Dead Guilty

skeletons.
‘‘About seven or eight millimeters in diameter.’’
‘‘That’s about a carat. That is a respectable dia mond.’’ He lay the stone in his hand out on a piece of cotton batting he took from the drawer.
‘‘This is a carat diamond.’’
‘‘It was about that same size. Do you have some thing black you could put it on?’’
Mike shook his head. ‘‘You don’t want to view dia monds against a black background. Black makes all diamonds look white, and you’ll miss the light yellow tinge of a lesser diamond.’’
‘‘I’m getting all kinds of useful information.’’
‘‘That’s what the museum’s here for.’’
Diane caught a twinkle in his light brown eyes. ‘‘You’re right about that,’’ she said, smiling in spite of herself. Diane picked up the diamond and put it against her skin. ‘‘That’s about the size of the one I saw. How much is this diamond worth?’’
‘‘This is a particularly good diamond. It’s one carat—carat refers to weight, by the way. It’s actually weight that matters and not size. This one is pretty much clear of flaws. It has what’s called an ideal cut and is rated a D on the color scale, which is at the top of the colorless range. On the market, this would cost around ten thousand dollars.’’

Chapter 26
    Diane looked up at him sharply. ‘‘Ten thousand dollars?’’
‘‘Good diamonds are expensive.’’
‘‘I didn’t realize that diamonds are that rare.’’
‘‘They’re not. But over three-quarters of the world’s diamonds are controlled by one company, and they’re very good at making diamonds seem rare.’’
Diane picked up the diamond and studied it in the palm of her hand. ‘‘That’s a lot of money for a diamond.’’
‘‘You don’t think your guy could afford that?’’
‘‘I haven’t seen his bank account, but I would have thought it unlikely.’’
‘‘Then it may not have been a diamond. We’ve been working on the assumption that the stone was a dia mond, but it takes an expert to identify one.’’
Mike reached in and pulled out several more plastic containers and lined up five stones on the batting. He dropped one of the lids on the floor and it started rolling. Diane reached down and picked it up before it got across the floor.
‘‘I could have sworn you did that on purpose,’’ said Diane when she rose and placed it back on the table.
‘‘I did. I rearranged the stones. I thought I’d let you pick out the diamond.’’
Diane looked at the row of stones. They were all beautiful, all about the same size, and very similar.
‘‘What if these get mixed up? Can you tell them apart?’’
‘‘Sure. I know in what order I placed them, and I have photos of their internal structures. Besides, I’ve got this sweet little device that’ll identify them for me if I get mixed-up.’’
‘‘That’s good to know.’’ Diane went down the row of stones, picking each one up, twisting it from side to side with her fingers, looking at the sparkle. She pushed one back. ‘‘I don’t think it’s this one.’’
‘‘Very good. That’s a white sapphire. The value is, I think, around a hundred thirty dollars.’’
She examined the remaining four again and moved another back and looked at Mike, who watched her closely with an amused glint to his eyes. ‘‘Cubic zirco nia. Maybe fifteen dollars,’’ he said.
Diane moved another stone away from the line.
‘‘Very good,’’ said Mike. ‘‘That’s a synthetic diamond—retails for about three thousand dollars.’’
‘‘A lucky guess. They all look so much alike. But it had a slightly yellow cast to it. You’re right. You’d have to look at it against a white background to see it.’’
Two were left. Diane picked them up and looked at them side by side. She moved them under the light. Weighed each in her hand, though she didn’t know why. She had not a clue what it would mean if one were heavier than the other. It was the spar kle, she realized, she had used to eliminate the oth ers. She took another look at the stones, twisting them under the light. She set them down and moved a stone back in line with the others she had elimi nated, and looked at Mike. His eyes still cast that amused sparkle.
‘‘Well?’’ she asked.
‘‘You just eliminated the diamond.’’
‘‘And I was almost sure.’’
‘‘Nope. You were looking at the fire, weren’t you?’’
‘‘Yes.’’
‘‘This.’’ He picked up the one remaining