by Lisa G Riley
Smith studied the rich, deep color. Even looking at it through a bunch of pixels, he could tell the diamond was something special. “What did you say it’s called?”
“Golddigger’s Folly. Such a ridiculous name. ”
“And why do you think it has anything to do with our case?”
“I’m not saying for sure that it does,” Lily explained as Smith finally tore his gaze away from the screen to look at her. “But do you remember when we were talking to Mr. Anders and he said something about tuning Landry out when he’d talk about ‘that greedy lady foolishness’? When he said that, something clicked in my brain but then I was distracted by something else he said. Anyway, you probably thought he was using the term to describe Mr. Landry’s mistress. I know that’s how it played in my distracted brain at the time, but then it came to me when I was skating. What if he meant Golddigger’s Folly?”
“If he did, why didn’t he just say that?”
Lily shrugged. “Maybe Mr. Anders couldn’t remember the exact name, or maybe he just didn’t know. As he said himself, he wasn’t paying close attention to Landry.”
Smith still felt skeptical. “And you got all of this just from the turn of a phrase?”
“It wasn’t just the phrase. We’d been talking about museum thefts and of course the big kicker is the map of the Field that we found in Landry’s locker. Remember?”
“That’s right, the map. We’ll have to look at it again, but I don’t remember anything special about it. You?”
“No. There were no notes on it, nor was there anything circled. But still, it’s a pretty big clue.”
“Yeah, I guess it is. It won’t hurt to go to the Field and see what we can find. So tell me more about this Golddigger’s Folly. I don’t have to ask how you know so much about it. The one time the families visited the Field, you had to be promised two extra scoops of ice cream just so you’d leave the gem exhibition hall.”
Lily chuckled. “I was only seven, but even then I recognized the pretty and I was such a brat. Ah, good times,” she teased. “But anyway, Grandma Carstairs and Aunt Amelia are the ones who nurtured my interest in gems. Every time Gran would bring me to the city to visit Aunt Amelia, we invariably found a way to squeeze the Field’s gem hall into the itinerary. Which reminds me; I should call Gran and ask if she or Aunt Amelia have connections that could get us a meeting.”
“With whom? The curator?”
“Yes, or a content specialist.” She looked at her watch. “Let’s see, they’re in Brisbane right now and there’s a sixteen hour time difference, so it’s about one fifteen tomorrow there. I’ll call them once we finish up here. I don’t know if they can help, but they’re both members of the museum and I know Aunt Amelia served on the board at one time.”
“All right. So, give me the history of the diamond. I’m sure I can guess how it got its name, but give me specifics.”
Surprised, Lily looked at him. “You really want to know? Seriously?”
She looked so eager that Smith laughed out loud. She always did love telling a good story. It gave her an opportunity to perform. He pulled on a lock of her hair. “Go on. You know you want to. Besides, if it’s connected to the case in any way, I need to hear the diamond’s history.”
Lily settled back in her chair and folded her legs under her. “I know the diamond first showed up in L.A. in the early sixties. Juan Chambliss, who ran Chambliss Studios -- which used to be almost as big and powerful as MGM -- was sixty, married and with adult children when nineteen-year old Chrissie Tawnee blew into town. She looked just as you’d imagine her to look with a name like that: all legs, boobs, wide eyes, pouty lips and big hair. Oh, and she loved pink.”
“Ooh, sounds good,” Smith said with a huge, expectant grin. “Pull up her picture. I wanna see.”
Chuckling, Lily shook her head, but complied.
“Oh, yeah,” Smith said enthusiastically in a low voice as he took in the oversized breasts, narrow waist and dumb-bunny look in the eyes. Her black hair was held up in a pink bow, which matched the pink fur bikini and go-go boots she wore. “That’s a Chrissie Tawnee, all right,” he whispered and licked his lips.
“Perv!” Lily accused laughingly and playfully pushed his head away from the screen. She laughed harder when he shook his head quickly as if the slap had brought him out of a daze.
“Anyway,” she said as she exited the screen, “Juan reportedly knew she would be trouble for him the moment he saw her, but he just had to have her, so he did. Over and over again. He eventually put her in apartment a couple of miles from the studio. In the meantime, Chrissie wanted what every ingénue who found their way to Hollywood back in those days wanted: to be famous. Juan got her bit parts in some movies, but she simply couldn’t act, and whatever his weaknesses, he was very conscientious about the bottom line when it came to his studio and he knew giving Chrissie a starring role would only lose him money.
“At first he was able to keep her satisfied with the bit parts, but then she started saying that she wanted to co-star with some of the studio’s biggest male actors. Juan couldn’t do that, so he began to appease her with gifts and they got grander and grander: shopping trips to Paris; skiing in Switzerland; a pink convertible and the penthouse suite decorated all in pink.”
“That only worked for so long, right?”
“Right. Chrissie wanted what she wanted and one day she told him that if he didn’t put her in a starring role, she’d not only go to his wife about their affair, but she’d also give her story to Hedda Hopper, a big Hollywood gossip columnist at the time. Well, Juan couldn’t have that, could he? The rumor is that he could have easily gotten rid of her if he’d really wanted to, but he didn’t. She was like a drug to him and that’s when the Golddigger’s Folly came into play. He presented it to Chrissie on her twenty-first birthday. It’s so very rare and expensive that he had a safe installed and made her promise to keep it inside at all times. It has forty-four carats and one of the deepest raspberry pinks any jeweler or gemologist has ever seen. And of course, it’s a princess cut.”
Smith waved his hand in a dismissive, impatient gesture. “Yeah, yeah. Tell me what happened.”
“Okay, so Chrissie loved the diamond, and begged Juan to have it mounted so she could wear it. Juan refused. It’s believed he was afraid to have it worn in public because of the possibility of theft. Some believe that his wife was aware of the affair and he didn’t want her to see Chrissie wearing it at a premiere or just out and about. Whatever his reason, it proved to be useless because Chrissie died within a week of getting the diamond, which she was clutching in her cold, dead fist when she was thrown over the balcony of that penthouse suite.”
When Lily sat back, lips firmly closed, and looked at him. Smith scowled. “What the fuck, Lil? I know you don’t plan on just stopping there.”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking about it,” was all she said.
Smith stared at her in disbelief. He snatched at her laptop, but wasn’t quick enough. She pressed the off button and he watched in dismay as the screen slowly faded to black.
He lifted a gaze full of consternation to her face. “Aw, now what’d you go and do that for, Lily-bud?”
Lily bit her lip and muffled her laughter. “Well, my birthday’s next Friday.”
“I’m well aware of that. If you tell me that you won’t tell me the rest of the story unless I buy you something ridiculously expensive I’ll have to hurt you.”
Lily snorted. “Please. Don’t insult me. I pay my own way. I don’t force anybody to buy me ridiculously expensive things.”
“No? What about the time you made me buy you all that Godiva chocolate?”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I was twelve and it was a lousy five dollars worth! God, will you never forget the one regrettable mistake of my entire life?”
“No, I won’t. I’m forever scarred by that incident. It was my last five bucks and even worse, you managed to turn a lovely and tender moment into something s
ordid.”
Lily sputtered with laughter. “You felt up Jocelyn Ketchum and got caught doing it. Get over it!”
“Yeah, caught by an always-skulking brat who threatened me with blackmail. You were going to tell my mother -- the woman who gave birth to me. Like I said: scarred.”
Still laughing, Lily went to cup his chin in her hand, only to have him push it away. Bent over double with laughter now, she said, “I’m sorry. I was sorry then and I’m sorry now. I didn’t realize that the mere mention of your mom would be an instant turn-off.”
“You might as well have stuck me under a cold shower. I was never able to look at Jocelyn as the --”
“Potential piece of ass you originally saw her as?”
Smith’s grin gave him away, but he managed with mock insult to say, “I was going to say lovely partner in love.”
Lily guffawed now. “Whatever, Smith. Anyway, like I was saying. My birthday is coming up next Friday and I want something special from you.”
“Meaning…” he said cautiously.
“Meaning I want you to do the thing.”
Smith frowned, looking at her in confusion. “What thing?”
You know, thee thing.
Smith was immediately out of his chair and pacing away in protest. “Oh, no. No way in hell.”
Lily begged him with her eyes. “Come on, Smith, please. It’s been ages since you did it for me!”
“I only did it that one time and that’s only because you were seven and sick and I was nine and a pushover and wanted to cheer you up. We’re not kids, anymore and I’m not doing it.”
Lily shrugged. “Fine, then I won’t tell you the rest of the Folly’s history and you’ll probably want to hear it before we go to the museum tomorrow.”
“I’ll just go down to the hotel’s business center and look it up.”
Lily’s gaze darted to the clock on the wall. “It closes at ten. It’s ten thirty.”
Smith just stared at her. Finally, “Don’t do this to me, Lily. Ask me for anything else and it’s yours -- even something from that criminally expensive designer you like so much.”
Lily brightened. “Escada? Really?” She was quiet for a moment, but then shook her head. “I’m tempted, but no. I want the thing.”
He studied her quietly. Sighing, he said, “All right, fine. When?”
“On my birthday.”
Smith dropped in the chair closest to him. “Fine. Now finish the story. Start with ‘cold, dead hand’ and don’t shut up until you’ve finished the entire history.”
“All right. Well, it was later found out that Juan’s son, twenty-two year old Juan, Jr. had not only killed her, but he’d also been having an affair with Chrissie -- all out of love for his mother. He’d begun the affair hoping to steal her from his father and when that didn’t work, he killed her. He literally just picked her up and threw her over the balcony when she refused to give up the diamond and stop seeing Juan, Sr. Juan, Jr. confessed it all within a couple hours of the murder.
“And actually, the diamond wasn’t in her hand, it was still in the safe. I only said that to make you more anxious to hear the rest of the story.”
Looking completely unsurprised, Smith only nodded.
“After Juan, Jr. was arrested and jailed, his mother began divorce proceedings, which proved to be unnecessary since Juan, Sr. died of a heart attack. Mrs. Chambliss sold everything, including the penthouse, the car and the diamond -- all things that had gone back to Juan, Sr. after Chrissie died. The diamond went to an electronics magnate from Japan. He had it mounted as a broach for his wife who happened to be twenty years younger than he. One night in 1975 they were leaving the theater when someone tried to rob them. They were both shot in the exchange. She died and he ended up paralyzed, and seeing the Folly as the cause of his misery, Mr. Yakamuto decided to sell it.”
“But she was already married to her husband and Japanese culture is completely different than ours,” Smith objected. “Who’s to say she married him for his money? It could have been an arranged marriage for all we know.”
“Exactly, and people have argued that for decades, but given that Mrs. Yakamuto was so much younger than her husband and the facts of the Chrissie Tawnee case, the Golddigger name persists. At any rate, a Field Museum board member who fancied himself an amateur gemologist purchased the Folly. He wasn’t married, but he did have a mistress. He didn’t give her the Folly, but he would let her wear it on occasion. Within a year, she was diagnosed with lung cancer, dying soon after. The board member gifted the Field with the diamond upon his death. The Field has never had it on exhibition.”
“Jesus, such a bunch of nonsense, but I will admit that the diamond seems a lot like some sort of bad-luck talisman.”
“Yes, but I’d really love to see it.”
Smith shrugged. “Maybe you will tomorrow if Grandma Carstairs can get us in with someone.”
Lily smiled. “That would be awesome.”
“I guess, but if Landry has somehow stolen it, then it’s a whole new ballgame.”
“True,” Lily said as she got up to retrieve her cell phone from the bedroom where she’d had it charging. She came back out punching in numbers as she walked. “But won’t it be cool if we can see it?” she asked Smith as she opened his folded arms and slid into his lap, bending her knees and resting her head on his shoulder.
Smith automatically made adjustments so that she was lying more firmly across his lap and they were both comfortable. “I suppose it would be at that. Has Grandma Carstairs ever seen it?”
Lily nodded before slipping a hand beneath his sweater and T-shirt and sliding it along his skin. She began to press kisses on the side of his neck. “Only once as far as I know. It was right when Aunt Amelia first joined the board.” She was whispering now and curling her body seductively into his. “Did I mention how much I love your smell?”
Smith smiled and growled softly as he rubbed her backside from thigh to butt. “You certainly have, but tell me some more.”
She pressed a soft kiss to his mouth, her eyes making him promises as she spoke her greeting into the phone.
Chapter Twenty-one
“It looks like something out of ancient Greece,” Smith told Lily the next morning as they approached the Field Museum of Natural History.
Lily laughed, her breath coming out in white puffs in the cold morning air. “That’s what you said the last time we were here,” she reminded Smith. “But it is beautiful,” she said as she stared at the white marbled building. She’d always loved the look of it with its columns and triple-layered look, as she referred to the way the front of the building, which looked like a Grecian temple, jutted out from a second building, which was connected and to the side and behind it, followed by a third building connected to the second building. “It was modeled after the Pantheon in Rome and a couple of other places.”
“And that’s exactly what Grandma Carstairs said the last time we were here.”
Chuckling, Lily took his hand as they climbed the first set of stairs. “I remember you running up both set of stairs faster than the rest of us and once at the top, humming the Rocky theme and bouncing around on your toes with your arms raised in the air.”
“Yeah, it was definitely a moment,” Smith commented as they finally reached the top. He opened the door for her. For a moment, they both stood inside and looked down at the three hundred foot great hall. Even with its gleaming marble arches and columns and its vaulted ceilings, Lily was less than impressed with Stanley Field Hall because it always seemed so chaotic. The installations of the huge stuffed African elephants, the totem poles and of Sue, the largest T-rex fossil ever found, seemed wildly out of place amidst such grandeur.
They walked down the stairs and into the long line for entry. Reaching the front, Smith paid for his ticket first and waited for Lily. “Hey, hang on,” he protested. “Why did you only have to pay thirteen dollars and I had to pay fifteen?”
Lily grabbed his arm and
began to drag him away. “The discounted rate is for city residents,” she whispered, her eyes darting around nervously
“You’re not a city resi -- ”
“My driver’s license says I am,” her whisper was even more desperate now. “I haven’t had a chance to change it yet.”
Smith stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at her. She didn’t meet his gaze and when her cheeks turned red, he broke up laughing. “Oh, my God, you did it on purpose, didn’t you? You deliberately left your Chicago address on your license specifically for this purpose. And I’ll bet other museums have the same policy, don’t they? That big fancy art museum does, right?”
Lily could feel herself squirming under his amused gaze. She met his stare, but quickly looked away. “But there are so many places that will give you a discount if you’re a city resident,” she told him, her voice pleading for understanding. “Plus, there’s the Hirsch Collection and other libraries, the Art Institute -- ”
“Shame on you, Lily Elise Carstairs, you’re a scofflaw!”
Lily felt herself reddening even more. “Fine, I’ll pay the extra two dollars, if you’ll just shut up about it.”
“Well, now, sweetness,” Smith said with way too much enjoyment as he rocked back on his heels, “technically, the two dollars wouldn’t be extra for you, would they? ‘Cause you’re not a resident, but, hey,” here he threw up his hands, “that’s between you and your conscience. Far be it for me to judge.”
“Oh, shut up,” Lily told him and went back to pay her fair share.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Lily sighed over a fat diamond as she looked at it through the glass. “I can practically feel the weight of it in my hand.”
Smith looked impatiently at his watch. “Come on, Lil, we’ve got to go. We came early so you could go through the gem exhibit, which you’ve done several times. It’s time to go meet the guy.”
Lily sighed and looked longingly around the darkened room of the Grainger Hall of Gems. The low lights set off the sparkle of the gems spectacularly. “But they’re all just so beautiful, Smith. Oh,” she said dreamily, “I wish I could stay here all day.”