“Time to go,” Ranger said. “Gabriela can continue to search for the diamonds later today or tomorrow.”
We crossed the field, picking up a few more diamonds on the way. We reached our cars and Gabriela tossed her backpack onto the Mercedes’s passenger-side seat.
“Good luck with the diamonds,” I said to her. “It’s been interesting.”
“All in a day’s work,” she said.
* * *
Ranger drove into my apartment building’s lot and parked next to Grandma Mazur’s Buick.
“You didn’t destroy any cars today,” Ranger said, “but you blew up a chapel, so your day wasn’t a complete bust.”
“Technically Gabriela blew up the chapel.”
“She chose poorly,” Ranger said.
“It’s amazing that she was able to retrieve so many diamonds. I don’t imagine she’ll find all of them.”
“I can guarantee it,” Ranger said, taking my hand and placing a diamond in it. “I thought you deserved a finder’s fee. You might not ever be able to cash this in, but you can put it in your underwear drawer with all your other treasures.”
“I don’t have any other treasures.”
“Not yet,” Ranger said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Morelli knocked on my door at nine o’clock. He had a bottle of wine and a box of cupcakes.
“Is this a celebration?” I asked him.
“I thought we’d see how it goes.”
He opened the bottle, and we took the wine and cupcakes into the living room.
“This has been a busy day for you,” I said. “I heard Shine took a plea bargain on the kidnapping.”
“We brought him in, and he went off on a rant. His lawyer was sitting next to him and he couldn’t stop Shine from talking.”
“Anything you can share with me?”
“I’m going to share everything with you. It’s going to all come out anyway. You can’t keep a secret in the Burg.
“Eighteen years ago, a guy named Paulie Valenti was working as a tech for a security company. On one of his jobs he got to see the interior of a vault in a pricey Manhattan brownstone. The vault held racks of gemstones. Mostly diamonds. Paulie mentions this to his cousin, who mentions it to his wife, who mentions it to Jimmy’s wife, who mentions it to Jimmy, who tells the La-Z-Boys. The La-Z-Boys get friendly with Paulie, and before Paulie knows it, he’s deep in their pocket and providing them with security codes to all his accounts. Two weeks later, the La-Z-Boys, armed with safecracking tools and the security code, break into the Manhattan brownstone and make off with $30 million worth of diamonds. They grab four boxes indiscriminately, choosing them by their unique blue velvet cases.
“It turns out the diamonds weren’t the largest or most valuable. They were the owner’s private collection. They were the diamonds that were never supposed to be sold. The owner goes gonzo and offers a sixty-million-dollar reward for the capture of the thieves and the return of the diamonds. This is double the value of the diamonds.”
“He took it personally.”
“Big time.”
“Let me guess the fate of Paulie,” I said.
“We did some digging in old police reports and Paulie’s fate wasn’t good. A shallow grave in Far Rockaway.”
“So, they took the diamonds and hid them away until they weren’t so hot.”
“Yes, but it’s more than that. All diamonds are unique. They have their own distinct fingerprint that identifies them under x-ray or with the use of a laser. The owner distributed the fingerprints of his diamonds to every law enforcement agency, every jeweler, every pawnshop, every black-market fence worldwide. The La-Z-Boys had