Royal Heist Read online

  “We only graduated a little over a year ago,” Stasi agreed. “The students who were a year behind us would have just seen him in May.”

  “Precisely.” Ruby beamed. “Classes have already started for the fall, but guess who’s not there?”

  “Luciano Salvatore?”

  “No one has seen him since the summer session ended three weeks ago. Not only that, but do you remember when Professor Nickel was replaced midsemester our senior year?”

  “Who could forget? There were cops all over campus one day, and then Nickel was gone, but nobody knew where, and all the school would tell us was the name of our new instructor.”

  “Carlton Verretti says he saw Luciano talking to Professor Nickel less than an hour before the cops showed up the day Nickel disappeared.”

  “When did you talk to Carlton?”

  “Just now—he was online. We chatted. He was extremely helpful, since he just finished his final hours of course work this summer. He also told me that ever since the incident with Nickel, he’s been wary of Luciano.”

  “Wait,” Kirk interrupted. “This Carlton Verretti fellow—who is he? Can we trust him?”

  Ruby nodded. “I’ve known him since we were kids. He and his older brother Vince both studied gemology. Their parents own the Verretti chain of jewelry stores. My folks know them. We were all the time bumping into one another at trade shows and jewelry events. Our families were really close.”

  The slightest strain entered Ruby’s voice as she ended her statement. Combined with the twinge of pink that colored her pale cheeks, Galen felt curious about just how close the two families had been. But the question hardly seemed related to the case.

  “What else did Carlton tell you?” Galen told himself that, based on Ruby’s shared history with the man, they could probably trust Carlton. But at the same time, Galen felt a stab of jealousy that the Verretti brothers had known Ruby for so many years—that they ran in the same circle with her family, and would probably see her at jewelry events long after she was gone from his life. He told himself not to be jealous, but he still felt his hands tightening into fists for no good reason.

  Ruby ducked her head closer to the three of them and lowered her voice, “Carlton said he’s always wondered if Luciano wasn’t connected to Nickel’s disappearance. So, when Carlton bumped into Luciano on campus at the end of the summer term, he figured it was his last chance to ask him a few questions.

  “And then—” Ruby’s voice dropped a conspiratorial octave “—Carlton apologized to me for not trying to get in touch with me or Stasi, but he didn’t think we were in any danger and he claimed he didn’t want to frighten us.”

  “Frighten us about what?” Stasi sounded plenty frightened.

  “Apparently Luciano told Carlton that he was interested in the Lydian royal jewels.”

  “How does Luciano know about the royal jewels of Lydia?” Stasi sounded offended.

  Kirk patted her hand. “Lydia was in the news quite a bit earlier this summer with the insurgent attacks. I’m sure the royal jewels were mentioned in passing.”

  “Interested how?” Stasi pressed. “Researching them? Or stealing them?”

  Ruby shrugged. “Carlton implied that he gave Luciano the benefit of his doubt, thinking he must just want to know more about them. But once I asked Carlton specifically if he knew where Luciano was these days, he spilled the whole story.”

  “Did he ask why you wanted to know?” Kirk looked concerned.

  “He did, but I didn’t think it was wise to tell him anything of what we’ve been dealing with. All I said was that I thought I’d seen Luciano in Lydia—that’s when Carlton told me about their conversation.”

  Stasi looked angry. “So now Luciano and his fellow thugs are running around Lydia, breaking into my studio and attacking Ruby?”

  “I’m not so sure it’s Luciano.” Galen voiced the theory he’d been considering for the past several minutes.

  “What do you mean?” Stasi asked. “Of course it is. Ruby saw him.”

  “I’m sure the man Ruby saw is the same man who worked as a security guard on your campus, the same guy Carlton spoke with. I’m just not convinced his name is really Luciano Salvatore.”

  “You think it’s an alias?” Ruby didn’t sound surprised.

  Galen appreciated Ruby’s calm demeanor, since the princess was upset enough for all of them. “If this guy has a history—he’s linked to the disappearance of your professor, for one thing—and if he’s the same man who jammed our radios, I’d say he’s a professional who knows what he’s doing.”

  “And if he knows what he’s doing,” Kirk added, “he’s not going to use his real name. I doubt he even entered Lydia with the same alias he used at your school. All we have to go on is his physical description. Do you have a picture of him?”

  The princess shook her head, and Ruby looked apologetic. “I asked Carlton—he didn’t have one, either.”

  “So,” Galen summarized, “the friendly guy who talked to everyone else about their business, and worked at your school for how long?”

  “He started at the beginning of our senior year. If he quit at the end of this summer, he’d have been there two years,” Ruby explained.

  “Two years.” Galen picked back up on his thread of reasoning. “Without ever getting caught by you or your friends’ cameras? Sounds like a professional to me.” What Galen didn’t add, because he didn’t want to upset the already-shaken princess, was that he didn’t know how they were going to catch the man who already had so many advantages over them.

  EIGHT

  Ruby stared at the soup in her bowl and tried to force herself to eat. The soup, she knew from a previous visit to Lydia, was delicious. And Stasi had remembered how much she’d liked it and had requested the palace chef prepare it to cheer her up. A rainbow of roasted peppers floated alongside olives and chunks of zucchini and beef in a savory broth. The aroma teased her nose, but Ruby’s stomach churned with anxiety.

  Kirk had insisted Galen join them for supper since they’d made plans to visit the studio later that evening, as soon as the investigation team called to say they were ready for them. Until then, they hashed out theories while Ruby sipped her soup and wished it wasn’t so difficult to swallow.

  She felt as though she’d betrayed her friend. Granted, she didn’t know why Luciano had singled her out as the best way to get his hands on the royal jewels. But he’d chosen her—gone after her specifically twice in a row. What did he think he would gain from grabbing her? Or was she, as her father had long ago suggested, the kind of person who was easily tricked into giving things away without knowing it?

  The memory burned through her, not just her father’s accusations, but the downfall of her parents business that had begun five years before. She still didn’t understand how her father’s business records had been breached, but she understood why Gregory Tate had blamed her. She’d let her friends run loose inside their house. Something in her father’s office had been disturbed that weekend, and the business had gone sharply downhill after that. She’d never figured out what had happened, but desperately wanted to earn back her parents’ trust.

  However, the royal wedding jewelry replicas were more than just her hope for saving Tate Jewelry. Princess Stasi was her friend, inviting Ruby to visit her in Lydia every summer since the end of their freshman year. Not only had the royal family supplied Ruby with room and board, but they’d generously taken care of her every need, from transportation to laundry service. Ruby had asked Stasi how she could ever repay her for her generosity, only to realize she’d hurt Stasi’s feelings by asking.

  But she still felt indebted. When Stasi had offered her replica rights, Ruby finally realized how she could repay her friend. The profits from Stasi’s exclusive line of jewelry went to Princess Isabelle’s mission diggin
g deep-water wells in Africa. Both princesses were passionate about the life-saving wells, which provided clean drinking water for families who’d never had ready access to a reliable water source before.

  The jewelry replicas were also her plan for thanking her friend, as well. A good chunk of the proceeds from each sale would go directly to Isabelle’s mission, blessing families across Africa, and indirectly, expressing Ruby’s gratitude to the Lydian royal family for all their generosity toward her over the years.

  With the Lydian jewels under attack, all Ruby’s plans were in limbo. Would Stasi be able to continue her work? Already the princess had started talking about moving the contents of the studio to rooms inside the palace, where they’d be within the safety of the palace gates, under guard night and day. Stasi wasn’t happy about the loss of her independence or the possibility that her family members might see their jewels before she was ready to unveil them, but given that her studio was no longer secure, there didn’t seem to be any other option.

  Even so, moving everything would take days, and all their projects would be that much more vulnerable during the process.

  Kirk’s phone rang, and Ruby looked up to find Galen gazing at her with concern. While Kirk stepped out to the hall to take the call, Galen leaned toward Ruby.

  “Not hungry?”

  “Can’t swallow,” Ruby admitted, finding the kindness in his eyes far too forgiving in contrast to the guilt she felt. “It’s all too awful.”

  Galen didn’t argue. He simply gave a sympathetic smile as he looked into her eyes.

  Ruby felt her fears subside ever so slightly—which was silly, because nothing had changed. Nothing except remembering that Galen was with her. A moment later she felt a smile tugging at the corner of her own mouth.

  “The soup is delicious,” Galen added, returning his attention to his bowl.

  Ruby dipped her spoon in and pulled out a perfect spoonful, with chunks of pepper and beef and olives in ideal proportion. Galen was right. The soup was delicious. She ate quickly, and had nearly finished when Kirk returned to the room.

  “We’re cleared to visit the studio,” he announced with caution in his voice. “We need to stay together as a group. Don’t touch anything without asking first. Is everyone ready?”

  Ruby swallowed the last bite and dabbed her mouth with a napkin, then added her voice to the others’. “Ready.”

  What Ruby wasn’t ready for, she discovered once they arrived at the studio, was the creepy feeling of being inside the studio where everything looked just as it had in all the hours she’d worked there since her arrival in Lydia the month before...and yet, she knew their work had been violated. She’d seen the men through the windows, had watched them flee with the guards chasing them. She knew they’d been inside her work space, going through her things.

  And yet, she could see no sign that the intruders had been there. The investigation team had left behind plenty of fingerprint dust, evidence aplenty that the professionals had been there, but the intruders had passed through without a trace.

  Everything was just as she’d left it, as undisturbed as it looked every morning when she arrived at work. The gems she’d painstakingly counted and sorted still sat in their containers. Why hadn’t the intruders taken them? Once inside, a robber would be foolish not to grab the easy loot...unless they were after a much bigger prize.

  “How do we know they haven’t been here before?” The words overflowed from the fear that welled up inside Ruby.

  Stasi looked at her with wide eyes. “I was just thinking the same thing. You can’t tell anyone’s touched anything, can you?”

  “They could have been here every night and we wouldn’t know. The alarm didn’t go off, nothing’s been disturbed in my area.” She shivered and leaned closer to Stasi. “What about the artifacts you were working with?”

  Crouching low behind her desk, Stasi unlatched the hidden panel that revealed a secret compartment alongside the base of the file drawer. The princess let out a sigh of relief. “Untouched.” She scooped up the various necklaces and bracelets, wrapping them carefully in velvet before tucking them into her bag. “These are going right back into the vault. I’m not taking any chances.”

  “What about your research?” Ruby understood Stasi’s efforts to uncover and imitate the jewelry-making techniques that had been lost over the centuries. With no written record or preserved tradition to guide her, Stasi had been examining the centuries-old jewelry to discern what she could of the long-ago methods.

  “I’ll have to find a more secure location to carry out my work.” Stasi sighed. “Now I want to look at the files. I know you couldn’t see exactly what he was looking at through the windows, but maybe we can narrow down what he was after.” She led the way to the office.

  As Ruby followed, she felt a familiar vibration from within her purse, and pulled out her phone just as it began to ring. “It’s my dad,” she told the others.

  “Go ahead and answer it,” Galen said. “I can tell them which drawer he was in.”

  Ruby nodded as she answered the call.

  “Have you seen the news?” Her father didn’t return her hello.

  “No.”

  “They’ve got it. The whole set. It’s all in the press release. Exclusive scoop. International papers. They’ve got it all.”

  “What?” Ruby wished her father would calm down and explain what he was talking about, but the despair in his voice said enough. She crossed the room to a computer workstation and switched the machine on, hoping to see for herself the news her father was talking about.

  “Isabelle’s jewels. The wedding is one week from today, and someone has released the whole set. They’ve scooped our scoop.”

  “Who released it? How did they know?” Ruby couldn’t believe it. Other than the design specifications she’d passed on to her father, which he had forwarded under the utmost secrecy to their production team, no one outside of Stasi’s studio was supposed to have that information.

  “It’s all anonymous. They ship directly from the manufacturer, and I’ve contacted them already, but they won’t say who’s behind it. But it doesn’t matter. We’ve lost whatever advantage we had. By the time our replicas are unveiled after the wedding, everyone else will have knocked off the knockoffs, with cheaper imitations, too. They’ll undercut us. We’ll have to take a loss.”

  “No!” Ruby had the web browser open now, and had found the story simply by searching Isabelle Lydian wedding jewelry. Slowly the truth sunk in. “Don’t take a loss.”

  “What is it?” Stasi came running out of the office. “No!” She echoed when she saw the screen. “My designs were stolen?”

  Ruby could only nod while her father continued to predict dire results.

  Stasi leaned closer to the screen. “A spring ring clasp? What are we, a dollar store? They got the pendant right, but this is a cheap knockoff.”

  Though her friend looked insulted, Ruby felt relieved by the discrepancy. Tate Jewelry’s replicas had retained the hidden clasp with safety latch integral to the original design. Though it meant the pieces cost more to produce, it also made them higher quality—a distinct advantage over the jewelry she saw on the screen. She tried to convince her father of that fact.

  “The Tate Jewelry pieces are much higher quality,” she assured her father.

  “It won’t matter! These are available to order today. No one will need to order ours if they’ve already bought the cheap ones.”

  Stasi’s eyes widened. Ruby’s father’s words, shouted in anger, were easy enough for her friend to hear as they echoed through the studio.

  “Are the Tate Jewelry replicas ready to sell?” The princess asked.

  Ruby repeated the question to her father, though she was nearly certain of the answer.

  “They’ve already shipped to the stores
,” Gregory Tate’s voice carried clearly from the phone. “The web pages are ready to go live with the click of a button. Everything is in place for the release.”

  “Go live.” Stasi said, anger undercutting her voice.

  Ruby’s jaw dropped.

  Galen spoke softly from beside her. “Don’t you need Isabelle’s permission?”

  Stasi pulled out her phone. “I’ll call her, but I’m almost certain she’ll agree with me on this one. We’re not going to allow someone who stole my designs to have a full week’s monopoly on the market.” A moment later she had her sister on the phone and explained the situation to the elder Lydian princess.

  Ruby quickly clarified with her father that he could unveil the higher-quality replicas at a moment’s notice.

  “I’ll emphasize that they’re a more accurate reproduction authorized by the royal family,” her father assured her.

  Princess Stasi turned to Ruby a moment later, a measured smile on her lips. “Isabelle has given her blessing. Go live.”

  “Go live, Dad,” Ruby repeated, a prayer rising up inside her that somehow, in spite of this unexpected setback, the quality of their work would set them above the rest. Otherwise, if her parents had to eat the production costs, they’d end up further behind than before.

  They couldn’t let that happen. Ruby felt Galen’s comforting hand settle on her shoulder as she added, “You have the royal blessing.” She hoped it would somehow be enough.

  * * *

  Galen arrived early at the Sardis Cathedral and slipped into a pew near the middle of the sanctuary, where light from the rising sun spilled through the centuries-old stained glass windows, casting brilliantly colored light across the polished oak in front of him. He gripped the seatback as he prayed silently, just as countless other believers had over the years, and watched the colored lights splash across his hands.

  So beautiful. So similar to the jewelry Ruby and the princess created, and just as ephemeral. Already the first set of wedding designs had slipped through their fingers, stolen in secret by mysterious intruders they could hardly identify, let alone catch. Galen breathed out his disappointment with heavy exhales, trusting God to understand the burden he carried, even if he couldn’t find words to express his feelings of failure and frustration.