The Heirloom Murders - Kathleen Ernst [40]
Roelke’s expression suggested that he had never heard anyone call it that. “And this has to do with Chloe getting attacked … how?” His knee began to piston.
“The guy who found it gave it to his wife,” Chloe said. “Some time later, she hit hard times, and sold it. She got ripped off, but that’s beside the point. The diamond ended up on display at the American Museum of Natural History. Then in 1964, this guy named Murph the Surf stole it.”
“Murph the Surf ?” Roelke repeated. “You’re kidding, right?”
“It happened,” Dellyn insisted. “He broke into the museum one night and stole a bunch of gemstones. Most of them were recovered, but the Eagle Diamond never was.”
“Miss Burke, I still don’t see—”
“So, most people assume the Eagle Diamond was cut down into smaller pieces, and sold, and therefore will never be found. But there’s no proof of that.” Dellyn picked up a sofa pillow and hugged it against her stomach. “And ever since I’ve been back, I’ve had trouble keeping my hands on anything related to the story. I left an article about it out for Chloe, but when she visited the next time, I couldn’t find it.”
“You’ve had a terrible shock,” Roelke reminded her.
She waved that away with a flick of her hand. “Then Chloe found a document—a letter reporting on the first real appraisal of the diamond, done back in 1883.”
“I did,” Chloe affirmed. “I left the file out in plain sight for her, on the kitchen table.”
“But I never saw it,” Dellyn insisted. “I didn’t know anything about it until Chloe asked me about it.”
Roelke jotted something in his notebook. His face was expressionless.
“My dad planned to write a book about the Eagle Diamond, and he’d been gathering information for years. I’ve been going through my mom’s garden journals, and … well, they made me feel close to her, you know? So earlier today I decided to look at my dad’s box of files about the diamond.”
Chloe looked at Dellyn. “And you can’t find it.”
“No. And I tore his office apart.”
“I did a quick search last week, too,” Chloe said. “Nothing but the letter from the appraiser, which was filed under his own name. Maybe his Eagle Diamond files got tucked away in the attic or something, though. We’ve hardly scratched the surface up there.”
“But why? The attic was just for storage. My dad did all of his writing, articles for the newsletter or whatever, in his study.”
Roelke cleared his throat. “Do you think your parents had this diamond tucked amidst all the other Eagle memorabilia?” His tone was more polite than Chloe would have credited him with.
“I don’t really think they had the Eagle Diamond,” Dellyn said quickly. “But what if someone else thinks they did? Or even that my dad had found some new information about it?”
No one seemed to know how to answer that. “Thank you for sharing all this,” Roelke said finally. “It’s often impossible to know what might be helpful. But let’s focus on practical matters. Miss Burke, do you lock your doors when you leave the house?”
“Well … this is Eagle, for God’s sake! I can’t say I worry about it all the time.”
“You need to worry about it,” Roelke said crisply. “Did you change the locks when you moved in?”
“Change the locks?” Dellyn looked bewildered. “No.”
“Do you know who else might have a key to your place?”
“My neighbor does. Sonia Padopolous. She and my mother were good friends.”
“I’ll follow up on that.”
“If you talk to her, say no if she offers you anything to eat,” Chloe murmured. It was probably an inappropriate comment, but … really. The woman had no taste buds.
Roelke frowned at her, then asked Dellyn, “Anybody else?”
She shook her head. “No. I mean—well, Bonnie would have had one.”
Roelke made another note, his face impassive. “Miss Burke, I encourage you to call a locksmith. Change the house locks, and get padlocks for the barn.”
Dellyn rubbed her temples. “Chloe, I’m really sorry for what happened to you—but it had to have been just some kid. Someone playing a prank, or