Chapter 11: Revelations

Buechler's Jewels and Pawned Goods: Downtown London. 12:45 pm.

Luke & Clive surveyed the scene after their ordeal with Flora. In a space of a second, An unknown gunman had attempted to snipe them from a nearby rooftop after they had obtained the necklace on the pawn ticket.

They had contrived to survive unharmed, but Flora didn't see the shooter and was hit. Although the bullet merely grazed her arm, it still knocked her out. Clive had raided the washroom and taken the first aid kit, he wrapped the wound to stop the bleeding and propped her against the building wall.

Luke surveyed the aftermath of the attempted ambush. The front window glass had shattered, undoubtedly due to a second bullet, which had completed the job of killing two birds with one stone as the bullet had also killed Buechler by penetrating the left pectoral in his upper torso. It was too late to save him, but they had to press on without him nonetheless.

"It's good that Flora is in good hands," Commented Luke, studying Flora as she recovered, "I'm surprised that the necklace is intact as well."

Clive nodded, The necklace still in his hand. It had obviously been the assassin's target all along, but Flora had unknowingly stepped in his line of fire as he had took the shot, She had moved out of the way as the bullet traveled towards them but the bullet had found it's mark on her arm. It had only grazed her skin, but had Flora keep her arm in it's path, it would've entered her arm and possibly chipped a bone, and they would've had to call a medical team to tend to her injury, which, by their standards, would be catastrophic.

Clive was about to pocket the necklace when something caught his eye. Not the Jewels that neatly showcased it's beauty, but the substance leaking from them.

"What is that?" Said Luke, squinting to get the best possible view.

His eyes were not made for close up examination. So he and Clive had to improvise. Clive stayed with Flora while Luke ran into the Pawn Shop, kicking broken glass from his path as he reached the examination table behind the counter. He scanned the drawers until he found a Jeweler's eye glass from the highest drawer near the diamonds display. He trained the glass on his left eye and set the jewelry on the counter.

He meticulously scanned each diamond, taking notes as he went, each note for looks, density and value. Something about the diamonds still left the puzzle-minded youth racking his brain. He grabbed a book about diamonds from the back room and compared each one to the diamonds on the necklace, some checked out with further examination, such as the Green Emerald or the Red Ruby. But some, like the Blue Sapphire, still didn't cut any ice with Luke. He had seen his Mother wear Diamonds on many occasions, especially during gala events she and Clark would attend. His father would make sure his wife's jewelry was completely genuine before purchasing them. He sketched each suspicious diamond's appearance, shape and color into his notebook, then compared them to the diamonds in the reference book.

As he compared the first one, Luke did a double take at his results. His suspicions were sound from the moment he saw it. It was a fake! He did the same to the others he had singled out, only this time he acquired a carving knife from a display case and carefully pried each diamond lose from the necklace. It was tight, but Luke compensated by using the smallest one for the job. Soon all three diamonds were free, which made Luke do a double-take: each fake diamond had a thin white stripe that ran across each side of the diamonds. Not a common factor, he noted.

He chipped a sliver of the white substance onto his hand, the texture was rough and edgy, like plaster or dried glue. but it was smooth, so glue was out of the question. That meant it was, without a doubt, plaster!

Luke finally began to analyze his notes. Obviously the necklace had been the handiwork of a professional jeweler, and the Plaster was used to ensure the Jewels would hold together in place. Luke chipped another digget from the Diamonds he had singled out. The second green one, for example, had been painted over it's original hue to make the diamonds seem more rare. The texture was, again, edgy. But this time, it was purple. Obviously, the diamond had been covered in Plaster, which, in turn, had been mixed with purple coloring and the diamonds were therfore dipped in the colors and hardened overtime. This Jeweler was clever, too clever.

Clive arrived at the counter with Flora as Luke closed his notebook, "Have you any progress, Luke?"

"You can say that. More specifically: I can confirm that this necklace is, in more ways than one, A fake."

"What do you mean, more ways than one?" Flora asked.

Luke knew this would be more than a mouthful, "Someone commissioned to have this made." He showed them the necklace," However, it would seem that whoever made it took a few unnecessary precautions to ensure it would stick like glue," he almost chuckled. he made a joke. Now there's something that didn't happen every day.

Luke pointed out his findings to Clive and Flora, the two taking in every word.

"I had a feeling that there was something strange about the necklace the first minute we got it." Said Clive.

Luke agreed, "It doesn't seem like something a Jeweler can make over the weekend." Then he turned to Beuchler's body," We'd better call Scotland Yard to report Mr. Beuchler's death. Then meet The Professor at Ratham Hall."

Flora Dialed Scotland Yard on the office phone while Luke put the necklace into his bag for later. Better to have evidence to further his recent revelation than to appear before his mentor with nothing to show for it.

Layton & Patrick took the next bus to Ratham Hall. Ross and Emmy stayed back at Cher's apartment to clean up the body and would meet them later on. Layton had recovered from the gruesome sight he had just seen. Something boiled in his mind like hot water. Someone was orchestrating all these deaths over so many days that Layton was starting to think that someone was trying to Destroy Sir Ratham and those associated with him. Or... someone was protecting him.

His Train of thought was interuppted by Patrick, "Professor, This is our stop."

"Oh. Yes, of course." He came back to reality and joined Patrick at the sidewalk, and they completed the walk to Ratham Hall.

Luke, Flora & Clive were waiting inside the sitting room. Miss Perry was standing sentry near the double doors, waiting for the others to arrive. Luke was still imersed in his latest find that he didn't know how to explain to Professor Layton what they had found. Well, he'd find out soon enough.

Layton & Patrick were admitted at once, but for once, Vivian wasn't present. Most unlike her. But they knew that it was important to have patience, there was plently of time to expect her arrival. Just so long as she knew her presence was necessary at this time.

Vivian arrived after a considerate amount of time. She seemed to be in quite a quiet mood, She wore her boarding school outfit, but Layton didn't think that she had done anything school related today: For one, a trace of soot was present on her ear, and two, she seemed to have a tinge of gunpowder on her breath. Very unlike her. although she had showered to remove the stench, she didn't proceed at removing the gunpowder or the soot.

"Excuse me," she said, Acknowledging the others in the room, "I apologize for being late."

"Not at all, dear," Said Layton, "you can, however, be seated so as we can analyze the day's events." She did so. And Layton stood in the center.

"Now that you're sitting comfortably, I shall begin," and he rattled off about his findings of the day at Cher's apartment. Emmy and Ross didn't arrive throughout his testament, possibly they had adjourned to Scotland Yard after cleaning up the crime scene. Nothing to worry about there. Scotland Yard Detectives often had to return there anyway to draw up their report of the day's events and then adjourn to their living quarters. Which Layton would do as well, once their meeting had adjourned as well.

"You mean...the woman who was to sing at my reception was murdered today because of what she did?"

"There's no confirmation of that as of right now." Said Patrick.

"But there is a confirmation of this." Said Luke, vigorously extracting the necklace from his satchel and placing the contents on the table.

"What is that, My boy?" Layton asked, "That is a very rare necklace."

"It's rare. But that's not all." Luke explained to Layton the contents of the necklace including the results of his discovery, as well as the events the attempted assassination. Layton took note of every word Luke delivered during his testimony, and before his story was finished, a thoughtful frown creased across his forehead, he rubbed his chin with the bottom of his thumb.

The entire room was silent for several minutes, which, By Luke's Standards, (and even Flora's) was quite unexpected. Usually Luke's words would only cause silence if he was alone in the room, But now he had his Mentor, His Best Friend, and a few other people in the room as well. It was so sudden that even Luke himself was stunned.

"My word..." Layton broke the ice that had froze the room for the past 30 seconds, "That is quite a revelation, my boy. I never thought you'd figure this out yourself...Much less involving Jewelry.

Luke almost raised his voice a few notches, "Has all the time I spent on this for naught?"

"Of course, not. My Boy." he said, "Forgive me. I was wrong to doubt you."

"I concur," Said Patrick, "That necklace is quite valuable to be in your hands."

"Especially because the majority of the diamonds are fraudulent," Said Layton. "I must admit, I was almost thrown by them at first glance. they definitely are fakes, despite their appearances."

Flora yawned quietly, though Layton noticed on the spot.

"Well, now. I propose we adjourn and return home for the night. We still have quite a ways to go before we reach a conclusion."

The others nodded in agreement, though they looked barely fatigued. Luke and Flora followed Layton to the bus stop to return home to London. Luke would get off at Scotland Yard to Show Emmy The Necklace, knowing that with his testimony; It would be sufficient evidence to use in the case, Especially if it was connected to the recent events that happened throughout the day.

Back at Layton's Flat, Flora was musing herself with a good book while Layton was in his study preparing for his lecture tomorrow. Flora had become an avid fan of the Professor's book collection. The majority of them were classics that were long out of print, many of which included: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and Gone with the Wind.

Flora, on the other hand, enjoyed Murder Mystery Novels became she enjoyed the suspense better than most books she had read, such as Little Women or Pride and Prejudice. The Novel she was currently reading was Murder on the Orient Express By Agatha Christie. Flora had reached the middle by the time she thought back to the first time she had traveled by Train. This had happened over a year and a half ago, when Layton & Luke were traveling to the town of Dropstone, a village in the European countryside. They were following a train ticket found at the crime scene of Dr. Andrew Schrader, Layton's former Mentor, who was presumably died when Layton & Luke discovered his body.

The Train had a three hour layover at Dropstone, where Flora had been locked away By Don Paolo and had dressed up in her place and followed Layton on the trail of the Elysian Box, Which Schrader had acquired before his presumed death, and all Flora knew was that she had been kidnapped and locked away, Layton and Luke had stopped at Misthallery during their return journey to find Flora and make the journey back. Since then, Luke had made it his mission to keep tabs on Flora at all times, something Flora found quite lovely.

Flora's thoughts turned to Luke instantly. Luke and Flora's friendship had soared to great heights since the Train trip, especially the visit to the Dropstone Fair. She was disappointed that they weren't able to share their dance at The Ball at Ratham Hall, but maybe after they had finished the case, perhaps the chance would come. All Flora could do was hope.

Flora glanced at the Clock, it was ten o clock. She put her book on the bookshelf and retired to her room for the night as Layton walked all of his study to retire to his own room. Unaware of what would await them tomorrow.