Chapter 5: The Necklace

Marguerite Moncrieff had seated me at table thirty-one, between the service door and the fire extinguisher cabinet.

She meant it as an insult.

I looked at the extinguisher, the exit sign and the clear path to the loading dock and thought it was the best table in the museum.

"This is the worst seat in the room," Quincy said, pulling out my chair.

"It's the only one with a fire exit."

"I'll ask them to move us."

"Don't you dare. I'm going to tag it."

I stuck a HAZARD sticker on the extinguisher, which was inspected and fine, because I wanted the table to feel looked after.

The fundraiser was in the great hall, under a skeleton of a whale and four hundred candles.

I wore the dress with the tags tucked in at the seam.

Quincy wore a dark suit and stood two feet from me all evening, as per rule one, with his hands behind his back.

In the book, the Moncrieff sapphires went missing tonight.

They were a family necklace, three blue stones on a platinum chain, and Marguerite had decided to lend them to Posy.

"They look better on someone who is grateful," she told the room, and fastened them on Posy's neck herself.

Posy touched the stones and said, "Oh, I couldn't," and then she did.

Then Posy went to the ladies' room to fix the clasp, and I knew exactly how long she would be gone.

I took out my phone.

I propped it against the water pitcher, with its camera pointed at the open handbag on my lap, and I pressed record.

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