Chương 7
Paul looked up from the pad.
Mateo frowned. “He came with the photographer.”
“Why?”
“He said he represented the collector who might lend a necklace for the campaign.”
Paul said, “He was not authorized.”
“You spoke to him,” Mateo replied.
“I told him to leave.”
“You spoke for twenty minutes.”
“It was not twenty.”
Mateo shrugged. “Then your minutes were longer that night.”
Paul’s face colored.
Evelyn asked, “Why wasn’t his presence included in the incident report?”
“I didn’t know about it,” Paul said.
“You were there.”
“I didn’t know he had entered the work area. I met him near the freight elevator.”
Mateo gave a dry laugh.
Paul’s fingers tightened around the pen. “Are you accusing me of something?”
“I am answering her.”
“Then answer accurately.”
“I was accurate before you came in.”
Evelyn raised one hand.
Both men stopped.
“What did Emmett want?” she asked Mateo.
“He said he was arranging an estate loan. I told him he had the wrong floor. He asked about the Ariadne ring.”
Paul said, “This is the first I’ve heard of that.”
“You told him it wasn’t available.”
“I did not discuss inventory with him.”
“You said, ‘Nothing in the archive is available until Evelyn changes her mind.’”
Paul stared at Mateo.
Mateo’s mouth pulled to one side. “See? Your minutes are coming back.”
Claire stood near the wall, arms folded.
Evelyn asked Mateo why he had not mentioned Emmett that morning.
“No one asked who visited six weeks ago,” he said. “Paul told me my badge was used after I left. Then he told me to go home.”
“Did you know the Ariadne ring was missing?”
“Not until Claire called.”
“You handled it that night?”
“Yes.”
“Did you return it to the archive?”
“I watched Paul place it in the tray.”
Paul shook his head. “That is not the recorded procedure.”
“It is what happened.”
“The record bears both signatures.”
“You told me to sign because you were late for dinner.”
“I would never—”
“You said your wife was waiting at La Grenouille and would order without you.”
Paul blinked.
The detail was ordinary enough to be persuasive. Not proof. Persuasive.
Paul wrote something on his pad.
“Where was your badge when the ring was returned?” Evelyn asked Mateo.
“On my coat.”
“Where was the coat?”
“Still by polishing.”
“Did you retrieve it before or after signing the return form?”
Mateo looked toward the ceiling.
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
He rubbed his thumb against the side of his index finger, a setter’s motion performed without a stone.
“After,” he said. “I think after.”
“Why?”
“Because Emmett said something to me when I went for it.”
“What?”
“He said I still made the cleanest corners in New York.”
“Did he touch the coat?”
“I didn’t see him.”
“Was he near it?”
“Yes.”
Paul placed his pen down. “This is speculation.”
“So is a badge log,” Claire said.
Paul turned. “An electronic record is not speculation.”
“It is a record of a badge.”
“Assigned to Mateo.”
“Which he left on a coat in a room with a terminated employee.”
Paul looked at Evelyn. “This is becoming inappropriate.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “It became inappropriate six weeks ago.”
Mateo flinched at the sentence. Evelyn saw him hear an accusation she had not intended.
She corrected herself. “I mean the security failure.”
He nodded, but the damage remained.
After the meeting, Evelyn found Mateo in the workshop packing his tools.
“You don’t need to take those,” she said.
He did not turn. “They’re mine.”
“I know.”
“You gave me the first three.”
“You earned the rest.”
He wrapped a pair of tweezers in a square of soft leather.
“I said you aren’t fired.”
“You also said someone used my badge to steal a ring.”
“I said the badge was used.”
“You say things exactly so no one can accuse you of saying anything else.”
The words resembled Julian’s old complaint so closely that Evelyn’s first response was anger.
She let it pass through without speaking.
Mateo closed the leather wrap. “My wife asked if we should call our son.”
“For what?”
“To tell him before he sees it online.”
“Your name isn’t online.”
“Not yet.”
“We will not release it.”
“You don’t control everyone.”
“No.”
He looked at her then.
Evelyn hated how little comfort truth sometimes offered.
“We will continue paying you,” she said. “Full salary.”
“That helps.”
“It doesn’t fix it.”
“No.”
“I should have spoken to you before your access was suspended.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
Mateo studied her face as if he suspected the apology had been manufactured by counsel.
Finally he nodded.
He left the tools on the bench but took the leather wrap containing the three Evelyn had given him.
The next morning, Vanessa’s attorney released a statement saying she had been deceived by a sophisticated seller and was cooperating fully. The statement described her as a victim.
By noon, an old video resurfaced showing Vanessa telling an interviewer that she could identify a fake luxury item “from across a restaurant.” The clip spread beside photographs of the ring. Thousands of strangers treated the contradiction as a verdict.
Maison Verity postponed its wedding campaign with Vanessa and Ryan. Cole House Events lost a hotel contract by the end of the day.
Ryan’s company issued a statement saying the matter was personal and unrelated to its operations.
Vanessa posted nothing.
Evelyn watched none of the videos until Andrea sent one marked urgent. It showed the confrontation from the moment Vanessa pushed the velvet box toward her.
The sound was clear.
“Take your fake diamonds and leave. Some of us can afford the real thing.”
The video ended before Claire’s revelation. It had been edited to loop Vanessa’s sentence three times.
“Where did this come from?” Evelyn asked.
“A customer.”
“Which one?”
“We don’t know.”
“We had six clients in the showroom.”
May you like
“And staff.”
Evelyn replayed the clip. The angle came from the necklace wall, lower than eye level. The sapphire customer had held her phone higher. The younger couple had been seated too far away.
