Chapter 3 - THE EMPTY JEWELRY BOX|
Nora showed Vincent the room without touching anything.
The drawers were closed. The bed was neatly made. Camila's slippers sat beside the armchair, and the little porcelain bird she kept on the windowsill remained in its usual place.
Nothing appeared disturbed.
But Nora pointed toward the dressing table.
“Her jewelry box was open this morning.”
Vincent approached it.
“Did you see anything missing?”
“I don't know what she keeps in it. But she was upset when she noticed.”
He opened the box.
A few inexpensive earrings lay inside. Beside them was an empty velvet compartment.
“What's supposed to be there?”
Camila answered from the doorway.
“My ring.”
Vincent turned.
“What ring, Ma?”
“The one Thomas gave me.”
His mother stepped closer, her expression suddenly anxious.
“The blue stone. He said it was a piece of the sky.”
Vincent remembered it.
A sapphire ring his father had bought during their honeymoon in Italy. Camila wore it every day until her memory began failing. Then Vincent had placed it in the jewelry box for safekeeping.
“Don't worry,” he told her. “I'll find it.”
Camila looked at Nora.
“They took it.”
Nora knelt beside her.
“We'll look together.”
Vincent called security. The footage showed that nobody had entered the east wing through the main hallway after midnight.
But a maintenance door near the laundry room had been opened.
The camera covering that corridor had been disconnected for eleven minutes.
Paulie arrived with a list of everyone who had access to the door.
One name stood out.
A housekeeper named Marlene, who had worked at the estate for nine years.
Vincent ordered her to his office.
Marlene denied taking the ring. She cried, insisted she loved Camila, and claimed she had been home with her husband during the time of the theft.
Then Nora entered.
“I saw her near the laundry room.”
Marlene looked at her.
“You're lying.”
“I saw you carrying a small black bag.”
“I was taking out towels.”
“You told me you were going to the east wing to collect Mrs. Russo's laundry. But her laundry basket was empty.”
Vincent watched Marlene's face change.
“Where is the ring?” he asked.
“I didn't take it.”
Paulie stepped forward.
“Your husband was arrested in Chicago last month for transporting stolen jewelry.”
Marlene began trembling.
She admitted that she had taken the ring after receiving a threat. Someone had sent her photographs of her teenage daughter leaving school and demanded that she steal the sapphire.
“Who threatened you?” Vincent asked.
“I never saw him. He called me.”
“Name.”
“I don't know.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“Then tell me what he wanted.”
Marlene swallowed.
“He said the ring had a secret inside it.”
Vincent stared.
“What secret?”
“I don't know. He said Mrs. Russo would understand if she saw it.”
Camila suddenly reached for the dressing table.
“Thomas hid something.”
Everyone turned.
She looked at Vincent, and for one astonishing moment her eyes were clear.
“Inside the blue sky,” she whispered. “He said never to give it to your father.”
Vincent's face went cold.
“My father is dead, Ma.”
Camila shook her head.
“No. Not your father. His brother.”
Vincent froze.
His father's brother, Dominic Russo, had disappeared twenty years earlier after a bitter dispute over the family business. The family had always claimed he died overseas.
“Uncle Dominic?” Vincent asked.
Camila nodded.
“He wanted the ring.”
Then she looked at Nora.
“Don't let him find the little girl.”
Vincent's phone vibrated.
May you like
A message from Paulie appeared.
Boss, we found the ring. But someone has already removed the stone.
