“That was handled through our client-services office.”
“Exactly.”
Kane looked toward him.
“You verified he could buy this?”
Gregory hesitated.
“I didn't personally.”
Adrian said, “Because you never checked the appointment file.”
Gregory’s cheeks reddened.
“You arrived without the client adviser listed on the booking.”
“She texted me that her train was delayed.”
Emily nodded.
“That’s true.”
Adrian continued. “Emily called the client-services desk when I arrived. They confirmed me.”
Emily nodded again.
Gregory stared at her.
“You never told me that.”
“I did.”
“When?”
“When you asked why I had opened the private vault.”
Gregory said nothing.
More facts.
Each one pushing in the same direction.
Adrian had an appointment.
Identity checked.
Funds pre-cleared.
Private collection access authorized.
The supposedly missing diamond located.
No item found on him.
No threatening behavior.
Yet the cuffs remained.
Officer Torres returned from the security monitor.
Her expression had changed completely.
“Kane.”
He looked over.
“We need to take the cuffs off.”
Gregory said quickly, “You haven't reviewed the entire inventory.”
Torres ignored him.
“The video shows the employee moving the diamond to grading before Mr. Cole ever handles the tray. It also shows Mr. Cole staying at the consultation counter the whole time.”
Kane asked, “Could he have taken something else?”
“Nothing else is reported missing.”
“That we know of.”
Torres stared.
“That’s not enough.”
Kane looked toward Adrian.
The room waited.
Then he did something that would later become the most damaging part of the body-camera review.
He said, “People don't end up in situations like this for no reason.”
Adrian’s eyes hardened.
“No?”
Kane realized too late how it sounded.
“I mean the store called us for a reason.”
Adrian looked toward Gregory.
“The store did.”
Gregory said nothing.
Torres walked behind Adrian.
“I’m removing the cuffs.”
Kane turned.
“Hold on.”
“No.”
“We need supervisor clearance.”
“For what? We have no stolen property, no missing item, video contradicts the allegation, and the employee corroborates him.”
Kane looked at her.
“You’re going against me in front of civilians?”
Torres paused.
Adrian heard it.
There was the real hierarchy.
Not law.
Embarrassment.
Torres answered quietly.
“I’m correcting the detention in front of the same civilians who watched us make it.”
She unlocked Adrian’s cuffs.
He brought his arms forward slowly.
Red impressions circled both wrists.
No applause.
No triumphant reaction.
Only a strange collective exhale.
Adrian rubbed one wrist and looked toward Gregory.
“I want my wallet.”
Emily retrieved it from the counter.
Gregory stepped closer.
“Mr. Cole, I think everybody agrees this has gotten out of hand.”
Adrian took the wallet.
“Everybody did not contribute equally.”
Gregory stopped.
“I acted based on a security concern.”
“You called the police and reported a theft before checking whether anything was stolen.”
“We believed a diamond was missing.”
“Then Emily found it.”
“After the call.”
“You told police I handled it.”
Gregory’s face tightened.
“There was confusion.”
Adrian looked directly at him.
“No.”
His voice remained quiet.
“Confusion is not knowing where something is. You told them something specific about me that was false.”
Gregory began, “I was trying to protect—”
The heavy glass doors opened.
CHAPTER 3
A woman in a navy suit entered quickly, followed by two men and another woman.
Gregory looked toward them.
His face changed.
“Ms. Vale.”
Charlotte Vale, sixty-three, white-haired and elegant, was the majority owner and chairwoman of Bellmont & Vale. Her grandfather had opened the first store in 1928. She rarely visited individual boutiques without notice, but that afternoon she had been scheduled to meet one particular client.
Adrian.
Charlotte saw the police.
Then the cuffs in Torres’s hand.
Then Adrian rubbing his wrists.
Her expression went still.
“Adrian?”
Gregory looked between them.
“You know him?”
Charlotte did not answer him.
She walked directly to Adrian.
“What happened?”
Adrian looked toward Gregory.
“I came to buy Elena an anniversary gift.”
Charlotte’s face hardened.
“And?”
“Apparently I stole something.”
Gregory stepped forward.
“Ms. Vale, there was a temporary inventory discrepancy and the police responded before we could—”
Emily interrupted.