“No. I haven’t been debriefed on her organizational skills. Please, do share all you know about how she sorts her drawers.”
He smirked, brushed, and spat out the toothpaste. “She’s a dream to investigate. She has nothing. Her office is like a shrine to simplicity. I think she’s one of those people who hates things.”
“Except for sex toys and olives.”
“Well, obviously. Sex toys are awesome, and olives aren’t so bad. In any case, she has one of those sleek metal desks with one drawer. Only pens in it and a Moleskine notebook. She had some nuts on her desk.”
“Nuts?” She arched an eyebrow.
“They usually grow on trees, they’re high in protein and fat, and you eat them. You’re familiar with nuts?”
She tapped her chin as if deep in thought. “Ah, yes. Nuts. Now I understand.” She rolled her eyes. “Point being, that’s an unusual thing to have on your desk.”
“Maybe she keeps nuts around for a quick protein hit. Anyway, she also has only one file cabinet. And it’s not even the metal kind. It’s one of those fancy, cloth-drawer thingamajiggers that women like.”
“We all like fancy cloth file cabinet drawers?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Was that an overgeneralization?” he asked drily.
She held her thumb and forefinger together.
“Anyway, so on the top of it I found some paperwork and that’s what I took. Basically, it’s a document saying Isla donated fifty grand last month to a charity that builds schools in Africa. It’s in one of the countries where there was a ton of diamond mining with child labor, and kids were affected by it. This charity was set up to help them go to school and earn an education.”
“Is it the one where she’s listed on the website as being a major donor?” she asked, then gave him the name of the charity.
He nodded. “Same one.”
She dropped her towel and enjoyed the way his eyes followed her naked body even as she left the bathroom and headed to her suitcase. “Do you think she’s cashing in diamonds for charity? You said before you thought they might be converting some of the diamonds bit by bit,” Steph asked from the room, focusing on the notion of Isla and Eli, not just Eli pulling off this con solo.
“That would be an interesting twist, wouldn’t it?” Jake said as she pulled on panties and a bra, then hunted for her blue dress with slim white stripes. “First night I was here, I saw at her gallery that the Lynx paintings sold for five thousand a piece. Today, when I peeked in the drawer in her gallery, the records show that she’d sold ten of them.”
“Maybe she’s putting the proceeds from her gallery into this charity. Do you think it’s connected?” Steph asked as she shrugged on the light cotton dress.
Jake emerged from the bathroom, and it was her turn to enjoy an eyeful of his naked glory, and my, was he glorious. She frowned as he put on boxers. “Makes me sad to see you in clothes.”
“Speaking of clothes, you need to add a bikini,” he said, gesturing to her dress.
She lifted an eyebrow. “Something you want to tell me?”
He fixed her with a stare. “Yes. That something is bring a bikini for tonight.”
She smiled, grabbed one, and stuffed it into her purse. “Done.”
“Excellent. And to answer your question, there seems to be some kind of connection. There has to be,” he said as he grabbed a pair of cargo shorts.
She clasped her hand over her mouth as an idea slammed into her. “What if they cashed out all the diamonds, Jake? What if there is no more missing money? Maybe it’s a lost cause,” she whispered, frowning, as the possibility of coming up empty-handed clanged in her brain. No justice, no chance to do the right thing. What if the thieves got away with it?
“It happens,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone as he snagged a shirt from the closet and put it on. “Not every job is solvable. Sometimes people move on and the money is gone, even when there’s proof, like there is here. We don’t know what they’ve done with the diamonds they bought from the Frayer mine. All we know for sure is a few were stolen, and they’re supporting a charity for those affected by the diamond economy,” he said.
“And what if we find them? You’re not going to turn him in, are you?”
Jake shook his head. “I work for clients. My client wants this handled as quietly as possible.”
“Will Andrew turn him in?” she asked, quaking with worry.
“I don’t have that answer, but he seems more focused on restoring the money than on turning him in.”
That’s why it was even more important for her to get to the diamonds before the thieves did. Besides, if the diamonds went back to Andrew’s company, that wasn’t a bad option, either. They certainly didn’t seem to belong to Eli, and the thought that her stepdad might be a thief was like an injection of pure sadness in her bloodstream.
“I need to see him again,” she said, swallowing thickly, fighting back the kernel of worry camped out in her. This was the hard part. Confronting him. But if she was ever going to get to the bottom of this, she had to stay ahead of the others who were after his stones. She had to use her advantages. “I’ll give him a call in a few minutes. Set something up. See what I can find out.”
“Maybe another breakfast at Tristan’s.”
That name jogged her memory. Tristan. Tall. Gray-haired. “Tristan.”