“Uh-huh.”
“So do you have any idea how a diamond that used to belong to the wife of the Sheikh ended up in your colleague’s safe?”
Ken took off his ball cap and scratched his scalp at this point.“Well, now, that is a darn peculiar story, Odelia. And for the life of me I can’t tell you how Craig got his hands on that diamond.”
“Laura didn’t give it to you by any chance?”
“No, I can’t say that she did.”
“Was she wearing her engagement ring when she came to see you that day?”
“Honestly I wouldn’t know. I’m not the kind of guy who notices that kind of thing.” He pulled a funny face. “Ask me half an hour after this conversation what you were wearing and I’m sure I’ll draw a complete blank. She could have been wearing her ring, and it could have been that famous Pink Lady, but I didn’t pay attention and I’m pretty sure neither did Craig.”
“But somehow Craig must have come into possession of that diamond.”
“It sure looks that way. But I gotta tell you, Odelia, this comes as much as a surprise to me as it does to you and Caroline. How did Craig get a hold of that rock? It’s a real head-scratcher.”
“He never told you about it?”
“Nope. And to be honest, when we were arrested we were also searched, the both of us, and our luggage was confiscated, so we left that country with only the clothes on our backs and nothing more. Though later on our replacements did manage to get some of our stuff back, and also the plans we’d been working on.”
“But no diamond.”
“No diamond.”
Odelia thought for a moment.“This is such a baffling mystery, and I really want to get to the bottom of it.”
“Yeah, and I sincerely hope you do, and that you can tell me all about it when you manage to crack the code, so to speak.”
Odelia was clearly disappointed, but she hid it well.“Well, thank you for your time, Ken.”
“No sweat. There’s nothing much for me to do here, except to drink, party and be merry, and even though that sounds like something a lot of people would dream of, even paradise gets old after a while, Odelia, trust me.”
After the man had rung off, Odelia turned to us.“This is so odd, but did you also get the impression that he wasn’t telling us everything?”
“He definitely gave me the impression he was holding something back,” I agreed. “You, Dooley?”
“I think he was secretly in love with Laura and they were having an affair and that’s why he was kicked out of the country,” said Dooley. “Or maybe Laura had an affair with Ken and Craig both, and she didn’t know who to choose, and then her husband found out and had her killed and her body fed to the crocodiles.”
“I think your imagination is running away with you again, Dooley,” I said. “But that there’s something going on here that Ken didn’t want us to know, that’s obvious. I mean, how did Craig get his hands on that diamond without Ken knowing about it? That seems very unlikely.”
“Unlikely, but not impossible,” said Odelia. “Maybe Craig was up to something and didn’t want to tell his colleague about it.”
“Colleague and friend,” I pointed out. “They kept meeting up long after Craig had retired. That sounds like a firm friendship to me.”
Just then, Odelia’s phone rang, and she picked up with a cheery, “Hey, Mom what’s up?” She listened for a moment, then glanced down at us. “We’ll be there in five minutes.” The moment she’d disconnected, she said, “Mom says Loretta Gray has the Pink Lady, and she just walked into the Star hotel.”
“Let’s go,” I said.
“The plot thickens, doesn’t it, Max?” said Dooley
“It sure does, Dooley.”
27
We all met in front of the Star, and I have to admit that Marge had come up with a great plan of campaign.
“So we’ll go in and pretend to be Loretta’s biggest fans,” said Odelia, reiterating the plan.
“I don’t even have to pretend to be one of her biggest fans,” said Marge. “I actually am one of her biggest fans. Except for the part where she took that diamond, of course.”
“And while you get her autograph and keep her talking, I’ll snoop around. I like it, Mom. Simple and effective.”
“I didn’t know Marge had detective ambitions,” I told Harriet.
“Why, you’d be surprised by the talent we’ve got in-house,” our Persian friend said haughtily as she tilted her chin. “In fact it was our idea, wasn’t it, Brutus, to follow this diamond thief, and it was also us that recognized the insurance people in the first place, and saw them hand the diamond to this author-slash-thief.”
“Yeah, so if you want to give credit, it’s ours,” said Brutus. “Mine and Harriet’s.”
“Yes, Max, did you get that? This time all the credit for solving the mystery goes to me and Brutus and me and Brutus alone.”
“Oh, no, absolutely,” I said. “You did a great job, you guys.”
“We discovered something, too,” said Dooley.
“Whatever you discovered can’t be as big and enormous as what we discovered,” said Brutus.
“So what was it?” asked Harriet, carefully studying her nails.
“We talked to Ken Cesseki, who was Craig Bantam’s colleague in 1986, and he told us that he and Craig were arrested for talking to the Sheikh’s wife and kicked out of the country,” I said, summing up the conversation in as few words as possible, since both Marge and Odelia were raring to go in and do their thing.
Harriet frowned.“So how did his colleague get his hands on that diamond?”
I shrugged.“Ken claims he has no idea.”
“A likely story,” Harriet scoffed. “Let me tell you something, Max. If you’re going to interrogate a person, you need to use the proper technique, otherwise they’ll just lie to you and think they’re getting away with it—and it looks to me,” she added as she gave me a supercilious look, “that he actually did get away with it.”
“You should have waited for me and Harriet to be there,” said Brutus. “We would have seen right through the guy!”
“It’s very hard to put pressure on a person when you’re a cat,” I reminded my friends.
“And the conversation was all done through Skype,” said Dooley.
“Yeah, it’s even harder to put pressure on a person through Skype.”
“Ken lives in Thailand,” Dooley explained, “and likes to drink umbrella cocktails under a palm tree on the beach. But he says he’s bored of paradise and he wants to come home and spend time in Hampton Cove, which he called a cozy little town.”
“He didn’t actually say he wants to come home,” I said.
“No, but I’m sure that’s what he meant.”
“Oh, so now you’re putting words in other people’s mouths, are you?” said Harriet. “Way to go, Dooley.”
Dooley smiled widely.“Gee, thanks, Harriet. Coming from you that’s a big compliment.”
“I was being sarcastic,” said Harriet with a touch of acerbity.
“I don’t think Dooley gets sarcasm, do you, Dooley?” asked Brutus.
Dooley gave him a look of uncertainty.“What’s sarcasm, Brutus?”
But then it was time to get the show on the road, and so we followed Marge and Odelia into the hotel.
Once inside, Marge walked up to the front desk—she was in the lead now—and asked what room Loretta Gray was staying in. The pimply receptionist told her no Loretta Gray was staying at the hotel, so then it was Odelia’s turn. She joined her mom at the front desk, and whipped out her snazzy new police badge and immediately the kid’s eyeswent wide, blushing a pretty crimson under his pimples, then hastened to say, “Oh, you mean LorettaGray! She’s in room two-fourteen, detective… officer… sergeant?”