1973 - Have a Change of Scene (12 page)

‘Larry?’ Sydney’s voice crackled over the line. ‘Are you listening?’

I didn’t give a damn about Mrs. P., the necklace nor come to that, Sydney. Rhea was still burning a hole in my mind.

‘I’m listening,’ I said.

‘For pity’s sake, concentrate, Larry,’ Sydney said urgently. ‘Please for my sake! You must come back! I can’t imagine what you are doing in that dreadful town! Do say you will come back and help me!’

Again the nudge of destiny. A few minutes ago I was thinking of suicide. If Sydney had wanted me to do anything else except try to resell the Plessington necklace I would have hung up on him. But this necklace, up to now, had been my greatest achievement. I had gained my reputation as one of the top diamond men by creating it.

My depression suddenly went away. My mind worked swiftly. Maybe another change of scene would get Rhea out of my blood, but I wanted a back door through which to escape if the need arose.

‘I’m still not right, Sydney,’ I said. ‘I get headaches and concentration isn’t easy. If I come back and sell you-know-what, will you give me more time off if I need it?’

‘Of course, dear boy! I’ll do more than that. I’ll give you one percent on the take and you can have six months off if you want it. I can’t be fairer than that, can I?’

‘What does she want for it?’

He buzzed like a bee trapped in a bottle again before saying, ‘I haven’t discussed it with her. She’s panting for money. I said I would consult you and you would talk to her.’

Again I hesitated, thinking of Rhea, then I made up my mind.

‘All right. I’ll leave right away. I should be with you the day after tomorrow.’

‘Don’t come by car. Come by air taxi. I’ll pick up the tab,’ Sydney said. ‘You don’t know what a relief this is to me! Let’s have a quiet dinner together. We’ll meet around nine o’clock at La Palma, what do you say?’

La Palma was one of the most expensive and exclusive restaurants in Paradise City. Sydney was certainly anxious to please.

‘It’s a date,’ I said and hung up.

During the two-hour flight back to Paradise City, while I was sitting in the little cabin, a thought like a black snake wriggling into a room slid into my mind.

There are old, fat, stupid creeps in this country worth millions.

Rhea had said that.

Why should I wait to become old, fat and stupid?

Why shouldn’t I become suddenly immensely rich?

I thought of Mrs. P.’s necklace. One million eight hundred thousand dollars! In my position as a top diamond man, knowing the big diamond dealers throughout the world, I was sure I would have no trouble in selling the stones, always providing I was careful. These dealers would jump at anything I had to offer.

I had often sold diamonds to them for Sydney, who always wanted to be paid in cash. The dealers never questioned this, as when Sydney bought from them he also paid cash, and - what was important - they accepted my receipt.

By breaking up the necklace, selling the stones to various dealers would present no problem. In my position at Luce & Fremlin I would have no need to worry, as Sydney no longer kept contact with these dealers. He left them to me to handle. They would pay me cash, thinking the money was going to Sydney and I would put the money in a Swiss bank. Disposing of the necklace was the least of my headaches, but stealing it so that no one suspected me was something else.

This seemed to me to be a challenge. Maybe I was useless as a hold-up man and gutless when it came to stealing a car, but this operation of stealing the necklace, although a problem, was, at least, in my neck of the woods.

I spent the next hour as the little plane droned on to Paradise City thinking of ways and means.

* * *

I found Sydney sitting in a discreet alcove, toying with a double martini. The maître d’ of La Palma restaurant conducted me to him as if I were a member of a Royal family.

As usual, the restaurant was crowded and I had to pause at several tables where my clients greeted me and asked after my health, but finally I reached the alcove and Sydney gripped my hand.

‘Larry, dear boy, you just don’t know how I appreciate this!’ he gushed and there were tears in his eyes. ‘You don’t look well , you look peaky. How are you? Was the flight a strain? I hate myself for bringing you back here, but you do understand, don’t you?’

‘I’m all right,’ I said. ‘Don’t fuss, Sydney. The flight was fine.’

But he wouldn’t leave it alone. First, he ordered a double dry martini for me, and when the maître d’ had gone he asked questions about my health, what I had been doing with myself and finally if I had missed him.

I was used to his buzzing and finally cut him short.

‘Look, Sydney, let’s get down to business. I’m a little tired, and after dinner I want to go to bed, so don’t let’s waste time about my health.’

The dry martini arrived and Sydney then ordered caviar, a lobster soufflé and champagne.

‘Will that be all right, Larry?’ he asked. ‘It’s light and nourishing and you will sleep well on it.’

I said it would be fine.

‘So she wants to sell the necklace?’ I said when the maître d’ had gone away, snapping his fingers at two waiters to ensure we got top service.

‘She came in yesterday quivering like a jelly,’ Sydney said. ‘I’ve known the poor thing for years, and she regards me as one of her closest friends. She confessed to me she just had to have a large sum of money and Henry mustn’t know. I thought at first she was going to put the bite on me, and my brain was simply spinning to think of an excuse, but she came right out with it. She had to sell the necklace, and Henry must - repeat - must not know. What would I give her for it?’

‘Gambling again?’

‘She didn’t say, but of course she must be in the hole for thousands. Of course, as soon as I knew what was in the wind, I enveloped myself in a smoke screen. I said you would have to deal with the sale. You were my diamond man and you could be relied on to be as silent as the tomb. I said you were out of town, but as soon as you came back I would ask you to call on her. The poor thing nearly peed herself. She said she couldn’t wait. When would you be back? It was terribly, terribly urgent. I said I would try to get you back tonight, and we left it at that. Well, you’re back. Will you see her tomorrow morning, Larry? You have no idea the state she’s in. She’s a nice, silly stupid and I hate to see her suffer. You will see her, won’t you?’

‘That’s why I’m here.’

The caviar arrived, and while we were buttering the toast I went on, ‘You have no idea how much she wants?’

‘I kept my little mouth shut about that. I didn’t want to spoil your ploy. I didn’t ask questions. It’s all yours, Larry.’

I spread the caviar on the toast.

‘This could be tricky, Sydney,’ I said. ‘You realise, of course, the necklace will have to be broken up? We couldn’t hope to sell it as it is. Publicity would start up again and if Plessington saw a photo of some other woman wearing the necklace, Mrs. P. would be shot down. I’ve been thinking about this in the plane. We could do a hell of a deal for ourselves: we might even sell those diamonds for two million dollars, but it would have to be worked carefully.’

Sydney’s eyes bulged.

‘Two million?’

‘The way I see it is this: I go talk to Mrs. P. I explain that if she is willing for us to sell the necklace as it stands, we will pay her a million, eight hundred thousand - what she paid for it. From what you tell me - and I’ll underline that the resale of the necklace will receive the same press treatment as when she bought it - once she knows this, she will be too scared to let us sell it as it is. Over that hurdle, I will explain to her the necklace will lose a lot of its value once it is broken up. I will tell her it will mean trying to sell the stones separately, and we couldn’t offer her more than nine hundred thousand. half the original price. If she agrees to this - and she might - then you pay her nine hundred thousand, and we have the necklace.’ I held up my hand as he was about to interrupt. ‘Let me finish. You must design a diamond collar that will take all Mrs. P.’s diamonds. I’ll get Chan to make up the collar and I’ll look around for someone either in South America or India or the Middle East and unload the collar on whoever it is for two million. You will then be making one million one hundred thousand dollars profit which seems to me to be a pretty nice deal.’

He sat back, his caviar forgotten. For a long moment he stared at me.

‘But we can’t do that!’ He looked shocked. ‘We can’t make a profit like that out of that poor, poor thing.’

‘This is business, Sydney,’ I said, spreading more caviar. ‘You ask Tom if we can’t do it.’

He threw up his hands.

‘Tom has the soul of a computer and a heart of a cash register.’

‘That’s why you are eating caviar.’

He munched for a few moments while he brooded.

‘You really think you can sell this necklace for two million?’

‘Why not?’ I was sure I couldn’t, but this was the bait I had decided to dangle under Sydney’s nose.

‘Even the Burtons might buy it for that, but it would be up to you to design a collar that would make every other diamond collar yet designed second class.’

His eyes brightened. This was the kind of challenge Sydney loved.

‘I’m sure I could do that! What a wonderful idea, Larry! What a clever puss you are!’

I saw I had him sold and I began to relax. We paused to drink some champagne, then I edged on to the really thin ice.

‘This will take time, Sydney. I’ll have to fly to Hong Kong. Chan will take at least a month to make the collar. It’ll take at least three or even five months to sell the collar. In the meantime what happens to Mrs. P.?’

He gaped at me. This hadn’t occurred to him.

‘I knew it was too good to be true! She can’t wait! I don’t believe she can wait a week!’

The waiter came and took away the plates. We both sat silent until the lobster soufflé was served and the waiter had withdrawn.

I then dropped my little bomb: not knowing if it would go off or not.

‘As I see it, Sydney, if we’re going to do this deal, you’ll have to lend her the money until the collar is sold.’

His eyes opened wide.

‘Nine hundred thousand?’ His voice went up into a squeak.

‘You lend it to her at six percent and finally you sell the necklace for two million,’ I said. ‘Ask Tom if this isn’t an outstanding deal.’

‘But I can’t afford to lend her all that money!’

‘I’m not saying you lend her the money. The firm lends it to her.’

‘Tom would never, never lend anyone anything even if it was Nixon!’

‘Okay, so you lend the money. Your bank will give you an overdraft. What have you to lose? You will get the necklace. Even if I can’t get two million for it - and I think I can - I’ll get what she paid for it. Even at that you will be doubling your money. Come on, Sydney this is a chance in a lifetime!’

He forked some of the soufflé into his mouth while he thought, and I saw a sudden greedy look come into his eyes.

‘Tom needn’t know about this, need he?’ he said. ‘I mean suppose I put up the money - my own personal money - then when you sell the necklace what you get would be my personal money wouldn’t it?’

‘That’s right less one percent commission for me.’

He looked at me a little narrowly. I saw he hadn’t thought of paying me a commission.

‘Yes one percent to you,’ and by his expression I saw he was trying to do sums in his head.

‘You will give me eighteen thousand dollars and you will deduct Mrs. P.’s nine hundred thousand and you will add Mrs. P.’s six percent on your loan and you will net yourself roughly eight hundred and eighty thousand which seems to me to be a nice profit.’

He thought some more, then, finally, he said, ‘I’ve got even a better idea, Larry, dear boy. Suppose you try to persuade Mrs. P. to sell the necklace outright for seven hundred and fifty thousand? After all it isn’t her money. I could sell stock to cover this amount, and then the necklace would be mine and I wouldn’t have to worry about Tom, would I? If I did that and you sold the diamonds for two millions, I could make a million and a quarter. that’s pretty handsome, isn’t it?’

‘I thought you didn’t want to make a profit out of the poor, poor thing,’ I said, trying to look shocked.

He shifted uneasily.

‘After all it was you who said this is business.’ He paused to peer at me. ‘Do you think you could persuade her to sell at that price?’

‘No harm in trying.’ I finished the last of the soufflé.

‘See what you can do tomorrow, Larry. I’m sure you can pull it off.’ Sydney snapped his fingers at a waiter and ordered coffee. ‘I tell you what I’ll do, you get the necklace for seven hundred and fifty thousand and I’ll give you two percent on the deal. I can’t be fairer than that, can I?’

‘And my air ticket to Hong Kong and all expenses,’ I said knowing there would be no Hong Kong.

‘Naturally, dear boy.’

‘Does Terry know about Mrs. P.?’

‘Don’t mention that unspeakable boy! I really must get rid of him!’ Sydney flushed with annoyance.

‘He really is becoming quite, quite impossible!’

‘Never mind that , does he know?’

‘Of course not!’

‘Are you sure? Mrs. P. came to see you. Didn’t he want to know what she wanted?’

‘We are not even speaking to each other!’

‘He couldn’t have listened?’ I was nervous of Terry. He knew too much about diamonds for safety.

‘No, no! When Mrs. P. came in, he was busy with a client.’

‘Okay. He mustn’t know, Sydney. In fact, no one must know, or Tom will get to hear about it. Strictly speaking, this deal should go through the firm. Tom would have reason to complain if he knew what we are planning to do.’

Sydney again shifted uneasily. He knew this as well as I did.

‘If I buy the necklace with my own money,’ he said a little defiantly, ‘it is nothing to do with Tom.’

‘But Mrs. P. is a client of the firm,’ I pointed out. I wanted to give him a guilt complex. ‘Now look, Sydney, so as to keep the firm out of it, you had better design the collar at home and not at the office. If I get the necklace you had better keep it at home and not at the office.’