CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: I Thought I Was the Only One
Blair put his hand against Calvin’s back in a feeble attempt to comfort him. “Calvin, do you know about any pigeon-blood rubies that Vinnie Moorland may have found five years ago in North Carolina?”
“Yes. I remember a translucent star ruby and some samples still in a matrix.”
“How did you find out about them?”
“Jeremy Driscall told me.”
“Do you know where they are right now?”
“The star ruby is in my private collection, and the others were stolen.”
“Stolen? From where?”
“I had them. They were taken from one of my safes at the office.”
“How did you get the rubies?”
“Vinnie gave them to me to appraise, but he died before he ever got them back.”
“You mean, you just kept them?”
“Vinnie was an only child, Blair. His father died young and his mother was soon to follow. No one knew about the rubies except Vinnie, Jeremy Driscall, and me. Cynthia may have known, but I don’t know that for sure. She never said anything about them if she did. So you see, there was no one to give them to.”
“Do you know Quentin Latrice?”
“Yes,” Calvin said, “he was the man who cut the star ruby for me. Jeremy recommended him. And he did an excellent job.”
“You’re saying Latrice is good at what he does?”
“Very good. I was extremely pleased with his knowledge as well as his skill.”
“If he’s so good, why didn’t Vinnie have Quentin Latrice appraise the stones instead of you?”
“Vinnie didn’t trust Quentin.”
Blair nodded. “Old Vinnie always had been a good judge of character. What did the matrix samples look like?”
“They were beautiful, Blair. Three flawless crystals. The smallest was approximately thirty-five carats, the next was about seventy-five, and the largest was two hundred and thirty-five.” He shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. “Can you imagine that?”
“No, I can’t,” Blair said. “A carat’s one-fifth of a gram. It’s hard to imagine natural, good quality rubies that big.”
“I saw them. You should’ve seen their brilliance and luster. Ideal hue and tone, even distribution of color….” Calvin shook his head. “They were perfect.”
“How did you get the star ruby?”
“I bought that one from Vinnie for thirty-five thousand dollars. He didn’t want to sell the others, and I wouldn’t have been able to afford them if he did.”
“Sounds like a lot of people wanted to see Vinnie Moorland dead. How convenient it was for you that he decided to kill himself instead.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to imply by that, but yes, I guess it was.” Calvin watched Blair for a minute, and then added, “You were set up to take the blame for Vinnie’s death.”
Blair sat on the edge of his seat. “Was that your idea?”
“No.”
“Then whose was it?”
“Jeremy Driscall’s.”
Blair got up, standing away from Calvin. “You knew about that? About all of it?”
“Yes, I did. I could see how Vinnie’s death was eating away at you. That’s why I offered you a job in my office. I figured the stability would get you back on the right track, to help you stop drinking. I fired you because you were only going from bad to worse.”
“I felt as guilty as hell over Vinnie’s death! I can’t believe you allowed me to think that I was responsible for it all this time!”
“I’m sorry, Blair.”
“You should be.” Leaning over Calvin, Blair asked, “How did Vinnie die?”
“Jeremy force-fed him some sleeping pills when he was so drunk, he didn’t know what was going on. Jeremy lived just down the hall in the same dormitory, so he was able to get to Vinnie with no problem at all.”
“And I was passed out on my bed when this happened.”
Nodding, Calvin said, “Allowing you to feel responsible for Vinnie’s death was Jeremy’s best alibi.”
Blair sat down again, running his hand over the stubble on his chin and then through his thinning, brown hair. “How do Quentin Latrice and Detective Smith fit into all of this?”
“As I told you before, Quentin Latrice cut the star ruby before Vinnie sold it to me. Vinnie and I both agreed that Quentin’s credentials were outstanding. Quentin and Jeremy had been friends for years because of their mutual interest in gemstones. As you know, Detective Smith was the investigator in charge of Vinnie Moorland’s suicide. Smith figured out the truth, but he accepted a payoff to keep his mouth shut about what really happened.”
“Who paid him? Jeremy Driscall?”
“I paid him,” Calvin said, and the news hit Blair hard. He just couldn’t believe it.
“You did? Why?”
Calvin brushed his graying hair back and sighed. “I wanted to have the best private corundum collection in the world. So when Jeremy and Quentin came to me with a plan to own those flawless pigeon-bloods, I just couldn’t say no.
“The trouble was,” he continued, “I didn’t want to take the gemstones out of the matrix to have them faceted. I wanted them to stay in the limestone. Jeremy thought I was crazy, but he told me that I could keep the largest one. He told me he would pry the other two out and keep them for himself and Latrice.” Calvin shook his head in disgust. “To me, that would be like defacing the Mona Lisa. I just couldn’t agree to that. You could say that the three of us were still at an impasse when the rubies were stolen.”
“How does Mercedes Whent figure into all of this?”
“Who?”
“Mercedes Whent.”
“I don’t know her.”
“She’s an attractive girl with long, brown hair and brown eyes. Maybe she works for you.”
“You must be talking about the girl Corinne hired to clean the dental office three nights a week.”
“Did Mercedes know Cynthia?”
“Just in passing. Like I said, Corinne was the one who spent a lot of time with her. The girl desperately needed a job, so my wife helped her with that.”
“So Corinne asked if you needed some help keeping your office clean. She wanted to find something for Mercedes to do, a reason to pay her. Is that it?”
“That’s about it.”
“And the safe where the rubies were stored, was that in your office, too?”
“That’s right. I already told you that.”
“Would a maid have access to the safe’s combination?”
Calvin looked at Blair as if what he’d just asked was the most ludicrous question he’d ever heard. “Absolutely not,” he said.
“Well, who does have access to the combination?”
Calvin seemed just as confused about this as Blair. “I thought I was the only one,” he said.