The Diamond Necklace

“Sam, did you see the necklace Emily was wearing at the party”

“Yes, I saw that, yeah”

"What do you think?"

"well…yeah…looked cool on her”

“Must be expensive, right?"

“can’t say…what do you think?”

“A Vintage diamond necklace, something hard to find nowadays”

"Hmmm”

“I just loved it, wish it was mine”

“Ouch….these potholes”

“You have been driving ages on these streets, what’s new with the potholes”

“Yeah, I know, it’s been like this forever”

 "It’s a city problem, nobody cares!"

"I'm tired of driving and having to dodge them every time I drive. They should get it together and fix them!"

"It's ridiculous! I hear you"

"We pay so much in taxes and this is what we get in return? These…unmaintained roads and potholes galore? It's a disgrace. We should call the mayor and demand something be done about this."

"Nothing happens, besides we both are busy working most of our waking hours"

“True”

“One…sec…Uncle John is calling”

“Uncle John? At this hour? Put it on speaker…”

”Sure, Hello….hello Uncle”

“Hello….Hello Jennifer?”

“O’ hello Uncle? Long time? How have you been?”

“Nothing much, just living a loner’s life Tina, but no complaints, you tell me?”

“I can understand, after aunt Jennifer’s death last year, you must be lonely, I’m so sorry Uncle, next year we will surely pay a visit to you”

“Oh, that would be nice, come with Sam, last year when he was at the funeral, we both shared great bonding”

“Sure Uncle”

“Listen…its odd…but I just wanted to ask you…I don’t know how but, don’t mind…can I ask?…”

“C’mon Uncle, sure…go ahead! ”

“Its…its about the diamond necklace that your Aunt Jennifer used to wear, she had told me to gift it to you once I meet you, I have been looking for that diamond necklace for the past few days, but it’s nowhere to be seen, I just wanted to ask if it’s already taken by John and given to you or …”

“No, not at all Uncle, we don’t know anything about it, but that was an amazing necklace, I remember seeing Aunt Jennifer wearing it on her 50^th anniversary. So you thought it may be with us? ”

“Yeah, that’s the one I’m talking about, I’m getting so old, I forget things! So I just thought of checking with you if, by chance, I already gave it to John! I keep things in a place and forget about them”

“Oh Uncle, I wish we could help…but it's not with John, he would have told me otherwise, Sorry Uncle”

“Oh, no, I should be sorry for bothering you by asking. Hope you didn’t mind”

“Not at all Uncle, hope you find it soon, bye Uncle, good nite”

“Bye dear, take care”

--

“ What happened?”

“You heard it right?”

“Yeah, Uncle thought we have their necklace?”

“Yeah, maybe Uncle thought he gave it to you and forgot about it, as he’s unable to find it anywhere now”

“Oh, that’s not good”

“How much do you think it would be for?”

“What?”

“The necklace!”

“Well….I don’t know, but I thought it was an inexpensive old piece of necklace that nobody wears these days”

“You are wrong, it will cost you a fortune if you get it made today”

 “Oh is it, maybe …I don’t know, HEY….watch out you MORON!!!”

“Gosh! How do these people drive these days”

“Silly folks! Who gives them a license to drive on the road!”

“Hmmm”

"Listen, I …I may be late tomorrow?"

"From office?"

"Yeah, just working on a deck to show to the sponsors”

"Alright, so no dinner at home then?”

"Yeah, I’ll have something there itself”

"Where do you think, she must have bought it from?”

"Who?”

"Oh God…why do you forget…we were talking about Emily’s necklace"

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s from her family heirloom”

“Interesting”

“Yeah, I don’t know if we get such pieces nowadays”

“How do you know?”

“She was mentioning to someone, I just overheard it”

“Coming to think about the necklace, it looks similar to Aunt Jennifer’s necklace”

“Really?”

“Oh yeah, I remember Aunt Jennifer’s 50^th marriage anniversary and how she was flaunting that diamond necklace, the same way your secretary was flaunting her necklace tonight on her birthday”

“Well…diamonds are for flaunting, to each their own, but how do you remember so clearly about Aunt Jennifer, it was like a thousand years back”

“Well, long back for sure, but 9 years is not too long to forget”

“Alright”

“I will check once we are at home, I have some pictures from that event in my album”

“What will you check, I mean why are you so curious?”

 “Coz I think Emily’s necklace is quite similar to that, just want to confirm if they are the same necklaces or not”

“How will you confirm?”

I clicked Emily’s pictures while she was cutting the cake tonight, so I can easily compare them with Aunt’s pictures that I have in my album”

“I can tell you, you don’t need to do this, Aunt Jennifer lives 500 km away in Montreal, We are in Toronto, how do you think Emily would get Aunt Jennifer’s necklace?”

“From you Sam, It was you who went to Aunt’s funeral last year, And you were the nearest person to her, right?”

 “Yeah, So? where are you getting at..?”

““I’m just thinking out loud, is it not possible that you got the necklace from there, but you gifted it to your secretary”

“Ha ha ha”

“Am not joking Sam”

“You seriously think I will do such a thing?”

“Why not?”

“Look…there may be 100s of such vintage necklaces in the market?”

“Not a possibility, especially the one that was worn by your secretary tonight and the one that Aunt used to have”

“But what makes you think that it’s a similar necklace?”

“Coming to think of it, it’s a classic solitaire design that looks familiar, and the shape of the diamond pendant looks like a character “J”. Besides, Uncle says he might have given it to you. Am just trying to join the dots!”

 “Listen, I don’t know where you are getting these ideas from, I just went there, paid my respects, and was back the very next day, nobody gave me any diamond necklace, nobody even remembered it during the funeral, and if it was to be given to me, I would have obviously told you about it.”

“Or maybe, instead of gifting it to me, you kept it somewhere in the safe, and then you gifted it to your young and beautiful secretary”

“I have a different theory, Aunt gave the necklace to someone who sold it to somebody and then Emily may have bought it”

“Quite an impossible co-incidence I would say, how come the necklace traveled from Montreal to Toronto”

“Gosh, I don’t know what to say, you do have some trust issues and I really cannot do anything about it”

“Don’t worry, we will come to know soon, once we reach home, I will compare the pictures”

“Okay sure, do what you want!”

“If you are clean, you have nothing to worry my dear husband! But in case you did it, tonight will be your worst night ever! Let me get down this side, I am curious to check…”

“Go ahead, I’ll park my Car on the other side and be back”

“You bet”

---

“Hello, hello Uncle”

“Hello, yes John speaking”

“Sam this side Uncle, Tina told me about the necklace you are not able to find”

“Yes, yes Sam, I’m so sorry, I should not have called Tina, but somehow I felt I might have given it to you”

“No Uncle, could you check the secret locker inside the closet, I’m sure it must be there”

“Really, let me check it right away”

“Yes, I’ll be on hold, so you could tell me”

“Just a second my son, am almost there, let me check…oh! Oh yeah… it's there…looks like the same diamond necklace that my Jennifer used to wear”

“See…I told you”

“Thank you so much, Son”

“Not a problem, just could you do me a favor, while I’m going upstairs, can you please call Tina right now and tell her you found it, she was stressed about it”

“Of course, I will just call her now, thank you”

“Yeah, let me have a puff before I go upstairs now”

---

“Oh Sam, I am so sorry, it's indeed a different necklace the design is unique in both the necklaces, Although they looked so similar, a few things are unique in both, and…”

“And…

“And Uncle John also called a minute back and told me he found the necklace”

“So you see, you should not have doubted me”

“Oh, I’m so sorry dear”

“Don’t you ever doubt my integrity again, its hurtful”

“I won’t, it’s a promise, my apologies”

“Glad!”

---

“Hello Sam, how are you, my dear boss? I have been waiting for your call”

“Oh Emily, am calling you from the stairs, now that Tina is sleeping”

“Everything all right with her?”

 “Yeah, just wanted to tell you, we were almost caught. But you did a good job of getting the changes done on the necklace after I gifted it to you, you saved me from big trouble”

“So your wife did compare it, right? I had told you she would”

“Oh yeah, she did. She was doubtful about it. Luckily your necklace seemed distinct when compared with my Aunts.”

“Awesome, and thanks again for this gift honey”

“Thanks to you Emily! Your plan of arranging a duplicate necklace for me that I eventually placed in my Aunt’s closet during the funeral time was also helpful. Now Uncle thinks he still has the necklace”

“See, all my plans work!”

“Okay, see you tomorrow in the office honey, we will have Dinner together”

“Can’t wait”

“Bye”