Played (19 page)

“Or to hinder.”

J.T. shrugged. He didn’t much care what Kenner thought about him. “Do you have anything else on Christina’s father besides some anonymous phone message?”

“E-mails on her computer,” Alexis interjected. “And David told me that—” She stopped abruptly, darting a quick look at her husband.

“Why don’t you just shut up, Alexis?” Jeremy said, anger and weariness in his voice, in his posture, in the way he shoved back the chair and strode from the room without giving the rest of them another look.

“David told you what?” J.T. prodded as Alexis stared after her husband as if she were afraid he was never coming back.

Sylvia patted Alexis’s hand. “If this is too much for you…”

“No.” Alexis drew in a deep breath and then continued. “David told me that he thought Christina was acting oddly when she examined the diamond. He also said he took a call from her father one day and wondered if Marcus Alberti had his eyes on the diamond.”

J.T. was surprised by her latest revelation. “David had a conversation with Christina’s father?”

“Yes, and Mr. Alberti asked a lot of questions about the diamond.” Her gaze filled with worry. “Do you think the car accident had something to do with what David knew? Oh, my God!” She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Do you think Christina is the one who ran him down?”

“She certainly didn’t like him much,” Sylvia interjected. “They were arguing at your dinner party last night, Alexis. You heard them, Mr. McIntyre.”

“I wouldn’t say they were arguing,” he denied, not liking the way the noose was being pulled even tighter around Christina’s neck. “As a matter of fact I saw the accident last night. I was just arriving when David was hit. It wasn’t Christina driving the car.”

“You said you didn’t see the car or the driver,” Russell reminded him.

“I didn’t. But I took Christina home. There was no time for her to get her car and beat me back here.” God help him for all the lies he was telling. “I know David called you right before the accident.” He turned back to Alexis. “I found his phone. Yours was the last number he’d dialed.”

“I just told you why he was calling. It was about Christina.”

J.T. studied Alexis’s face. She averted her gaze, as if she was afraid of what he would see. He didn’t completely buy her story. There was something else going on. Her husband hadn’t stormed off without good reason. “It seems odd to me that David was at your party last night. He was just a part-time assistant, a grad student, hardly in the league of your other guests.”

“David was very helpful yesterday in previewing the diamond while Christina was gone. Another strange disappearance, I might add,” Alexis said on a huffy note. “I thought David might be able to answer questions from the guests. And I am not the one on trial here. We need to find Christina. She has a lot of explaining to do.”

“The police are checking her house and her father’s house,” Kenner said. He shot J.T. a speculative look. “I hope we can count on your help.”

“Of course you can. But first I’d like to take a look at the security tapes from the workroom. Unlike you, I’m keeping an open mind about the identity of our diamond thief. I told you from the beginning that the man I’ve been following intended to steal it. I know he has been in the area. He’s left me notes to that effect. Now the diamond is gone. I’m not discounting the fact that he’s the one who took it and planted evidence on Christina’s computer to discredit her and her father.”

“You keep talking about this mysterious man,” Alexis said with a frown, “but none of us knows who you’re talking about.”

“Because he’s pretending to be someone you know, someone you trust.”

“I know everyone in my company,” Alexis said. “It’s not possible that he’s an employee.”

“Maybe not. I’d still like to see the tape.”

“We were just watching it,” Kenner said. He hit the remote control and the monitor in the corner of the room lit up.

They studied the tape for several moments in complete silence. The scene played out exactly as J.T. remembered. The four men surrounded the diamond, Russell, Luigi, Jeremy, and Stefano. Then Stefano took the necklace and placed it on the display. He set the display on the turntable and reached to push the button that would send the turntable into the other room.

His body blocked the camera, J.T. realized. All they could see was Stefano’s broad back. “Where is he?” he asked abruptly. “Where’s Benedetti?”

Russell blinked. “Uh. I don’t know. I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“I’m surprised he’s not here raising holy hell,” J.T. said. “In fact, where’s Murano? Where’s our Italian security contingent?”

“Mr. Murano was on the phone in the security office earlier,” Alexis said. “Why? What are you thinking?”

“Benedetti’s body blocks the camera,” J.T. said again.

“So what?” Kenner asked with a frustrated wave of his hand. “Mr. Benedetti is the owner of the diamond. He wouldn’t try to steal it.”

J.T. felt a rush of excitement as the puzzle pieces began to click into place. “Maybe he would. There must be insurance on the diamond.”

“Yes, but…” Alexis stopped, her jaw dropping, mixed emotions running through her eyes. “No, that is a crazy idea. Mr. Benedetti would not set us up like that. His family is very well respected in Italy. They have a reputation to maintain. They would make far more money selling the diamond than collecting the insurance.”

“Not if they got the insurance money and kept the diamond,” J.T. pointed out.

“They would never be able to sell it again. It would always be on the list of stolen jewels,” Alexis argued. “If it was discovered in their possession, they would be in very big trouble. You’re on the wrong track.”

“I don’t think so. Benedetti was the last one to have his hand on that diamond.”

“And he’s a far more respectable man than Marcus Alberti.” Alexis stood up. “I need to take care of some things before the press conference. Russell, call me when you find Christina. She and her father are the ones who stole that diamond. I’m sure of it.” She gave J.T. a pointed look, then swept from the room, Sylvia on her heels.

J.T. glanced at Russell Kenner. “Where is Benedetti staying?”

“The Crestmoor Hotel.” He scratched his jaw. “I have to admit I never considered that angle.”

“Maybe you should. What about Murano?”

“Best Western, two blocks down.”

“Thanks. We need to eliminate them from the list of suspects.”

“All right. I can do that, but frankly I think you’re just trying to turn the attention on someone else. Hell, maybe you’re in on the theft with Christina. She seems to have you wrapped around her little finger, or maybe it’s some other part of her body. I’m warning you, McIntyre, if you helped Christina escape with that diamond, I’ll make sure you lose your job.”

Kenner’s threat hung in the air long after he left the room. J.T. picked up the remote control and rewound the tape so he could play it again.

As the turntable moved, Benedetti stepped back with a satisfied smile. There was something about that smile that unsettled him. The answer hit him like a freight train.

Was it possible that Evan was Stefano? J.T.’s heart leaped into his throat. It couldn’t be. He’d spoken to Stefano Benedetti several times. He would have known if it was Evan in disguise, wouldn’t he? Stefano’s image flashed in his head, the long, curly dark hair, the olive skin, the deep brown eyes, the Italian accent. Jenny had said that Evan wore a ski cap on his head when he came to see her, so he’d obviously wanted to cover his hair. He could have accomplished the rest with makeup, contact lenses, even faked the accent.

Still, if Benedetti were Evan, wouldn’t the head of the Italian security team, Luigi Murano, have known he was an impostor? Wouldn’t they have spoken in Italian? It didn’t make sense.

But J.T.’s instincts were screaming at him to pay attention. Stefano Benedetti was the last person to touch the diamond. His back blocked the cameras. He could have taken the necklace before he stepped back with that smile on his face. The turntable was no longer in view. And everyone was watching the monitors to see the reaction of the crowd when they first saw the diamond.

When the necklace vanished, Kenner had called for a lockdown. Everyone had gone running in a dozen different directions. Where had Stefano gone?

J.T. let the tape run, but the camera had not captured Stefano’s exit from the workroom. The real question was whether Stefano could have left Barclay’s without being searched. He was the owner of the diamond—the victim, not the perpetrator. Or at least, that was what everyone thought.

It was a great plan. Evan had once again played a perfect game.

Make that almost perfect.

Because Christina’s father had stolen the necklace two nights earlier, and Evan had stolen a fake. How ironic was that? The con man had been outconned by the man he’d set up to take the fall. J.T. had to smile.

The bottom line, though, was that the diamond was missing and the heat was on Christina. No one at Barclay’s wanted to believe in a con man they’d never met. It was far easier to blame Marcus Alberti.

J.T. turned off the monitor, feeling a renewed sense of energy and purpose. He needed to track down Benedetti and Murano. Either Murano was in on it or Evan had conned him, too. And if Evan was playing a part, where the hell was the real Stefano Benedetti?

12

Christina felt her tension dissipate the longer she sat in the library. She loved the rustling quiet in the old building, the sound of pages turning, patrons speaking in hushed voices, the occasional clatter of high heels on the uncarpeted floors. She liked the smell of the books, some fresh off the press, others dusty from years on the shelves. She loved the idea that in every volume in the library there was the potential for a grand adventure, a fantasy escape, or a chance to learn something new. Her father had first introduced her to the library. Before the age of computers he’d done most of his research in big, cavernous buildings such as this one, in every city in the world. And she’d often sat by his side, reading her own books while he lost himself in stories of the past.

Sadness swept over her as she thought about how much trouble they were both in. Would they ever recapture those carefree days when they had been father and daughter without any secrets, without any lies? Would they ever be able to be together without wearing a disguise, meeting in a secret location, worried that someone would see them, call the cops, have them arrested?

It seemed crazy that their lives had turned out like this, especially
her
life. She wasn’t an adventurer like her father. In fact, she’d played it really safe for as long as she could remember. While her father’s talk of adventure and drama had always appealed to her imagination, she’d felt she couldn’t let loose, because one of them had to be practical, responsible, and that one had always been her. It wasn’t fair. In fact, at the moment it was downright infuriating. She couldn’t allow herself to forget that while she was innocent of any wrongdoing, her father was not. He had stolen that diamond. He had committed a huge crime. And no matter what his reasoning, he was wrong. But even worse than the theft was that he had lied to her. He’d put on a disguise, walked right up to her, and introduced himself as Howard Keaton, pretending to be someone he wasn’t. He’d smiled and joked, knowing all the time he was putting one over on her, and he’d enjoyed every second of it. She still couldn’t believe she hadn’t seen through the disguise.

Maybe J.T was right. Maybe people saw only what they expected to see. She’d certainly never expected to see her father at that party. By coming to Barclay’s, he’d put her job and her life in jeopardy—and for what? A diamond, a cold, hard, beautiful stone—but a stone nonetheless. She loved jewelry. She’d spent years studying it, training to be an expert. But she never would have put a diamond before her father. He was her family. They had only each other—how had he come to forget that? How had he come to value a diamond more than her?

Well, damn him. Damn him for caring more about a stone than his daughter. For loving the past more than the present, for trying to put things right from hundreds of years ago, never mind trying to right the wrongs that were happening today.

Why was she always working so hard to protect
him
, when it was becoming clearer with each passing day that he had no intention of protecting
her
?

Oh, sure, he said he’d taken the diamond to do just that—save her from some terrible curse—a curse that no one else had ever heard of, including the owner of the diamond. Was her father lying about the curse, too? Or did he believe his own fantasy? She’d worried for years that he might one day slip over the line between reality and fantasy. Was that time now? Had he completely lost his mind? It would almost be easier if he had gone crazy. Then at least there would be a clinical diagnosis for his behavior.

With a sigh, Christina sat back in her chair. She’d settled into a cubicle on the second floor and surrounded herself with books on the Italian Renaissance, and diamonds in particular. If the Benedetti diamond was cursed, then someone besides her father had to know about it. Someone had to have written about it. She just hadn’t found that someone yet.

She rubbed her tired eyes. She was working on adrenaline, fear, and very little sleep. So much had happened in the past few days her head was spinning. If she could just get the world to slow down for a minute, she might be able to think. But no one was waiting for her to catch up; they were running full steam ahead with their plans, plans in which she seemed to play enough of a part to be guilty but not enough of a part to have any say in the matter.

Picking up the next book, she saw that it was about the de Médici family. A merchant and banking family, the de Médicis had practically run Florence for almost three centuries. Their power had extended to the Church and the most powerful European courts.

As Christina thought about the de Médicis, she considered the fact that the Benedettis were another powerful Florentine family in the banking industry. She wondered if their bloodline ran back to the de Médicis. It certainly wasn’t impossible, and it was even more probable that a yellow diamond the size of the Benedetti stone had once belonged to someone rich and powerful like the de Médicis.

Skimming through the next chapter, she read the description of Catherine de Médici’s wedding to Henry, who would later become the king of France, making Catherine his queen. The union had been set up by the pope, the marriage merging two powerful families. An enormous dowry had gone with Catherine to France. Many jewels, including diamonds, had exchanged hands on her wedding day. Several sources noted three particularly interesting pieces, the Egg of Naples, a large pear-shaped pearl encircled by rubies; the Tip of Milan, a hexagonal diamond; and the Table of Genoa, a large, flat-cut diamond. Some believed that the names of the stones represented a secret code between the pope and the king and referred to cities in Italy that the couple would receive. But in later inventories, the jewels were no longer mentioned, and there was some mystery as to what had happened to them.

Christina considered those missing jewels. None matched her yellow diamond, but it certainly gave her pause to consider the possibility that the Benedetti diamond could have been part of the magnificent wedding dowry as well.

Picking up the book again, she read through several more paragraphs. She had studied Catherine de Médici in school and was already familiar with her somewhat sad story, the fact that the French court considered her an Italian upstart with no real breeding and treated her with little respect. Her husband, Henry, had blatantly and flagrantly continued his relationship with his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, throughout the course of his marriage to Catherine. In fact, as proof of his devotion to Diane, Henry often presented her with jewels that should have gone to Catherine. Was it any wonder that the lonely and scorned Catherine had later become known as “Madame Snake,” with secret hideaways for poison rings and daggers?

If the diamond had belonged to Catherine, it could very well be cursed, Christina thought. But how on earth was she going to find out? She needed more detailed information on the exact jewels that had been part of Catherine’s dowry, as well as any precious stones that Henry had given to Diane throughout the years. Of course, she could be completely on the wrong track, but it made sense to her to start with the most famous Florentine family of all. Unfortunately, as much as she longed to dive into research for the next few days or weeks, she didn’t have the time. There had to be a shortcut.

Perhaps if she spoke to Stefano Benedetti again, he would tell her more about the diamond. Even as the thought came to her mind, she immediately dismissed it. Stefano would probably have her arrested before she got one question out of her mouth. Like the others, he believed she had stolen his family’s diamond.

How else could she find the information? Was there something in the books her father kept at his house? He had a library full of old texts, and he had spent many summers in Florence. She might have to go back to his house again…maybe after she was sure the police had already checked it out.

Getting up, she made her way back down to the first floor of the library and over to the bank of computers that would take her onto the Internet. She put several words into the search engine,
Medici
,
Catherine
,
jewels
,
diamonds
, and
wedding dowry.
A bunch of sites came up. Most told her nothing new. She needed something more obscure. Tapping her fingers on the desk, she considered how best to dig into the subject.

Perhaps she was going about it the wrong way. She was starting at the beginning of the trail instead of the end. She shouldn’t be searching for Catherine de Médici but for the Benedettis.

She typed in
Vittorio Benedetti
and felt a rush of excitement when his name came up. The article was about the recent death of his son, Frances Benedetti, thirty-two, who had been killed in a car accident. Frances had left behind two brothers, Stefano and Daniel, and his father, Vittorio. She checked the date on the article. Six months ago. That was sad.

A shadow fell across her screen, and she started. She was more than a little relieved when J.T. pulled up a chair next to hers. For a moment she’d thought the police had found her. She couldn’t read much from J.T.’s expression. He looked tired. He was still wearing his formal suit from the evening before. She realized he’d never had time to change after spending the night at her apartment, then following her to the fun house and so on. She was almost afraid to ask what had happened at Barclay’s, but she couldn’t stop the question from crossing her lips. “What did you find out?”

He put his arm around the back of her chair. “Everyone thinks you and your father stole the diamond,” he said in a quiet voice.

She cast a quick glance around them, but there was no one within earshot. She’d already known that everyone at Barclay’s was suspicious, but it still hurt to hear him say it so bluntly. “They’re half right. My father did steal the diamond. I just didn’t help him do it.” She paused. “Maybe if I could find him, I could convince him to give it back.”

J.T. raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You think?”

She couldn’t blame him for the cynical response. “He’s not a bad person. He has a good heart. He can be reasonable.”

“Sure. That’s why he went to the trouble of concocting a disguise in someone else’s name, commissioned someone to make him a fake diamond necklace, and then switched it in front of his very own daughter, knowing that every action he took could possibly destroy her life.”

“Well, when you say it like that…”

“There’s no other way to say it, Christina. I’m not trying to hurt you, but you have to face facts. Your father didn’t just steal this diamond on a whim. He had a plan, a very complicated plan, which he carried out.”

“I know. You’re right. I get it.”

“Good. Now tell me, have you made any progress here?”

“Not really. I’ve been trying to trace the diamond. A stone that big and that unusual probably belonged to someone rich and famous, a king or a queen, someone along those lines. The most powerful family in Italy during the Renaissance was the de Médicis. There were many precious stones that were part of Catherine de Médici’s dowry, and it is believed that some of those stones disappeared.” She saw the blank look on J.T.’s face and had a feeling history had not been his best subject.

“Cut to the chase,” he said.

“I can’t. I’m not to the chase yet. Since Catherine lived in the fifteen hundreds, information about her is not that easy to find. I thought I’d go in reverse, start with the Benedettis, another rich and famous Florentine family.”

He nodded approvingly. “I’m more than a little curious about that family.”

“Why?” she asked, seeing a glint of excitement in his eyes.

“When I was at Barclay’s, I reviewed the security tape from the workroom, went over the sequence of events. Stefano Benedetti put the diamond on the display, but when he reached over to push the button to turn the door, his back blocked the view of the diamond.”

She stared at him in confusion. “You think Stefano stole his own diamond?”

“He was the last one to touch it. When you think about it, he was the only one who could have taken it. I checked the space in between the revolving panel. A human could not fit back there. It makes sense. No one would ever look at Stefano as the thief.”

“Because he doesn’t have a motive. Although I guess he could have done it for the insurance money. Did you tell Alexis your theory?”

“She and Kenner dismissed it out of hand. But my gut tells me I’m onto something.”

“Even if Stefano took the diamond, he couldn’t have left the building without being searched,” Christina said.

“At first I thought he might have done just that. But the thing is, no one ever saw him leave. I checked with all the guards. I even went over the tapes from the security cameras fixed on the entrances. There was no evidence that Stefano ever left the building.”

“Maybe he’s still there then.”

J.T. shrugged. “I searched every floor. I didn’t see him. I did, however, have a little chat with Luigi Murano. He was hired by a lawyer representing the Benedetti family to travel with the collection and ensure its safety.”

“I already knew that,” she said, not sure what point he was trying to make.

“There’s more. Luigi said he was surprised when Stefano showed up, because it had been his understanding that none of the Benedettis would be traveling to the United States. He told me that he had never met Stefano before, and once Stefano arrived he handled all communication with the family lawyer.”

“Okay, I see where you’re going. You think that Stefano is really Evan. That’s what you’re saying, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “I have to admit it’s not quite jiving, because I talked to Stefano and I think I would have recognized Evan if he were in disguise.”

“Maybe not. My father stood right in front of me at the preview party when he was masquerading as Professor Keaton, and I didn’t see him. I’m betting I’ve spent more time with my father than you have with Evan. You said before that Evan’s games work because people see what they expect to see.”

“And I assumed that everyone else, including Luigi Murano, had met Stefano before,” J.T. said. “I even asked Murano if they had spoken in Italian. He told me that Stefano only speaks English in the States. He claimed it was more courteous.”