The morning sun rose high in the sky as the clouds parted away and the chilly rainy night came to an end. Lyric took the coffee mug from beneath the cappuccino maker and pulled over the chair to the coffee table. She raised the trivet mat to obscure the sunlight coming from the glass window.
Thievery of the Purple Diamond of Mr. Francis! She read the tittle of the newspaper headline.
The term felt familiar to her. She turned around to her husband who was too filling his mug with cappuccino. “Cliff! Wasn’t this jewel present at the party yesterday?”
Clifford, her husband sat down on her right. “Yeah, it was there!”
“October second, When the party for the memorial of Lady Maragaret also known as Mrs. Frances at the Courtenay Mansion was going on, an expensive and ancient jewel was stolen. Lady Valarie, called the cops at the first sight of the empty glass of the jewel. However, she denied to give the permission to investigate during the party so the party comers could enjoy themselves. Resources say that the investigation would begin today without further ado.”
She flipped through the pages of the newspaper to find that mostly whole of the newspaper was covered in the articles about the jewel, its thievery and Mr. Francis.
Token of Love stolen in the city known for love
“Love! Is that all Paris is known for?” she spoke angrily keeping down the newspaper. “Speaking of which, are you telling me that someone stole a jewel in the party that was here?”
“Yeah!”
“And you didn’t even consider telling me?”
“Mom told me to keep it a secret! What would people say if they found out that someone stole in this reputed house!” he mimicked his mother.
“Exactly what they are saying right now!” she snapped.
“Well, she did tell the cops to keep it a secret!”
“It doesn’t take long for a news as popular as this to leak!” she gaped as she heard some slow music coming from somewhere close.
“Your phone!” Cliff said handing her phone. “Mom told me to change the ringtone after last night’s incident!” Lyric felt embarrassed at its memory. But was spared from remembering it again as the ringtone grew louder. It was Sir Patrick.
Of course! She thought. He wanted to know more about the thievery.
She put the phone on speaker so that her husband could hear how bad it is to know nothing about something that has happened in your own house.
“Good Morning sir!” she recounted. It was what people expected her to say now.
“Doctor Bouvier! I heard about the thievery that has recently taken place at your house and couldn’t resist to ask you if you wanted to take part in the medical investigation!” he suggested elaborately.
“It wasn’t at my house; it was at my mother-in-law’s house!” she corrected him imagining Lady Valarie’s expression if she heard someone say it was her house. “But sure sir! I would be glad to be a part of it!” Lyric nervously replied and put down the phone. She scanned the newspaper again for some other news and stopped as she came across an article. “Mrs. Anonymous unseen for now more than one and a half year. The last person to see her in her disguise was Mr. Bakers from down the street of the Jewel Gallery. He is also the only known alive person to see her. ‘She has blond hair and fair skin.’ He informed. On the bases of his statement, the cops have changed the name of Mr. Anonymous to Mrs. Anonymous. Till now she has left no trace in any of her thefts and killings. She has been the smartest thief of all the time. The cops think she has been planning for something big.” she read. “Only person alive……planning for something big…!” she repeated.
“How many girls you know have blonde hair and white skin?” Cliff scoffed.
“Huh! Never mind, I gotta go, Sir Patrick is counting on me to solve this mystery like always.” She responded nonchalantaly. She hurriedly dressed up into some work clothes and left.
She was in her cabinet noting down the weather of the previous night when she heard a knock at her cabin door.
“Yes?”
The door opened as Mr. Enif Fawaris came into the cabinet. He had red hair and shallow violet eyes. “It’s like we meet just yesterday!”
“Technically we did for the Wardley Murder case!” Lyric replied standing up from her desk and handing out the report she was finishing. “Fog level, temperature and everything!”
“Just like always! How do you always know what I am going to ask for!”
“Experience!”
“How long have you been here?”
“Two year!” she slowly replied.
“You really are a fast learner!” he exclaimed suspiciously.
“Actually, I worked as a police cop myself for three years in New York.”
“That’s great!” he said, though not fully convinced. “At the crime scene at 1 pm sharp!”
“I’ll be there!” she gazed at the mirror at the back of her cabinet door as Enif left closing the door behind him. She looked inside her own purple tourmaline eyes. Tying her beautiful brown hair, she sat back on her seat noting down some more facts that might help in solving the mystery. Hours passed faster than ever. It was the gratitude of her job that no one was calling her but she knew that the minute the hour hand would strike 8 there would be gazillions of calls from her formal relatives. There was only one call in the whole day and that was from her husband to confirm if she was fine or not and partly to ask her favourite colour.
“Why don’t you join the cops again?” Mr. Enif said sophistically looking at all the Four-dimensional projection of the house with all the rooms and open spaces in it. “No wonder there were no robberies in New York Two years ago!” Lyric gave a small smile to this complement.
The investigation begun. There was no trace or sign. No footprints, no fingerprints, nothing. They investigation team was halfway through checking the glass of the jewel for fingerprints when Enif spoke, “We need to open this glass box. Call Lady Valarie!” he commanded his assistant cops.
Two junior cops rushed to call Lady Valarie. They later came back with an old pale lady with wrinkle on her face. Her hair was dyed dark black and her old suspicious eyes were moving from person to person. She was wearing a purple frilly gown with net gloves and heavy accessories. “What do you want?” she questioned shadily.
“We want you to open this glass box!” Enif said with high respect.
“Turn that way! All of you!” she barked.
Everybody turned their backs to the glass box as Lady Valarie approached to give the pin to the high security safe. Lyric wondered why Lady Valarie was being so cautious towards a box that’s empty.
“Here you go! But I don’t think you have made the right choice in the doctor department! You should not select people who keep cry-baby songs as their ringtones!” Lady Valarie turned to Lyric. As she left, Enif asked, “What was it about?”
“Yesterday during the party John called me to inform me that the Wardley case was solved and the murderer was caught! Unfortunately, my ringtone was an emotional slow song and the volume was loud enough for everyone to hear!” Lyric replied, embarrassed.
“Don’t worry Lady Valarie has always been like this! She called me a week ago to say that the jewel was missing. She opened the safe to find that it was one of her own tricks to trick the thief into believing that the glass box was empty. She is getting old, you know!”
“Yeah, you don’t think it was Mrs. Anonymous, do you?”
“For a second I did think that!”
“Then-?”
“Sources say either she is dead or she has got rich enough to stop stealing!”
“What if she was planning for this big thing?”
“Sources have not reported a single unusual activity or a hooded black jacket person roaming around!”
“And what do you think?”
“I think we are going to solve a really big case!”
It seemed as though the news reporters were thinking the same thing. The whole newspaper was covered in articles about the previous robberies of Mrs. Anonymous. It was another day of failed investigation. No clue! Not a single one! The case was getting complexed by the moment when Lyric suggested to call the party comers for investigation. There were around twenty ladies invited. All of them belonging to wealthy families.
“Do you have doubt on someone?” Enif asked Lady Valarie.
“All of them have Royal blood flowing through every vein in their body! None of them would do that! The last thing I want to do is accuse those ancient relatives of mine!” she deviously replied and left.
Find the whole book on Pratilipi!
-Janushi Raichura, Author of the book series Ventures of Gem Land
