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“Only it wasn’t some old documents. It was a precious diamond that’s been missing for years,” said Odelia.

“But… how in the world did my dad get a hold of a diamond?”

“What line of work was he in?”

“He was an engineer. He worked for Spark, a company that designs and builds hydroelectric power plants.”

“Hydroelectric power plants,” said Odelia, musing on this for a moment.

“Yeah, he traveled all over the world to build those plants. He built them on every continent, and was very proud of what he did. When I was little me and my mom would travel with him to the most exotic places. But then when I got older they decided it was best for me to stay put and go to school. So Dad just came and went, sometimes staying away for weeks at a time. Though he tried to make sure to be home for all the important stuff.”

“How did he die?”

“Trouble with his ticker. He’d had a cardiac arrest on one of his trips, and hadn’t been the same since. Doctors told us that if it happened again, it might be fatal, and so he decided to take early retirement, and spend whatever time he had left with his family. And he did. He lived another ten years. But then he had another episode. It all went really quickly so he didn’t suffer.”

“Did he ever spend time in Khemed?” I asked.

Caroline Fossard smiled down at me.“Oh, how cute is that? It’s almost as if he’s trying to tell us something.”

“Yeah, cats are amazing creatures,” Odelia agreed. “So what I wanted to ask you: did your father ever spend time in Khemed?”

Caroline drew her brows up into a frown, and thought for a moment.“I’m not sure…” She swiftly got up and disappeared into the next room. We heard a drawer open and close, and moments later she returned with what looked like a large ledger and sat down next to Odelia, placing the book on the coffee table, which also held an ABBA coffee-table book. “Mom kept this,” she explained. “She wrote down the dates and destinations of every place Dad ever visited, and when he came home, he pasted pictures in here for me. It was like our family album, so we always knew where dad was when he wasn’t here.” She popped a pair of reading glasses on her noseand opened the book in the middle. “When did you say the Pink Lady disappeared?”

“Well, nobody seems to know for sure, but Laura Burns, the woman whom it was given to died in 1986, and as far as I can tell the diamond hasn’t surfaced since.”

“1986…” said Caroline, leafing through thick pages, festooned with pictures and airplane tickets and other memories of her dad’s travels. “Here we are,” she said. “In 1986 my dad was in Sweden to oversee work on a new power plant, and then later in the year he was sent to…” Her jaw dropped as she turned the page and stared at the inscription. “Khemed,” she said. “September to October 1986. He even took pictures.” Odelia scooted over to take a look. “See? He kept his hotel bill. The International Royal in Wadesdah, which is the capital of Khemed.”

Odelia held up her phone.“Can I…”

“Sure, go ahead,” said Caroline, who’d put a hand to her face and was shaking her head.

Odelia took a couple of pictures of the pages where Caroline’s father had documented his stay.

“I don’t get this. So my dad took a diamond that didn’t belong to him, and then kept it in a safe at the bank all these years and never told us? But why? Why would he do a thing like that?”

“Maybe he needed money?”

“So why didn’t he sell it? Why steal it and then keep it?”

“Maybe because he discovered he couldn’t sell it? It is a pretty famous diamond. Stones like that are very hard to sell. Nobody wants to touch them.”

But Caroline shook her head decidedly.“My dad wasn’t a thief. He just wasn’t. If he took that stone, there must have been a good reason, cause he sure as heck wouldn’t have stolen it.”

“Who’s that?” asked Odelia, as she pointed to a particular picture in the album.

“Oh, that’s Ken. Kenneth Cesseki. He was my dad’s go-to guy—an assistant of sorts. Real jack-of-all-trades. Ken always traveled with my dad. He was a company man. Not an engineer like my dad, but more like a fixer. He arranged the visas, and made sure the paperwork was in order and liaised with local authorities, that kind of thing.”

“Is he still…”

“Alive? Oh, yes. Though I’m not sure where he hangs out these days. Back when Dad was still with us, they used to meet up all the time, to talk about the good old days. I think Dad once told us he lived in Boston.” She tapped her lower lip. “I could always call Spark’s HR department. He might even still be on the payroll. Guys like Ken never retire. They just keep on going, like the Energizer Bunny.”

“Oh, please do,” said Odelia. “I just discovered that the diamond was stolen a second time—and I really need to find out what’s going on, and the best way is to dig into its past.”

“I’ll call them right away,” said Caroline, and got up to retrieve her phone. She disappeared into the kitchen for a moment, and we heard her talking to someone.