Stolen with Style by Carina Axelsson

walked in.
    â€œIt seems she’s still after him.”
    â€œHave they been together?”
    Cazzie nodded. “Briefly, a few months ago. Brandon put an end to it, but Misty still likes him—so they say. And by the looks of it, that may be true. Anyway, I’ll call her back in a few minutes to try on some things. I’ll start with you instead, Axelle.”
    I turned and followed Cazzie back to the clothes racks. We were alone now, so as I started changing out of my clothes, I asked her to show me where she’d kept the diamond during Friday’s shoot.
    â€œActually,” she said, “I kept the diamond in the Juice safe downstairs until we needed it. I felt secure knowing it was there. We’re hardly the first magazine or client to have brought a valuable jewel onto the premises, and the safe is there for that purpose. Plus I had Ira outside in my car. I’d asked him to keep an eye open for any suspicious-looking characters going in or out of the studios, just in case. I didn’t mention the diamond to him, though—and he didn’t ask any questions. So I felt totally secure about keeping the diamond downstairs.
    â€œAnyway, we didn’t shoot the diamond until after lunch—it was the last shot of the day. Just before the girls went on set, I ran down and fetched it.” She nodded toward the studio door. “Nobody came with me, and nobody knew where I’d gone—except possibly Peter. He must have guessed. But like I said yesterday, apart from Peter, none of the others knew that we’d be shooting such a large and famous diamond.”
    â€œSpeaking of which,” I said, “didn’t anyone ask any questions about the diamond once you brought it on set and they had a chance to see it?”
    Cazzie nodded. “Absolutely. Especially Rafaela. She’s very into jewelry. If you check out her Instagram account, you’ll notice that at once. I remember that Misty wanted to try it on. But Chandra isn’t so into that sort of thing. She thought it was nice but really didn’t pay much attention to it. Peter and Brandon thought it looked amazing—which it does—and were eager to see it on set under the lighting they’d set up. Tom thought it could make a good hair ornament—he would. And Trish was only concerned with doing up Chandra’s hand. You remember how the diamond is set in a hand chain?”
    I nodded.
    â€œTrish had to apply makeup to Chandra’s hand to even out her skin tone—although we didn’t cover her wrist tattoo. I liked the contrast between that and the diamond.”
    â€œAnd did you say anything about how much it’s worth? Or who it belongs to? Anything like that?”
    Cazzie nodded. “Yes, stupidly I did. I’m kicking myself about it now, but at the time I really didn’t give it any thought. Again, I was working with a group of people I know well—and like. I didn’t spell things out for them in terms of the Black Amelia’s value, but we did talk about how much it might be worth, and, yes, Noah and Vanessa Tindle’s names were mentioned.” She paused for a moment.
    â€œAnd I did mention that I’d been personally entrusted with the diamond.” She winced as she said it. “Interestingly, considering I’ve only ever seen him wear beads, Tom was the only one who knew anything about the diamond—or at least he was the only one who openly said that he remembered reading something about it in some magazine article. He told us a bit about its past.”
    â€œSo the diamond was in the safe until you ran down to fetch it after lunch?”
    Cazzie nodded. “Although, actually, it wasn’t directly after lunch. First Trish and Tom retouched the makeup and hair, and then I got the girls dressed. Then I went down. It was at around 3:00 p.m.”
    â€œAnd then?”
    â€œI came back up here with it in my handbag. That