Free The Diamond Secret by Ruth Wind Page A

exaggerating."
    "I don't think so," Luca said, meeting my eyes. "Here is the story—Paul was in negotiations with an art dealer for the Katerina, bidding against another collector for it. Unfortunately, the dealer had a little problem with drugs and gambling, and ran afoul of his supplier—"
    "Gunnarsson, I assume?"
    "Yes. Gunnarsson was going to cut him off. Because he was so desperate, the art dealer gave up the Katerina, which The Swede very much wanted because it was Maigny—your Paul—who wanted it.
    "When he hired me to steal the jewel back, he paid me half upfront. The rest of the payment were to be the jewels in the collection."
    " All of them? Jeez."
    "All of them together were not worth a fraction of the Katerina, of course, but for me, it would be a simple matter to find collectors and dealers who would make me quite rich. I could not, on my own, find a buyer for a jewel so expensive as the Katerina."
    "I see. And Maigny only wanted the Katerina to have it, not to sell it."
    "Yes."
    He sipped his tea, his eyes on the dark window, the slams of rain. "I am no ordinary thief," he said, and looked at me. "I am very, very good at what I do. In some circles, I'm—" he gave me a wry little smile that managed to be self-deprecating and deliciously seductive all at once "—quite renowned."
    "That doesn't surprise me."
    "For a month, I planned every detail. Had it worked, it would have been the last job I had to do."
    I nodded, filing the information away. "So what went wrong?"
    "I arrived as anticipated, while Gunnarsson was out. The Katerina was in a safe by itself, and I'd secured it, and was working on cracking the other safe when—" He winced, shook his head. "He returned. Too early. And there was something wrong—he was afraid, plainly. I hid, and then three men came in, garroted him, and were obviously going to come after the Katerina, so I bolted. Out the back and into the night." He laced his fingers together, touched the tips of his thumbs, point to point. "I'd planned well, so I was able to get away. I hid out in a room nearby the train station that night, trying to decide what to do. In the morning, it was reported that the police had found him dead, and seized his jewels."
    A chill rippled down my spine. "So who were the men? Why didn't they steal his jewels?"
    "They might not have known about them. They think it was a drug killing."
    I searched my memory for details. "I don't remember a lot about the actual murder. It didn't particularly interest me at the time." But I frowned. "It all seems too convenient. You just happened to be stealing the Katerina when these guys come in and murder him and they don't even know that he collects all these jewels?"
    He shrugged, and my gut said it was genuine bewilderment on his face. "I don't know. They said it was Peruvians, that he'd crossed someone."
    I narrowed my eyes. "The man in my room wasn't Peruvian."
    "No, I don't think so."
    "Hmm." It seemed there was some answer right in front of my eyes, but I couldn't quite capture it. "I don't think it was Paul who killed Gunnarsson, either."
    "Maybe it was the police?"
    "That's reaching," I said dismissively.
    "And when the murders happened, you were cheated of your payoff and decided to keep the Katerina?"
    Luca shook his head. "No. Until I held it, I did not intend to take it back to my country."
    I looked at him.
    "Stupid, hmm?" he said. "But once I saw her, it was as if I had no choice. I took her back to my hotel, and I waited there, trying to think what to do. And then of course the news hit the papers, and your name was raised, and I knew of your connection to Maigny—and one thing led to another. "
    "And here we are."
    "Yes."
    We sat in the kitchen with our tea, each to our own thoughts. The tea was soothing, hot, sweet. In the silence between bursts of wind, I heard the overhead light buzzing faintly.
    "Enough of all that." Luca smiled, his healthy white teeth flashing. "My grandmother is a gypsy," he said.