The Diamond Secret

by Ruth Wind

  I could not swallow the notion that somehow, by accident, I held in my hands the jewel Paul Maigny had most wished—all of his life—to see and touch. His father, a jewel thief of some talent, had died trying to attain it. Paul, who had, in turn, fostered my own passion for jewels, had spoken of the Katerina to me many, many times.

  I clutched the jewel, narrowed my eyes at the phone, as if it were responsible for this mess.

  What was going on here? Paul was a collector and aficionado, not a thief like his father. The Katerina would be a gem he would pursue with great passion if he knew it had surfaced.

  But he would not deliberately involve me. Which meant that someone else had learned of my connection to Paul, and planned to use me to get to him, or use me as protection against him.

  The phone shrilled again. I had no doubt it was Paul on the other end. My mentor, my father's best friend, at one time my guardian, and a man I had once believed I loved more than anyone on earth.

  I let the phone ring.

  I told myself it was because I was going to be damned sure I knew what the hell was going on. I wanted to know who stole it, where it had been, why I had been chosen to carry it here to Ayr.

  The ring shrilled. I thought of the last time I'd seen Paul, before my wedding in San Francisco. I thought of picking up the receiver, listening to whatever he'd say.

  Instead, I just stood there.

  The phone stopped ringing. With slightly shaky hands, I gathered my clothes from the floor. There were spare undies in my purse, and I shimmied into them, then the skirt I'd worn on the plane. The blouse was crumpled and sweaty. Ditto the bra. I thought about going without, but that would be my hiding place, so I had to put it on. The jewel, long and flat, slipped into the space below my left breast. In the mirror, I looked to see if it was obvious, but the blouse draped down loosely, and unless a person touched it, no one would ever notice.

  From the suitcase, I took out the silk and linen shirt—payment for my troubles—and it was as luscious against my skin as I'd imagined. It was clean, but I could smell a hint of the man in it. Paul? I didn't think this was his smell.

  By then, I started to feel jumpy. Nervous. Had the jewel been part of the cache taken from the drug honcho? Or had it come from some other source? How could I find out?

  A rumble rolled loudly through my belly, and a jetlag headache was pounding against my sinus. Adrenaline had perked me up, but in order to think clearly, I would really need some sleep. First, food.

  I'd work out a more detailed plan later, but for now, I'd go ahead and meet the guy from the plane—it occurred to me that I didn't even know his name yet—and eat, then come back and get some sleep. In the morning, I'd ring the Glasgow police and do some fishing. In the meantime, I'd keep it to myself. The fewer people in the loop, the better.

  Maybe I'd ring my father, too, if I could figure out where he was staying and under what name. I'd check the race schedule first, to be sure he wasn't in the middle of the Grand Prix. No point in worrying him if he was driving. He'd done very well last year, and there was talk that he was making a comeback, that he might be the one to unseat Michael Schumacher at last.

  If the race hadn't started, I could innocently probe him about Paul.

  My hair was just damp, and rather than taking time to dry it, I wove it into a braid that hung against my spine. I examined myself in the mirror. The diamond did not show.

  The phone rang again. I grabbed my purse and coat and rushed out without answering. A creepy sense of urgency crawled down my neck, the same warning that shows up when I'm driving sometimes—a sharp directive I've learned to obey. This one said, Get out, get out! I did. I was on the high street in three minutes.

  It was early evening, still light, and there were plenty of people out walking. Too dark for sunglasses, and I had not thought to bring a hat. I was worried that I might bump into someone I knew—a cousin or a neighbor of a relative—and they'd want to join me, and then I'd have to say no, and then there would be hurt feelings all around. Plus, until I could figure out what was going on, I really didn't want to take the chance that this business might put somebody in danger. Besides me, anyway.

  I really wished I hadn't stopped at my grandmother's house.

  I kept my head down. The street was busier than I would have expected for mid-March. There were tourists around, mixing with the matrons in their cardigans, plaid skirts and sensible shoes, teenagers with piercings and their shaved heads. It all made me very aware of both my jet lag and my empty stomach, which now roared in response to the smell of meat and onions in the air. I paused for a minute, looking around.

  And damned if I didn't see my cousin Keith three doors down. Luckily, he was talking on a cell phone and didn't see me. I ducked behind a crowd of Australian schoolteacher-types and followed them into the pub. I found a seat in the dark back room, ordered a pint of Stella and the most ordinary meal in the world—pie, beans and chips—and tried to figure out what my next moves should be.

  The jukebox played old rock and roll quietly. At the bar sat a gathering of after-work males. The sound of their voices—that lilting accent, always the sound of my mother—eased the tension in the back of my neck. I took the first big breath I'd had in a half hour.

  Beneath my left breast was the comforting bulk of the diamond. Who had made sure I got it? Why?

  As if called by my questions, the man from the airport materialized at the end of the room. He stood there, staring straight at me, for a minute. No longer smiling, and I didn't know if it was the light or my fresh knowledge, but he looked older and a lot more dangerous than he had sleeping over the Atlantic.

  The certainty penetrated my jet-lag fog: he, too, had a part in this.

  I knew he was too good too be true. I cursed myself for being attracted to him anyway.

  He approached and gestured toward the empty seat in front of me. "May I?"

  I just looked at him. He sat down, and I realized he was older than I first thought—early- to mid-thirties instead of a decade younger. The bartender came over and he ordered a pint.

  The bartender nodded. "Want something to eat?"

  "I ordered the pie," I said.

  He nodded. "Another then."

  When the bartender was gone, the man took off his leather coat and rubbed a hand across his face. "Pssh," he said, and leaned on his elbows. Even in the darkened room, his eyes were astonishing, like chips of blue marble. Looking at the shirt I'd taken from the suitcase, he said, "My sister bought me that shirt in Paris. It's my favorite."

  "I'm keeping it for my troubles."

  His gaze slid admiringly down my body, over my breasts. Somehow—I don't know why—a European man can almost always get away with that, while it's only the rare American who can. His eyes came back to my face. Direct contact, eye to eye.

  He had those beautifully cut lips, a slight grizzling of black beard. Good hands. You can tell a lot about a man by the way he moves his hands. An old boyfriend of mine used to just barely scratch the top of a cat's head. It was frustrating. Guess what else was frustrating?

  "It suits you," he said. It took me a moment to realize he meant the shirt.

  "Thanks," I said, then shook my head. "Let's not play games, all right. You need to tell me what's going on. Who are you? And what is this really about?"

  He leaned back to let the bartender set down his pint. Waited until he was gone before he said, "You found it, then?"

  "A little hard to miss."

  A slight inclination of his chin, not quite a nod. "And you have it?"

  I gave him a look. "What do you think?"

  "Good."

  "Where are my things?"

  He drunk from his glass of beer, thirstily. "I have your bag in my car."

  "I was furious about my leather pants. Do have any idea how much they cost?"

  "I have good reasons to involve you, I swear it."

  "Where does Paul Maigny come into it?"

  The heavy lashes swept dow
n for a minute. Good. He wasn't a total fool if he was smart enough to be afraid of Maigny. "May I tell you after we eat? It would be safer." He glanced over his shoulder. "Maybe we can take a little walk on the beach, eh?"

  If I hadn't been so bloody starving, I'd have insisted we go right then, but there was nothing to be gained by skipping a meal that would be served any minute. "All right. Maybe in the meantime, you can tell me your name. You already know mine."

  "Luca Colceriu."

  "What do you do?"

  One eyebrow lifted elegantly. "That's saved for later."

  I lifted my beer and took a slow sip. A burly man with a receding hairline walked to the jukebox and put in some coins. "Well, then, what shall we talk about, Mr. Colceriu?"

  "Do you know the legend of this jewel?"

  "Bits and pieces," I said. "Not the whole thing. Something about a prince, and curse." I almost touched the comforting solidness of it beneath my blouse and resisted. It was there.

  "It was discovered in India, in medieval times," Luca said. "A Romanian prince—"

  "Ah-ha. Romanian. Of course."

  He looked confused. "Pardon me?"

  I shook my head. "I couldn't place your accent earlier. Romanian, of course."

  "Right."

  "Anyway, on with the story."

  Looking a little bewildered, Luca continued. "Yes, well, the prince purchased it and had it made into a splendid necklace for his wife-to-be."

  "Katerina."

  "Yes. Three days after he gave it to her, she was gruesomely murdered by the prince's rivals. The prince, in his grief, ordered her buried with the gem around her throat, and then he killed himself. His younger brother took the throne."

  A jewel that had been buried in a grave now pressed into my left breast. Even with my passion for stones, that was a little unnerving. "Eww."

  He raised an eyebrow.

  Our food came, two heavy white plates of plain Scottish pub fare. It smelled heavenly—like onions, like meat and fat and a thousand blipping memories of my mother. I picked up my fork and took a deep breath before digging into the beans. "Perfect," I said.

  He followed suit, without my reverence, and nodded. "Not bad."

  "Back to the jewel," I prompted. "Someone must have done some grave-robbing, however, because it's not down there around her neck anymore, is it?"

  He took his time, then in his slightly formal English said, "It was two generations before enough of the curse had ebbed for people not to be afraid of it. A greedy priest, with his eye on the papacy, twisted church law for a new prince to dig it up, retrieve the jewel." He took a bite of pie, washed it down with beer. "The priest was killed by a lunatic three days later, a leper who'd lost his mind and killed three others before he was restrained."

  I scowled, and maybe it was my imagination, but it suddenly felt the jewel was very hot against my skin. "What about the prince who ordered it dug up?"

  "I do not know about him."

  There are some things worth enjoying, and food was one of them. Despite the weird circumstances, the danger, the jewel, I was determined to enjoy my first Scottish meal in nearly five years. Hot food. Good food. Heaven. "I guess mass murder isn't a new thing after all, huh?"

  His teeth flashed, white and square. The grin lightened his whole face, and I could suddenly see through to someone else, a man who made jokes in a language I didn't understand, to friends he'd known his whole life, who all lived a life entirely different from my own.

  I wanted, suddenly, to go back with him to his Romanian world, into a walk-up flat in a faceless post-war building. I could see the kitchen, Communist-built utilitarian and plain, with half curtains at the window. There would be a little television on a stand on which he watched football games. The kind of football where they wore shorts, not shoulder pads.

  It lasted only a flash, my little vision, but it must have put a different expression on my face, because his shifted. His gaze was more direct, his mouth softer in that way that's so dangerous for a woman who has been devastated by the games of men. "What do you know, Sylvie Montague? Hmm?"

  I looked away, lifted a shoulder. "Don't even start playing with me," I said, and looked back. "And don't make the mistake of underestimating me. You'll regret it."

  "I will not underestimate you." His mouth lifted on one side, and he held up one hand. "Promise."

  "Finish the story," I said.

  "Well, it goes on as it began. A murder over and over, whenever someone got his hands on it. It is stolen, disappears for a generation or two, resurfaces."

  "So not everyone who comes into contact with it dies."

  "No."

  "But you're not taking any chances, are you?"

  He lifted a brow. "I am a thief. Perhaps not the cleanest soul, yes?" His eyes glittered. "I prefer not to touch it."

  "It's okay if I'm cursed to possible murder? Thanks ever so."

  "You do not believe in curses."

  "I wouldna count on that," I said in my best Scottish English. I drank a deep draft of my beer. "I am half Scot myself, you know. We believe in the dark side."

  "Not you," he said, and his voice was quite sure.

  I scowled. "What makes you think you know me?"

  He leaned forward, elbows on the table. "You don't believe in anything. You don't believe in ghosts or God or curses." His eyes were steady. "Men, families, nothing."

  A hollowness emptied out my chest. I narrowed my eyes. "You did your research."

  He tilted his head. Curls tumbled to one side. "Yes."

  Against my thigh, my cell phone buzzed suddenly. It startled me, but I grabbed it and looked at the ID to see who was calling in. "Unknown" flashed over the screen. That might have meant it was anyone at all in Scotland, since I didn't have their numbers programmed in. I didn't answer.

  "Sorry," I said, "I have relatives here. That's something you might have considered, you know, before you dumped you secret on me."

  "I did."

  A brief cold chill touched the back of my neck. "What does that mean?"

  He shrugged. "Nothing. Just that you'd have resources."

  "For…?"

  "To help you, that's all. You do not think I would hurt them?" He said it with a slight shake of his head, a slight wrinkling of his brow.

  I met his gaze, smiled slightly. "Luca, don't try to play me. I was raised with international playboys and the women who wanted their money, with thieves and art experts and people currying for favor with every sort of celebrity you can imagine." I narrowed my eyes. "You're an amateur."

  For a long moment, everything about him was utterly still, and I had a clear image of a sleek cat, tail twitching dangerously.

  Then the thick black lashes swept down, heat rose in his cheeks, and he laughed softly. "Forgive me." His chin jutted out, and he met my gaze. "I forgot who raised you."

  "Touché," I said, heat in my own cheeks. I slammed down the rest of my pint. "Let's get out of here. You can get me my suitcase."

  I stood, jammed my arms into my coat sleeves. He stood with me, and put his hand on my arm. His hair gave off a scent of cloves and oranges, startling and exotic. "Sylvie, I am sorry."

  "I'm going to the toilet." I pulled my arm away, tossed my purse over my shoulder. "Pay for our dinner. Then you can tell me what the hell is going on."

  "I will," he said, taking out his wallet. "I promise."

  Chapter 5

  The first step in evaluating a diamond is the simplest, cut. There are eight basic cuts for a diamond: emerald, heart, pear, round, marquise, radiant, oval and princess. There are others, of course, but these are the main shapes found in modern diamonds.

  —www.costellos.com.au

  In the ladies' room, I checked my lipstick and then took out my phone. One message was waiting, and I flipped open the phone to punch in the voice mail number. Nothing happened. The phone flipped back to the original icon of a flashing envelope. I tried it a second time, and the same thing happened.

  I
scowled, but I'd have time to figure it out later. I washed my hands and went back out front. Luca was counting out money to the bartender. While I waited for him, a short, sturdy-looking man at the bar said, "Hey, ain't you that race car driver's daughter? The one in papers all the time?"

  I raised my brows. "'Fraid so."

  "Yer mum's a local girl? I went to grammar school with her."

  "Is that right?" I smiled. "I'm here to visit my grandmother."

  "She was sweet, yer mum. I was wrecked to hear what happened to her."

  "Thanks." Against my hip, my phone buzzed again, and I was about to pull it out when Luca came toward me, tucking pound coins in his jeans pocket. Time enough to check the message later—it was likely a cousin or aunt, anyway.

  "Take care," I said to the man at the bar.

  "You do the same, gerl."

  Luca went out on the street into the dusk, but I remembered in time to duck my head out first and look for my cousin Keith, who'd been out here just a little while ago. No sign of him. No sign of anyone much, really. I stepped out. A small breeze buffeted my bare knees, and it would be cold later, but it wasn't bad yet.

  "Which way?" I said to Luca.

  "A car park by the station," he said, cocking his thumb. "Will you walk with me for a little while first, please? Let me tell you my story?"

  A damp gloaming hung in the air, soft purple brushed with orange, and I did want to walk by the sea before I slept. This sea, which I'd traveled a very long way to visit. Birds with muscular wings flapped overhead, calling to their mates to come get supper amid the pools left behind by the tide. I could smell the muskiness of the water.

  Beside me, Luca stood a head taller than I, his body lean and graceful, his shoulders a square evenness I wanted to touch. He tossed on a leather jacket, and I found my gaze lingering on his mouth again.

  At the same time, I was aware that he'd used me, that he was a thief, that his life was not the sort I should get mixed up in.

  But how boring would life be if we only did what was good for us? "All right," I said. "It better be good."

  "That will be for you to decide."