Chapter 5 - Grant Had Been Moving More Than Furniture
Grant tried intimidation first.
Then denial.
Then ignorance.
All three failed.
Luciano placed photographs of the old display in front of him.
“Who moved the carriage-house miniature?”
Grant shrugged.
“Never touched it.”
“Who replaced the hummingbird?”
“No idea.”
“Who put the diamond in Odessa’s handbag?”
Grant looked up.
That one mattered.
Luciano noticed.
“You were supposed to put it on Mabel.”
Silence.
Luciano continued.
“Odessa accused her before the diamond was ever found. You were supposed to ‘discover’ it after she was removed.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
That was enough.
The bag dropped too early.
The frame collapsed before they could finish it.
Luciano sat back.
“What was Mabel about to see?”
Grant looked toward the window.
“Ask Odessa.”
“I’m asking you.”
Nothing.
So Luciano changed direction.
“How many collection pieces have you moved for her?”
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
There.
Plural had landed.
Margaret’s audit had already found three more suspicious substitutions:
A brass compass replaced by an accurate copy.
A small ivory-handled magnifier replaced by resin.
A miniature silver key missing entirely.
None were among the collection’s most valuable items.
That pattern mattered.
Someone was not selecting objects by price.
They were selecting them by relationship.
All four came from the same rear display section.
All four had belonged to Luciano’s mother.
And all four had been handled during the last year before she died.
Grant finally spoke.
“She said they were being restored.”
“By whom?”
“No clue.”
“You drove them somewhere.”
He looked up too quickly.
Luciano had guessed.
“Where?”
Grant remained silent.
Luciano slid over a photograph of Mabel.
Not threateningly.
Simply placed it there.
“She was six inches away from being thrown out of this family as a thief because you helped Odessa build a lie.”
Grant’s expression hardened defensively.
“Kid wasn’t going to jail.”
“That’s your standard?”
Silence.
“She would have grown up believing adults looked at her and saw a thief. Just like Odessa wanted.”
Grant looked away.
Then he muttered:
“Storage unit.”
Luciano said nothing.
“Westfield,” Grant continued. “Private climate-controlled place. Odessa has one room.”
“What’s inside?”
“I never opened the cases.”
“Did you see the carriage house?”
Grant hesitated.
“Yes.”
That was enough.
The missing objects still existed.
Odessa wasn’t selling them.
She was collecting them somewhere else.
Which meant the motive was not money.
May you like
Not yet.
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