The next morning MacGyver and Jack were waiting in Pete Thornton's office at the Phoenix Foundation. Pete Thornton was the Director of Field Operations at Phoenix. He was in his fifties, stocky, and balding. He was more than Mac's supervisor; he was his friend, and a father figure. They often went on vacation together.
Pete's office was fitting for a man of his position. A row of windows overlooked the city, letting in the sunlight. An oversized, mahogany desk sat in front of the windows. Two leather armchairs were on the other side of the desk. The side walls were covered with built-in bookcases filled with leather-bound volumes.
Jack was pacing the floor, wearing a path in the plush carpeting. MacGyver was sitting patiently in one of the armchairs.
"Jack, would you please sit down!" Mac commanded.
"How can I sit down? Maybe your amateur test was wrong and the gems in my possession are real diamonds," Jack said hopefully.
Dressed in a conservative, dark grey suit with a navy-blue tie, Pete entered waving a manilla folder. Jack ran over to Pete, eagerly awaiting the answer that he wanted to hear.
"What were the lab results? Am I rich?" Jack excitedly asked. MacGyver stood up, curious to hear if his at-home test was accurate.
Pete looked at Mac and then at Jack. "Sorry, Jack. MacGyver's results were accurate. Your gems are cubic zirconia. They won't make you rich."
"Did you check all of them? Maybe some of them are the real thing," Jack asked.
Pete opened the manila folder and handed Mac a paper with the lab results. "Pete's right. They're all cubic zirconia and won't be making you a millionaire," MacGyver explained.
Pete shook his head and sat down in his swivel chair behind his desk. He tossed the manilla folder down on his desk.
"The guy who broke into my houseboat must have thought that they were the real thing. I don't think they'd have taken a risk like that for cubic zirconia," MacGyver speculated.
"Okay, so that means there's a thief looking for his stolen diamonds. But where were they stolen from? And more importantly, where are they now?" Jack wondered.
"I did a search of diamond thefts in the city," Pete commented, taking out a report from the folder on his desk and giving it a brief look. "A posh pawn shop owner named Bill Jennings filed a police report for the theft of one million dollars' worth of diamonds from his high security vault about 6 months ago. They were insured and he was reimbursed for his loss," Pete informed the two friends.
"Did the police catch the thief?" Jack asked.
"Yes and no. The police traced the theft to a man named Paul Cook. A small-time criminal with an extensive list of misdemeanors. This was out of his league. When the police went to arrest him, Cook had skipped town, with the diamonds."
"Sounds like Cook was only the hired help and not the mastermind behind this crime. How did the police figure out it was Cook?" Mac asked.
"According to the police report, his fingerprints were all over the vault in the pawn shop. Do you want to know what Cook's last known job was?" Pete queried.
"What?" Jack asked.
"He was a caddy at Pleasant Spring Golf Club."
"He certainly had access to beat up golf balls," Jack said.
"Do you have a photo of him?" MacGyver inquired.
Pete passed a mug shot to Mac, from a previous arrest, of a man in his thirties with blonde hair.
"That's not the man that broke into my houseboat. The man I saw was in his fifties with dark wavy hair."
"Maybe the guy that broke into your place was his partner," Jack asserted.
"Jack, maybe my guy was the mastermind of the theft, Bill Jennings. He probably paid Cook to steal the diamonds and then stash them until the insurance investigation was closed. Jennings collected the insurance money and then planned to fence the diamonds on the illegal market. He'd get paid for the same diamonds twice. But Cook took off with the gems and Jennings was looking to reclaim them," MacGyver said, making an educated guess.
"Who rented the storage unit where Jack found the cubic zirconia-laced golf balls?" Pete asked Jack.
"I don't know the previous renter's name, just that the manager told me he paid cash and when he tried to call him for the next payment, the phone number was for a Chinese restaurant. The guy never showed up again. That's how the contents of the storage unit came up for auction and that's how yours truly got them," Jack explained.
"But he would know what he looks like," speculated Mac.
"And he would be able to tell us if anyone fitting Jennings description was snooping around the storage unit. Let's go. Pete, can we borrow this photo?" MacGyver asked as Jack had one foot out the door.
"Sure. But be careful." Pete warned.
"I always am," MacGyver winked at Pete.