Kalorama Shakedown (A Harry Reese Mystery) by Robert Bruce Stewart

Author:Robert Bruce Stewart [Stewart, Robert Bruce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Joe
Publisher: Street Car Mysteries
Published: 2013-06-11T04:00:00+00:00

14

While Emmie and Elizabeth rushed off to their matinee, I made my way back to the embassy to pick up the countess. We boarded the carriage and I could tell at once she was perturbed by something.

“Did you collude with your wife last night, Harry?”

“If that’s another euphemism, I’m not familiar with it.”

“I mean, did you reveal to her what I told you yesterday?”

“About the trip to Baltimore? No, certainly not. I made an allusion to a Frenchman, but only in aid of confusing our common antagonist.”

“Apparently it didn’t work. Then she never mentioned her outing?”

“No, but it was pretty unlikely she would.”

“Or the brooch?”

“No, not the brooch either. She didn’t return the package?”

“The damn girl beat me, Harry.”

“I know the feeling. What did she tell you?”

“She came by this morning and thanked me for the brooch. I said, ‘Did you meet the Frenchman?’ ‘Oh, yes, I found him,’ she said. ‘But you had the street name wrong—he lives on Hollins Street.’”

“Did the imaginary Frenchman send a reply?”

“Yes, that was all too easy. Miss Slyboots told me he said, ‘Tell Madame, merci.’ That was all.”

“You have my sympathy, but I warned you. I think your big mistake was to give her too much time to think about it.”

“Well, I won’t make that mistake a second time.”

“Going for a return bout?”

“Most assuredly,” she said. “By the way, remember that Boucheron brooch I mentioned?”

“The fake?”

“Yes. I saw the girl last evening and she was wearing it again. I made a point of getting her name this time. Sachs. Alice Sachs.”

“That’s the one. I suppose they could have had the fake made as a replacement.”

“Oh, this was no fake. I admired it closely.”

“Are you sure?” She gave me a withering look in lieu of a reply. After a suitable amount of withering, I tried again. “So the same girl who wore the replica previously was wearing the real brooch last night. Was her father there?”

“I don’t remember seeing him. She came with a younger man. I believe I saw him at Mrs. Spinks’ yesterday, but I don’t remember his name.”

“That sure was brazen of her. The alleged theft was in all the newspapers.”

“Alleged theft—it was fraud then?”

“Yes, there seems little question. Both that one and the other two I’m investigating. And they’re all linked somehow. And somehow Mrs. Spinks is connected as well.”

“Really?”

“Are you surprised?”

“Not shocked, I suppose. But I wouldn’t have thought she was involved in something so sordid.”

“Oh, I doubt she’s mixed up in the fraud. I think the insurance claims were made to raise cash to finance a deal of some sort. She might be another party to that deal. By the way, does Kalorama mean anything to you?”

“It was an estate of some sort. If you go up Massachusetts Avenue, a little past Dupont Circle, you come to another circle, but with only a few houses on it. Just beyond that was some sort of estate called Kalorama.”

“How do you know about it?”

“The count pointed it out to me. It’s where we go riding.

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