34 - The Queen's Jewels Read Online Free PDF Page A

been open. According to Mr. Kim, it was a very secure safe.”
    “It was of a type that would have made it extremely difficult for the thieves to break into. Too heavy to have been removed from the wall and carried away, although I’ve been involved in cases where heavier safes have been removed by particularly muscular thieves. The assumption, of course, is that either the thieves forced Mr. Yang to open the safe, or he had already opened it and was enjoying fondling his precious gemstone when the thieves entered, which we understand he was wont to do. I rather favor the latter theory.”
    “Why?”
    “A man can’t give directions to open a safe while he’s being strangled. Or call for help. I think the thieves killed him quickly and then walked off with the goods.”
    “Perfect timing, wouldn’t you say, knowing when he’d removed the diamond from the safe?”
    “Raising the possibility that someone from within Mr. Yang’s inner circle knew when he would have the rock in his hands and alerted the thieves to that moment.”
    George fell silent as he finished what was left of his breakfast.
    “Am I asking too many questions?” I asked.
    “No, luv, not at all. I don’t have any problem sharing this with you. I trust your discretion.”
    “I appreciate that, George. I assume the diamond was insured.”
    “Oh, yes, for its full value.”
    “The estate will want to collect the insurance money, of course. Do you know who his heirs are?”
    “Not yet. There’s a question of a missing will, allegedly made later than the one on file with his solicitor. There’s also some confusion about whether his various business entities might be involved in ownership of the diamond. The insurance chaps have their hands full trying to sort things out.”
    “I would think that a man of his wealth would have a sizable household and professional staff.”
    “We questioned them all. No one claims to have heard or seen anything that night. A few of the household help were off for the evening.”
    “No security?” I asked, incredulity in my tone.
    “He had four security men assigned to the house. They worked in shifts. The bloke on duty the night of the robbery—a formidable fellow with a neck the size of my waist—claims that his boss informed him earlier that evening that he was not to be disturbed. He assumed that Mr. Yang was entertaining a woman in the library, which he said wasn’t unusual. If that’s true, his lady friend enjoyed perfume, and plenty of it. The scent lingered in the room. One of our female investigators at the scene said she couldn’t identify the name of it but was certain it was expensive.”
    “How did the thieves enter the house?” I asked.
    “A back door leading into the kitchen.”
    “No alarms, no sirens going off, no video cameras?”
    “Oh, yes, the place was nicely alarmed. But the system had been deactivated.”
    “Convenient,” I said, my expression of disbelief overt enough to cause him to laugh.
    “You have the genes of a top-shelf criminal investigator, Jessica. Murder brings out the best in you.”
    “I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” I said, “but enough of diamonds and murder. Tell me everything that’s been happening in your personal life since the last time we were together.”
    We left the restaurant an hour later and went to the curb, where a line of taxis waited.
    “I’m always impressed with how easily the conversation flows between us,” he commented. “I’m sure we could have stayed at the table for the rest of the day.”
    “I always love our conversations.”
    “It says something about us, Jessica.”
    “And what might that be?”
    “It says that—well, it says that we’re always comfortable together. I observe too many couples these days who sit in restaurants and have absolutely nothing to say to each other except ‘Please pass the salt,’ or ‘I wish you wouldn’t chew with your mouth open.’”
    “Well,” I said, “I don’t use much