Shell Game – Chapter 24 – The Pearl

Gold returned from the kitchen a few minutes later with a couple of cold-cut sandwiches and mugs of steaming coffee. Claire examined the meager offering and pushed the plate away from her.

“Now,” Evan sighed as he sat down, reaching for his cup of coffee. The first sip stung his lips, and he winced. “I hate when I do that,” he said, rubbing his lips together, “but what are you going to do? So. This pearl. What is it, and why are people so interested in it?”

Evan picked up his sandwich and took a generous bite. Claire shifted in her chair and looked at her hands folded in her lap. Then, she snapped her head up to Evan, “Let’s say I didn’t tell you. Let’s say, for reasons of my own, you understand, that it would be too painful for me to tell you what I know. What would you do in that case?”

“Can’t say I’d be surprised,” he said as casually as if she’d asked the weather. He swallowed his bite and took another sip of coffee. “The thing I’ll never get over about being a private eye is that people hire me, they come to me mind you. I don’t go to them. They come to me, just like you did, to find something or someone, and then proceed to lie and shield the truth from me. You take my point?”

“That must be frustrating.”

Evan waved off her comment, “It makes things a bit more challenging,” he said, “but the good news is, I love solving puzzles. I can usually still uncover the truth despite it all. One thing I’ve learned is that the truth is rather jealous and likes to be noticed. Take this case, for instance. I started with a completely fabricated story by you, a complete misdirect, and in twenty-four hours, I know a whole lot more than I did. Possibly, I know more at this moment than the police. And it’s smelling more and more like the truth all of the time.” Evan paused and took another bite of his sandwich. “Give another day like this one, and imagine the things I might know. Hey, I might even know things you don’t ever want me to know.” He chuckled to himself and chewed his bite, quite pleased with himself.

The weight of the moment seemed to press down Claire’s shoulders with double force. “I don’t want to tell you. I mean, I trust you, but I don’t want to tell you.”

“Fine by me,” Evan said. “Doesn’t make much difference in any case. It’s just the difference between doing things the easy way or the hard way. Either way, justice is served.”

Claire scoffed. “But you don’t know what you’re up against, Evan. For that matter, neither do I. Not completely anyway. But I know more than you. I don’t know what I’m more frightened of, you finding out or you getting hurt – because of me.”

“Don’t beat yourself up. I’m a grown man. I know a thing or two and can handle myself. My question for you is, when I find out the things you don’t want me to know, when this carefully constructed facade you’ve got comes crumbling down around your ears, how are you going to feel when some of the debris falls on that pretty head of yours? Or do you think you’re made of stronger stuff than that? Believe me, sister, I’ve lived out here on the plains long enough to know a thing or two what happens when a whirlwind comes to town. It comes, and there’s nothing you can do about it. It’ll turn one house into splinters and leave the house next door without a scratch. The Finger of God, they call it. Claire, there’s a whirlwind coming for you. I can see the clouds on your horizon. Let me shelter you if I can.”

They sat in silence for a long time. The only sounds came from the second hand on the fireplace mantle clock and the occasional car rolling along the street below.

“As I said,” Claire said, looking up finally. Evan noticed tears had been running for a while. “I haven’t lived the best life. I’ve seen things. I’ve done things. Things,” she stopped suddenly and looked at Evan. “Do you ever think back to who you were when you were six or seven? Do you ever wonder what they must think of you now?” She drifted her gaze away again, “Anyway, I’ve seen enough not to be scared by much. There are only two people in the whole world that scare me. Jason Charles was one. You are the other one.” She stood and walked to the window.

Evan smiled and shook his head, “You really have perfected your style. It’s rare for me to find someone with so much commitment to it.” He let out a breath, finished off his coffee, slapped his knees, and walked over to Claire. “Now about this pearl,” he said.

“I don’t know much,” her voice was almost a whisper, “but I know it isn’t a pearl. Not like you would think, anyway. It’s too big. More like a kid’s marble.”

“What makes it so important?” Evan asked, resisting the urge to make sure the pearl was still safely stowed in his pocket. He didn’t want to give any tells that he knew its immediate location.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. Evan rubbed the stubble of his cheek with the knuckles of his right hand. “I was offered a thousand to steal it. I don’t know what they offered Jason, but he said he’d pay me fifteen hundred to keep it and not turn it over.”

Evan cut her off, “Mr. Huber said I’d get paid ten grand. I’m guessing I’m not too far off the mark to say the pearl’s actual value is a few dimes north of that?”

Claire laughed at his ignorance, “Yes. It is worth more money than you or I will ever hope to see in several lifetimes. And I’m not stupid. I’ve played cons like this before. I never assume I’m getting an even split of the take. If there’s a job with a payout I like, I take it and don’t ask more questions about it. I’m just the hired help.”

“So, from where were you supposed to steal this pearl that’s not a pearl?”

“A man named Plumb had it. A big shot. Founded the town just before our boys went off to fight in Europe. Everyone’s benefactor. Everyone’s boss. I was hired to lift it from him.”

“I’m assuming a guy like that has some, let’s call them people, around him,” Evan said. “How were you supposed to pick this gem from Plumb.”

Claire walked back to the fireplace. “I’d rather not say. It’s not important to the present situation.”
“Fine. This was back in Colorado?”

Claire nodded.

“What happened next?” Evan couldn’t stand it any longer and slid his hands in his pockets. He relaxed a little when his fingers rediscovered the pearl. It was cool to the touch and seemed small and ordinary. Evan tried to recall with his fingers what the size of a kid’s marble was.

“Nothing,” Claire complained, “absolutely nothing. I got the pearl, just as I was hired to do. However, Jason learned that that greasy snake you invited over here tonight planned to betray us. He was going to take the pearl for himself and double-cross the lot of us.”

“So much for honor among thieves,” Evan smirked.

“That’s when Jason made the offer for me not to turn it over. We decided two could dance the Double-Cross Tango and leave Mr. Huber swinging in the wind. But we forgot something fundamental.” She wagged a wary finger at Gold, “You are never to get emotionally tied up in your work. We did. Jason and I. We got greedy. We said, ‘Why shouldn’t we get the full payout? Why should we only take hundreds when there might be millions?’ But in our haste and greed, we forgot about the first man. The one behind everything. It was not long before we discovered we had changed from hunters to prey, hunted like limping gazelles in front of a hungry and desperate lion. But that was not the final nail. No, that came when I realized that dear Mr. Charles had his own designs to double-cross me too.” She laughed at herself in anger, “I know how to pick them, don’t I?”

“So, when did you come to Athens?” Evan asked.

“I hopped off the train the morning I saw you,” she said. “Jason and I separated in Colorado the week before. I bribed a railroad man to tell me where he’d gone, and I was on the next train here. I saw your ad in the phone book at the depot, and you know the rest.”

Evan shook his head, “I already told you I don’t have an ad in the phone book, but that’s not my real concern. I think there are still more important gaps in your story. What makes it worth all the money?”

Claire laughed bitterly, “To be honest, I don’t know.” Then her pleading eyes returned, “Oh, you must believe me, Evan. I would tell you if I did. I just knew my life was on the line, and I needed to get that pearl back before…” her voice broke off.

“And that’s when you hired me,” Evan said.

She nodded.

“To find the pearl.”

She shook her head. “To scare Jason. I needed leverage. Leverage with him, with the people hunting me, with whoever.”
“Yeah,” he said slowly, “but I’m betting you don’t know the first thing about who to trade it to for the kind of payout you’re looking for. Though, I’m sure you’d figure that part out in a hurry. Have you ever seen it?”

“Just the once,” she said softly.

Evan shook his head and spoke in a tone like a father encouraging his child to turn from foolish habits, “You’re a liar.”
“I know,” she whimpered softly.

“Tell me, was there any truth in that yarn you spun?”

Claire looked at him with pleading eyes.

“That’s what I thought.” He walked back over to the table and tossed the last bite of the sandwich in his mouth. “Let me get another cup of coffee, and we’ll try it again.”

Claire rushed to him and wrapped her arms around his waist, “Oh, Evan, I’m so tired. Do we have to do this now? I could just trust you to find out on your own. I mean, look at you, you’re strong and smart, and I’m, I’m, I’m a mess. Oh, hold me, Evan.” She pressed her head to his chest. “I might be able to make it through the night if you would just hold me.” She sobbed quietly into his collar.

Evan put his arms around her and rubbed her back soothingly. Then he thought of Katherine. If there was any shot of getting her back, he couldn’t let his guard down for a moment. He knew he was walking a tightrope and needed to keep his balance because there was no net if he fell.

He took Claire carefully by the shoulders and held her away from him. “Whatever you have cooking in that mixed-up head of yours, it’s not how I do things. As you said, it does me no good to get emotionally involved with my work. Now, I think you’re a nice girl, mixed-up, but nice. But we have a professional relationship. It’s clean. It’s easy to understand. Let’s not confuse things.”

He walked around her and poured himself another cup of coffee. “Let’s start back at the beginning.”
Claire flopped onto the sofa like a discarded tissue. Evan grabbed her uneaten sandwich and sat in the armchair next to her.

Over the next several hours, Evan had Claire tell her tale repeatedly. Each time a new adjustment was made. Each time Evan learned a hint of something new. Eventually, sleep took them over just as the fog in the air started to defuse the coming dawn’s light.