A Brilliant Plan

Chapter 20

Hi there, Alex here. Hope you enjoy the story so far. Don't worry, I'll continue to publish until the whole book is on Wattpad. If you can't bear the suspense and/or like to support me, head over to an e-Tailer bookstore of your choice and buy "Brilliant Plan" as a full eBook. 

MONDAY MORNING. THANK you, Al Gore, for the Internet. Hunched over my iMac, I had surfed the major search portals for anything on Maximilian, jewels, gold, diamonds, Mexico and combinations thereof. I had learned something but not much.

One hit was about Austrian Emperor Maximilian I, who had sent his crown jewels to Prague. He had given his bride a 23-carat diamond engagement ring. Could the Maximilian Jewels be traced to him? The dates were around fifteen hundred something, much too early for Thomas' jewels.

There was another hit, embedded in a wild rambling story about dogs and Burmese jewels that had been stolen and then passed on to Mexico's Emperor Maximilian. The date was just about right. Maximilian of Mexico was executed in 1867, making it obvious to the slightly loony author that the stones were cursed. As I said, there was a lot of rambling in this story, but the historical figure of Emperor Maximilian was not in doubt. The Mexico connection made sense, too.

I did some surfing for Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. After Mexico became an independent state in 1821, there were some rapid changes in succession on the head of state. Among them, Maximilian, who the French had placed on the throne in 1864, had a short reign and was executed by his archenemy in 1867. There was no mention of jewels of any kind in the official biography. But an emperor surely had a crown or something representative?

After that, the same information showed up repeatedly and I found nothing more. I gave up and decided to check out the classic form of knowledge, the library. But first things first. This was Monday morning and I had a working day ahead.

Redondo Beach on a Monday was a relaxed affair. The village woke up slowly; time went slower than elsewhere in L.A. My store, 'Precious Moonstone,' was within walking distance of my home, a very un-California treat not to have to use the car. The village center of Redondo Beach grouped itself around a colorful assortment of small cafes, smaller supermarkets, small boutiques, and, you guessed it, a small post-office; all within a circle of two or three blocks and the Pacific Ocean just around the corner.

On the way, I got a French croissant and a fruit salad from the Casino Cafe and then walked to my little store, which also hosted my workshop. My Mexican cleaner, Manolo, a little man somewhere in his fifties, was waiting for me. He had worked for me for years and he came in three times a week.

Let in the sunshine and the fresh air. The vents were blasting away five days of stale air and I swept the front pavement while Manolo vacuumed the carpet and cleaned the shop's display windows. I opened the safe, got out the displays, said good-bye to Manolo and was back into business.

The computer booted up with several beeps, eight messages were waiting on the answering machine and 92 e-mails were in the preciousmoonshine.com mailbox.

I sat on the bar stool behind the counter, munched my breakfast and made notes as the voicemail went through the messages. Then I did the call-backs, the e-mail-backs, all the other-backs and wrapped up some orders to be sent out tonight with the delivery service. The parcel service brought some deliveries, which I opened and stowed away. An early customer had a broken lock on a necklace I had sold his wife a few years earlier. Another regular customer was looking for something 'spectacular' for his next wedding anniversary. Happy to oblige with a ring in the five-figure range? Well, turned out he was window-shopping first and not 'that' spectacular, make that a lower four figure. Cheap shot, may you show up in next year's divorce statistics.