Page 61 of Lost Cause
“I don’t see a message yet,” Abby said as Burke slid his chair down the table to them.
“It’s simple if you know what you’re looking at,” Gabe said. “Follow the letter pattern.”
He tapped the letters, alternating between the three rails. He figured out the first word wasbigand the second wordday.Then, writing in large print across the bottom of the page, he transcribed the note:
Big day. Crown replica ready. Must find buyer for original.
“Replica?” Abby dropped into the chair next to him. “Estelle had a replica made?”
“Could be why she was posing with it.” Burke fought to keep his enthusiasm in check. “It wasn’t the real thing, and she was proud of it.”
“We need to look at those Polaroids again.” Abby pushed to her feet. “If she’s holding a fake, she could’ve put the replica in Victor’s cabinet back then and disappeared with the real crown years ago.”
Abby made quick work of retrieving the old Polaroids from the evidence inventory bin and returned to the dining room to spread them out on the table.
“We can compare these to the picture of the crown Victor gave us.” She found the photo on her phone and held it out so Burke and Gabe could see the real one too.
“Try to stop me.” Burke circled the table to come stand behind her.
She looked back and forth between all the photos, not seeing any discrepancies. “It’s almost like the pictures you see on social media where you have to find the differences. I can do those, but I don’t see any variations.”
“It might be just me or maybe it’s the lighting,” Burke said, “but the jewels on the crown Estelle is holding don’t reflect the light the same way.”
“Maybe.” Gabe glanced up. “Like you said, it could be the lighting.”
Abby studied the jewel placement on each Polaroid picture. “Does the ruby on the right side look like it’s in the same place? It appears further spaced from the emerald to me.”
Burke leaned over the table and picked up one of the pictures. “She’s holding this one in almost an identical direction as Victor’s photo, and I think you’re right. It’s different.”
“Agreed,” Gabe said.
Abby leaned back. “So Estelle might’ve stolen the real crown and our current-day thief has a fake.”
Burke frowned. “It wouldn’t take long for a jeweler to identify the fake gems and tell the thief the crown was worthless.”
Gabe took a seat across the table from them. “If you were the thief, what would you do when you heard that?”
“I’d think Victor tricked me,” Burke said. “That he’d hidden the real crown for safekeeping. So I’d come back to search for it.”
“Could’ve actually happened that way,” Abby said. “And we need to search the house.”
Burke nodded. “I can assign deputies to do that.”
“If it really did happen like this, we could use it to identify the thief.” Gabe shifted to face Abby. “We could catch him in the act of coming back, but we’d have to stay here twenty-four/seven or install cameras.”
“Might work,” she said. “Not knowing when the crown was stolen, we have no idea how long our thief might’ve known it was fake. He could’ve already come back to check. Or he might not have found out it’s not real yet.”
“Or we could be wrong about the jewels,” Burke said. “He could have the real crown, and he’s not coming back at all.”
“In any event,” Abby said. “Staying here would require so many of our resources when we need to put all of our effort on the investigation, not babysitting this place. So I say we’re better off installing cameras.”
Burke nodded. “We’ll need Victor’s permission. Might not be easy to get.”
“Actually,” Abby said. “He’s so down after finding the trunk, I think he might agree.”
“It’s a long trek to and from the inn to get our equipment,” Gabe said. “We could have someone on the team deliver it. Still would take a couple hours.”
“No worries,” Abby said. “Gage will not only have cameras, but they’ll be top-of-the-line.”
