Fortune and Glory (Stephanie Plum 27)

Page 105

no choice but to hide them away for a long time.”

“If they’re all perfectly hidden away, how did Gabriela track them to Trenton?”

“One of the smaller diamonds surfaced. Jimmy brought it to a trader in New York’s diamond district. Jimmy told him it was his wife’s, but his wife had passed some time ago, and now he was going to get married, and he needed money for his honeymoon.”

“Omigod!”

Morelli was grinning. “I know. It gets better and better. Anyway, the trader lasered the diamond and checked the list and knew it was hot. He bought it from Jimmy because he knew the reward was a lot more than the money he shelled out for the stone. Unfortunately for the trader, he walked into a bullet when he was closing up shop that night. I feel comfortable assuming Jimmy was the shooter. Unfortunately for the La-Z-Boys, the trader had already sent an email to the diamond’s legal owner. And the owner hired Gabriela to retrieve the diamonds. My understanding is that Gabriela is an expert at treasure retrieval.”

“Did Shine say anything about how he found the safe location?”

“He followed Jimmy way back when Jimmy first hid the treasure. Shine always knew where the safe was located, but he didn’t know how to get in without setting off the explosion.”

“As it turns out, the treasure wasn’t in the safe anyway,” I said.

Morelli topped off our wine. “You were surprisingly mellow when the safe turned out to be empty.”

“In the end, it was the journey and not the destination for me. I am upset that you knew about Gabriela and didn’t tell me.”

“I couldn’t.”

“One of those cop things.”

“Yes.”

Morelli cut his eyes to the cupcake box. “Are you going to eat the chocolate one with the sprinkles?”

“I might have been thinking about it.”

“What would it take to bargain it away from you?”

“What have you got to offer?”

Morelli smiled. “Something a lot better than a cupcake.”

I knew this to be true.