Chapter 4

"I told you we're going to find her, Mildred. She wasn't in her apartment, but there was no trace of anything wrong there. If she left the place, she did it by her own decision. Now, try to contact your old colleague from the NYPD and check the hospitals…" Laura stopped, but Mildred knew the words that would follow, "…yes, and the morgue. I'm sure we'll find nothing there, but we have to follow the usual procedure, Mildred. I'll call you tomorrow. We`ll find her."

Laura finished the call and walked out of the room. She decided to join Mr. Steele, who was downstairs making a detour by the expensive jewelry shop beside the hotel entrance. A uniformed man opened the door, and she had an employee taking care of her the moment she put her foot inside the shop.

"Good afternoon madam, what can I do for you?" asked the smiling man behind the luxury display cases.

"I'm looking for my husband. He came a few minutes ago with a brooch to be appraised. He supposed you'd be able to do it."

"Of course madam, follow me. Your husband is with our Senior Jeweler. We can't have a magnificent piece like the one he was carrying on display here in the showroom. Security rules…"

The man's comment added more certainty to Laura about Mr. Steele's earlier appreciation about the brooch. They traveled along several corridors until arriving at a splendid and very private reception area. Laura waited there until the man opened the door for her and then joined her husband and the Senior Jeweler in his office.

Once there, she received the same explanation from the old man as the one Mr. Steele had given her in the afternoon, but with just one difference. A small detail that pushed the piece into an utterly different level.

"Cartier had introduced platinum into jewelry making in Europe, although it was already in use in Russia," told her the man, "Platinum is light and can be thin, while maintaining its flexibility, allowing for magnificent, almost invisible settings, but was challenging to work with because it could be brittle, and had a very high melting-point. The invention of the oxy-acetylene torch made it now possible to work more easily with this temperamental but invaluable metal. In this beautiful piece, the platinum settings had been modified. The original main brilliant cut diamond of the piece had been removed and replaced with one great fake stone, one of the best ones I've ever appreciated in all my life, might I add."

Just as Mr. Steele suspected, the critical detail didn't go unnoticed under the inspection of the jeweler's trained eyes. He had been right insisting upon bringing the piece here to be appraised after all.

They were back in their room, disillusionment and uncertainty filling the air. Mr. Steele was paying attention to some brochures the jeweler gave him before the end of their visit. Laura was still entranced by the brightness of the brooch, twirling it in her hand under the table lamp at the corner of the room.

"So, the brooch wasn't an original piece after all."

"The brooch is an original piece, Laura. What's not original is the main diamond. Did you ask Mildred to run a search on Paul Bressan?"

"She will have some information tomorrow." Laura stood up and left the piece in its own place, inside the wooden box.

Noticing her mood, he thought some distraction would help, "What do you say if we go out for dinner, Laura? We can't go back to Los Angeles without visiting at least one traditional place in New York."

She leaned back and turned to look at him, resting her arms on the chair's back, "Do you want to know what I would really love to do?"

Mr. Steele closed the brochures and gave her all his attention, "I'm listening."

"I'd love to go ice skating at the Rockefeller Center. The ice rink is already open. We can't do that in California, and I'd love to ice skate."

"Ice skating can be dangerous, Laura. What if we fall and hurt our backs, or have an ankle sprained?"

"Come on, Mr. Steele. Are you worried about someone watching you fall would doubt about your reputation?"

"What do you mean by my reputation?" He asked her.

"You're always looking like you came directly out of a fashion magazine, and although your agility has not been an issue in the past, you're a perfectionist, and ice skating can make you look like an amateur. Are you afraid to be surpassed by your wife's ice skating abilities?" She dared him a level stare.

She'd touched a nerve there. "Even if that's not the idea I had in mind, and just be certain I have no doubt about my wife's sporting abilities, I will be flexible. I think an evening at the Rockefeller Center ice rink can be arranged." An idea had come to his mind.

"We can grab something to eat later. The exercise will help to open up our appetite." She knew he would know the most appropriate place to go near Rockefeller Center.

"I don't need any exercise to increase my appetite, Laura. You should know by now."

"Sure I know, but I do. I was looking for your suggestion about the perfect place to go after."

Mr. Steele walked to Laura, helped her up from the chair and pulled her to him, "I have a proposition for you. Let's do it in your imaginative way tonight and give me carte blanche to do it in my particular way tomorrow." His arms surrounded her.

"Giving you carte blanche can be extremely dangerous and yet somehow tempting, Mr. Steele," answered Laura linking her arms on the back of his neck.

"Ice skating sounds pretty dangerous to me as well," he answered her, "And yet, I'm still interested in making an effort just to show you how the tempting part will overshadow the rest. Do we have a deal, Laura?"

"I think we do. Sealing time Mr. Steele."