The Appraiser Who Priced a Murder Weapon by Mistake

Delphine had appraised estate jewelry for twelve years, and the emerald brooch brought in by a nervous young woman named Bettina seemed ordinary enough Victorian setting, decent stones, modest but respectable value. It was only when Delphine turned it over to examine the clasp that she noticed something engraved on the reverse, nearly worn smooth: a date, a set of initials, and beneath them, scratched in considerably rougher lettering, as though added later and in haste: forgive me.

"Where did you get this?" Delphine asked carefully.

"My great-aunt's estate," Bettina said. "She passed a few months ago. I'm just trying to figure out what everything's worth before the estate sale."

Delphine turned the brooch over again, an uncomfortable feeling settling in her stomach. The date matched, almost exactly, the disappearance of a woman named Serafina Loeb a case Delphine remembered vaguely from a true-crime podcast, unsolved for nearly sixty years, notable mainly because Serafina's engagement brooch, described in period photographs, had never been recovered.

She pulled up an old photograph on her phone, comparing it carefully against the piece in her hands. The setting matched. The stones matched. Even the slightly asymmetrical clasp, a manufacturing quirk mentioned in old newspaper coverage, matched precisely.

"I need to ask you something, and I want you to know I'm not accusing you of anything," Delphine said slowly. "Do you know how your great-aunt came to own this?"

Bettina's expression shifted to genuine confusion. "No idea, honestly. She never really talked about her past. Why? Is it valuable?"

"I think," Delphine said carefully, "it might be considerably more than valuable. I think it might be evidence in a sixty-year-old missing person's case."

Bettina went pale. "You're serious."

"I need to bring this to the police," Delphine said. "I'm sorry. I know this isn't what you were hoping to hear about your inheritance."

Bettina nodded slowly, still processing the shock. "If my great-aunt had something to do with... whatever happened to this woman, I want to know. Properly. Even if it's difficult."

to be continued... 💎🔍