Lincoln and Lucy were back at their table in the garage. Before them they had several papers spread out. They had written out a list of suspects and their possible motives in an attempt to get their investigation back up off the ground.

Their list went as follows:

Luan: revenge

Mrs. Crane: insurance

Mr. Crane: insurance

Ben Crane: get back at parents maybe?

Celia: to sell bracelet

Karen: to sell bracelet

Guest: to sell bracelet

Mystery Girl: to sell bracelet maybe?

The two kids felt defeated. Neither knew what to do next.

"Maybe we are going at this case the wrong way," Lucy said. "The suspects who would want to sell the bracelet, what would they do once they have the bracelet?"

"Take it to have it sold," Lincoln answered.

"But if he or she took the whole bracelet, it could be traced," Lucy said. "The theft was in the newspaper."

"So they would pry out the diamonds, just like they did."

"And take them a few at a time to have them sold," Lucy said.

"But where would they take them?" Lincoln asked.

"A jewelers."

"But a jewelers would want to know where the diamonds were from, right?"

Lucy frowned.

"You're right," she said.

"So where else could she take them?"

Both kids sat silently for a few moments deep in thought.

"Hey, remember when dad's great aunt died," Lucy spoke up. "Great Aunt Patricia."

"Yah, why?"

"She left him that ugly, old ring that nobody wanted," Lucy explained. "So he took it to a pawn shop and sold it."

Lincoln's face lit up and he stood from his chair.

"I think you are onto something, Lucy. Come on, we'll look up pawn shops on the computer."

There were two pawn shops in town. Neither one was the shop their father had taken his aunt's ring to. That shop had closed down after the owner died unexpectedly. One was in the downtown portion of Royal Woods and the other was in a seedier area, but the two kids didn't know that.

"We have to go to both of these places and ask them if they bought any diamonds," Lincoln said.

"What if the person took the diamonds to a shop out of town?" Lucy asked.

"We'll deal with that if it comes up."

He knew how to find the shop in downtown, but he wrote out directions to find the other one. They dressed in their detective outfits and set off for downtown.

The shop downtown, called Weared Wears Pawn Shop, was a large one. There were at least a dozen other people there perusing the aisles. The store was split up into sections, clothing, appliances, housewares and furnishings and there was a sizable jewelry section towards the back. The siblings headed to the long counters where the jewelry was kept. They got the attention of an older woman who was standing behind the counter.

"How can I help you two?" she asked.

"Do you work here often?" Lincoln asked.

"Yes, I'm a jewelry appraiser here."

"We were wondering if you remember anyone coming in with some diamonds to sell?" Lincoln asked. "I don't know how many or what size. Not very big ones."

"Separate diamonds?"

"Yah, it would have been between Monday and Thursday of this week," Lucy said.

The woman pursed her lips and stared hard at the two kids for a few seconds. Finally, the woman went over to a computer.

"I don't remember anyone coming in with separate diamonds during those days."

She typed something into the computer.

"No record of any coming in, even for appraisal in that time frame either. I'm not the only jewelry appraiser here."

"OK, thank you," Lincoln said.

"Why are you asking about diamonds?"

"There was a bracelet stolen and some of the diamonds are still missing, but the bracelet was found," Lincoln said. "Our sister was accused of stealing it. We are trying to clear her name."

"Oh yes, I heard about that. I understand, you think whoever stole it will be trying to sell the diamonds."

The siblings nodded.

"I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you," she said. "If anyone comes in with diamonds they can't show the origin of, I'll certainly notify the police."

Lincoln and Lucy left the pawn shop feeling slightly defeated again.

"I guess it makes sense that the thief wouldn't come here," Lucy said. "This place is more upstanding than a place someone who wanted to hide something would go."

"Maybe," Lincoln said. "Let's try the other shop."

It took them a half an hour to walk the distance to the other shop. They became nervous as they approached. It was a part of town they had never visited. The street the shop was located on was not as well maintained as the downtown area. There were multiple vacant shops and houses along the street. Weeds poked up here and there through the sidewalk. There were few people around. Just a homeless man standing in the threshold to an empty building and a group of four rough-looking men standing, smoking cigarettes outside a bar.

They hurried into the store without looking at the store's name. There was a sign on the door saying the store was monitored by cameras. The bell on the door jingled as they stepped through and it closed behind them. There was faint rock music coming from a radio sitting on the counter at the back of the shop. Unlike the first pawn shop, this shop's wares were hung up and placed around on shelves in what appeared a more random way.

There was a large, bearded man leaning on the counter. He was the only other person in the shop. He stared at the two kids as they walked up to him, the hint of a smile on his lips. Their presence was clearly amusing to him.

Jewelry lined the shelves inside the glass counter. Rings, bracelets, necklaces, pins and watches of all kinds shined up at Lincoln and Lucy as they gazed at them.

"Let me know if you see somethin' ya like," the man grunted.

"We-we aren't here to buy anything," Lincoln said, meekly.

"To sell?"

"No, we want to ask a couple questions," Lincoln said.

The man scowled darkly. Lincoln and Lucy took a full step back from the counter.

"I won't have my time wasted," he nearly growled. "I don't answer useless questions either."

"We're not here to waste your time or ask useless questions," Lincoln said. "Our sister was accused of a crime she did not commit and we are trying to clear her name."

The man raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

"A bracelet was stolen from a wealthy family and our sister was arrested for it," Lincoln said. "We're trying to find out who really did it."

"Are you the jewelry appraiser?" Lucy asked.

"Yah, I'm also the owner here. I remember hearing about the theft."

"Did anyone come in trying to sell individual diamonds between Monday and Thursday of this week?" Lucy asked.

The shop owner said nothing for a moment, his mind obviously in a turmoil.

"I don't usually help the police," he said. "But you two aren't the police and I can commend you trying to help a family member defend themselves against the police. I will do what I can to help the two of you. Yes, I did have one person come in to show me some small diamonds."

"What day?" Lucy asked, opening her notebook.

"Thursday afternoon," he replied. "A teenage girl came in."

"A teenage girl," Lincoln repeated. "Do you get many of those in?"

"Nope, as far as I can remember she has been the only one to come in to pawn anything, let alone diamonds. I almost laughed when you two came in my door. Thought I might have a trend starting in my store. I will say though, her age wasn't the strangest thing about her visit."

"What was?" Lucy asked.

"She brought in five diamonds, if I remember correctly, to sell. I, of course, examined them for their value," he pulled out several eye lenses, "I used these to examine the diamonds, all of them. They weren't diamonds at all. They were made of glass."

Lincoln and Lucy were stunned.

"Glass?" Lincoln exclaimed. "But she told you they were diamonds?"

"Yah, she apparently thought they were. They were good forgeries. She was very upset about it too, said I was lying. I shattered one to prove it to her."

"What did she look like?" Lucy asked.

""Teenage girl, I dunno," he said, shrugging. "Brown hair, white. I have her on camera I'm sure."

He pointed at a camera above their heads.

"Could we see the recording?" Lincoln asked.

"Sure, let me pull it up," he said, putting a laptop on the counter.

"Do you remember if the girl had braces?" Lucy asked.

"No."

"Did the girl say anything when you told her the diamonds were fake?" Lincoln asked.

"She was very upset. She said, 'that piece of shit, that fraud.'"

Who was she talking about? Lincoln wondered. Was 'that fraud' referring to the diamonds? If it was about the diamonds, wouldn't it be 'those frauds?'

"Here's the portion where you can see her," the shop owner said, turning the computer so the kids could see the screen.

Lucy quickly noted the time on the recording, 2:14 p.m. There were two views, one from the door and one from above the counter. Both were in black and white, but the picture quality was fairly good.

In the first camera view, a thin girl walked through the door. She had on a light colored sweatshirt and pants and dark tennis shoes. The hood of the shirt was up. From beneath the hood, the bill of a baseball cap poked out. The bill obscured her face from the camera. After the door closed behind her, she removed the hood to reveal dark, longish hair pulled back into a ponytail. She continued walking until she was out of camera view.

She appeared on the second camera that was positioned over the counter. The bill of her cap still blocked most of her face. She was shown speaking to that shop owner at the counter. Lincoln noted with joy that you could clearly see on the camera that the girl did not have braces, Luan did!

The rest of the recording showed the girl showing the owner the diamonds, him examining them and then breaking one of them. She left the store shortly afterward.

Lucy had been studying the girl closely to see if she could make out anything identifiable. It was then that she spotted something.

"Her hat, she has an emblem on her hat."

"Oh yah, I remember now," the owner said. "It was a Detroit Tigers hat. I'm originally from Detroit and they are my favorite baseball team, so at the time I noted her hat."

"Would you be able to burn us a CD of when she was here?" Lincoln asked. "We could pay you for it. I have some money."

The shop owner scowled again and said nothing for a few minutes. He bent down and pulled a CD from somewhere behind the counter.

"Very well, it will be $12. Two dollars for the CD and ten for my effort. I'll throw in all the questions I answered for free and anymore you'd like to ask for free."

Lincoln and Lucy pooled their cash and were able to come up with the $12. It only took a few minutes to burn the recording to the CD. Lincoln pulled out a picture of Luan from his pocket.

"So the girl that came in was not her?"

The man looked hard at the picture.

"Can't be sure, yes or no. The age about right and the hair color. I can't say yes or no for sure."

"OK, thank you for your time, Mr…" Lincolns said.

The man handed him the CD.

"Just call me Bob of Bob's Pawn Shop."

The pair took their leave and headed home. They didn't speak until they arrived back at the garage.

"We have to get this CD to the police," Lincoln said.

"It doesn't fully clear Luan because we don't get a view of her face," Lucy said. "But that would be the best thing to do."

"It's just odd though."

"What's odd, Lincoln?"

"Why would the bracelet diamonds be fake?"

"I don't know. Also, we don't know for sure if those diamonds and the bracelet have anything to do with one another."

"They have to be," Lincoln said. "A few days after a pricey bracelet is stolen a girl, obviously trying to conceal her identity, goes to a police-avoiding pawn shop in a rundown part of town to sell diamonds that turn out to be fake. Then, the bracelet shows back up at the house it was stolen from immediately after the girl goes to the pawn shop and there are diamonds still missing from the bracelet."

"Also, why return the bracelet?"

"Good question," Lincolns said, scratching his chin. "Maybe the thief wanted the Cranes to know it was fake."

"Wouldn't they already know?" Lucy said. "Mr. Crane bought it. That means they are lying. The bracelet isn't as valuable as they are saying it is."

"I think you are right, they are lying about that. That means the cops probably don't know the diamonds are fake. If they find the diamonds still on the bracelet are fake, we can prove that this girl is connected to the theft. Who just has fake diamonds lying around to sell?"

Lucy nodded her head.

"I like that idea. We should go to the cops now."

"We will in just a bit, I just wanted to think on something first."

"Think on what?"

"What Bob told us the girl said, 'that piece of S-word, that fraud.' It doesn't sound like she is talking about the diamonds. It sounds like she was talking about a person."

"One would think she would refer to plural diamonds in a plural way, 'those frauds,'" Lucy agreed. "Have you ever heard of an object being referred to as a fraud? I thought that was a word used for people."

Lincoln got out a dictionary from a dusty stack of old books in a corner of the garage. He flipped through it until he found fraud.

"Deceit, trickery," Lincoln read, "Intentional perversion of the truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right, an act of deceiving or misrepresenting, a person who is not what he or she pretends to be, insurance fraud, credit card fraud…"

"OK, OK, I get it," Lucy said. "So it can be used to describe a type of fraud, like insurance or credit card fraud, but if used like the girl used it, it would be referring to a person, that fraud, not a fraud."

"I think we've settled it, she was talking about a person, not a diamond. But, who could she be talking about?"

"The Cranes," Lucy said. "I'm thinking she was targeting the Cranes and knew about the safe and the bracelet. She picked the lock and stole the bracelet. She didn't know the diamonds were fake. She may have been referring to the Cranes as frauds because she knows them and they were pretending to be something they are not."

"Like that they are rich, maybe?"

"Maybe."

"So this girl is someone who has been inside the Cranes' home and is an enemy of theirs," Lucy said. "Who could that be?"

"I have no idea. That would still put Luan as a suspect. She has been in the house and they made an enemy out of her."

"Let's just go to the police station," Lucy said. "And give them the CD and the information we gathered."