A Brilliant Plan

Chapter 45

Hi everyone, Alex here. Hope you enjoyed the story so far! Do you like Calendar and her adventures? Cool. Did you know: there is a second book in the series out? "Brilliant Actors" takes Calendar into the movie business, where diamonds are forever, too. And intrigues run rampant! You can get "Brilliant Actors" at your favorite eTailer in ebook format and on Amazon in paperback.  Enough said, on with the story!

OOPS, THINGS GOT serious. I immediately went into turtle mode, took away my hand from his and just raised an eyebrow. "I am listening. Spill."

He took a deep breath. "I used you to flush out Altward."

"Yee-es?" I said carefully, not getting where this was leading. "Wait a minute; as I remember, I developed the plan."

Ron nodded, avoiding my eyes. "And I went along with it and it worked well. Better than anticipated."

"Come on, tell me. What did you do?"

"The reason for my confession starts a little earlier than your brilliant idea. Did you ever wonder why I asked you to come along to the gallery?"

"Really? Oh, I took for granted that you were a little short of art world know-how and wanted a blonde girl on the side," I replied.

Ron took my hand again but had to retract it because our order was placed in front of us. Undecided whether to be offended by his remarks or feel hungry, hunger won and I started shoveling pasta into my mouth. I hadn't had anything all day except for some dry crackers at the station house.

This seemed to unnerve Ron. With no obvious appetite, he poked nervously at his salad leaves. After a few bites, he couldn't hold back any longer, put away his fork for good and took hold of my spaghetti-shoveling arm.

"Calendar, please listen. If I had needed art expertise, I would have stuck with Fowler. He knows five times more about art than you do."

I sat back, perplexed and offended. "Oh! Does he now?"

Ron nodded. "You are specialized in antique jewelry. He is specialized in every antique subject you can think of. But, to support your ego, he collaborated with everything you told Juanita and me about Calder, art valuation, Montenhaute and 'The Max.'"

"Uh-oh... " I thought and ate another fork of spaghetti to mask my uneasiness.

Eager to get it over with, Ron continued, "Fowler told me in detail about his suspicions regarding your involvement in the gallery break-in. He laid out the typical Calendar Moonstone factors—an impregnable safe, a noble location, no clues and high-class material stolen, never to be seen again." He ticked off the 'Calendar factors' on his hand. "As you know, Juanita and I showed up at your parent's home, did the interview, you provided us with a solid alibi and that was that."

I simply looked at Ron.

He added, looking down at his salad. "To be expected, by the way. Fowler told us that you would come up with a very good alibi. The boyfriend plus the neighbors listening in, very good indeed."

"It is the truth! What do you want to hear?"

Ron waved it off, as if it didn't really matter. "After the interview, I sat down and thought hard. Fowler provided me with some of his private research about you concerning some extremely suspicious cases, which showed me that you had to be a very resourceful woman. And you seem to have some kind of code, like a modern Robin Hood or something."

Treading carefully now. "I have no clue what you are talking about. Robin Hood?"

"Well, not exactly Robin Hood, that's the wrong analogy; you don't give to the poor." Who was I to correct him? "But you only seem to steal from very rich people who don't really miss the money or mind the higher insurance premiums, you are not violent, you are very clean in your job, no mess or destroyed homes... "