Chapter 9 - The Broken Girdle
Before we left for the Union League Club, I asked Luca for permission to inspect the pear-cut blue diamond ring he had given me.
Something had been bothering me since I first opened the velvet box.
Under the harsh halogen desk lamp in the safehouse study, I screwed my loupe into my eye and brought the stone to within an inch of my face.
The color was extraordinary—a deep, fancy grayish-blue.
Boron impurities within the diamond’s crystal lattice caused the coloration.
I rotated the ring to examine the girdle—the thin outer perimeter that separates the crown from the pavilion.
My breath caught.
The girdle wasn't smooth.
It had been deliberately notched with a jeweler’s diamond saw.
Tiny, microscopic grooves had been carved into the edge of the stone, forming a precise sequence of dots and dashes.
Morse code.
My hands began to shake with intense excitement.
“Mr. Moretti!” I called out into the hallway.
Luca stepped into the study within three seconds, his jacket half-zipped.
“What did you find, Emma?”
“Look through the loupe,” I said, standing up and handing him the brass instrument.
“Look at the outer edge of the stone between the two southern prongs.”
Luca leaned over the microscope table, pressing the lens to his dark eye.
He adjusted the focus ring.
“There are scratches on the girdle,” he murmured.
“Not scratches, sir,” I said, pointing to the sketch I had just scribbled on a piece of paper.
“It's Morse code. Carved with a diamond-tipped scribe.”
Luca looked up, his face intense.
“What does it spell?”
I slid the paper across the desk toward him.
The letters were clear:
“V A U L T 7 – S T A T E B A N K – B O X 1 0 4”
Luca stared at the paper as if it were a ghost rising from the grave.
“State Bank of Chicago,” Luca whispered.
“The old underground safety deposit vault on LaSalle Street.”
“My father had five boxes there, but box 104 was listed as abandoned in 1995.”
“Your mother didn't pawn the Star of Genoa to pay someone off,” I said, the pieces finally falling into place in my mind.
“She hid the real blue diamond in that safety deposit box before they could kill her!”
“The pawn ticket Silvio had was a decoy she planted to send Corvallis on a wild goose chase!”
Luca’s chest rose and fell in a deep, ragged breath.
He reached out and took my hand, his grip warm, strong, and protective.
“My mother was five moves ahead of every man in this city,” Luca said with profound admiration.
“And my uncle Matteo has spent thirty years looking for a stone that was sitting three blocks from his office.”
Luca turned to Daniel.
May you like
“We make a stop on LaSalle Street before the council meets.”
“It’s time to settle every debt this family owes.”
