Something Missing_ A Novel - Matthew Dicks [5]
Exactly seven months ago, Martin had acquired an earring from Sophie Pearl’s jewelry box, a 1.3-karat diamond stud, leaving its twin behind. He had chosen this earring after a yearlong inventory of the jewelry box that was based upon time-lapse digital photography. For a year, during each visit to the Pearls’ home, Martin would photograph Sophie’s jewelry box with his Cannon Sure Shot and download the photos onto his computer at home. After examining the chronological, photographic history of the jewelry box, Martin was able to identify the best item to procure.
First, Martin noted that the diamond earrings were absent from the box only once during the entire year, which included at least one inspection each week. Other than their one disappearance, the earrings were always located in the same spot, the southeast corner of the bottom tray (based upon the jewelry box’s customary position on the bureau). This was not the case for many other items in Sophie’s box, a clear indication that certain items were being worn and returned quite often but this pair of earrings was not.
There were also some items in Sophie’s box that were never missing, but Martin had no intention of touching these. A pair of infrequently worn diamond earrings might go missing without concern, but a family heirloom, put away for a future daughter’s wedding day, would probably be noticed immediately.
The earrings in question were also frequently covered by Sophie’s string of black pearls, so as to not be visible by their owner. In fact, for a three-month stretch, the pearls had covered the earrings on every visit. This indicated that Sophie was unlikely to notice the disappearance of the earrings, since she rarely saw them for long stretches of time. Martin guessed that Sophie probably wore these earrings with a specific dress and otherwise forgot about them for the rest of the year.
Two other items in Sophie Pearl’s jewelry box fit this criteria for potential targets: a heart-shaped gold locket worth very little and an antique diamond ring, more than three karats of diamonds in all, that was probably worth a lot. Martin chose the earrings because they were of substantial value to make the acquisition worthwhile but not so much as to cause great concern to a successful couple like the Pearls if their disappearance was discovered.
On February 17 of this year, Martin had taken one of the earrings during a visit, and then he waited. When he returned to the home two days after the procurement, he looked for signs that the earring’s absence had been noticed. The jewelry box looked nearly identical to the picture taken on procurement day. A similar pair of gold hoops, smaller and slightly oval, had replaced a pair of large, gold hoop earrings, but otherwise there were no noticeable changes. There was no evidence that Sophie Pearl had emptied her jewelry box in search of the missing earring.
The disappearance had gone unnoticed.
An amateur would have taken Sophie’s other diamond stud at that point, but Martin knew that this operation would require more finesse. Sophie would eventually notice that the earring was missing. He knew this because she wore this pair on occasion, though infrequently, and if she found both gone, she might, just might, suspect theft. But if a single earring was missing, then Sophie would almost certainly assume that she had misplaced the other, since no conceivable thief would think of acquiring just one earring, and so she would begin a search. On a day in mid-June, Sophie had conducted just such a search.
Martin was sure of this because on the Wednesday of that week, he had found Sophie’s jewelry box in disarray. Items that hadn’t been touched in months had been moved to new locations, and it appeared that the bottom tray of the box had actually been removed, probably in order for Sophie to inspect underneath. Martin knew this from the thin piece of tape that he had placed between the bottom tray of the jewelry box and