Chapter 19: Whore Corners

When someone asks me “How much?” I just naturally respond “How much what?” I never thought I’d come to regret that.

King of Prussia

After thawing out the family jewels, I called Grover. He was surprised to hear from me. In fact, I don’t think he remembered at first who I was. Oh, dear.

“Grover, I need to know about a piece of jewelry,” I said after we’d finally established who I was and he’d caught up. “It’s a necklace of Georgia’s that has a large square-cut amethyst pendant. Do you remember it?”

“Remember it! Why do you bring that up? The only thing we ever fought about and it’s gone forever now. I don’t want to have to talk about that,” he practically yelled into the phone.

“Grover, I’ve found it,” I said calmly. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you. A lot of people seem to be interested in it.”

“No, you can’t have found it now. She told me she lost it. It was the winter cotillion. I gave it to her to wear and she lost it. It almost ruined us. Her mother was dead and the one thing I had to give her, she lost the first time she wore it,” Grover sobbed. “We didn’t speak to each other for months. Then I realized we’d lose each other if we didn’t patch it up. We agreed never to mention it again. Oh, if only she’d known that she had it all along, we could have put it all behind us.” He was desperately weeping by that time and I was afraid the old man would have a heart attack right there on the phone and I’d have another estate to settle.

“Is there a story behind it?” I asked.

“Oh yes, a story,” he said. It seemed that was the right thing to ask because he settled right in and started relating the most improbable tale I’d ever heard.

“Back before the first World War in about ‘07, golly, more than a hundred years ago, Georgia’s great grandfather on her mother’s side was an advisor to the Kaiser of Germany who was also King of Prussia. He’d worked in the US Trade Department and was responsible for setting up trade agreements with several different countries. He ended up getting along so well with Kaiser Wilhelm that the Kaiser hired him for his own personal advisor on matters of international investment. And with Granddaddy’s advice, he did quite well for himself and his country. Well, before the war broke out, Granddaddy decided it was time to come back to the US and find a wife. Kaiser Wilhelm II was so fond of him that he gave him a jewel from the Prussian crown jewels as a gift. That amethyst is not a valuable stone of itself, but the mark of the King of Prussia that is engraved on the back of it would make it nearly priceless.”

I turned the pendant over in my hand. Engraved on the back was a symbol I didn’t recognize but was willing to bet it was the mark of the Prussian Crown Jewels.

“Grover, were there any other jewels?”

“Oh no. Granddaddy had a lot of treasures, but I don’t know of any that came down to Georgia. That one piece is worth the family fortune. I suppose it is yours now. That was our agreement.”

“Grover, I’m not taking advantage of you. I’m going to put it in a safe deposit box and we’ll get it back to you as soon as I close down the house here.” I hesitated before I went on. “And I don’t think Georgia committed suicide, Grover. She may not have been a perfect daughter or person, but I just don’t think she killed herself. I’m going to find out what really happened.”