wasn’t looking for jewellery,’ Tracy said. ‘I was checking the beds and towels.’
‘Miss Marlowe insists that her ring was on the dressing table when she left the suite.’
‘I don’t know anything about it.’
‘No one else has access to that room. The maids have been with us for many years.’
‘I didn’t take it.’
The assistant manager sighed. ‘We’re going to have to call in the police to investigate.’
‘It had to be someone else,’ Tracy cried. ‘Or perhaps Miss Marlowe misplaced it.’
‘With your record –’ the assistant manager said.
And there it was, out in the open. With your record …
‘I’ll have to ask you to please wait in the security office until the police get here.’
Tracy felt her face flush. ‘Yes, sir.’
She was accompanied to the office by one of the security guards, and she felt as though she were back in prison again. She had read of convicts being hounded because they had prison records, but it had never occurred to her that this kind of thing could happen to her. They had stuck a label on her, and they expected her to live up to it. Or down to it, Tracy thought bitterly.
Thirty minutes later the assistant manager walked into the office, smiling. ‘Well!’ he said. ‘Miss Marlowe found her ring. She had misplaced it, after all. It was just a little mistake.’
‘Wonderful,’ Tracy said.
She walked out of the office and headed for Conrad Morgan et Cie Jewellers.
‘It’s ridiculously simple,’ Conrad Morgan was saying. ‘A client of mine, Lois Bellamy, has gone to Europe. Her house is in Sea Cliff on Long Island. On weekends the servants are off, so there’s no one there. A private patrol makes a check every four hours. You can be in and out of the house in a few minutes.’
They were seated in Conrad Morgan’s office.
‘I know the alarm system, and I have the combination to the safe. All you have to do, my dear, is walk in, pick up the jewels, and walk out again. You bring the jewels to me, I take them out of their settings, recut the larger ones, and sell them again.’
‘If it’s so simple, why don’t you do it yourself?’ Tracy asked bluntly.
His blue eyes twinkled. ‘Because I’m going to be out of town on business. Whenever one of these little “incidents” occurs, I’m always out of town on business.’
‘I see.’
‘If you have any scruples about the robbery hurting Mrs Bellamy, you needn’t have. She’s really quite a horrible woman, who has houses all over the world filled with expensive goodies. Besides, she’s insured for twice the amount the jewels are worth. Naturally, I did all the appraisals.’
Tracy sat there looking at Conrad Morgan, thinking, I must be crazy. I’m sitting here calmly discussing a jewel robbery with this man.
‘I don’t want to go back to prison, Mr Morgan.’
‘There’s no danger of that. Not one of my people has ever been caught. Not while they were working for me. Well … what do you say?’
That was obvious. She was going to say no. The whole idea was insane.
‘You said twenty-five thousand dollars?’
‘Cash on delivery.’
It was a fortune, enough to take care of her until she could figure out what to do with her life. She thought of the dreary little room she lived in, of the screaming tenants, and the customer yelling, ‘I don’t want a murderess waiting on me’, and the assistant manager saying, ‘We’re going to have to call in the police to investigate.’
But Tracy still could not bring herself to say yes.
‘I would suggest this Saturday night,’ Conrad Morgan said. ‘The staff leaves at noon on Saturdays. I’ll arrange a driver’s licence and a credit card for you in a false name. You’ll rent a car here in Manhattan and drive out to Long Island, arriving at eleven o’clock. You’ll pick up the jewellery, drive back to New York, and return the car … You do drive, don’t you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Excellent. There’s a train leaving for St Louis at seven-forty-five A.M. I’ll reserve a compartment for you. I’ll meet you at the station in St Louis, you’ll turn over the jewels, and I’ll give you your twenty-five thousand.’
He made it all sound so simple.
This was the moment to say no, to get up and walk out. Walk out to where?
‘I’ll need a blonde wig,’ Tracy said slowly.
When Tracy had left, Conrad Morgan sat in the dark in his office, thinking about her. A beautiful woman. Very beautiful indeed. It was a shame. Perhaps he should have warned her that he was not really that familiar with that particular burglar-alarm system.
With the thousand dollars that Conrad Morgan advanced her, Tracy purchased two wigs – one blonde and one black, with a multitude of tiny braids. She bought a dark-blue pants suit, black overalls, and an imitation Gucci valise from a street vendor on Lexington Avenue. So far everything was going smoothly. As Morgan had promised, Tracy received an envelope containing a driver’s licence in the name of Ellen Branch, a diagram of the security system in the Bellamy house, the combination to the bedroom safe, and an Amtrak ticket to St Louis, in a private compartment. Tracy packed her few belongings and left. I’ll never live in a place like this again, Tracy promised herself. She rented a car and headed for Long Island. She was on her way to commit a burglary.
What she was doing had the unreality of a dream, and she was terrified. What if she were caught? Was the risk worth what she was about to do?
It’s ridiculously simple, Conrad Morgan had said.
He wouldn’t be involved in anything like this if he weren’t sure about it. He has his reputation to protect. I have a reputation, too, Tracy thought bitterly, and it’s all bad. Any time a piece of jewellery is missing, I’ll be guilty until proven innocent.
Tracy knew what she was doing: she was trying to work herself up into a rage, trying to psych herself up to commit a crime. It did not work. By the time she reached Sea Cliff, she was a nervous wreck. Twice, she almost ran the car off the road. Maybe the police will pick me up for reckless driving, she thought hopefully, and I can tell Mr Morgan that things went wrong.
But there was not a police car in sight. Sure, Tracy thought in disgust. They’re never around when you need them.
She headed towards
