Page 42 of Max's Mission

The agent made the call. Gallagher picked up almost immediately.

“You’re on speaker, Mark,” Dye said.

“Good. Hello, Dr. Gaultier. Mr. Carson.”

They chimed in with hellos.

“Start from the beginning. You went down to Dallas to look in your safe deposit box and you found a key and a notebook added and two coins missing, right?”

“Yes,” Margot said.

“You’re sure that’s all that’s missing?”

“On the surface, yes,” Max said. “Margot called a friend who was able to access the list of items stored in the box. They went through it all and only the coins were gone. But the stop I mentioned?” He paused, giving the agent a moment to connect the dots.

“Yes?”

“We went to a jeweler’s on our way here with a couple of the pieces from Margot’s collection. Some of the stones have been replaced.”

There was a short pause while Gallagher processed that information. “Dr. Gaultier, did your husband know what was in the deposit box? The exact items, I mean?”

Margot bit the corner of her lip, thinking. “I mean, it’s possible. I kept the documents in our home safe. He had access to that. Why?”

“Because I’m trying to figure out if he had the reproductions made first and switched things out when he put the journal and the key in, or if he made more than one trip.”

“More than one,” Max interjected. “The ring the jeweler looked at had the center stone replaced, but the diamonds were real. Tad couldn’t have replaced that stone in the bank. A jeweler would need to do that. He’d have taken the ring, had the stone replaced, then brought it back.”

“But remember, he asked us if I could get the original appraisal report so he could compare them.” Margot held up a finger. “It’s possible that one had been tampered with long before I even took possession of it.”

Max tipped his head. “That’s true.”

“So, short answer, we still don’t know,” Gallagher said. “Okay. What about the journal? Mr. Carson, you said it looked like a betting journal?”

“Yes. My best guess is for horse races. Margot said it’s not Tad’s writing, though. We don’t know who it belongs to. There are no names anywhere.”

“All right. Make sure you turn that over to Agent Dye. Our racketeering division can take a look at it. Maybe they can figure out what it all means.”

Margot squeezed Max’s hand and kept her expression neutral. She was glad he’d photographed the whole thing. Asherwould probably work faster. Plus, they’d actually get to know the results.

“We will,” Max said. “That and the key. We need to go back to the other bank after we’re done here to get the rest of the jewelry. Before we left the jeweler’s, we made arrangements to have the remainder looked at.”

“I’ll come with you.” Agent Dye’s head bobbed once.

“Sounds good. Open that box now. Let’s find out what the other Dr. Gaultier left behind,” Gallagher said.

Margot glanced at Max, the hand tucked into his getting slick with nerves. There could be just about anything in there.

He squeezed her fingers. “Do you want me to do it?”

She blew out a breath, ruffling her bangs. “No.”

Untangling their hands, she swiped them on her pants, then raised one and lifted the lid.

Her brow furrowed as she looked inside. “A map?”

Seventeen

This mystery just kept getting weirder.

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