Carol Clark - Laced

“Innocent until proven guilty,” Keith reminded him.

“Sure, whatever. I joked with her that she’d better not start doing hair, or she’d put me out of business.”

“Did you spend much time with her?” Keith had asked.

“Not really. We worked together from time to time-fashion shows, weddings, that kind of thing. But we always sent business each other’s way, so we talked on the phone quite frequently.”

“Was she single?”

“Yes. She’d mentioned a few different boyfriends over the years, but I don’t think she was involved with anyone the last time I talked to her.”

“Do you know where she grew up?”

“Somewhere in upstate New York. I remember because she talked about her father having to stop at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown every summer when they drove to her grandparents’ house down south. The whole family was athletic and enjoyed sports, but one trip to that place is enough!”

“They didn’t live in Cooperstown?”

“No.”

“Were her parents still living in the same town when you knew Anna?”

“Her father had died, but her mother was still in the family home. Anna mentioned a few times that she was going up to her mother’s for a visit.”

“What about brothers and sisters?”

“Her brother lived out west. I can’t remember his name, but I remember Anna saying that he loved to ski. He was a real daredevil, I gather.”

It must run in the family, Keith thought. “Was there anything different about Anna’s state of mind the last time you two talked?”

“I know she wasn’t happy about turning forty. Who is? I mean, please! I thought maybe she went off to find herself by studying with a guru on a mountaintop somewhere and would eventually come to her senses and return to New York. But I never heard from her again. No change of address card, nothing. I must say I was really ticked off.”

When Keith hung up, he told the staff to start looking for phone listings of families named Hager in New York State, starting in the area around Cooperstown.

Two hours and many phone calls later, none of the Hagers they’d contacted had been related to Anna. Keith left the office at four o’clock and drove to the Nanuet Mall. He found a parking space near the entrance of Bam’s and hurried inside. A security guard escorted him to Denny Corra’s office.

Denny, a big, burly man who looked as if he had been hired by Central Casting, rose from his chair. “Keith, I’m pleased to meet you. We’ll take this to the conference room next door. The security guard who chased those two bozos to their car and the saleswoman who waited on them are already in there. They’re both so anxious to talk to you-they’re chomping at the bit! We can look at the tapes in there as well. How about some coffee?”

“I’d love a cup,” Keith said.

“How do you take it?”

“Black is fine.”

Denny grabbed an Imus mug from a table behind his desk, poured coffee from the machine that was in constant use in his office, and handed it to Keith. “I don’t know what I’d do without coffee.”

Keith laughed. “Me, too.”

When they stepped into the dingy conference room, the man and woman both stood to greet them. Though they were nothing alike in appearance, they were both quite formidable.

The security guard, a thickly built man who was probably in his early thirties, sported a buzz cut and several tattoos of skulls and crossbones on his muscled arms. The sixtyish woman was tall and commanding, with perfectly coiffed short hair, tasteful gold jewelry, and a stylish business suit. Neither one of them looked like someone you’d want to mess with.

Denny made the introductions, adding, “And Norma and Sonny are two of Bam’s best.”

Sonny punched his left palm with his right fist. “I should never have let those two get away.”

Norma pounded the desk. “I should never have let them walk off with my jewelry!”

These two are chomping at the bit, Keith thought.

Together they viewed the grainy security tapes of the couple who had stolen the necklace. It was hard to make out their faces, but on a broad scale they fit the “average” description of Jane and John Doe.

“She had on one of my necklaces,” Norma said sternly, “when another customer accidentally knocked a tray of earrings on the floor, scattering jewelry all around my feet. I leaned down to collect the earrings, and when I stood up, those two beasts were gone. It was a nightmare!”

“I ran after them as soon as Norma started shouting,” Johnny said with a grimace. “I should have stopped them. I shouldn’t have slipped on the ice. I should have gotten their license plate number. But at least I knocked his teeth out”-Sonny held up his hand proudly-“and I have the scars to prove it!”

“You knocked his teeth out?” Keith asked.

Sonny smiled. “At least two of them!”

Keith nodded, turned toward Norma, and asked, “Did they talk about anything in particular?”

“I wrote down everything I could remember after it happened,” Norma said. “I don’t need my notes anymore because I’ve gone over them so many times. The man and woman were buying a necklace for her mother. The man joked that he had to buy his mother-in-law something nice because they hadn’t visited her enough.”

“Did he laugh?” Keith asked.

“No, and I didn’t, either. I told him he should always buy his mother-in-law something nice and suggested that they buy one of my gorgeous estate necklaces.”

“Did they talk about anything else?”

Norma looked embarrassed. “They did say one thing that I wouldn’t even mention, but I will because I really want to help you catch them. And then I want a few minutes with them to give them a piece of my mind.”

“Me first!” Sonny said, punching his palm.

“What is it you wanted to say?” Keith asked Norma.

“When they first came up to the counter, the woman told me how beautiful my makeup was. She said I applied it like a pro.”

Regan and Jack stayed on Gerard’s program for the first segment of Shane Magillicuddy’s interview. Shane was a charming, bearded, quite elderly man whose eyes shone with excitement when he talked about his discovery of the Claddagh rings.

“I plan to keep this one,” he told Regan and Jack during a commercial break, pointing to the original Claddagh ring on his finger. “I feel like one of those people who win a huge lottery jackpot in the twilight of their life. I should have cleaned out my basement a long time ago! I could have dined on this story for years! But what the heck, I’m enjoying myself now.”

“The ring is simply beautiful,” Regan said. “I’m sure your auction will be a big success.”

“I hope you’ll come as my guests. It’ll be a lot of fun.”

“Maybe we will,” Regan said. “Right now we’re taking things one day at a time.”

“Catch those two, will you?”

“We’re certainly trying,” Jack said with a smile as he and Regan stood. “We’ll listen to the rest of the interview in the car. It’s been a long day, and we still have an hour’s drive to Hennessy Castle.”

It was eleven-thirty when Regan and Jack got in the car. Jack turned his cell phone back on. There was a message from Keith. “Let’s hope this is something good,” he said as he pressed in Keith’s number.

Keith answered immediately, and he sounded excited.

“Keith, what’s up?” Jack asked quickly.

“There’s a good chance the jewel thieves from the Nanuet Mall are Jane and John Doe.”

Jack listened as Keith relayed the story, emphasizing that the female thief had complimented the saleswoman on her makeup.

Jack’s hand tightened around the phone. “She mentioned the saleswoman’s makeup?”