Carla’s Prince

“Nothing is going to happen to you. I can promise you that,” she assured him. “All, I am trying to do is make sure that she does not do anything like this to any other person who employs her.”

Pops looked at Pete and exhaled loudly as he pulled a ledger from under the counter. He opened the book and turned it towards Carla.

“That’s everything she has brought in. She started with a whole lot of jewels. Expensive jewels as you can see and I remember wondering how someone who had such authentic jewelry had a problem with her tuition,” Pops went on as Carla looked at the records.

He was right. She must have brought in tens of thousands in jewelry as far as the ledger showed.

“The last time she was here, she came in with a man once and they brought in a katana.” He looked up and shrugged. “At first I thought it was just a normal katana. I mean everyone has one nowadays, right? However, upon further inspection, I found out that it was actually an old blade. Almost two hundred years old. I still have it here.”

She looked up.

“You do?” she asked and Pops nodded. “Do you mind if I take a picture of it and maybe hold off on everything this woman brought in?”

Pops took a long deep breath.

“It is money out of my pocket since I will probably have to return it but I do not deal in stolen goods. That is my principle,” he said before he went to the back and came back with the katana he had been talking about.

“I promise to arrange some kind of compensation with my client,” she said and Pops shook his head.

“No, don’t. If anything I should be the one compensating your client.”

“Thank you,” Carla said as she took a picture of the sword. “Thank you so much.”

“The man who brought in the tea set also brought in a few more items.” He flipped through the pages and looked at Carla. “His inventory is not as large but he has been here a few times.”
She looked up from the page and looked at Pops.

“What is this down here?” she asked, pointing to the book. “You scribbled ‘art inquiry’ next to his name.”

“Yes, he brought in a painting, a gift he had been given that apparently didn’t sit very well with his decor, and he asked me if I could sell it for him. I told him I didn’t but I knew someone who dealt in art that I could connect him with.”

She grinned.

“A painting, huh?” she mumbled before she closed the book.

She could not help but feel excited. Everything she had been feeling since that phone call with Cristoff had been erased by that visit to the store. She closed the book and pushed it towards Pops. She could not remember the last time she felt that fulfilled about work.

“I just have to relay this new information to my superiors and then I will be back to close the case, Pops. Probably later today if that is okay with you.”

Pops nodded.

“Anything I can do to right this wrong,” he said and Carla smiled before he and Pete walked out of the store.

She quickly sent an email to Cristoff with the most business-like language she could master.

I followed a lead to a vintage store downtown and I have a strong feeling that this might be yours. Please find attached. Feel free to contact Hardley if you have any questions.

She put her phone in her bag as they walked to the parking lot.

“I cannot believe I gave my girlfriend a stolen pair of earrings,” Pete said as they got into the car.

“Don’t worry. Contrary to what people think, Brenda does not have a stick up her ass,” she said and he smiled. “Plus, you were just doing something nice for the girl you love.”

“I’m sorry for any mess I might have started for you,” Pete said and she shook her head as she buckled herself in.

“Please, don’t mention it. I am actually happy you did because if you hadn’t, I don’t know if I would have had made this much progress,” she said, turning to look at him. “I think I just cracked my case wide open,” she said, smiling.

“We should probably celebrate,” he said and she nodded.

“Definitely. This calls for champagne or maybe one of your perfect pasta dishes.”

She began backing up and he shook his head.

“Pasta? That’s easy. I thought you were going to say you want something like lamb or something. Hell, even chicken would make for a better celebration dinner than pasta.”

“It’s easy for you, the chef but for some of us, microwave dinners are our only saving grace.”
 Pete shook his head.

“Those microwave dinners are no one’s saving grace.”

“That’s why we have you, Brenda and I. You make a mean pasta dish,” she said as she pulled out of the parking lot.

“I guess we are having pasta for dinner,” Pete said.

“Great. I’ll pick up a bottle of red wine on the way home.” Carla looked at him and he shrugged.

“Sure.”
                                                            *****

It only took Carla half an hour to drop Pete off at the restaurant and get to the office and in that time, she had an email from Cristoff, three missed calls, and two text messages. But she had no reason to pick up his calls or even reply any of his messages. The words he had said to her that morning were still burning in her and there was nothing that could quench that fire any time soon.

“Hey, can I come in?” Carla asked as she stood at her boss’ doorway.

“Carla, it is good to see you in the office for once,” Thomas said. “If it were not for the daily updates you give me at the end of every day in your emails, I would not be so sure that you work here.”

“Well, I have been hard at work, Hardley, and I believe that we might have finally cracked this case,” she said as she walked in.

“Please, tell me everything,” Thomas said, pointing to his guest chairs.

“I believe I may have found where the stolen property was taken,” she said. “A vintage store downtown which is basically the key to everything.”

“How?” Thomas looked intrigued.

“The store owner said that he had encounters with three people all of whom I suspect had something to do with the robbery. The man at the store only had a katana from the transaction with one of the three suspects but I felt pretty strongly about it so I emailed a picture to Cristoff earlier just in case…”

“Yeah, you copied me in that mail and he already replied. He says it is indeed his. A…” He paused and pulled up the email on his screen. “Two hundred year old Tokugawa katana.”

She raised an eyebrow over the other.

“Guess the only thing left to do is to follow up with the store and case closed,” she said and Thomas nodded.

“Shortest time we ever solved a case of this nature.”