Chapter 3 - THE SECRET INSIDE THE SAPPHIRE
Officer Brooks moved the investigation into the mansion library.
The donors were allowed to leave after providing contact information.
Several remained near the entrance because scandal has stronger gravity than charity.
Julian called his attorney.
Eleanor called the board chair.
I called Naomi Reed.
Naomi had been Daniel’s closest friend in law school.
She became my attorney after his death because Eleanor’s family lawyers kept presenting papers that benefited everyone except Lily.
Naomi arrived wearing jeans beneath a long black coat.
She looked at my cheek.
Then she looked at Julian.
“Did he strike you?”
“Yes.”
“Did you strike him?”
“I kicked him when he moved toward Lily.”
“Good.”
Officer Brooks raised one eyebrow.
Naomi corrected herself.
“Legally complicated.”
“Emotionally understandable.”
The brooch rested inside an evidence tray.
A forensic technician examined the diamonds beneath a portable light.
He found partial fingerprints.
Mine.
Julian’s.
Eleanor’s.
Several older prints could not be identified immediately.
Then he noticed the central sapphire shifted slightly under pressure.
“The setting opens,” he said.
Eleanor stepped forward.
“It does not.”
The technician looked at her.
“Have you examined it before?”
“It has been in my family for generations.”
“That was not my question.”
Her jaw tightened.
“No.”
The technician used a fine tool near the hinge.
The sapphire lifted.
Beneath it was a shallow circular compartment.
Empty.
Julian exhaled too quickly.
Officer Brooks heard it.
“What should be inside?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Julian answered.
Eleanor said the same word at the same time.
Naomi looked at me.
“Did Daniel ever mention the compartment?”
“He said the Hart Diamond held the truth about the family.”
Julian laughed.
“My brother liked dramatic phrases.”
“He also said the blue star opened twice.”
The technician examined the interior.
A tiny rectangular space had been carved beneath the sapphire.
Large enough to hold a memory card.
Fresh scratches marked the edges.
Something had been removed recently.
Officer Brooks looked toward Julian.
“Did you open it?”
“No.”
“Then how did your fingerprints reach the interior hinge?”
His face became still.
The technician had found a clean print beneath the sapphire.
Julian glanced toward Eleanor.
She did not look at him.
“I may have handled it years ago.”
“You just said the setting did not open.”
“I forgot.”
Officer Brooks placed the brooch into a sealed evidence bag.
“Where was it stored before tonight?”
Eleanor answered.
“In the foundation vault.”
“Who has access?”
“Julian.”
“The board chair.”
“Myself.”
“And Daniel’s trustee,” Naomi said.
Every head turned toward her.
“Daniel amended the vault authorization before he died.”
“He added Evelyn.”
Eleanor stared at me.
“You never used that authority.”
“No.”
“But I had it.”
Naomi removed a document from her bag.
“More importantly, Daniel’s inventory states that the brooch contained a micro-storage device when he last inspected it.”
Officer Brooks read the page.
The entry was dated three weeks before Daniel’s death.
She asked:
“What was stored on it?”
Naomi looked toward Eleanor.
“Daniel did not say.”
“But he had been investigating foundation accounts.”
The room became silent.
Hart Foundation donations had been routed through several private companies during the year before Daniel died.
He believed money intended for children’s hospitals had been diverted.
He planned to confront the board.
Then his car left a mountain road during a storm.
Police called it an accident.
Eleanor called it fate.
I had spent two years trying not to ask whether the timing meant more.
Officer Brooks looked at Julian.
“You accused a child of stealing a brooch that appears to have contained evidence involving her late father.”
Julian folded his arms.
“That is speculation.”
Lily pulled gently on my sleeve.
May you like
“I know where the little black thing is.”
Everyone turned toward her.
