Model Under Cover--Dressed to Kill

by Carina Axelsson

  I texted Ugo back:

  Perfect! I should be able to make 6 p.m.

  He sent me her contact details – her name was Tavi Holt – and told me he’d given her my number. I really hoped that seeing the dress and talking to Tavi would give me a new lead. I was so excited that I could hardly stay calm during the rest of the day.

  “I love your energy, Axelle,” said the photographer as I stood posing next to the large marble fireplace in a small but elegant sitting room. “You’re really buzzing and that’s exactly what good fashion pictures need.”

  If only he knew. I smiled and thanked him.

  “It really shows that you’re doing something you love,” he added from behind his camera.

  Yeah, right!

  “Hi, you must be Axelle, I’m Tavi – come on in. Rooster – my husband – isn’t here, which is probably for the best because he can’t stand talking about dresses. He doesn’t understand why they give me such a thrill!”

  Tavi Holt was a tall, happy dynamo of perfect white teeth, long blonde hair, non-stop chatter and curves. She also pronounced my name like the car part, and haute couture came out sounding like “hoot coo-chure”.

  “This really is perfect timing,” she went on. “Because I’m only ever here in Milan twice a year – like clockwork – and only for the Ventini hoot coo-chure shows – although I come a few days earlier and order things for Rooster from their men’s show. Now if you’d wanted to meet up in New York or London that would have been much easier. I’m there much more often but Rooster, he’s into shipping, amongst other things, and his shipping company headquarters are here. Now, what a shipping company is doing with headquarters in a landlocked city like Milan is beyond me, but, hey, with Ventini here and Valentino just a hop, skip and a jump away in Rome, do I really need to ask?”

  I didn’t get a chance to answer.

  “You know, I wanted to be a model. I love Kate Upton – she’s my idol.”

  Kate Upton is the American blonde bombshell who took swimsuit modelling by storm a few years ago. After becoming a sensation who couldn’t be ignored – even by the snootiest of fashionistas – she finally landed on the cover of various Vogues – including Vogue UK. I remember her cover because Jenny, my best friend in London, pinned it to her wall. “She’s different,” Jenny had said. “And she seems nice.”

  “Do you remember that video she did of her in a bikini dancing the dougie?” Tavi went on. “She posted it on YouTube and that really got her career going! Well, when I saw that I thought I can do a bikini dougie dance and post it on YouTube and launch my modelling career in the same way she did. Have you seen her bikini video? Jiggle, jiggle, it’s all moving in that video. Anyway, in the end I had to shelve my modelling dream because Rooster saw me. He was in Kansas City on business – Rooster has more companies than I have Ventini dresses and that’s saying something! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, so Rooster was in Kansas City on business and took his managers to see the Kansas City Royals play I don’t remember who. Well get this – every time there was a break in the game, the camera would pan to me. I mean I was huge on the screen – huge! So I decided, this is it – this is my moment! And I did the dougie in my seat. And then I stood up for the next break and dougied some more and then I just kept on dougieing. The crowd was going bananas – I mean they lapped it up. Anyway, I like to say that I dougied my way into Rooster’s heart on that day. And here I am.”

  Tavi interested me; with her relentless chatter and obsession with clothes, it might be easy to dismiss her as a lightweight – but the look in her eyes told a different story. She’d obviously grown up in a place where looks were prized more than brains, so she tended to lead with that – her eyes were kind, but sharp and determined. I liked that about her. If my instincts were right, I could probably be direct with her and get an honest answer.

  Eventually we made it to the room where the dress was hanging. “This is my Milan dress archive,” Tavi said with a wave of her hand. We were standing in a room that was temperature and light controlled – and roughly the size of the entire first floor of an average English house. “And this is the dress.”

  It was in the middle of the room, hanging on a mannequin – and it was amazing. It glittered as though it could come alive at any second. Up close the handiwork was astonishing. Tiny stitches covered the dress, so it almost looked as if it was made of rare feathers. And everywhere were exquisite jewels. It was impossible not to stare.

  “Isn’t it the best? I love it. And if you look closely you can see all the fine, fine stitching. You see? I was told it took twenty seamstresses five months to make this dress. Falco Ventini actually worked on it himself. And look at this…” I waited while she flipped the dress over and lifted the lining. “The stitching is as beautiful on the reverse side as it is on the ‘right’ side. That’s true quality. That’s Ventini – Falco Ventini. I love Ugo, but he still hasn’t produced a dress like this. Though I’m sure he will, and when he does I’ll be waiting. Anyway, when I saw this one I knew I had to have it. It’s going to be the centrepiece of the new hoot coo-chure museum I’m building back in Kansas City. It’s going to be all glass and—”

  I cleared my throat loudly. I realized I’d have to grab the bull by the horns so to speak or I’d never get a question in. “The archivist at Ventini told me that all those jewels are real. How amazing… In fact,” I opened my notebook in an attempt to look professional (okay, yeah, and a bit older, too), “for the blog piece I’m writing I’ve been going through some of the newspaper articles that came out at the time of the show and this dress is the one with the most jewels. Do you have any idea how much the jewels alone are worth?”

  Tavi threw her head back and laughed. “Real? All of them? Listen, Axelle, I loved Falco and all but there’s no way all of those jewels are real. But that’s just between you and me. Don’t you dare tell Ugo or anyone at Ventini. Falco’s dead and I certainly don’t want to upset his ghost – it doesn’t matter now anyway.”

  “How do you know they’re not all real?” I asked quickly.

  She rolled her eyes, raised her jewel-covered fingers and waved them in front of my face. “Because there are three things I know about: hoot coo-chure dresses, jewels and Rooster! And of the three, it’s jewels that I know the most about. Don’t tell that to Rooster, though!” Her throaty laugh rippled through the room.

  “Can you show me how you know?”

  “Of course. Stay there a moment, we need more light.” She walked back towards the door and pressed a button on a panel next to the doorway. The shutters on the windows turned and the room was flooded with natural light. Next she upped the dimmer on the overhead LED lights.

  “You really need a magnifying glass because some of what I’m about to show you is hard to see with the naked eye, but, here, look at this.” She pointed to a sapphire – or at least what I took to be a sapphire (it was dark blue). It was one of thousands of stones on the dress. Furthermore it was small compared to most of the others and it was smack in the middle of the bottom of the back of the dress. “This one is made of glass. It lacks the depth and natural flaws that a real sapphire would have.”

  “Flaws?”

  Tavi nodded. “Yeah, flaws. Only two kinds of gems don’t have flaws – priceless ones and fake ones. Before I bought the dress, naturally I wanted to check that the stones were real. These are the ones I checked out first.” She pointed to the collar of the dress and the cuffs; these areas had some of the largest jewels. “Now the big stones here all have flaws. A jeweller would say they’re medium quality, but they are real. Anyway, I was like, all right, what they said is true, the jewels on the dress are real, and I didn’t give it a second thought. But a while later, after I’d bought the dress, the little sapphire I just showed you caught my eye and I looked at it with my magnifying glass. I can’t say why – it was just a feeling I had. It was so perfe
ct – too perfect. And that didn’t make sense – you know what I mean? If you’re using a medium quality for the big stones that everyone sees, then why would you use a fantastic quality on the little stones that no one is going to see?”

  It was a good point. It seemed Tavi was more of a fashion detective than she knew. I felt the hairs begin to rise on my arms, because the rumour Ugo had told me was beginning to seem more real than half the stones on the dress.

  “So I had it checked,” Tavi continued. “In fact, I had all of the stones on the dress checked.”

  “And?” My eyes were wide. Maddeningly, after having talked non-stop for minutes on end, Tavi was suddenly quiet. “What did you find out?”

  Tavi threw her head back and laughed. “I found out that my gut was right – that little blue ‘sapphire’ I’ve just shown you is fake. It’s made of glass – like half of the small stones on the dress.” Tavi laughed again. The entire story seemed to amuse her.

  “Weren’t you upset?”

  “No. Of course, I never told Rooster because he would have been upset – he’d have felt cheated, which in a way, I guess we were… But by the time I had the stones all checked Falco wasn’t doing so well. He was on his deathbed. And I mean, as exquisite as it is and as beautiful as it is…well, at the end of the day, it’s just a dress. You know what I mean? It wasn’t worth upsetting a dying man over – especially as he probably didn’t even know.”

  I nodded. Tavi was going up and up in my estimation. I knew that some of my school friends’ mothers wouldn’t be so generous; some of them looked as if they’d kill anyone who dared switch their genuine Chloe or Louis Vuitton handbag for a fake.

  “Of course,” Tavi continued, “when I bought the dress, there were documents exchanged that testified to the quality of the stones, and Falco did tell me that they were all real. We paid almost half a million euros for the dress – which even for hoot coo-chure is an awful lot. That was on the understanding that a good portion of the cost was because of the value of the stones… The thing is, I liked Falco – I really did. And I didn’t want to cause trouble for him. He was such a character – a funny, secretive little man, almost like he might have been from a fairy tale. And he was a genius with clothes. But I doubt he’d ever have noticed if someone had switched the stones right under his nose.”

  My head was spinning with everything I’d just learned. While Tavi prattled on about Falco, I thought about the one and only solid clue I now had concerning Elisabetta.

  I suddenly thought of something. Fortunately Tavi didn’t seem to mind when I took my phone out and quickly wrote Ugo a message:

  Ugo, can you find out how much Falco spent on the stones on the dress? Thanks, A

  He replied straight away:

  Sure can. I’ll get back to you asap.

  I decided it was time to be upfront with Tavi. “You know, there was a rumour at the time of Falco’s last collection that Falco himself had switched some of the real jewels for fake ones on a few of the dresses in the collection…so, from what you’ve shown me today, I guess it’s true…” I wondered whether Tavi had heard the rumour.

  She looked at me, her eyes wide. “Oh, so it was Falco! Wow!” Tavi stood for a moment in silence and chewed her bottom lip. “I’d assumed it was one of the seamstresses or something but if he did it himself then…” She trailed off but after a few seconds she smiled broadly. “Actually, what a great story! Thanks for telling me. I reckon I like the dress even more now – and, if I think about it, it’s probably good for the value of the dress,” she added excitedly.

  “How do you mean?” I asked.

  “Anything collectible becomes more interesting when it has a good story behind it. And I couldn’t ask for a better one than that!”

  She seemed genuinely pleased.

  I was also genuinely pleased. I’d come hoping to find out whether the rumour about Falco switching the stones was true – and apparently it was.

  My phone pinged with a message from Ugo:

  €400,000 spent on the stones.

  “Tavi…” I didn’t know if she’d be willing to answer my next question, but I had to try. “You told me you’d had the real stones on the dress valued…can I ask you how much they’re worth?”

  “My jeweller gave them a collective value of about 100,000 euros. Why?”

  “Just wondering…” I was wondering all right – about where the other €300,000 worth of stones had gone.

  According to the rumour Falco had wanted to use the stones to fund his business, but had he? Maybe he’d died before he had the chance. In which case, where were the rest of the jewels? Were they still hidden somewhere? Did Elisabetta know where? Is that what had put her life in danger? I pursed my lips as the various thoughts ran through my mind. It was as if I’d been looking at this case through a pair of broken glasses, and since meeting Tavi, they’d suddenly been repaired. It’s not that I had any answers – I didn’t at all. But Elisabetta’s death now took on a whole new meaning…I finally had a motive…so which of the suspects – Ugo, Ginevra, Francesca or Alessandro – fitted it best?

  “Tavi, did you know that Falco was into tarot cards?”

  “Honeybun, I didn’t even know what tarot cards were until Falco showed me. I had an aunt who liked to read palms but it’s not really the same thing. The whole tarot card thing is pretty intense, though. Falco gave me a reading once as a birthday gift. This really chic woman, I can’t remember her name…anyway, she told me that I was going to be a force for good in the world. After that I was like, oh, tarot is fun!” Tavi suddenly looked at her watch. “Listen, Axelle, I have to get going. Rooster is coming home soon and we have a dinner with the American ambassador tonight. I have to decide what to wear!”

  I said goodbye to Tavi and she asked me to keep her posted if I found out anything else about the dress. “Of course, all I really want to know is what Falco did with all those stones!” she said.

  Yeah, me too…

  As I left Tavi’s building I quickly texted Ugo:

  Rumour confirmed. Will tell all in person.

  He replied immediately:

  Not sure that’s good news. Look forward to hearing all.

  Next I took a deep breath and for a minute simply stood with my eyes closed and my face tilted upwards to catch the early evening sun. It was still strong and felt wonderful. But then I remembered that I needed to speak with Lavinia. I had a question I wanted to ask her and she, having known Falco so well and for so long, might just be the only person who could answer it.

  She answered on the first ring. Briefly I told her that Tavi had confirmed the rumour.

  “I’m surprised,” she said. “But at the same time I’m not. I’d heard the rumour…and I knew Falco was desperate to save his business, but I didn’t believe he’d stoop to that. It does make sense though when I think about how much time he spent – on his own – working on that dress.” Lavinia was quiet for a moment before continuing. “I’m guessing that was the only dress he sabotaged. Tavi is one in a million – I can’t imagine any of the other clients keeping quiet if it turned out the gems on their dresses were fakes. Anyway,” Lavinia took a deep breath, “he wasn’t generally a dishonest person – I promise you. I know it must seem difficult to believe when you hear a story like that, but I can tell you that on his deathbed he was racked with guilt over bad decisions he’d made – surely this was one of them. He must have been feeling very, very desperate – far more desperate than he let on at the time – to have done something like that. Ah, Falco!” She was quiet for a moment. “Of course, it came out later that his company was very, very close to bankruptcy, which I guess explains this last-chance ploy… Anyway, tell me, how did Tavi take it? Does she want to sue? Or does she want a reimbursement? Management will love that, ugh! I’m glad I’m out of it!”

  “Actually, like you, s
he seemed to feel sorry for Falco. By the time she found out about the switched stones he was on his deathbed, so she was reluctant to bring it up. But the receipt for the dress does stipulate real stones…”

  “I know…”

  “But she hasn’t told Rooster.”

  “That’s lucky. He would sue immediately. Although, having said that, for Rooster a few hundred thousand of any currency is pocket money!”

  “Actually, Tavi was quite pleased that it was Falco who had switched the stones. She thought it might increase the value of the dress.”

  Lavinia laughed. “Well, she’s right about that. She’s quite clever, you know. The more I get to know Tavi the more I like her.”

  Funnily enough, that was exactly how I felt, too. I changed the subject. “By the way, Ginevra was still working for Falco at the time of his last collection, wasn’t she? Do you think she knew about this rumour? And what about Alessandro and Francesca?”

  “Definitely, yes. They all asked me about it. But I always brushed it off as gossip – and the fact that no client ever complained, for me, only confirmed that it was a rumour. Obviously I was wrong…”

  “Lavinia, can I ask you one last question…?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Well, as we now know, the stones were switched. And it’s occurred to me that if Falco didn’t sell them, and since he died very soon after he took them, then they just might still be hidden somewhere. Now, knowing Falco as you did, can you think of where he might have stashed them?”

  “Oh, I’ve no idea. But like I always say, Falco would probably tell you it’s in the cards.” She laughed. “I could call Signora Ferrara to do a reading for you. She might be able to lead you to them with her tarocchi. What do you think?” Lavinia was joking, the smile on her lips nearly audible as she spoke. But I wasn’t laughing. My mind was whirring. Falco would probably tell you it’s in the cards…

  “I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful, Axelle…”