Chapter 13
“Then the earrings may not have been taken randomly.”
I looked up.
“What do you mean?”
“The invoice shows a purchase from a jeweler, but the jeweler may have used an existing item as a reference or sold a replacement pair. We should compare the serial number, if there is one.”
“Why would someone buy a replacement for my earrings?”
Daniel glanced at the invoice again. “Maybe they didn’t.”
He reached for the photograph of the receipt and enlarged it on his tablet.
“The invoice has a note in the margin.”
I leaned closer.
It read: MATCHING SET—REWORKED FROM CLIENT PROPERTY.
My skin prickled.
“What does that mean?”
“It could mean the jeweler altered an existing pair. Or it could refer to a custom copy made to match another item.”
“Client property,” I said. “Whose property?”
“We don’t know.”
Priya studied the invoice. “The jeweler may have a work order attached to the purchase. We can request it.”
“Tonight?”
“The store is closed.”
“Then first thing in the morning.”
Daniel scrolled through the electronic file. “There’s one more detail. The purchase wasn’t made online. Someone visited the jeweler in person.”
“Camilla?”
“The invoice lists her name, but the cardholder verification was completed by someone else.”
“Who?”
The answer appeared beneath the transaction code.
J. Mercer.
Julian had purchased the earrings, then allowed Camilla to believe they were a company gift. The discovery was painful, but it was not the strangest part.
The purchaser’s signature on the jeweler’s copy was not Julian’s.
It was mine.
I stared at the image.
The signature resembled mine enough to pass at a glance, but the final stroke was wrong. I always lifted my pen after the first letter of my surname. This signature ran through the entire name in one impatient line.
Someone had practiced.
“Can you enlarge that?” I asked.
Daniel did.
The signature filled the screen.
Below it, in smaller print, was a note from the jeweler:
AUTHORIZATION CONFIRMED BY PRIOR CLIENT FILE.
My heart began to pound.
“What prior client file?”
Daniel opened another attachment. “We requested the merchant’s internal documentation during the review because the charge was unusual. This was the only scanned page they provided.”
I read the note again.
Prior client file.
My mother had bought the earrings years earlier. If the jeweler still retained her file, it might include her signature, her account information, perhaps even instructions about who could access her records.