“I’m not,” she said, fixing on an oh-so-sweet smile. “I was just eager to get my hands on you, and the diamonds. But there really weren’t any diamonds in there? I saw that the walls were bare.”
He held up his hands, as if he were solemnly swearing. “I didn’t find any. I have no clue how Penny got that tip, but it was inaccurate. There wasn’t even a single frame on the wall. I did find some interesting paperwork, though, about some donations—”
She pressed her finger to his lips. “Shh. I need to go excuse myself from this rendezvous so Isla doesn’t think I’m cuckoo. Then tell me all about the paperwork.” She tugged on Jake’s shirt. “You need to wait by the souvenir shop.”
He nodded but furrowed his brow. “You’re acting strange. And a little bossy.”
“It’s a full moon,” she said quickly. Jake left the alley before her and headed to the souvenir shop. While he checked out some postcards, Steph doubled back to the door and then into the gallery again, where Isla’s employees were praising the coconut flan. Her heart raced during those few moments, hoping he wouldn’t escape. But she had to take this risk of zipping back the way she came or Isla might be suspicious of her. How do burglars and career jewel thieves pull this off? Managing a reverse con was no walk in the park.
Steph tapped Isla on the shoulder and motioned for her to come to the entryway. She’d have Jake in her line of sight that way. Steph breathed easier when she spotted the back of Jake’s head and his golden-brown hair. “I hate to do this, but I just got a last-minute call to do a snorkel lesson for some beginners over at Happy Turtle, so I can’t stay,” Steph said, apologizing.
Isla frowned. “Oh no. I was looking forward to showing you the art. Can you come back?”
“I’ll try,” Steph said, casting her gaze briefly in Jake’s direction. He thumbed through trinkets on display street side, milling about in place. Steph breathed more easily. He could have been running away, absconding with more jewels. But he was staying. Maybe he wasn’t a total liar.
Which made her theories about what happened this morning even cloudier.
Steph returned her full attention to Isla, then jerked her head in surprise when she spotted something missing from Isla’s wardrobe. Steph brought her fingers to her throat. Touching her own necklace. “Isla,” she whispered, pointing to the other woman’s neck. “What happened to your diamond? Is it being resized or something?”
Isla sighed heavily and clasped her hand over her heart. A pendant dangled from her neck, but it was missing the blue-tinted gem she’d worn at her house party. In its place was a too-bright cubic zirconium. A substitute rock.
Isla dropped her voice to a barren whisper. “Stolen.”
Tension shot through Steph’s bones. She furrowed her brow. “Are you serious? When? Where?”
“Last night. Right here,” Isla said, pointing to the blond wood floors of the gallery. “During a reception. It was on my neck, then it was gone. I was freshening up my drink, and moments later, Eli noticed it was missing. It must have fallen out of the casing on the necklace, and then someone took it.”
Steph blinked. She swallowed. Her skull echoed. “Right here? In the gallery? Last night? What time?”
“It was around eight.”
Steph calculated. Jake was with her then on the boat. He couldn’t have taken Isla’s stone. “We looked everywhere. We canvassed the entire place,” Isla continued, sweeping her hands around to indicate the enormity of the search.
“But how do you know it was stolen and not just misplaced?”
“We looked everywhere,” Isla said. “As you can see, there isn’t a lot of clutter. It’s quite bare. But there was no diamond anywhere. So it can’t have been lost.”
“Do you have any idea who took it?”
“None. But thank God we moved the other diamonds from here a while ago.”
The other diamonds.
Holy moly. Steph’s jaw dropped. Clanged on the floor.
Isla admitted it. Officially. They had diamonds. Shock reverberated in her bones. But was Isla actually saying the gallery had once been the home for their diamond stash? “You had diamonds here?” she asked, pointing to the floor, trying to make sense of this new wrinkle.
Isla nodded. She placed a hand on Steph’s back, lowering her voice more. “We used to have a lot here, but not anymore. You can’t be too careful with precious stones. As you know, since Eli gave you one. I do hope you’re keeping it safe. As safe as can be.”
“Yes,” Steph croaked out. She had no clue what else to say. No notion what to do. This new slew of information was slamming her around, knocking her left and right, like a cartoon character being pummeled and seeing stars. She tapped her wrist once more. “I should go.”
“Let’s do this another time,” Isla said, her tone immediately jettisoning back to the fully upbeat woman Steph had briefly gotten to know.
She nearly stumbled out of the gallery, her breath coming fast, her blood racing through her veins.
Jake leaned against the brick wall of the souvenir shop, right where she’d told him to wait.
Was she wrong in her assumption that Jake had taken her gem?
Maybe he really didn’t have the diamonds from the gallery. Perhaps Isla was telling the truth, and Eli moved them to a new location a while ago. Her head swam with possibilities, with far too many permutations. She needed to regroup, but she also needed to figure out if Jake was playing her.