losing my mind,” she exclaimed as she hopped out.
Vince had arrived before them and was walking around the outside of the building. “No sign of anything suspicious at Sammy’s. He’s in the clear.”
“Good,” Dezi said. “And Diamond suggested we ask the courier company if they can ID Ronnie as the man who picked up the package. It’s a long shot as we don’t even know if he’s in the country …”
“Oh good idea. Especially as we also don’t know that he isn’t close by …” He walked a few steps away calling back, “Besides, it’s easy enough to check. One more thing to mark off the list. I’ll call them right now.”
She walked toward the front entrance of her store, happy to see no crime-scene tape here. She figured the whole place would be full of forensic teams and cops, but no official vehicles were in the parking lot, so no police would be inside. None of her employee’s vehicles were seen either.
As she walked in, she groaned at current state of her storefr
ont. “I guess the insurance company is first on my list of calls to make, isn’t it?”
“Looks like it. What a big mess.” Dezi looked at all the destruction inside. “This was just to terrorize.”
“It’s temper,” she announced. “They couldn’t get into my vault, so they came out here and destroyed what they could.” She walked into her office and sat down. “You guys do what you need to do. I’ll call the insurance company and get an adjuster in here right away.”
She went through her files and pulled out the insurance company’s number. They weren’t happy, but then it was to be expected. When she explained that none of the jewelry had been taken, they brightened up considerably and promised to send somebody around that afternoon. Locking in a time for four o’clock, she got off the phone and wandered through the mess again.
She bent down, wondering if she should clean up any of the glass. She didn’t want anyone else hurt. Obviously they were closed for business until that was taken care of. She didn’t have a clue when they could reopen. Not until her storefront was repaired. Maybe not until all the thieves were caught. She wrote Closed Temporarily in big letters with a black marker on a big sign and put it in the front window. She didn’t know if that would keep her clients happy, but she didn’t have a ton of walk-in traffic as it was.
For the first time she considered Dezi’s suggestion—which was just a repeat of her father’s long-held opinion—about getting rid of her storefront and creating and selling her jewelry designs through her home. She didn’t know if that was a good idea or not.
As she looked up, a shadow fell across the front door.
Her father stepped inside. He glanced around and winced. “This is not nice.”
“No, but at least they didn’t get any of the finished jewelry or the raw materials,” she assured him.
“I keep telling you that I can take your jewelry and run it through the other stores,” he said. “You wouldn’t have to worry about a storefront.”
“Yet I do have my staff,” Diamond pointed out.
“They can get other jobs,” he responded. “Keep one on to handle the work out of your house, like shipping the inventory. But, other than that, do you really need five people? If you don’t have any front counters, you won’t need a sales force to handle it.”
She nodded, thinking about it. “I’d just need Sammy and Maggie,” she said thoughtfully. “And, of course, we don’t have a clue what’s happening with Sammy yet.”
“Even if he’s not involved,” her father said, “his health could now be an issue.”
She didn’t want to be reminded of that. Her father wasn’t known for his tact. She wondered how Maggie would feel about working at Di’s home part-time instead of full-time. Di’s overhead would certainly drop, not having to pay for the lease on the store and all the extra wages. It would also reduce her insurance costs.
“I’d have to take a look at the numbers,” she said to her father. “Sales versus custom designs.”
“You already know those numbers,” her father said. “The store was doing okay but it’s your custom designs that make you the big money. And, based on those facts alone, you should be shutting down the store and just doing custom work.”
“Maybe I will,” she said. “I just don’t know right now.”
He nodded. “Good enough. I’ve told you before that I’m more than happy to handle straight custom designs from you. Everything you’ve got here, we can absorb into the family business and sell through our branches as exclusive designs. You’ll find that you make a ton more money that way.”
“As long as I can still go direct with my clients. The personal relationships I’ve built are huge,” she said.
“Always,” he said. “Anytime you have a new design, we can do a big marketing push for it and contact all our high-end customers to see if they’re interested.”
She nodded and stooped to pick up a huge shard of glass.
“Leave that alone,” her dad said. “Have you contacted your insurance company yet?”
“Just got off the phone with them. Coming this afternoon.”
“Good. They need to see this place just as it is, just as you found it.”
Diamond gently replaced the glass piece where she found it and walked back into her office. No sooner had she sat down than she saw Dezi and Vince coming toward her, frowns on their faces. And she knew what they would say.
Her father stepped into the office with them.
“So?” she challenged. “How many?”
They winced. “Two. One again behind your office chair.”
She turned to see the same setup behind her photograph on the wall. She had always had a lot of artwork she loved, and the thieves had used those to hide the cameras. She sighed. “And the other one?”
“Aimed directly at the vault and its security pad,” Dezi said. “Because none of you were looking for it, it was pretty easy for them to keep up with what you were doing.”
“Shit.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Maybe Dad’s right.”
“Of course I’m right,” her father said. “As somebody who’s been running dozens of jewelry stores for forty-plus years, you know I’m right.”
Dezi turned to Henry. “Right about what?”
“She should shut down this jewelry store and move to doing custom design work,” he said. “All of her designs can be run through our Liechester Diamond stores. That takes the stress off her. She doesn’t have to worry about having a storefront, the expenses that go with it and the weaknesses too.” He sent a pointed look at her.
She didn’t say anything. She just stared at the top of her desk, wondering if it was time for a change as Dezi had suggested. She preferred working at home, but it had always been a point of pride to know she had her own business. But this way she would still have her own business, she just wouldn’t have to deal with people off the streets.
“I said I’ll think about it,” she repeated. “Don’t push me, Dad.”
“I’m not pushing,” her father said. “It’s just a good time to make that choice.”
“Security at home would have to be beefed up,” she said, “and I’m not sure the vault at home is big enough for all I have to incorporate from here.”
Her father tilted his head to the side, crossed his arms over his chest and pondered that. “You’re probably looking at big money to put in a bigger one. Do you have room?”
She shrugged. “I have no clue. The builders or an architect would make that decision.”
“I can look into it for you, if you want,” Dezi suggested. “As for the courier company the woman who saw the man has left for the day. She’s back in tomorrow morning.”
She frowned.
He held up both hands. “Hey, no pressure. I’ll look into it and get you some quotes. Then you can make a choice. But it’s hard to make a choice if you don’t have all the information you need.”
She nodded. “I put this one in here,” she said. “Maybe it shouldn’t come back out again.”
His eyebrows shot up. “That’s an option. Depends who owns the building. Do you?”
She shook her head. “No, I lease it.”
“All the more reason to change your business location then. And, if you put this vault in, then it’s yours. You should be able to take it out again.”
“Sure, but I’d have to return the room back to the way it was then,” she said. “If I leave it, another store could make use of it.”
“Let me look into it,” Dezi repeated. He glanced around the store. “Did you guys check everywhere?”
“Everywhere inside,” Vince said. “Except …” He turned to look at Diamond. “We haven’t checked inside the vault.”
She groaned and walked toward the vault, then turned to look at Dezi. “I can’t open it, can I?”
Dezi shook his head. “Even after all your bad guys are caught, you should let Levi be your stand-in representative. Temporarily. He should be the only one with legitimate acc
ess to and knowledge of the security code to allow you or Sammy entrance into your vault here and at home. Especially until you have a better security plan in effect. Steps that you will follow,” he noted with a head tilt in her direction.
“I know.” At his continued stare, she repeated herself. “I know.”
“But you don’t really know something until you put it into practice. And all this insanity of late should be a supreme wake-up call for you. Not only to protect yourself and your employees but your massively expensive and unique designs and all the materials and your time that go into making them. You can’t expect the insurance company to cover your losses each time when you’re leaving doors unlocked, writing down security passcodes, sharing sensitive data over insecure lines, now can you?”
She didn’t respond.
“Should the insurance company ever pay out a humongous sum to you over some future catastrophic loss, even if just once, you can bet your insurance premiums will go sky high because you’ll be deemed a high-risk insured. And that’s no matter which insurance company you contact.”
Diamond shot a look at her father.
“He’s right.”
Dezi got out his phone and called Levi. It took an extra moment for him to get through to her online security system and to provide his authorized override, and then she had the vault open. She stood at the entrance as Vince checked for bugs.
He came out and said, “This isn’t as sophisticated a model as I’d like to see in a vault used for your high-value inventory, but I’m satisfied that nobody put a camera or a tracker in here.”
“What about a bug?” her father asked with a frown. “Bugs would have to be well-hidden within the gems.” He checked the device in Vince’s hand. “Will it pick up anything like that?”
Vince said, “This picks up all kinds of electricity and devices.”
Her father nodded. “If we move all the contents here to her home vault, then we’ll have to check everything as it gets moved in.”
“I’m more worried about my stolen design sketches,” Diamond snapped.