Death is Forever

about?” Windsor demanded.
    She answered without looking away from Cole. “Con-Min called my publisher and offered me the kind of access that most photographers would kill for. Just because I’m brilliant, they said, just because I’m the only button pusher in the universe capable of producing images for a definitive—no, the definitive—book on diamonds. Con-Min is so thrilled with the idea that they’re hinting they would underwrite a million bucks in advance.”
    “Christ Jesus,” Windsor muttered.
    “I doubt that he had anything to do with it,” Cole said. “Who called you?”
    “Jeff Fisher, my editor. Harry Conner, the publisher, is hammering out the details right now. Old Harry is over the moon, and Jeff thinks he’s finally going to make publishing history.”
    “What do you think?” Cole asked.
    Erin made a dismissing gesture. “The idea’s a good one. I tried to interest Jeff in doing a grit-to-glitz book on diamonds five years ago. He couldn’t get me in the door at ConMin. Nothing personal. They’d turned down every other photographer and publisher in New York. Company policy.” She took a deep breath. “So why did they change their minds?”
    “Easy,” Cole said. “They know you’re Abe’s heir.”
    “Brilliant, Mr. Watson,” Erin retorted. “Of the four of us in the know, who the hell tipped ConMin?”
    Nan Faulkner’s chuckle was soft, almost inaudible. Erin shot her a narrow look.
    “Matt, you worry too much about your little girl,” Faulkner said. “She’s smart enough to come in out of the rain. The good news is that the leak didn’t come from the agency. Matt and I are the only ones who know, and we aren’t talking.”
    “It didn’t come from me, either,” Cole said.
    “Prove it,” Faulkner said coldly.
    He shrugged. “I knew where Erin was. ConMin had to waste at least two days trying to contact Erin through her publisher, which means ConMin didn’t know where she was. If they did, they would have skipped the middleman and made their offer in person. In addition, I want to buy the mineral rights Erin inherited. So does ConMin. I wouldn’t give them a handful of spit.”
    Erin thought it over for a moment, then nodded. “All right. Then who did?”
    “I don’t know.” Cole looked at Faulkner, then looked back at Erin. “Who made the approach?”
    “A man named Hugh van Louk, or something like that.”
    Faulkner’s breath hissed out. “That’s Hugo van Luik, ConMin’s number-one badass. Director of Special Operations for DSD—that’s Diamond Sales Division—and a half-dozen ambiguous titles, all of which boil down to one job—troubleshooter. When the cartel has trouble, he shoots it dead.”
    “You know him?” Erin asked curiously.
    “I butt heads with him every fifth Monday, all year round. As a matter of fact, I’m flying to London from here.”
    Cole looked at Windsor. “How long has Ms. Faulkner worked for ConMin?”
    “Never, babe,” Faulkner shot back. “I represent the U.S. diamond industry’s interests at the advisory level. There are a shitload of people in the business who’d like to have ConMin’s seat on the diamond tiger. We just haven’t quite figured out how to pull it off.”
    “Every fifth Monday,” Erin said, remembering her research for the diamond book her editor hadn’t been able to sell to Harry Conner five years ago. “The sights, right?”
    Faulkner’s sharply penciled eyebrows rose. “Right.” She struck a match and held it to the tip of a narrow cigarillo. “Ten times a year, always on Mondays, the world diamond industry assembles in London and receives its marching orders from DSD in the form of allotments of rough.” She blew out a pungent stream of smoke. “At my end, on the advisory level, the producer countries are informed of DSD’s needs, how much rough they will buy. At the other end, the cutters and brokers—there used to be three hundred; now there are only a hundred and fifty—are shown the goods and quoted a price.”
    “Tell her about the negotiations,” Cole said ironically.
    “What negotiations?” Faulkner asked.
    “That’s what I meant.” Cole looked at Erin. “There aren’t any negotiations. It’s all take it or leave it, on both sides. The diamond producers are told what ConMin’s Diamond Sales Division will buy and how much they’ll pay, and the cutters and brokers are told how much rough they’ll buy and at what price. If they agree, they pay cash. If they