Page 12 of The Diamond Thief

It’s missing.

The black velvet case is empty.

Dammit.

I knew Jade had knowledge of tiaras. It was in how she appraised it, like a connoisseur, not a hooker playing princess.

That was that uneasy connection I felt with her. She is a thief. A high-level one like me.

How did I not know her?

I was at the top of my game. Nobody messed with me. I could count on one hand the thieves who worked at my level of the heist. And none of them were women.

She was working with someone.

I have many enemies. People who arrived at the site of one of my heists too late, after I had already removed the spoils.

Chekov, perhaps? Thompson? I bet it was that weasel Molina. He had a bone to pick with me. I couldn’t help that he was slow on the hunt. Perhaps I had underestimated him. Or he had trained up. As far as I knew, no one even knew of the existence of this bunker.

But now someone did.

Nothing else is missing. I check the shelves with small lock boxes filled with loose jewels. A girdle lined with diamonds on a rack. A collection of gem-studded goblets, awaiting a payment so they could be delivered. My King Henry chalice.

Everything else is fine. Only the tiara is gone.

Such a particular steal when she could have taken so much. Maybe she worked alone after all. Some thieves are peculiar that way.

Regardless, Jade got into the vault. She will pay for her betrayal. I will recover my two tiaras, and then I will take my punishment out on her. And enjoy it. But first, I have to deal with the swords. I will not let a half-a-million-dollar loss get in the way of a one-hundred-and-forty-million-dollar gain.

I approach the safe inside the vault to remove the seven swords. But I receive another terrible surprise when I open its door.

Their velvet case is gone.