Fleeced

by Carol Higgins Clark

  “About ten years. I met them at a jewelry show. They all retired a few years later. Sometimes they’d come up to the office for a chat.”

  Regan thought about “Buttercup.” She wondered if by any chance Nat had confided in Edward.

  “What is going to be done with the diamonds now?” Edward asked. “They were both so excited about donating the money to the Settlers’ Club.”

  Regan hesitated. This guy sounded on the level. She looked at her watch. It was four-thirty. “I’m not sure,” she said. “Do you think I could drop by your shop?”

  “Now?”

  “I know it’s late on a Friday, but since the party is tomorrow night, and for the moment I’m handling Nat’s affairs, I’d love to talk to you for a few minutes.”

  “Come on over. I’ve got a bottle of schnapps I was going to crack open with Nat and Ben. Maybe we should have a drink in their memory.”

  31

  That last scene had to be the worst acting I have ever seen, Daphne thought. If this film is released and people know it was filmed at the Settlers’ Club, no one will ever want to come here.

  The crew was rearranging the lights and moving the camera so they could shoot from the other side of the room. Daphne was in the bar area, sitting by the actress she was standing in for. Her stage name was Pumpkin Waters. Cute when you’re twenty, Daphne thought, pathetic when you’re sixty. Clearly Pumpkin thought she was superior to Daphne.

  “Work much lately?” Daphne asked.

  Pumpkin gave her a withering look. “I’m always working.”

  “I know how hard it is when you get older in this business. Especially for women.”

  With each word, Daphne seemed to irritate Pumpkin more and more.

  “It was interesting the way you incorporated those sheep into your dialogue. After you tripped over them, I mean.”

  “Could you please leave me alone?” Pumpkin asked. “I’m concentrating.”

  On what? Daphne wondered. She stood. “I’m going to go down the hall to Thomas’s office. If they need me, tell them to give me a shout down there.”

  Pumpkin merely nodded her head.

  Daphne found Thomas sitting at his desk, going over the plans for the anniversary party. As usual, he looked agitated.

  “How’s the movie going?” he asked.

  “I don’t think it’s going to win any Academy Awards.”

  Thomas looked pained. “At least it will pay a few bills around here.”

  “Can you use any help for the party tomorrow night?” Daphne asked.

  Thomas shook his head. “The kitchen has the menu all planned. Hors d’oeuvres. A lavish buffet. Desserts. Janey is making a special cake.” He picked up the phone. “I’m getting a little worried. I haven’t been able to reach her all afternoon.”

  “Maybe she’s out delivering.”

  “She had no deliveries today. She was just cooking for the party.”

  “I’m sure she’s fine. It’s not even five o’clock. Where’s Regan Reilly?”

  Thomas put down the phone. “She’s still not picking up,” he said, distractedly, then he looked at Daphne and said, “Regan just left. She was on her way to see the jeweler who was going to buy the diamonds from Nat.”

  “So Nat and Ben had contacted someone about selling them. That’s wonderful!”

  “Not if we don’t get them back! But at least it proves that they did exist. That I’m not crazy.”

  “You know, Thomas,” Daphne began. “I never really approved of the idea of a dating service being run here in the club. All those strangers riding the elevators.”

  Thomas shrank in his chair. “Daphne, I allowed that for a number of reasons. For one, I thought that some of the decent people Lydia has in to her parties might end up joining the club. We need new members.”

  “I know, I know,” Daphne said. “But that Lydia is so nouveau riche. And that butler of hers, Maldwin, thinks he’s the only one around here with any class. I resent that. It’s probably one of their guests who made off with Nat’s diamonds.”

  “Daphne, stop it!” Thomas cried. “Regan is doing her best to try and figure all this out. She asked me to make a list of everyone who lives in the club so she can talk to you all.”

  “I didn’t see a thing last night. You should have installed cameras in the elevator and the hallways like we talked about when you started working here.”

  “I was trying to save money.”

  Just then a production assistant appeared in the doorway. “Miss Doody, we need you now.”

  Daphne turned back to Thomas. “Let me know if I can be of any help.”

  Your kind of help is not what I need, Thomas thought but politely smiled. When Daphne left the room, he picked up the phone again. He was desperate to talk to Janey. But once again he got her voice mail. I know something’s wrong, he thought. I just know it. If I haven’t reached her by the time Regan gets back, I’m going to ask her to go over to Janey’s apartment with me. With everything that had been going wrong lately, nothing horrible would come as a surprise.

  32

  The cocktail party was going strong in the main reception room of the Paisley Hotel. Law-enforcement professionals and the writers who wrote about their line of work were meeting and greeting each other with great merriment. The lectures and seminars had all gone well. People were already talking about the next crime convention and topics that would be of interest.

  Luke had joined Nora for the party, and then they were heading out to dinner with friends.

  “Have you talked to Regan?” he asked Nora.

  “Not since this morning.”

  “I was talking with Austin today,” Luke began as he accepted a glass of wine from the bartender. Austin was his right-hand man at the funeral parlors. “I told him about Regan’s new assignment over at the Settlers’ Club. He said he knew someone who went to a singles party there on Valentine’s Day. It turns out that the girl who ran it is the one we heard about last year who lived in Hoboken. Remember the Connolly brothers telling the story about the old woman who no one knew had a lot of money and left it to her neighbor? The woman had been waked at their funeral home and had planned a modest funeral for herself in advance. The Connollys had given her a break on the price, then found out later she had a couple million bucks in the bank!”

  “I remember that!” Nora said. “I swear there’s more gossip in the funeral industry than any other!”

  “Well, this girl inherited all the money, and the Connollys barely broke even. Now she’s in a penthouse apartment at the Settlers’ Club and is running a dating service. Then when the Connollys had a charity drive, and they solicited a contribution from her, she stiffed them.”

  Nora raised her eyebrows. “Well, did whoever went to her gathering have a good time?”

  “Immediately after the party he got back together with his wife.”

  “Nothing like a happy ending,” Nora said wryly. “Maybe you should let Regan know.”

  “I will,” Luke said.

  Next to Luke and Nora at the bar was someone very practiced in the art of eavesdropping. The reporter Nora had spoken to earlier in the day had come back, at Nora’s invitation, to the cocktail party. So why didn’t you tell me your daughter was at the Settlers’ Club when I mentioned it earlier? Mary Ruffner wondered as she waited for her drink. Now I have to make it a point to get down there today.

  She tapped Nora on the shoulder. “How are you?” she gushed. She turned to Luke. “And you must be Regan Reilly’s father.”

  33

  I figured with a name like Gold, I’d better be a jeweler.” Edward Gold laughed as he poured two drinks from the schnapps bottle. They were in a well-lit office above his shop on West Forty-seventh Street.

  “But I have a friend named Taylor who can’t sew on a button,” Regan countered, smiling at him as he handed her a glass.

  “That’s a good one. Come to think of it, I have a friend named Baker who’d need a compass to find the kitc
hen.”

  They clicked glasses. Regan didn’t really feel like drinking the schnapps, but she figured she’d better show a spirit of camaraderie. It might entice Edward to talk. He looked to be in his mid-sixties, with a shock of pure-white hair, a little slash of a mustache, and big brown eyes that conveyed amusement. He was about five feet nine inches tall and had a thin frame. Regan got the feeling he was always in motion. He had a habit of pulling on the left shoulder of his sweater every few seconds.

  “To Nat and Ben,” Edward said seriously. “May they rest in peace.”

  I don’t think they’re going to rest in peace until the diamonds are found, Regan thought, but she took a tiny sip of the potent liquid, winced slightly, then cleared her throat. “I didn’t want to tell you on the phone, Edward. But the diamonds are missing.”

  His eyes bulged and his face fell. “Missing?”

  There goes his commission, Regan thought. “Missing,” she repeated. She told him the whole story. “They might have been stolen with Ben’s wallet. If that’s the case, a pickpocket got very lucky. Or they might have been taken from Nat’s apartment. I thought that if I talked to you, you might have some useful information for me. I just have a few questions…”

  Edward poured some more schnapps for himself as he shook his head and pulled at his sweater. “Ask away.”

  “Did you see these guys often?”

  “Once every couple of months the whole card group would come up. We’d have a drink in the office and then go out to lunch. It was fun. They called themselves ‘the Suits.’”

  “I heard about that.”

  Edward nodded. “Nat, Ben, Abe, and Henry. Hearts, clubs, spades and diamonds!Friends for life. I tell ya, I wish I had a close-knit group like that. I have a lot of friends, mind you, but to have a group of four that spent fifty years together… They had a lot of history. They lived through children, grandchildren, divorces, wives’ deaths, occasional bickering. But every week they played cards. After Abe and Henry died this past year, Nat and Ben did a lot of soul-searching. They felt really bad about losing their friends. Neither one of them needed the money from the diamonds, and neither one wanted to spend it alone. The one hundredth anniversary of the club seemed the perfect solution. They figured they’d have more fun donating the money to the Settlers’ Club and telling them what to do with it.” Edward looked truly distressed. “They were so excited about the party tomorrow night.”

  “Do you think they talked about the diamonds to other people?”

  Edward shook his head. “They said it was their secret. But you know how secrets are.”

  “Indeed I do,” Regan said.

  “They used to call Ben ‘Big Mouth Ben.’”

  “They did?”

  “He would sit at the bar at the Settlers’ Club and yap away. There was nothing too trivial for him to talk about. Nat was the quiet type, although he liked to tell jokes. Anyway, he and his wife, Wendy, were very calm and placid. Maybe all those sheep rubbed off on them. You’ve seen the sheep?”

  “Oh yes,” Regan said.

  “Crazy, huh? Some people get attached to their pets. They got attached to their stuffed animals.”

  “Everyone gets attached to something,” Regan said. “Now, I understand all four guys belonged to the club.”

  “That’s right. Nat was the only one who lived there. But it was like their fraternity. They broke bread many times together in the dining room. Drink your schnapps.”

  “It’s good,” Regan said as she took a small sip. “Did Nat talk about having a girlfriend?”

  Edward’s eyes widened. “A girlfriend?”

  Regan was evasive. “If he was seeing someone, he might have told her about the diamonds.”

  “A girlfriend?” Edward waved his hand. “Nah! He was a little bit of a flirt with the ladies. The waitresses at lunch always loved him. But I don’t think he was seeing anybody. If he was, he sure never told me.”

  “This might have been very recent.”

  “Oh, I get it!” Edward said. “A girlfriend wouldn’t be too pleased if she heard he was giving away diamonds. After all, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” He laughed but quickly became serious again. “That’s not appropriate. Nat is dead, after all.”

  Regan thought that the schnapps was having a little bit of an effect on Edward. “Is there anything you can think of about Ben that might help me? Any of his habits? Anything that might not seem important but really is?”

  “Hmmmm,” Edward said. “You know we all went to his house once. It was his birthday, and we surprised him. He was in the bathroom when his cleaning lady let us in. His journal was out on the dining room table. Boy, was he embarrassed. The guys really razzed him about that.”

  “He kept a journal?” Regan said.

  “At least up until then. That day he’d been writing a poem. It was pretty bad.”

  “The cleaning lady was there?” Regan asked.

  “She came in on Mondays. Ben said he could spend the rest of the week messing up the place.”

  I want to get into his apartment, Regan thought. If he was still writing in that journal up until he died…

  “I’m going to put an alert out to other jewelers about these diamonds,” Edward said. “They’re very high quality and will be easy to recognize. Although I bet they’ll be taken overseas to be sold.”

  “Thanks.” Regan figured what the hell and drained her glass. When she stood up, her mouth was tingling from the peppermint taste of the schnapps.

  “Let me know what happens.” Edward wrote his home number on a business card. “I live out on the Island. I’ll be home all weekend. I’ll have to tell my wife we’re not going to the party.”

  “Somehow I don’t think the party’s going to be much fun,” Regan said.

  Edward came around from behind his desk. “Regan, you know the only good thing about this whole thing? Nat and Ben would have been lost without each other. Neither one had to hear that the other one died. Can you imagine what it must have been like when they met up in heaven?”

  Regan smiled. “It is a comforting thought.”

  “I bet there’s some card game going on up there now. Maybe when I die they’ll finally let me play.”

  “I’m sure they will,” Regan said.

  “Now don’t forget, if you do find those diamonds, I’ll give you the best deal. The check’s already made up. Certified too.”

  “I won’t forget,” Regan said. I should be so lucky as to find them, she thought as she walked out the door.

  34

  When they weren’t traveling, or getting ready for an evening out, Archibald and Vernella Enders always enjoyed a cocktail in their living room at 6:00 P.M. They sat in two armchairs by the bay window, which looked out on Gramercy Park. If it was summertime, they would criticize everyone who walked by. As the days grew shorter, they couldn’t get as good a look at people, so they had to find other things to harp about. Now that it was March they were pleased that, thanks to the equinox, people were once again becoming identifiable in the twilight.

  “I made a few phone calls today,” Archibald confided to his bride of fifty-seven years.

  Vernella sipped her drink. Long ago she’d taken on the demeanor of someone with a terminal case of excess stomach acid. Frown lines worthy of Mount Rushmore were permanently sculpted into her face. “And?”

  “It looks like the Settlers’ Club is in worse shape than we dared hope.”

  “How wonderful,” Vernella replied in her almost guttural tone. “That club has gotten on my nerves ever since the sixties, when they let in those hippies who pranced around the park in their flower-power tee shirts. What ever happened to good breeding? Good taste? ‘Pioneering people’ my foot! The Settlers’ Club has been on a crusade to disgrace Gramercy Park for the past thirty years.”

  “Don’t worry your pretty little head, my darling,” Archibald advised. “Down at the bank I was told that the anniversary party they’re having is a sorry attempt to
recruit new members. But it’s a hopeless situation, and it won’t be long before I can buy the building.”

  “Buy the building?”

  “Yes. Cousin Thorn needs a home in New York for his butler school. It would be the perfect spot. Then we, along with dear cousin, will help bring about a return of class to New York City. Thanks to Thorn’s school, good butlers will once again be available. Unfortunately that profession has suffered a sad decline. That needs to be changed.”

  “We need a butler ourselves.”

  “It’s so hard to keep help. They always leave. But we will have first dibs on Thorn’s graduates and, of course, hire the best one. As you know, Thorn will be arriving late tonight.”

  “The guest bedroom is prepared.”

  “Tomorrow night we will dine here with Thorn and toast not only the destruction of the Settlers’ Club as their party fails miserably, but also the demise of Maldwin Feckles’s butler school, which is a disgrace to every self-respecting butler.”

  Vernella giggled, something she rarely did. “I wish it stayed light longer,” she said. “We could get our binoculars out.”

  “You are a devil,” Archibald said as he grabbed her bony hand. “You are the devil I fell in love with.”

  “Oh, Archie,” Vernella said coquettishly. “I’m not a devil. I’ve been saying my prayers.”

  “And just what have you been praying for?”

  “Just that the party tomorrow night over there”-she pointed with disgust at the Settlers’ Club-“is a complete and utter disaster.”

  Archibald clapped his hands. “This is going to be such fun.”

  35

  When Clara got home from her day of scrubbing the Settlers’ Club, she was so darn glad she couldn’t believe it. I’m going to get out of this uniform and put on my robe, she thought as she unlocked the door to her apartment in Queens. It had been some day. Here I was trying to help, and Thomas goes crazy when I show him the red box. She shrugged as she took off her coat.