Free Beauty to Die For and Other Mystery Shorts by Lauren Carr Page A

the rooms filled with its late owner’s possessions.
    The temporary parking lot that had been set up on the front yard was made up of luxury cars and SUV’s the size of military tanks.
    Catherine, who Mac had never seen out of fashion, donned a lilac hat that resembled a style he had seen Princess Kate wearing. With her classical blond beauty, sense of style, and her husband’s financial and social connections as Garrett County’s prosecutor, she had everything necessary to be an American princess.
    Archie, too, donned a bonnet on her head, which Mac was not pleased to see covering up her pixie blond hair.
    Like animals wanting to impress the rest of the herd with their power or virility, the other guests at the estate sale were dressed in fine spring wear. While gawking and examining Celeste Taylor’s collection of extravagant jewelry, they would make noises ranging from impressed to disappointed when informed that much of it was imitation.
    “If Celeste had been married to a millionaire and was a celebrated actress, how did she die broke?” Mac asked Ben Fleming, who was peering at a statue that resembled the Thinker, after having been set fire to. Mac couldn’t tell if he was admiring it or curious about how it came to look like that.
    “She didn’t work for the last thirty years of her life,” Ben answered. “I don’t know the particulars of her finances, but millions of dollars only goes so far when it’s all going out, but nothing is coming in. You know that. Even having inherited two-hundred and seventy million dollars, if you weren’t so smart investing it, if it just sat there for you to live off of, it wouldn’t last very long.”
    “Wouldn’t she have an advisor to suggest investments?” Mac asked, “like I have?”
    “Maybe her advisor isn’t as smart as yours,” Ben replied. “It’s not uncommon for rich people, very wealthy and smart people, to have huge chunks, if not all, of their millions stolen by dishonest so-called investment counselors.”
    “You’re not going to believe what I just heard.” Catherine came rushing up to clasp her husband’s elbow. “All of Celeste Taylor’s jewelry is fake.”
    “Including the Blue Starburst Diamond.” Archie came up on Mac’s other side.
    “What’s the Blue Starburst Diamond?” Mac asked.
    “Don’t you follow any of the society pages?” Catherine asked him.
    “Nope.”
    “The Blue Starburst Diamond was given to Celeste Taylor as an engagement ring from her late and only husband,” Archie said. “It was a seven carat blue diamond with a white starburst in the center. Extremely rare. There’s only one like it in the whole world.”
    “You certainly weren’t expecting to buy it, were you?” Ben sounded worried when he asked Catherine.
    “I only wanted to see it,” Catherine said. “But they just announced that it was discovered that what Celeste’s daughter thought was the diamond was really a fake. Turns out, Celeste has been selling off her jewels and artwork for years and replacing it with fakes.”
    “That’s why they’re having this auction,” Archie said. “The estate is broke.”
    Further conversation was cut off when Gnarly dragged Archie off toward the open doorway leading to the dining room.
    “You’re invitation, sir?” a tall intimidating man in a black suit stopped Mac. Holding out his hand, he demanded to see his invitation.
    “Why didn’t you ask them?” Mac demanded to know while taking his invitation out of his inner breast pocket.
    The man refused to take his eyes off Mac. “Because I’m asking you.” He snatched the invitation from Mac’s hand and read the front cover. “Your name, sir.”
    “Mac Faraday. Yours?”
    “Faraday?” A note of congeniality crept into his tone. “As in Robin Spencer’s son Faraday?”
    “The very same.” Mac took back the invitation. “And you are …”
    “Frederick. The butler here. It is my job to keep out the riff-raff who may only be seeking to