by Lynn Donovan
Why hadn’t he said husband? Could it be he didn’t take the ceremony of matrimony seriously since it was in fact a marriage of convenience since it would soon be annulled once they returned to Denver? She sighed. “Well, thank you. I am pleased to have you for my… partner as well.”
He paused, locked in her gaze. A ridiculous longing stirred in her gut. This man was a swindler. That’s what made him perfect for this case. How could she have feelings for him other than gratitude that he could find her father’s and friend’s murderer. She swallowed and gestured toward the door. “Shall we?”
“Yes.” He touched her back to guide her through the hotel room door. She closed her eyes against the sensation that shot up her spine from his hand. Owen Latimer was indeed a very handsome man. He was currently her partner, but she could not allow herself to fall in love with him. It wouldn’t be a smart thing to do. She didn’t fully trust him. He didn’t seem to fully like her. While he did compliment her skills, his compliments were slanted if not confusing. To live the rest of her life with a husband whom she could not trust would be… ludicrous, at best.
The meeting was at the home of Mr. William C. Ralston, a financier of the Bank of California. Since Henry Janin had been hired as the mining engineer, he would be leading the meeting and many other investors would be present. Jocelyn knew their names by mention when she met Janin on the train. Her father had recorded the names in his report. Janin did not know the field was fraudulent at the time.
Without her father’s final report, these investors would only hear Janin’s tale of easily finding diamonds and rubies and be influenced to purchase the 100,000 shares at $100 a share. It was unadulterated robbery with the knowledge she and her father had accumulated at the site.
A butler opened the door to the large three-story home and welcomed Jocelyn and Owen in. They were directed to the parlor. Upon entering, another gentleman dressed in tails announced their arrival. “Mr. and Mrs. Owen Latimer of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.”
It had been decided there was no need to disguise themselves. As Pinkerton Agents, Owen and Jocelyn represented Clarence King and would reveal the truth about the diamond field. They entered the room with Jocelyn clinging to Owen’s elbow like a love-smitten newlywed.
Jocelyn let her eyes sweep the room of men, looking for any anomalies in their expressions. Perhaps the married name veiled their shock. She shoved her elbow into Owen. He leaned down to her. “We need to let them know we represent Clarence King and that I am, in fact, his daughter Jocelyn King.”
Owen nodded as Janin approached them with an extended hand for introductions. “Welcome! Mr. Latimer, I’m Henry Janin. And this is your lovely bri— Miss Jocelyn King! What a pleasure it is to see you again!” Janin’s eyes darted between Owen and Jocelyn’s.
A silver tray shattered on the hardwood floor. All heads turned to a trembling older woman dressed head-to-toe in black.
“Oh dear, me.” The widow rubbed her hands together. “These old hands of mine just cannot hold a tea tray like they used to.” Her voice seemed feeble, shaky. Jocelyn wondered who she could be.
But that question was soon answered when a well-dressed man rushed to the widow’s side. “Mother! You do not have to serve tea. We have servants to do that.” He gestured to a young girl in a crisp maid’s uniform to come quickly and pick up what his mother had dropped. “Millie, come clean this up and fetch another.” He barked the command as if she had been lax in reacting to the incident.
She curtsied. “Yes, Mister Ralston. Right away, Sir.”
Ah. Jocelyn recognized the name. This was their host, William Ralston and his widowed mother, Abigale. Jocelyn continued to watch Mrs. Ralston, sympathetic to her anxious concern over making a spectacle of herself. Mr. Ralston attended his mother until she was settled. He seemed to be a kind son.
Attention soon returned to Janin and the Latimers. “Well, I see changes have happened in your life since we first met near Oakland.”
“Yes.” Jocelyn snuggled against Owen’s arm as if she were tickled pink to present her husband. “Unfortunately, Mister Janin, my father could not be here to give you our findings, but, my husband has been fully versed on Father’s report.”
Janin nodded. A slight look of disappointment in his face.
“Gentlemen!” Turning from the Latimers, Janin tapped his glass with a butter knife. “We have with us a representative of the geologist team who visited our diamond field and has what I hope to be good news for all of us.”
The men turned toward Jocelyn and Owen with great expectation on their faces. Chatter rose to an excited bedlam. Owen took command of the room with the clearing of his throat. Jocelyn peaked a brow at his ability to do that so easily. Owen smiled at her curious expression. Knowing she would have had to shout to get the men’s attention. Owen had a talent for commanding a room with little movement on his part.
“Gentlemen.” Owen began calmly. “I’m afraid I do not have good news. At least not for your continued financial gain. However, I do have good news in that you shall no longer throw away your money on a falsified investment scheme.”
The grumbling rumblings began anew and Owen held up one hand. The men focused on what he had to say. “Clarence King and his team heard about this fantastic field from Mr. Janin and since it was within the confines of their assignment from Congress to map and describe 80,000 square miles of land between the Rockies and the Sierras of Nevada, they hurried to the site in question. It took less than twelve hours for King’s team to determine this field was salted with gems that could not have possibly been deposited by nature. Why Phillip Arnold and John Slack didn’t throw in a few pearls for good measure is beyond me.” Latimer chuckled, his eyes flitting to Jocelyn. He appreciated her joke about the pearls. “This field was so obviously a fake. King spent the next three days simply cataloguing the false layout of the findings.” Latimer paused to let the information soak in.
“Is there a Mister J. F. Berry here?”
The men shook their heads and yet, looked amongst themselves for the possibility that the man might be among them. Janin spoke. “No. Who is this Berry and why do you ask for him?”
“Well.” Owen continued to search the faces for notable reactions. “Mister Berry happened to show up on horseback while King and his team were documenting the fake field, claimed he was a New York Diamond Dealer, and then rode off. No one has seen him since that day. We assumed he would head straight to you.” Owen met Ralston’s glare. “To tell you the field was a fraud.”
Ralston shook his head. “I never heard of this J. F. Berry.”
“Hmm.” Owen nodded. “Well, it was my father-in-law’s concern that he would bring the news to you before he could get here.”
“And, so…” A voice in the back spoke out.
“I beg your pardon, Sir.” Owen searched over the tops of heads to see who was speaking. “I have not had the pleasure of your acquaintance. Who are you, Sir?”
The man paused as all eyes turned to him. “Um, Charles Lewis Tiffany.” He had a snobbish tone to his speech. “I deal in fine jewelry out east. I was brought in to ascertain the value of a bag of diamonds. In fact, I am here today to learn what our mining engineer discovered when he inspected the field.”
The men grumbled all at once. “You cheated us!”
“You said these diamonds were real!”
“I bought into this investment because of your assessment!”
Owen pumped flat hands to quiet the men. “Gentlemen. Let the man speak.”
The room quieted. Delicate Charles Tiffany lifted a frilly handkerchief to dab perspiration from his face. “Even though I and my lapidary inspected a sampling of Misters Arnold and Slack’s claim, we determined the uncut gems’ value based on what we had been told. But we had never laid eyes on the actual field where they claimed to have found them. Thank God we hired Janin as an expert mining engineer and he apparently had the foresight to contact a geologist.” Tiffany gestured towar
d Latimer. “Otherwise this hoax would not have been discovered for what it is.”
Jocelyn stepped around Owen. “Actually, we met Janin by accident—”
Owen cut her off and blocked her with an outstretched arm, shoving her back behind him. She huffed. He could feel the daggers she was staring into the back of his head, but continued to address Tiffany with his eyes as if he expected the jeweler to give more details.
The room filled with grumbling again. A man shouted, “But I’ve spent more than $100,000 in worthless shares!”
Janin touched the man’s arm. “Now, Harpending, no one forced you to buy those shares. You were as fooled by Arnold and Slack as the rest of us. They played their Kentuckian charms on all of us.”
Owen noted in his head. Asbury Harpending had been listed as one of the early investors in this diamond hoax. Then their host spoke out. “What about me? I’ve a reputation to uphold as a banker. I’ve lost that much or more. I was going to sell my shares today once we knew the field was real. But with this news, I have worthless papers that will only serve to look pretty in the bottom of the parakeet’s cage!”
Owen’s eyes dropped to Mrs. Ralston’s expression. She paled and her lower lip began to tremble. Obviously, she had no idea her son had invested and lost such a large amount of money.
“Thank you, Mister Tiffany.” Owen took back control of the floor. “You are right. The claim that Arnold and Slack presented had all the markings of a legitimate find.”
Two men leapt forward. One hollered. “They had me fooled!”
“I’m sorry, you are…?” Owen lifted his chin toward the outspoken man. “George Roberts.”
“Ah, Mr. Roberts, I recall you were the first to be contacted by Arnold and Slack.”
“I dang sure was. They seemed honest as Abraham Lincoln himself, claimed to be from the same county in Kentucky. They were so full of lies, and I was bedazzled by their bag of shiny crystals. I feel such a fool now.”
The second man who had stood with Roberts. “What about me? I put every last coin I had in this investment. Every gold mining exhibition I invested in so far went under, I thought I had a sure thing with diamonds!”
Another man walked toward Latimer. “My name’s William Lent. And it was the same for me. I thought gold was too risky. I told my friend here.” He slapped another man on the arm. “General George Dodge and me thought diamonds were a safe investment. How could those two slickers get so many stones to fake an entire field like they done? I heard Janin bought over three thousand acres. Was all of it a hoax?”
“I’m afraid my reputation is tainted as well.” A refined gentlemen stepped forward. “I’m William Willis. I own a jewelry store in downtown San Francisco. So caught up in the excitement, I allowed those two shysters to place some of their raw diamonds in my window display. I think it helped Ralston up the value of his shares from ten dollars to forty.”
“Now, look here.” Ralston stepped toward Willis, his fist drawn up to throw a punch. “I was just as fooled as you!”
A rough looking man stepped between Willis and Ralston. “Let’s settle down, gentlemen.” He spoke as a refined gentlemen, but looked like a hired thug.
Owen’s brow peaked as he considered the man. “I didn’t catch your name, Sir.” Owen spoke nose to nose with the ruffian. “It wouldn’t be Berry, would it? J. F. Berry?”
Confusion filled the man’s face. “No. My name is none of your business.”
Harpending shoved his shoulder into the man. “Oh go on, tell him who you are!”
He stared at Owen, threatening and mean. “I’m Rubery. Arnold Rubery. I-uh, work for Mister Harpending.”
“Ah, Mister Rubery, my pleasure.” Owen shook the man’s hand. The man squeezed harder than necessary, making his point. Owen nodded his silent response to Rubery’s challenge.
Owen turned to the other men. “When King and his team found the stakes set out by Janin, and knew they were at the right stretch of land, they were excited to find precious gems, also. But it wasn’t long that they noticed where a diamond was found in an ant bed, there would be exactly ten rubies found also. Every time. This is unnatural. It’s not Janin’s fault. He thought this was a legitimate claim. It took one educated in the science of geology to know.” Owen placed her arm around Jocelyn’s shoulder, drawing her forward. “Then King noticed that the gems were only found in the ant beds that looked to be disturbed. At the mounds without the crust disturbances, there were no diamonds found. They dug a trench which should have revealed a reasonable sampling of stones the way nature would have deposited the minerals, but none were found. By nightfall, King and his team knew they were dealing with a man-made hoax not one laid by time.” Owen turned to William Lent. “And to answer your question, Mister Lent, the salted field turned out to be less than one acre. Janin owns three thousand acres of fine Colorado terrain, but no diamond field.”
Owen turned to Jocelyn. She nodded. He had said everything she intended him to say. It was time to go back to their hotel and assess what they deduced from the men’s reactions. “Does anyone know where Arnold and Slack are now?”
Ralston laughed. “Slack hasn’t been seen in over six months. And Arnold disappeared two weeks ago. Heard tell he moved his family back to Kentucky two months ago. I suppose he knew his luck was running out. We thought it was a good thing because we had bought him out and the investment was all ours.” He deteriorated into a full belly laugh. “Seems the joke was on us!”
The men did not join him in his jovial display. Anger shone on all their faces. Some shoved through the crowd to leave, but Owen blocked the egress. “Gentlemen. As a detective of the Pinkerton Agency, I am going to ask you not to leave town. Missus Latimer and I may need to speak to you in private. So please be available when we come to call.” He paused. “That includes your staff, Mister Ralston.”
Ralston glanced at his mother and back to Latimer. “Yes, yes. Of course.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Jocelyn swept into the hotel room, pulling hat pens as she walked. “That was amazing!”
She flopped onto a divan, now holding her hat in her lap. “Not one person in that room seemed surprised to see me.”
“Well, tensions were high, as expected. Those men lost a great deal of money and it sounded like Arnold and Slack had a keen awareness when to exit the scene. But you’re right. No one exhibited any alarm when it was made known that you were Clarence King’s daughter. Is it well known that you worked with your father?”
“I believe so. At least, I know Janin knew I was part of the geology team.”
“Hmm. But the other investors only know what Janin told them and if he did not mention that you were also a geologist, then… that may be why you are alive today.”
“You mean the men who attacked my father didn’t try to kill me because they assumed I had nothing to do with the assessment of the field?”
Owen gave a sardonic smile. “It makes sense.”
Jocelyn crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s just… insulting.”
“Yes, but it may be what saved you from being shot.”
“But, if J. F. Berry had anything to do with the murders, he saw me at the field, working right alongside the others.”
“Well, are you sure he saw you? Uh, that you were a woman? How do you dress when you excavate a field?”
Heat filled Jocelyn’s cheeks. “I admit I wear britches when I work, but I change into a skirt as soon as we are not digging. I could have been mistaken for a man.”
Owen nodded, thoughtful. “Alright. Where does that leave us with Berry?”
“I don’t know. … where is J. F. Berry? He was not at this meeting.”
“Not certain. He has to be working for someone… perhaps he went back to New York.” Owen paced to a small desk. “I’ll send a wire to New York and see if we can locate Mr. Berry.”
“Alright. And in the meantime, how do we interrogate the men from the meeting to discover if any of them hired bandits to
kill my father’s… team?” A hitch caught in her throat. It was hard to speak of her father’s murder with such callousness.
Owen rushed to her side. “Oh, Jocelyn, I know this is hard. I’m rather amazed you are holding up as well as you are.” His eyes locked on hers. A flame of compassion burned deep in his blue orbs. Her gaze darted between his two, indecisive on which to settle on. He was a beautiful man, and his touch caused her heart to charge out of a gate like a thoroughbred racehorse. She heaved for breath as her soul dove into his stormy blue eyes.
Like two lovers, their inner beings serpentined with one another and stood against a fervent storm, protecting one another against the pounding gales and rain. Slowly, he leaned down to her, cautiously approaching her lips. She couldn’t move. Didn’t want to. “Yes. Kiss me!”
He pressed his mouth against hers and as if a cannon had been shot from the bow, passion exploded, consuming their hearts and releasing splinters of emotions into a tempest that fell all around them. Owen pulled back from her, releasing her shoulders and her heart. She gasped for air and stumbled backward. Her knees were like pudding, unable to support her standing. She collapsed onto a divan, panting.
Owen swallowed. “Perhaps you would like to take a rest before we go to supper?”
She wiped her wet eyes and nodded. Did she? Need to rest? Why had he stopped? She longed for more. But he was right. They were married in name only. This would lead to something that would make them ineligible for an annulment later. “Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Thank you.”
“I’ll go send this wire and update Archie while I’m at it, then be back to take you to the dining room. We can discuss our strategy then. If you remember any noteworthy reactions from the men, we’ll talk about that too.” He paused. “Jocelyn?”
She stared at him.
“I-I’m sorry.” He rammed his fingers into his dark curls. “I don’t know what came over me!”