Part 2: The Appraiser Who Priced a Murder Weapon by Mistake

Detective Rosalind Cade arrived at the shop within the hour, examining the brooch carefully before confirming what Delphine already suspected. "This matches the description from Serafina Loeb's case file almost exactly. If your great-aunt owned this, Ms. Ashford, she was very likely connected to her disappearance somehow."

"My great-aunt's name was Constance Ashford," Bettina said, voice unsteady. "She was in her nineties when she passed. If this happened sixty years ago, she would have been young then — twenties, maybe."

Rosalind pulled up the original case file on her tablet, cross-referencing names. "Serafina Loeb was engaged to a man named Edwin Whitmore at the time of her disappearance. According to the file, Edwin was questioned extensively but never charged, insufficient evidence. He claimed she'd simply left him, run off with someone else."

"Do you have any record of my great-aunt being connected to either of them?" Bettina asked.

Rosalind searched further, her expression sharpening. "Actually yes. Constance Ashford is listed as a witness in the original file. She worked as a housemaid for the Whitmore family at the time. Her statement corroborated Edwin's account that Serafina had left willingly."

"So she lied," Delphine said slowly. "Or knew something she never disclosed."

"The brooch itself might tell us more than any of us currently understand," Rosalind said. "May I take it into evidence? I'd like our forensics team to examine it properly, and I want to pull whatever additional records exist on both Constance and Edwin."

Bettina nodded immediately. "Please. I want to know the truth, whatever it turns out to be."

Over the following days, Rosalind's investigation uncovered considerably more than a simple inconsistency. Bank records recovered from the estate showed Constance had received a substantial, unexplained payment from Edwin Whitmore exactly one week after Serafina's disappearance payment that continued, smaller but steady, for years afterward.

"That looks like hush money," Delphine observed, reviewing the financial records Rosalind had shared with her, given her unusual role in the case's origin.

"It does," Rosalind agreed grimly. "Which suggests Constance knew considerably more about what happened to Serafina than her original statement indicated. The question now is whether she was simply covering for Edwin, or whether she was involved more directly."

to be continued... 💎⚖️