Noah Could Never by Simon James Green

Author:Simon James Green
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Published: 2018-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

TWENTY-SIX

The messages were from Eric: Catch us if you can!

And then: Me and Dad have the tiara!

And presumably, just so Noah was totally clear, a picture of said tiara.

Gran’s tiara. Noah snorted and shook his head. Seriously?! A crappy fake diamond heist? Were Dad and Eric really so stupid that they thought that thing was worth anything? Normally, if Eric and Dad wanted to waste their time on some stupid scheme, he would have let them. But he’d made a promise to Gran. Noah texted back:

Dear Eric, Thank you for your kind message. How interesting that you and Father have stolen an item of Gran’s… My, how thoughtful of you to take an item of sentimental value from a poor old lady with dementia – I must remember to put you both forward for an OBE for services to humanity. It’s of no actual value, but it is to her. Bring it back. Kind regards, Noah Grimes.

“Everything OK?” Harry said.

Noah smiled. “Everything is fine and dandy! Would you like to resume some low-level petting?”

“Yeah.” Harry shrugged. “Always up for low-level petting.”

Noah’s phone chirped. “Sorry,” he said, batting Harry away. “I just have to address this small matter, then petting can resume.” He glanced down.

Eric:Cool, cool. Just so you know, the attached image is a screenshot from last week’s Antiques Roadshow. Note the special hallmark that matches the one on Gran’s. The tiara itself is indeed pretty worthless. But the diamonds in it are valued at twenty grand. Tell me, are you still feeling quite so smug, jackass?

Noah pursed his lips and opened the image. There was Fiona Bruce, grinning next to a frumpy old man. Noah enlarged the image with his fingertips and froze.

Oh.

Oh my God.

There was Gran’s tiara. OK, not exactly, it had slightly different design, but it was really, really close, and the hallmark was definitely as Noah remembered. Noah grabbed the Sky remote, frantically pressing the buttons until the episode that his dad had recorded came up, and Noah was able to fast forward to the final five minutes – Fiona Bruce and some jewellery expert, and a plan hatched by a Danish princess to smuggle twenty valuable diamonds out of the country so she could start a new life. The story matched the one Gran had told him exactly – the two tiaras, the plan to set the valuable diamonds in the worthless metal, so no one would suspect, and the theft from the jeweller’s workshop – only a fairy godmother and some clever mice were not involved, as it turned out. Fiona Bruce’s final words: “We’ve found one tiara, but the other is still out there somewhere – probably posing as another piece of costume jewellery. So do check those toy boxes and backs of wardrobes, because, who knows, you too could be sitting on a goldmine.”

The credits began to roll, Noah staring in disbelief at the screen.

Ten diamonds. Twenty thousand English pounds. The sort of money that could solve a lot of problems. The sort of money that could secure Gran a place in Kingfisher Meadows.

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