The Diamond Thief by Sharon Gosling

the Tower – Little Bird! I knew it! You did take it, didn’t you?” he asked, his anger flaring again. “The Darya-ye Noor. All this nonsense about Lord Abernathy – you were just trying to throw me off the scent. So look, I’m going to give you another chance – and let me tell you, you don’t have many of those left, Rémy Brunel. Where is the jewel?”
    “I. Do. Not. Have. It,” she said, very slowly and deliberately.
    “Then you sold it. Who to? Where has it gone?”
    She shook her head and looked at J. “You said he was a good listener.”
    “‘E usually is,” the boy said lamely. “‘E’s just a bit riled up, ain’t ‘e? Tell the truth, I don’t fink either of you are being much ‘elp to the other, are yer?”
    “Quite right, my boy, quite right,” chipped in the Professor. “Now, obviously I am a newcomer to these events, but it seems to me that there is a lot of talk with no real meaning. Miss Brunel – it is Miss Brunel, isn’t it? Yes. I am going to get you some water and a cloth, and while you bathe your poor feet you can tell us exactly what happened. Hmm?”
    He bustled off as Rémy turned her face to stare into the fire, its orange flames reflected in her large, fierce eyes. The Professor returned a few minutes later with a bowl of water and a towel and placed it in front of the girl, who nodded gratefully and dipped one foot after the other into the welcome warmth.
    “Now then,” the Professor began. “I’ve known Thaddeus for a long time. I’ve watched him grow from a dirty urchin of a boy to become a good and trustworthy man. So, I am going to ask him what it is he has against you because whatever it is, he must have good reason. And then you will have your chance to reply. I gather, Thaddeus, that you think Miss Brunel is at the heart of your misfortunes.”
    Thaddeus swallowed his anger long enough to reply. “I saw her at the Tower on the night the jewel went missing. I was given it for safe keeping, I saw her face – and then it was gone. She stole it. She’s the reason that the police think I am a thief.”
    The girl looked up at that, and he saw genuine surprise in her eyes. “They blame you?” she asked.
    “They think I took it.”
    She nodded thoughtfully. “Well, then. It seems Lord Abernathy has played us both for fools, Mr Policeman.”
    Before Thaddeus could speak again, the Professor held up his hand. “Rémy. Tell us what happened. No lies, do you understand? The truth, my dear. It may not set you free, but it really does make life so much simpler. Yes?”
    She stared at the fire again for a moment before nodding. “I was there to take it. The Darya-ye Noor. I tried to take it. I thought I had.” She looked up at Thaddeus. “I took it from your pocket. But I did not steal the Darya-ye Noor.”
    “At last!” Thaddeus exclaimed. “A confession!”
    Rémy Brunel shook her head. “You are not listening to me. It was not the Ocean of Light that I took. I thought it was. I had intended to take it. But…”
    “But?” prompted the Professor.
    “When I got back to the circus – when I gave it to my master, to Gustave – he saw that it was a fake. I saw that it was a fake. The stones had been swapped, and that must have happened when the plinth was smashed because the stone I saw under glass was real, I swear it.”
    “Swapped?” Thaddeus spat, after a moment, “Of course they weren’t swapped! What sort of idiot do you take me for?”
    Rémy looked up at him. “They were. And if you did not swap them, then it must have been Lord Abernathy. It makes sense, does it not? Who would believe a frail old man, and a lord at that, would stoop so low as to steal? No one, of course. No one did. A perfect crime, you could say, especially since there were others – you and me – to take the blame.” There was a brief silence and then she added, “So you see – you and I, Thaddeus Rec – we are the same.”
    “We are not the same,” he said immediately.