As Jefferson had said, for the next few days the trio of federal agents did nothing but wait impatiently, but nothing happened. Every call was received with anticipation but when it turned out that the call was not even remotely related to the diamonds, the enthusiasm ebbed away. For a week, nothing happened, neither at the bureau nor at the Wood Residence. The diamonds were safe, and the recommended arrangements had been made. A new guard had been hired whose sole purpose was to monitor the cameras and the security during the odd hours. Every letter or package for Agent Jefferson was monitored but nothing of interest came up.
Jefferson had begun to feel that it was wrong of him to act just based on an anonymous tip. After all, it could be just a spoof, someone with a twisted sense of humor making the FBI run around just for a laugh. Such thoughts were the major contributors to the elevation of Jefferson’s stress levels. On the other hand, Sam and Michael were not comfortable working with each other but individually, each one of them was keeping an eye on what went on at the Wood residence.
On the morning of the eighth day, Jefferson entered his office with a determined expression. He had decided to call David Wood and inform him that the claim of the diamonds being stolen was not true. He was about to pick up his phone when his mobile rang. The call was from David Wood.
Agent Brown said, “Hello David, I was just about to call you. Listen, about the claim that the diamonds will be stolen, I think…”
The impatient voice of David cut in and he shouted, “It has happened, Jefferson! The diamonds have been stolen!”
“What! When?” asked Jefferson.
“Last night.”
Jefferson did not waste any more time, he disconnected the call, informed Michael, and Sam about the robbery and within four minutes, they were on their way to the crime scene. Once they reached their destination, they were greeted by a distressed David Wood who did not look anything like the smart gentlemen they had met just over a week ago. Now, David was a nervous wreck.
Jefferson said, “Come on David, pull yourself together, tell me everything.”
“There is nothing to tell!” said David “Last night, before going to bed, I checked the diamonds myself and they were quite all right, and today morning they were gone while the guard outside the door lay unconscious.”
Sensing that the billionaire was clueless about how the robbery had taken place, Jefferson asked Sam and Michael to do a quick check of the CCTV footage and the security. The young agents left and were soon working and communicating perfectly. Both of them understood that even if they were not fond of each other, when there was work to be done, they had to put their differences aside and work as a team. And they did. They went over as much CCTV footage as they could, and they even checked if any alarms had been tripped but none of those incidents had taken place. The entire security staff was summoned and they were questioned if they saw something out of ordinary, but every individual gave the same answer, no one knew anything.
Walking up to Jefferson, Sam said, “Nothing. There is nothing to find, the CCTV footage had been looped somehow, and the alarms had been shut down. There was no evidence left behind and we have no idea how they did it.”
Michael said, “They looped the CCTV footage, which means they somehow gained access to the system, we need IT to go over it immediately.”
Jefferson nodded. “I have already called for the team. I have asked them to start from the lawn. I wanted to be the first one to check the room where the diamonds were kept.”
David Wood led the way up to the room in question and opened the door with a spare security card in his possession. The guard who had been posted outside the room was the one in possession of the original key and since he was knocked out, there was no way of knowing where the original key was, but the most obvious answer was that the thieves had taken it with them.
As soon as the agents entered the room, the first thing they noticed was not chaos but the absence of the same. Usually when a robbery went down, the expectations were that there would be a damaged container of jewelry, brutally attacked safe or some other violent display but this time, it looked as if someone had easily taken out the diamonds from the safe.
Michael rushed forward and said, “It’s all clean. It’s as if the diamonds were just picked up from an open display box.”
Jefferson looked up sharply and said, “But I thought that in order to open the case, David’s thumbprint was required.”
“Exactly!” exclaimed the victim “Now do you see why I am so distressed? They even had my thumbprint and they managed to evade the security without even raising a single alarm!”
So far, no one had looked into the safe, what mattered was that it was open and that it was empty, but now Agent Jefferson looked, and he felt an emotion that he had not felt in a long time – a complex composition of disbelief and surprise. The extent of the shock was such that he froze, for the first time in his life, Agent Jefferson Brown, the best of the best, froze in the face of evidence. This reaction on Jefferson’s part was completely justified. There are a few objects in everyone’s lives that force old memories to resurface, these memories may be good or bad, but when they resurface, they have a tremendous emotional as well as mental impact on the person and that was exactly what Jefferson was suffering from, because the case contained two interlaced silver rings of unequal sizes.
Seeing the odd manner Jefferson was behaving in, Sam and Michael peeked into the case, and they recognized the symbol immediately. This was not at all surprising, considering that the case had caused quite a stir in the FBI and was forever associated with Agent Jefferson’s name.
Michael said, “That is their symbol, but I thought they were apprehended.”
“They were,” said Sam “This is impossible.”
“No,” said Jefferson in a grave tone “we are dealing with a copycat, and by the work done so far he is at least as good as the originals, if not better.”
David was looking from one agent to another, and his mind was trying to make sense of the audio stimulus he was receiving, but so far, he was in the dark.
Finally, David said, “What are you talking about? You know who did this?”
“No, we don’t,” said Jefferson
“But you recognize the rings, don’t you?”
“That is another matter,” said Jefferson. His manner had changed from one of disbelief to one of attention and quick response. He could feel the adrenaline pumping through his veins while memories flashed in his mind.
After a moment he said, “Right, there is no use staying here any longer. I think we should check the footage once again and try to determine how the thief came in.”
Michael and Sam responded with energy and enthusiasm and within minutes, the officers along with the owner of the estate, were in the security control room. The tape was being played right in front of three pairs of trained eyes and yet, no one was able to make a breakthrough.
Suddenly Michael said, “Stop it, seeing a recording that is clearly looped will not help us in any way, we are just wasting our time, what we need to do is think. How could a person gain access to the room long enough to gain root access to the system?”
Sam grunted and said, “Only if it were that easy, without CCTV and without any witnesses, we have no way of knowing how the robbery was committed.”
Jefferson turned to David and said, “Are you sure the security staff did not see anything?”
David shook his head. “Like I said, there was no witness other than the guard outside the room where the diamonds were kept, and he is clearly in no condition to tell us anything.”
“What about the guard you hired recently? for covering the cameras and keeping an eye on the security during the shift change. Is he positive that nothing was amiss?” asked Michael.
“Well… I didn’t ask him directly.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was too distressed! Wait, I’ll just call him.” Saying this, David took his phone out of his pocket and calling his head of security, he said, “Send over the new guard.”
After a moment, his expression morphed into one of surprise, “What?” he exclaimed. David hung up the call immediately and said, “I just found out who did it.”
“Who?” asked Sam.
“The new guard, Dick. He hasn’t shown up today.”
Jefferson sighed and running over a hand on his forehead, he said, “It’s always an inside man!”
Now David was furious, he said, “I should have seen this from the very beginning, the man was rude, arrogant and snubbed everyone.”
Michael snapped at the sudden display of temper and said, “Look sir, all we can do now is try and catch him, that is if he is really guilty. It won’t do us much good to speak ill of someone while the responsible party get away.”
Sam nodded. “Yeah, I’ll alert the police and send a unit over to his house, we’ll get him soon enough.”
While Sam headed out, Michael turned to Jefferson and said, “Even if we get the guard, any smart thief will make sure to at least get the diamonds out of the city ASAP if not out of the country. We need to alert the airports and the docks; those are the fastest and the most convenient.”
Agent Jefferson nodded, and Michael headed out of the room as he dialed a number on his mobile. Now Jefferson was left alone with David in the room. The latter was pacing the length of the room frantically and wringing his hands. Jefferson could not help but think what a horrible time the man must be having.
“David, you need to calm down, we’ll get them back,” said Jefferson, in an attempt to ease the businessman.
David walked up to Jefferson and said, “You know what the diamonds meant for me Jefferson, their value was higher than any other set of diamonds I know of.”
“I would have thought their emotional value was of more concern to you.”
“Of course, that is a concern, but emotions cause emotional damage, but money causes financial damage, and you know as well as I do, that in today’s world money is everything.”
The blunt way in which David expressed his feelings somewhat disturbed Jefferson but he remained quiet. The man was in shock, and that was usually a time when they forgot to keep up appearance and just for a short interval of time, their true nature was revealed.
Sam walked into the room and said, “A unit is headed over to Dick’s house as we speak.”
“And I have alerted the airport and docks,” said Michael, walking in. “I think we should talk to your head of security, someone might have noticed if Dick were up to something, we would have a better chance of making him talk if we knew exactly what he did and how he did it.”
Agent Jefferson nodded. “That’s correct, David Call him in, we’ll meet him in the living room.”
A few minutes later a very worried looking man was sitting in front of three FBI agents and the situation was doing nothing to ease his nerves. Whenever a crime is committed, the first thought that occupies the mind of an innocent is what if the police suspected me? This thought compels the imagination of the person to think of certain far-fetched and horrible scenarios that have an exceptionally low chance of occurring but seem to be quite possible to the nervous wreck of a man. Simon, the head of Security, was also thinking about what would happen if he were arrested or interrogated in a manner which was portrayed in spy movies, what if they tortured him for a nonexistent confession and in the end, he was forced to admit to doing something which he did not?
Such thoughts were making Simon’s body react in a most inconvenient manner, firstly, he was sweating five times than he normally did, his heart rate was elevated, and his pupils were dilated. Although he tried to appear professional and mature, he was trembling from the inside like a five-year-old child who had been made to stand in front of a dangerous carnivore.
Jefferson said, “Mr. Simon, I understand that this is a most inconvenient situation and that you might be distressed or…”
Simon cut in and said, “Distressed? Who? Me? Oh no! I’m a professional sir. I’m not scared… I mean distressed! If anything, I am motivated to catch the man who slipped through my fingers.”
Jefferson nodded and said, “I see. Would you please tell us if you noticed anything odd about Dick’s behavior recently?”
“Recently?” scoffed Simon “The guy was a rude and arrogant animal, did not know how to talk politely, did not know how to behave with his superiors and mostly he irritated his coworkers and seemed to be against social contact of any sort.”
Michael and Sam looked at each other. This was the result of the standard FBI training both had undergone. The personality traits which the man had mentioned were found in more than sixty percent of the common criminals. But the problem was that this was not a common job, anyone pulling off a heist of this magnitude would try their best not to attract any unwanted attention, but Dick had clearly failed to do so.
“Did he show any signs of nervousness yesterday? Or did he do anything which might seem inappropriate?” asked Jefferson.
“Nothing more inappropriate than his usual behavior.”
After asking a few more questions, and receiving a few more fruitless answers, the senior FBI agent allowed Simon to leave.
While leaving Simon turned, and in a most ordinary manner, he asked, “I am not a suspect, am I?”
Jefferson looked at him and said, “I cannot answer that.”
With his expectation for a comforting answer crushed, Simon departed with his head full of dark torcher chambers and false confessions.
When he had left, Jefferson was about to say something when suddenly, Sam’s phone rang, he had just placed it next to his ear when his expression changed to one of surprise. Without a word, he disconnected the call and then looked at Jefferson and Michael.
“What happened?” asked Michael.
“That was a call from the unit trying to locate Dick,” replied Sam.
“And?” Jefferson prompted.
“And they found him. He has been hospitalised since early yesterday morning.”
Aurum Regium 