Rough Cut

by Owen Carey Jones

  The telephone kept ringing as people read the story and called to extend their sympathy. There were also several calls from other newspapers wanting to pick up on the story and Nicole’s friend, Anna Baines, had come over early to see if she could do anything to help. Nicole had tried to answer the first few calls herself but she kept finding that she was unable to speak and had then asked Anna to deal with them.

  The doctor had given Nicole some strong sedatives, the effects of which had left her feeling a bit groggy. In the kitchen, she made herself a mug of coffee before going into the living room and sitting down on the sofa, her mind a jumble of thoughts and memories of Rob. Next to the sofa, was the box of mementos from which she had selected the picture of Rob for the paper. She took a small bundle of photographs from the box and started looking through them. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she looked at one of Rob and Eloise taken on holiday only a few weeks earlier. They had been playing beach tennis and Eloise had fallen on top of her brother; they looked so happy. There was also one of Rob proudly holding his new toy, an iPad; it had been a present from her, given to him only ten days before his death, on his nineteenth birthday. Through her tears she could see again how pleased he had been with it and she recalled the evening of the day following his birthday.

  She and Eloise had been entertaining Anna and her husband Jeremy. A couple of months earlier, it had been Jeremy who had offered Eloise a good job with his company, before she had even finished her course, not that there had been the slightest doubt about her passing her final exams and graduating.

  As the evening had drawn to a close and Jeremy and Anna had left, Eloise and Nicole had been clearing up in the lounge when Rob had come into the room, excitedly holding the iPad in his hands. They had both looked towards him as he had entered but it was Eloise who spoke to him, voicing the thoughts both she and her mother were having.

  “Nice of you to honour us with your presence,” she said sarcastically.

  “Hey, come on, Sis, admit it. If you’d just got an iPad, you’d be wanting to get it all set up too.”

  Rob looked up from his iPad, not really understanding why Eloise was annoyed with him.

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” she said in a bored tone before pushing past her brother and starting to collect the empty glasses. As she gathered them and put them on a tray, Rob continued walking round the room playing with his new toy.

  Then, suddenly, he stopped and stared intently at the iPad before exclaiming, “What the fuck!” Eloise looked round and smiled but his mother was less amused by his language. She frowned as Eloise walked towards Rob, a mischievous smile lighting up her face.

  “Ah, what’s the matter, little brother? Is it broken already?” she teased as she wandered round behind him.

  “This is weird,” said Rob, continuing to stare at the screen of his iPad, oblivious to the fact that Eloise was now peering over his shoulder trying to see what all the fuss was about. Unable to see anything, she gave up and came round to Rob’s side before reaching out and snatching the iPad out of his hands.

  “Here, let’s see,” she said as she drew it towards herself and looked at it, noting that the screen of the iPad was covered with row after row of numbers in groups of six.

  “Looks like spam to me,” she said.

  “That’s because it’s in code,” said Rob, holding out his hand expectantly and waiting for Eloise to return the iPad to him.

  Instead, she just rolled her eyes before responding, as many an older sister would, in a way that emphasised how stupid she considered her little brother to be.

  “Oh yeah, course it is,” she said, as she laughed at him mockingly, “How silly of me not to realise.”

  Rob angrily snatched the iPad back from Eloise and she turned away from him. Still smiling to herself, she picked up the tray of glasses and left the room as he gave her a drop dead look.

  Reluctantly, Nicole put the picture back with the others, each of which recalled other happy times, and replaced the bundle in the box beside her. She was wiping her eyes with a handkerchief when Anna glided silently into the room. Anna was tall for a woman and slim and she carried herself with a natural ease and poise learned from many hours of walking up and down with a large book balanced on her head. Her hair was always carefully coiffed and her make-up perfect. She was every inch the society wife and had been married to Jeremy for more than twelve years.

  Although Anna was considerably younger than Nicole, she was one of Nicole’s best friends and the two had got to know each other quite well over the years. Nicole’s husband’s printing business, which was still functioning despite his demise three years earlier, did a lot of work for Jeremy’s company and Nicole had been grateful to Jeremy for his support following Andrew’s death. She was also grateful to him for giving Eloise a job, one which Eloise had told her she was enjoying very much.

  “Would you like some more coffee?” asked Anna.

  “No, I’ve still got some, thanks,” said Nicole, picking up the mug from the coffee table and smiling weakly.

  Anna sat on the sofa, close to Nicole, and looked at her sympathetically. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “I was just looking at some photographs of Rob. They made me start crying again.”

  Anna took her hand. “I am so sorry this has happened,” she said, “He was such a lovely young man, so full of life, and fun. I still can’t quite believe it.” Anna paused. She looked at Nicole and then looked away. “I do wish sometimes that we could, you know, just go back in time and change what happens, don’t you?”

  Nicole looked at Anna uncomprehendingly and the two women sat in silence for a while, neither knowing what to say to the other. Although they had become good friends, always ready to help each other out, they were quite different. Nicole had never reached the point where she could honestly say that she understood Anna and their friendship had always operated on a slightly detached level. Theirs was not the closeness of bosom buddies who could empathise with each other and share their innermost secrets but Nicole valued their friendship for what it was, a source of unquestioning practical support whenever it was needed.

  “Have the police any idea what happened?” asked Anna, breaking the silence.

  “Not really. They seem to be completely baffled by the whole business. Apart from Rob’s iPad, nothing was stolen. The only explanation they can come up with is that Rob surprised a burglar before he had a chance to take anything else and that the burglar fled in panic after he…” Nicole choked, unable to bring herself to say the words as she relived the moment when she and Eloise had found Rob’s body slumped, lifeless, in the hall.

  _________________________

  The next morning, as he walked along Madison Avenue in New York, Carter was blissfully unaware of the devastating events which had taken place in Yorkshire a couple of nights before.

  At number 270 on that famous street stands the Education Center of the Gemological Institute of America and on that cloudless day in June, the sun shone brightly as Carter approached the building and went inside.

  Twenty minutes later, Carter, dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and a rather flamboyant red and green tie, was preparing to deliver a lecture to a room full of students. Although he was not a natural public speaker, he was fairly relaxed about the task in front of him, having fulfilled the role quite successfully on a number of previous occasions.

  “Good morning, students,” he began, and slowly the room grew silent as the class stopped chattering.

  “My name is Carter Jefferson, and I graduated from Oxford University with a masters degree in Geology in…” Carter paused to allow his little joke to mature, “…well it was a while back, long before any of you even existed.” A few of the students managed a polite chuckle at this before Carter continued.

  “After that, I took an interest in diamonds and ended up working for the Federation of International Diamond Traders here in New York, something I still do, but only occasionally, on a freelance basi
s now.”

  Carter looked up at the back row of the lecture theatre as one of the students, a young man dressed in jeans and a tee-shirt raised his hand and shouted out.

  “I thought you were a hot shot author! That’s what it says in your online bio.” The other students laughed loudly at the interruption as Carter smiled and looked down at his feet, wondering how to respond. He was used to students attempting to unsettle him but this was a new tactic. After a few moments, he looked up at the student.

  “Good to see you’ve been doing some research,” he said, “I’m impressed.”

  Several of the students turned to each other and started talking about the revelation that their lecturer was an author. Carter watched them, considering how best to proceed before finally deciding to give them what they wanted.

  “OK. Just so we can get this out of the way and move on to what we’re here for today, it is true that I have written some books, including a novel based on one of my more interesting experiences.” Carter paused as the room went quiet again, reflecting the students’ new found interest in this man’s background. “And, while I’m waiting for that to hit the best-seller lists and make me my fortune, now and again I get to tell guys like you everything I know about diamonds.”

  The room remained hushed and Carter smiled as he surveyed the students, most of whom were now sitting attentively waiting for him to continue.

  “OK,” he began, “So who can tell me? What is a synthetic diamond?”

  _________________________

  Later that day, on the seventh floor of the Gemological Institute building, the floor which was occupied by the FIDT, Carter entered a meeting room and shook hands with John Sprague. The two men had become friends over the years and the handshake was followed by a brief hug.

  As John lifted his briefcase onto the table and Carter sat down, John gave him a knowing look and smiled. He reached into his briefcase and removed a jeweller’s eye-glass, a 10x loupe, and a pair of long tweezers, both of which he put on the table in front of Carter. Then he pulled out a piece of soft black velvet cloth and spread it out on the table. Finally, he reached into his briefcase again and extracted a pouch made of similar black velvet material. He loosened the cord of the pouch and emptied the contents, about twenty sparkling gem quality diamonds, onto the black cloth.

  Carter picked up one of the diamonds with the tweezers and examined it with the loupe. As he turned the diamond over, examining it carefully, John spoke.

  “They’re all synthetic,” he said, “but incredibly good quality, the best I’ve ever seen.”

  “It was bound to happen sooner or later,” replied Carter, not taking his eye from the loupe.

  John’s response came in a resigned tone. “I know. We’ve always known it was just a matter of time. The fact that someone is making gem quality synthetics of this size and clarity isn’t the problem. It’s what they’re doing with them that concerns us.”

  Carter replaced the diamond on the cloth. Then he put down the tweezers and the loupe and leaned back in his chair.

  “OK, John, I’ll take the assignment,” he said, looking John in the eye as he spoke. “We can’t have all the world’s lovebirds thinking they’re buying something that’s been in the ground since… since forever, when what they’re actually getting is something that was made in a factory last week!” Carter managed a faint smile before his expression turned more serious. “This case is of particular interest to me,” he said, “because the mine in Guinea where the diamonds appear to have come from, is owned by Philippe Lacoste.” Carter paused, waiting for a response from John.

  “Yeah, and…” prompted John obligingly, a blank look on his face as he waited for Carter to continue.

  “Well, the thing is, I know Philippe Lacoste. At least, I have met him. A long time ago, when I was at university in England, I had a girlfriend, a fellow student. She was his daughter and, hard though it might be to believe, he didn’t like me.” Carter smiled as John looked at him wondering where this information was leading. “But that’s a story for another day. Where I’m getting to is that Monsieur Lacoste lives in the South of France, so that’s probably where I should start my investigation, assuming you still want me on the case?”

  “Definitely,” said John, nodding emphatically.

  “Well, I’m due to fly to Europe next week anyway…” said Carter, smiling as he anticipated what he would say next, “…for the UK launch of my last literary masterpiece.”

  John returned the smile. “Of course,” he said and patted Carter on the shoulder, “I’d forgotten about that.”

  “So, if it’s OK with you, I’ll get onto this straight after that.”

  John nodded his agreement to Carter’s proposal. “That’s settled then,” he said. “And you can have Conrad to help you as usual. I’ll have him join you in England.”

  With that, John rose from the table and held out his hand. “Carter,” he said, “Until we meet again.”

  The two men shook hands before Carter turned and headed for the door as John gathered up the synthetic diamonds and returned them to his briefcase.

  CHAPTER 2

  Rob’s funeral was a quiet affair. Behind the hearse carrying the coffin, the black Rolls Royce in which Nicole and Eloise were travelling drove the few miles from the church to the cemetery.

  Eloise sat stony faced, staring straight ahead and trying to work out why anyone would want to kill her brother. She couldn’t believe that it was simply because he had caught a burglar in the house. Nicole cried quietly throughout the short journey.

  In the black Daimler limousine behind them were Jeremy and Anna with Nicole’s father, Philippe Lacoste, who had flown in from Nice the night before. Philippe knew the Baineses quite well, both through Nicole and also as a result of renting boats to them on their frequent visits to the South of France. Several other cars followed on behind.

  Watery sunshine broke through the clouds for the first time that day as the cortege passed through the bleak, wrought iron cemetery gates and wound down the narrow road to the bottom of the hill. When all the cars had rolled to a halt, the funeral director led his men to the back of the hearse where, slowly and reverently, they removed the coffin and placed it on their shoulders. Led by Nicole and Eloise, the mourners followed on behind, their footsteps silent on the freshly cut grass. At the grave side the minister from their local church delivered the final words.

  “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust… in sure and certain hope…”

  Eloise squinted up at the sun and felt the warm rays on the soft skin of her face as she did. Her brother was dead and yet, somehow, she felt strangely peaceful in that place. She could hear the birds singing in the nearby trees and the scent of flowers from the many bouquets drifted past her.

  And then it was over and the coffin was lowered into the grave. First Nicole and then Eloise tossed a small scoop of earth onto the coffin and left to return to the cars. Eloise sighed a deep sigh and turned to her mother.

  “They will catch whoever did this, won’t they?” She looked up at her mother’s face and saw the tears welling up in her eyes.

  “Of course they will, sweetheart. Of course they will.”

  But Eloise knew that in the week since Rob’s death the police had made virtually no progress with the case. The post mortem had told them nothing new and their effort had been reduced to two men, for whom the case would just be one of many.

  Back at Darrington Hall, the mourners wandered between the sitting room and the dining room where the food which Anna had prepared was laid out. On each visit they piled their small plates high with a selection from the lavish spread.

  Eloise watched her mother smile painfully at the people who went over to convey their sympathy. She knew how difficult she was finding it and she was glad that mostly people were leaving her alone. She felt for her mother having to deal with this without her father and recalled what her mother had told her about how they had met. They had both been students at Oxford
University at the time and they had met a few months after Nicole had experienced a difficult break up with her previous boyfriend. A whirlwind romance had followed and Nicole had never looked back. Eloise sighed and hoped that one day she would meet someone about whom she would feel that strongly. As she was lost deep in thought, she suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder.

  “Hello, you,” said a sympathetic voice; Jeremy Baines had crept up behind her.

  “Oh, hi Jeremy.” Eloise’s voice lacked any real conviction that she was pleased to see him but her smile was warm.

  When, a month earlier, Jeremy had offered her the job with his company, she had been happy to accept it. The offer had been an attractive one, good pay and interesting work organising and managing the company’s promotional events throughout Europe.

  As her mind wandered back to the scene before her, Jeremy continued to try to engage her in conversation.

  “How are you liking the job?” he asked, “Have you settled in all right with us?”

  “Hmm? Oh, yes. Fine, thanks,” replied Eloise, reluctantly dragging herself back into Jeremy’s presence and giving him her full attention.

  “I hear good things about your organisation of our conference in Sainte Maxime next week.”

  “Good, I’m glad.” Eloise paused for a few moments before continuing, “I was really looking forward to it, but now, after this…”; she waved her hand in front of her.

  “Yes, I can imagine. But it’ll do you good, I’m sure. The boat trip to Monaco, especially.” Eloise smiled weakly as Jeremy continued. “Did I tell you Anna’s decided to come with us? Says she’ll need a few days somewhere warm after Moscow this weekend.”

  Eloise laughed politely. “Me too!” she said

  “Are you all packed and ready? It’s an early flight you know.”

  “Yup! Woolly hat and winter coat already in the case,” joked Eloise.

  “Good! And don’t forget your gloves. You’ll need them too,” said Jeremy, playing along.