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“Exactly! So we went to bed feeling pretty good about ourselves, only to be woken in the middle of the night by a persistent banging on the door of the suite. And even before we managed to open the door, it was busted open and an entire contingent of cops or soldiers or security people or whatever they call it down there came bursting into our room, and before we could ask what the hell was going on, they’re wrestled us to the floor, handcuffed us, put bags over our heads and were carting us off!”

“You were arrested?”

“Arrested, tried and kicked out of the country, all in the space of an hour, and in the middle of the night, no less.”

“But why?”

“We were hauled in front of some kind of judge, and as far as we understood from the court-appointed lawyer we were being charged with insulting the Sheikh. Turns out that it’s illegal for a so-called commoner to talk to any of the Sheikh’s wives. And not only had we talked to Laura, we’d been alone in a room with her, with not a single other person present, which was considered a crime. For a moment it looked as if we might be hung, drawn and quartered, but in the end the fact that the Sheikh really wanted that dam built saved our hides, and so we were exiled instead. Exiled never toset foot in Khemed ever again.”

“My God, that must have been terrible.”

“We used slightly stronger language to describe the experience, I can tell you.”

“But didn’t Laura know that it was illegal for her to associate with you?”

“She must have known, but either she threw caution to the wind, because she was so eager to talk to a couple of Americans, or she was misinformed. But that’s where our Khemed adventure ended, and not a high note either.”

“So what happened to Laura?”

“Well, it wasn’t long after that she died.”

“Jeez.”

“Yeah. So I have no idea if she was sick, but I can tell you that when we met her she was in great shape.”

“What was the official cause of death, do you know?”

“Nothing was communicated as such, but we heard through the grapevine that she’d suddenly gotten very ill, was taken to the hospital and died within a couple of hours.”

“Died from what?”

“No idea. You have to understand that Khemed is one of those countries where everything is hush-hush. So whatever really happened to her, we’ll probably never know.”

Odelia chewed on this for a moment while Ken took another sip from his umbrella drink.“So the thing is, Ken, that I’m investigating the Pink Lady, specifically how it ended up in Hampton Cove.”

“Oh, that’s right. You wanted to ask me about that diamond, didn’t you?”

“Yes, turns out that Craig kept it in a safe at the bank all these years, until the bank was burgled and the diamond was stolen, then lost again, only to be found by a little girl playing on the beach. Now I talked to Caroline, and she was as surprised as anyone that the Pink Lady would have beenin her dad’s safe. He’d told them the safe only contained some old documents and work stuff.”

“Uh-huh.”

“So do you have any idea how a diamond that used to belong to the wife of the Sheikh ended up in your colleague’s safe?”

Ken took off his ball cap and scratched his scalp at this point.“Well, now, that is a darn peculiar story, Odelia. And for the life of me I can’t tell you how Craig got his hands on that diamond.”

“Laura didn’t give it to you by any chance?”

“No, I can’t say that she did.”

“Was she wearing her engagement ring when she came to see you that day?”

“Honestly I wouldn’t know. I’m not the kind of guy who notices that kind of thing.” He pulled a funny face. “Ask me half an hour after this conversation what you were wearing and I’m sure I’ll draw a complete blank. She could have been wearing her ring, and it could have been that famous Pink Lady, but I didn’t pay attention and I’m pretty sure neither did Craig.”

“But somehow Craig must have come into possession of that diamond.”

“It sure looks that way. But I gotta tell you, Odelia, this comes as much as a surprise to me as it does to you and Caroline. How did Craig get a hold of that rock? It’s a real head-scratcher.”

“He never told you about it?”

“Nope. And to be honest, when we were arrested we were also searched, the both of us, and our luggage was confiscated, so we left that country with only the clothes on our backs and nothing more. Though later on our replacements did manage to get some of our stuff back, and also the plans we’d been working on.”

“But no diamond.”

“No diamond.”

Odelia thought for a moment.“This is such a baffling mystery, and I really want to get to the bottom of it.”

“Yeah, and I sincerely hope you do, and that you can tell me all about it when you manage to crack the code, so to speak.”

Odelia was clearly disappointed, but she hid it well.“Well, thank you for your time, Ken.”

“No sweat. There’s nothing much for me to do here, except to drink, party and be merry, and even though that sounds like something a lot of people would dream of, even paradise gets old after a while, Odelia, trust me.”