The Case of the Yellow Diamond (19 page)

 

Afterword

A
fter cleaning up the telephone recording I'd provided, the county attorney had what amounted to a full—if rambling and expletive-filled—confession from Richard Hillier. He and his buddy Anderson had indeed couriered and sold uncut diamonds that had been stolen and smuggled into the states toward the end of the Second World War. Hillier essentially confessed to killing Preston Pederson and Gareth Anderson and shooting at Calvin. Even though the man was dead, his guilt in all this was certain, which meant the danger to the family had ended.

Hillier's luggage had several pounds of rough diamonds, and Josie's father's will revealed a bank safe deposit box with a small fortune in uncut jewels, including a rare top-grade fancy yellow diamond. Its sale alone would secure Josie and Tod Bartelme's financial situation and pay for more diving trips to Yap, which they arranged and took as soon as they could.

Josie and Tod's most recent expedition had pinpointed the location of the bomber that carried Josie's granduncle. What new secrets might be revealed would wait for another season and another trip to the South Pacific.

Strangely, with the right wreck found, Josie seemed less interested in what might be discovered inside the shell of that bomber.

Tod and Josie explained all this to me when we concluded our business where it had started, in the shade of umbrellas on their deck overlooking a peaceful lake. I drove home through the hot summer afternoon to a cool gin and tonic and the love of my life.