Rarities Unlimited 04 - The Color of Death

employees would be all it takes.”
    “What if the stones aren’t, uh, ordinary?”
    “You cut them again until they are. Or you hide them until the statute of limitations runs out.”
    “Seems a waste.”
    “If you paid for the finished stone in the first place, it’s a waste tocut them all over again. If not, all you’re out is the cutter’s time—and the cutter in this case is probably a machine.”
    “What about the Seven Sins?”
    “I’m afraid that six out of seven have already been reworked and reduced to stones weighing between two and five carats.” Her voice was bleak. “Maybe, just maybe, a ten-carat stone would sneak past the necessity to be anonymous. Either way…” She shook her head. “Something incredibly rare and beautiful has been lost forever. Blue sapphires like the Seven Sins just don’t come out of the mines anymore. They probably don’t even exist outside of a few private collections and a handful of museums.”
    The look on Kate’s face made Sam wish he hadn’t asked. But that was his job—asking questions that had unhappy answers.
    “So the gangs knocking off couriers,” he said, “wouldn’t have any trouble getting rid of the goods in the States, even if it’s rough gems rather than Rolex Oysters.”
    She risked a glance at his eyes. Blue. Intent. Cool. Full cop mode. That’s good. Really.
    Okay, it isn’t, but it sure is safer.
    “If the gangs couldn’t unload their stuff here,” she said, “they could do it overseas. Not everyone has my prejudice against foreign prisons.”
    “But on the whole, you think it would be more likely that the stuff from couriers who get clouted in America ends up in America?” Sam asked.
    “Depends on the package.” Another long breath. That’s it girl. Heart rate back to normal. “We have a huge market for entry-level colored stones. Everybody’s buying and selling them, including your grandmother on Internet auctions. Given that, why ship stuff to India, which already has its own historic supply lines for colored gems?”
    “Could you give me a list of likely outlets for stolen gems?”
    Kate hesitated. No doubt about it. He was all cop right now. “Likely as in shady or likely as in having a big enough supply line to bury some extra goods?”
    “Both. The Purcells, for instance. From what you know about the business, could they have been a regular outlet for hot goods?”
    She bit the corner of her mouth.
    “Don’t worry,” Sam said. “You won’t have to swear to anything in court.” Yet.
    “I’ve heard gossip.”
    “What kind?”
    She started pacing along the edge of the nearest worktable. As she walked, she fiddled with the equipment without changing any of the settings.
    “Kate?”
    After a moment she turned to face Sam. “I hate gossip.”
    “I figured that out after the way you kept Lee’s secret,” Sam said. Then he noticed the change in her expression at her half brother’s name. “Did Lee?”
    “Did he what?”
    “Hate gossip.” Sam’s voice, like his expression, was neutral and patient.
    Kate hesitated, then shook her head unhappily. “It was his one vice.”
    “What did he tell you?”
    She laced her fingers together. “Damn it, Sam, I could open my mouth and ruin some honest dealer’s life.”
    “Or you could keep your mouth closed and shorten your own life,” he said bluntly. “Whoever whacked the Purcells wouldn’t have pulled a single punch for Saint Teresa and you know it. If you don’t, I’m telling you now, loud and clear. Bad guys just love it when you play nice with them. Don’t do it, Kate. It will kill you.”
    For a long time there was only silence.
    “All right,” she said finally, sighing. “The Purcells had the reputation of not asking too many questions about previous owners if you sold them stones at a really good price.”
    Sam already knew that, but he nodded to encourage her.
    “The outfit called Worldwide Wholesale Estate Gems doesn’t have a great reputation,” she said reluctantly.
    “In what way?”
    “It’s pretty much common knowledge that more loose stones came out of the company than ever went there set in estate jewelry. Particularly from South American sources.”
    Sam made a mental note of the name. He’d bet that the corporate headquarters was in Aruba or Panama or some other place where the banks were friendly and the questions nonexistent. The answers too. It took an act of God or a world-class hacker to get information out of those