“Only now that it is stolen, you’ll have to come clean.”
“Yeah, especially since the insurance will be asking a lot of questions.”
“The necklace was insured?”
“Of course. To the hilt.”
“The insurance won’t like the fact that you took it from a safe place and tucked it away under a pile of your underwear,” said Odelia, stating the obvious.
“No, I can see that,” said Laia, giving Odelia a miserable look. “Which is why I keep hoping it will turn up. Your uncle told me it might have slipped from the burglar’s pocket and ended up in a sewer grate. Though I checked and the nearest drain is twenty feet away from where Mr. Pipe… landed.” She grimaced at the memory of the dead man. “So I don’t see how it could have ended up in there. But your uncle said workers are going to open the drain and look for the necklace.”
“What do you think happened, Laia?”
“Honestly? I think Dylon Pipe wasn’t working alone. Jay told me Dylon has a girlfriend, and he thinks they were in this together. Only when Dylon fell she must have escaped before the police got there.”
“And taken the necklace with her.”
“Yeah, which is what I told your uncle.”
“And what did he say?”
“He’s going to send some of his officers to talk to her, and search their flat to look for the necklace.” She wrung her hands desperately. “Oh, I hope they find it. If they don’t, my parents are going to be devastated. And so am I. My parents may be rich, but I’m not. And since they cutme off, that necklace is all I have.”
“You were going to sell it?” asked Odelia.
She nodded.“It’s worth millions, so I figured I’d sell it and use the money to launch Jay’s career as an artist. I believe in him, you see, even if my parents don’t. That money could build him a studio where he can work, and hire a manager who will promote his art.”
“There’s one other thing I need to ask you, Laia,” said Odelia, “and you probably won’t like it…”
“I think I know what you’re going to say. And no, I don’t believe Jay had anything to do with my necklace going missing. He and Dylon hadn’t seen each other in years. Not since they left school.” Twin splashes of color had appeared on her cheekbones and she fervently balled her fists. “Don’t you see? I was going to sell that necklace anyway, so there was absolutely no reason for him to steal it.”
There was a touch of defiance in her voice, and I could tell that she really loved her fianc?, no matter what her parents or anyone else said. She had their future banking on the necklace, and it being lost was a blow to her hopes and dreams.
“Do you believe he’s innocent?” asked Odelia softly.
“Yes,” said Laia emphatically. “Yes, I do.”
“Then that’s good enough for me.”
CHAPTER 18
[Êàðòèíêà: img_2]
We joined Odelia as she paid a visit to Dylon’s girlfriend, per Laia’s insinuations possibly the young burglar’s assistant in last night’s theft.
Laney Basula had apparently just gotten out of bed when we arrived at the grungy little flat she called her own. It was located in a not-very-nice part of town, and looked decidedly dingy. Laney herself was about Laia’s age, with flaming red hair and a freckled face. She had bags under her eyes, though, and a sort of sallow tone to her skin that told us she wasn’t living life as healthily as she could have.
“She has to take her vitamins, Max,” Dooley said when we entered the girl’s flat. “She’s not eating her fruits and veggies the way she should.”
“I’ll be sure to tell her, Dooley,” I said.
“Well, you should, because if she keeps living like this, she’ll get liver deficiency, and then who knows what will happen.”
I gave my friend an odd look.“What do you care about Laney Basula’s liver?” I asked.
“Well, I saw this documentary yesterday on the Discovery Channel, and it was all about the liver. The liver is a vital organ, Max. And it’s important to keep it healthy.”
“I’ll make a note of that,” I said with a smile in my friend’s direction.
“What do you want?” asked Laney, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
The flat was just as rundown as the building containing it. Cigarette ashes were on the floor and not in their designated receptacles, and clothes were on the chairs, not in the hamper where they should be. In a corner of the room a television stood blaring away, showing a wrestling match where grown men were trying to slam each other in painful places. It hurt my insides just to watch them.
“Jay Green sent me,” Odelia said.
A flicker of recognition dawned in the young woman’s eyes, but then was replaced by a look of suspicion. She lit a cigarette and took a seat at a table that was laden with several Chinese food containers. “So?” she said finally.
“First off, I want to offer my condolences for Dylon’s passing,” said Odelia.
The girl waved an impatient hand.“Save it, lady. The police were already here, so just tell me what you want and get it over with.”
“Dylon stole a very valuable necklace last night, only it wasn’t on his person. So now Jay thinks…” She hesitated, and Laney rolled her eyes. Very expressive eyes they were, I have to admit, in spite of the bags.
“He thinks I might have something to do with his precious necklace going missing, is that it? Well, you can tell him from me he’s wrong. And next time when he wants to accuse me of something, he should tell it to my face.”
“So you weren’t working with Dylon last night?” asked Odelia.
“Oh, is that what he thinks? Well, the answer is no. No, I wasn’t working with Dylon. And no, I didn’t even know he was going to break into that place. He told me he was doing his modeling.”
“What else did he do for a living?” asked Odelia, as she carefully picked a pair of dirty underwear from a chair and lowered herself onto it.
“Dylon was an artist,” said the girl with a touch of bitterness, “even though he wasn’t really doing a lot with his art lately. He hadn’t been able to sell his work, and at some point bills have to be paid, so I told him to get a regular job or else.”
“Do you work?” asked Odelia.
“Yes, of course I work. What kind of a question is that? Who are you, anyway?”
“I’m a reporter, actually, but Jay and Laia asked me to sort out some trouble they’re having.”
“I didn’t take their necklace, and I don’t know what happened to it. Though if you ask me, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jay himself is behind this whole business.”
“Jay stole that necklace?”
Laney shrugged.“He and Dylon had been on the phone a lot these last couple of days, and I knew they were up to something, though of course Dylon refused to tell me what it was.”
“Jay had been in touch with Dylon?”
“All the time.”
“Odd,” I told Dooley. “Laia just told us that they hadn’t been in touch since they left school.”
“So either Jay was lying, or Laia was,” said my friend.
“Sounds like Jay was lying to Laia,” I said.
“Look, the police have already gone over this place with a fine-tooth comb,” said Laney, “which is why the place is such a mess. And they didn’t find anything. Or do you think I’d still be here if they had?” She now pointed to Odelia with her cigarette. “You talk to Jay Green. This whole thing smells like an insurance scam to me. And if it is, I hope he rots in jail for what he did to Dylon.”
The implication was a tough one, and told us everything we needed to know about what Laney thought really happened last night.
“Time to have a long talk with Jay,” I told Dooley.
“She really should take better care of her liver,” was my friend’s response. “And stop smoking!”