The Peculiar Case of Lord Finsbury's Diamonds: A Casebook of Barnaby Adair Short Novel (The Casebook of Barnaby Adair) by Stephanie Laurens

back should we start?”
     “When Kitty arrived at the house,” Penelope suggested.
     “No,” Griselda said, “earlier. What focused Fletcher and Kitty on the Finsbury household?”
     Penelope inclined her head. “An excellent point. What was the target of Fletcher’s scheme—at least to begin with? Was it the diamonds?”
     Stokes raised his brows and looked at Barnaby. “I should think it must have been. If I’m remembering my timeline correctly, Kitty started at Finsbury Court months ago, well before Fletcher introduced himself to Lord Finsbury’s notice.”
     Barnaby glanced at Penelope. “I gather the tale of the Finsbury diamonds would be well-known among the older ladies of the ton.”
     Penelope nodded. “Mama confirmed it was the one thing they all knew about the Finsburys.”
     “So,” Stokes said, “from one of his old dears, Fletcher hears of this fabulous diamond necklace—”
     “And being the sort of scoundrel he is, the details would constitute a definite lure,” Barnaby put in. “A fabulous necklace that hasn’t been worn for decades and that therefore might not be missed for months, if not years.”
     Stokes nodded. “So Fletcher and Kitty turn their sights on the Finsburys, and the first step is to get Kitty into the household, which they manage easily enough.”
     “And, moreover, they get Kitty into the right position,” Griselda pointed out. “As the parlormaid in a household of that size, she could move through almost any room, searching at will, without anyone thinking anything of it.”
     “Exactly.” Behind the lenses of her spectacles, Penelope’s eyes gleamed. “So Kitty searches, discovers the safe—and then what?” She appealed to the others. “How did they open it?”
     Stokes frowned. “Neither Fletcher nor Kitty have any record of burglary, but that doesn’t mean that at some point in their respective careers, they wouldn’t have learned some of the tricks of that trade.”
     “Indeed.” Barnaby glanced around the circle. “We haven’t seen Lord Finsbury’s safe, but chances are it’s an older type, and for anyone with the right training, opening one of those is simply a matter of knowledge, patience, and access.”
     A second passed, then Penelope said, “For our present purposes, let’s say that Kitty found the safe but that it was Fletcher who possessed the necessary skills to open it. That would explain why he joined the house party—it was the perfect way to spend several nights inside the house.”
     Griselda was nodding. “And Kitty was there to tell him how best to manage that. In her position she would have heard all the staff gossip—she would have learned that Lord Finsbury was looking for a wealthy gentleman for his daughter.”
     “Precisely,” Penelope said. “The staff always know things like that.”
     “So Fletcher knew exactly how to approach Lord Finsbury, knew exactly what story to spin to get himself invited to stay at Finsbury Court.” Barnaby paused, then went on, “So we have both Fletcher and Kitty in residence, and at some point the diamonds make their way into Fletcher’s hands.”
     “And then he engineers his departure in such a way that no one suspects that he’s simply up and left.” Penelope arched her brows high. “Actually, that was a very clever move. It left everyone focused on Frederick and Gwen—and I will never believe that when Fletcher pressed his attentions on Gwen, he didn’t know that Frederick would be hovering. That entire scene smacks of being carefully staged.”
     Stokes grunted. “It was a typical chiseler’s sleight of hand—make everyone look at the drama over there while he steals the silver—or in this case the diamonds. No one even thought of the diamonds.”
     “As witnessed by Lord Finsbury’s shock when they were returned to him.” Crossing his ankles, Barnaby leaned back. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves—Fletcher now has the diamonds and has