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Marge watched her trot off in the direction of the bank of internet computers, and smiled. An avid reader herself, she could absolutely relate to Mrs. Samson, who considered the characters in the books she read almost as real as the people in her own life.

She picked up the book she’d been reading and was soon engrossed in the story. It was about a woman of humble descent who met a sheikh and fell in love. Part one depicted their whirlwind romance, and he’d just proposed to her and she’d accepted and was rushing home to tell her mom and dad all about it and also to showthem the diamond ring the sheikh had gifted her, containing a very precious and unique diamond called the Pink Lady.

Just then, her phone chimed, and when she glanced over, she saw her daughter was trying to reach her.“Hey, honey,” she said. “I’m just reading the most amazing book. The Sheikh’s Passion. Have you read it?”

“No, Mom,” said Odelia. “I’m with Uncle Alec right now, and we need your help.”

“My help?”

“Wait—I’ll hand the phone to him.”

There was a rustling sound, and then her brother Alec’s voice sounded in her ear. “Marge, I need to ask you a big, big favor.”

“Sure,” she said. “Though if it’s about tonight’s menu, it’s fish. I already took it out of the freezer, and if we don’t eat it tonight it’s going to spoil.”

“It’s not about the fish. It’s about a diamond.” He cleared his throat. “Have you ever heard about a diamond called the Pink Lady?”

Marge blinked, then her eyes slowly traveled to the cover of the book on her desk. It depicted a very large and very pink diamond.“The Pink Lady?”

“Yeah. It was a diamond that went missing thirty years ago. It used to belong to a sheikh’s wife—anyway, long story short, it disappeared, and now it’s turned up again. On the beach.”

“Amazing,” she breathed, as she turned the book over and perused the back cover, where a picture of the author had been printed. It was a woman with thick curly blond hair, looking confidently into the camera. Her name was Loretta Gray, and The Sheikh’s Passion was her debut novel.

“So the people that found the diamond took it to Thormond Linoski, the jeweler on Carmel Street, and now he’s afraid for his safety, and the safety of the diamond. And as long as we don’t know for sure who it belongs to, I was thinking that maybe we should keep it in a place no one would everthink to look.”

“And where is that?”

“You have a small safe in your bedroom, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, why don’t we put the stone there until we can figure out what to do with it?”

“Why don’t you keep it at the police station? Don’t you think it’ll be safer there?”

“This was actually your daughter’s idea,” said the Chief. “Wait, here she is.”

“Mom?” said Odelia. “So Mr. Linoski has asked for extra security, but Uncle Alec can’t spare anyone right now, and so we were thinking that the best way would be for the diamond to be kept in a secret place.”

“So why not the police station?” she repeated.

“Wait, I’ll hand over Uncle Alec again.”

“Marge, the police station is the first place thieves will look when they find out about that stone. And trust me, they will find out, since the parents of the little girl who found the stone have already been blabbing about it to anyone who would listen. It’s all over the news—they even gavean interview to WLBC-9 and everything.”

“Okay, sure, if you think this is a good idea.”

“It wasn’t my idea,” said Alec. “I wanted to put it in the police station lockup but Odelia—wait, I’m passing the phone to her.”

“Mom, I think we can’t afford for this stone to go missing again. The last time it took thirty years for it to turn up, and also, we don’t know how it ended up on that beach. Maybe the people who took it lost it and are now looking for it. And also,” she lowered her voice, “I’m not surewe can trust the people here.”

“Here? You mean at the precinct?”

“Well, there’s been an incident.”

“What incident?”

“I interviewed Mr. Linoski, and five minutes after I left two cops showed up and told him Uncle Alec had asked them to come and pick up the diamond. Only Mr. Linoski had a bad feeling, and told them the diamond had already been picked up and wasn’t at the shop anymore.”

“Oh, dear.”

“Marge, Alec again,” said her brother. “Look, I’m still looking into this—maybe it was some kind of misunderstanding, I don’t know. But for now let’s just play it safe and keep that stone where only we know where to find it, all right?”

“If you think that’s best.”

“What’s the combination of the safe?”

“Oh, I have absolutely no idea. You’ll have to ask Tex.”

“Mom?” said Odelia, taking the phone from her uncle again. “I’m going to pick up the diamond, and I’m taking it to your place, okay? And if anyone asks? We never had this conversation, and you’ve never heard of the Pink Lady.”

“If you say so, honey,” said Marge, still feeling a little dazed by the coincidence. And as she placed down the phone and picked up her book again, she continued reading with even more fervor than before.

7