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We both decided to call it a day. I was just out the door when Milo’s phone beeped the first four notes of Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1. To me, his ringtones are just as sinful as the assault on Liverpool but they don’t seem to bother him.
He looked at the number, motioned me to sit back down, switched to speaker, and said, “Sir.”
Douglass March said, “When can I have her jewelry?”
“It’s in safekeeping—”
“Where?”
“Our scientific division.”
“For what reason? Fingerprints? DNA?”
“Do you need it in a hurry, sir?”
“No, but I see no reason to delay. I’m going to have all her shit appraised at Christie’s or Sotheby’s then sell it. I’ve done some research and with inflation looming, prices are rising, and there’s one piece I’m fixing to make a serious profit on. Purple diamond necklace, one and a half carats, super-rare. I paid a hundred thou and since then colored stones have skyrocketed.”
Each sentence had lowered his volume and pitch, buffering the jagged contours of his words. Calming as he talked about making money.
Then he said, “I need to getsomethingout of all this,” and the hard edge returned.
Milo said, “I’ll have everything inventoried and let you know.”
March said, “That’s not much of an answer.”
“It’s my answer,” said Milo. “If you have a complaint, my captain is—”
“Oh, don’t waste my time by shunting me to another bureaucrat. Everything she owned—is mine, so do what you need to do and get it back to me A-sap.”
Click.
Milo stared at the phone. “Gimme a diagnosis.”
I said, “F-minus people skills, angry and doesn’t care who knows it.”
“I was thinking malignant asshole.”
“That’s another way of putting it.”
“But not a psychopath? Not conscious, arrogant, throwing it in my face?”
“You know what I’m going to tell you—”
“Anything’s possible. But?”
“To me that came across as a tantrum. One thing he mentioned that was interesting: the purple diamond. I noticed it at the scene because it was small and simple compared with the other pieces. I assumed it was semi-precious, something she’d held on to for sentimental reasons. But now that I think about it, she wore it in the gala photo.”
“He’s right about it being big-time hoohah.”
“Let’s see.”
—
Internet research confirmed the rarity of intense pink and purple diamonds. The stones were mined mostly in Australia, occasionally in Siberia or Africa, the color theorized to be the product of extreme pressure.
Milo said, “Should be my birthstone.”
Online sites were all over the place value-wise and many came across as scams. Not that any of them actually owned purples; the only images were of pale-pink diamonds many of which were barely pigmented. But still pricey.
