Laurie made a mental note to contact Cynthia Vance as soon as possible. The possibility of the bracelet being connected to Virginia’s murder had never been considered, but it would be nice to have this one loose thread tied up.
“You told the police that Virginia was upset when she went up to the roof—as if she’d been arguing with someone. We’ve learned from a different witness that her son and son-in-law were seen arguing earlier in the temple room. Is it possible that she had a confrontation with one of them?”
“I have no idea who she was talking to. It was hard for me at the time to even explain to the police why I had the impression she’d been in a tiff of some kind. She never said that, to be clear. She just said she wanted to be alone and needed some fresh air. But she was looking back toward the party with an expression I would call a glare. I definitely had the impression that she was annoyed with someone and wanted a break. She had told me once that the roof was one of her favorite spots in the city. It never dawned on me she’d be in danger there. I warned her it would be cold out there. She said she didn’t intend to stay more than a few minutes.”
Laurie asked a few more questions, but it was clear that Marco had told them as much as he knew. “I really appreciate your willingness to talk to me,” she said, “especially given the way we brought you here this morning.”
He held up both palms. “No hard feelings. In my line of work, I understand that you do what you need to do to get the right result. And whether it’s now or down the road, I do hope you’ll consider me for your security needs, Ms. Pierce.”
Charlotte promised that she would follow up, and Laurie believed her.
As Marco was about to leave, he turned back around. “Good luck with your show, Laurie. My biggest regret of my career is not going up to the roof with Mrs. Wakeling. I wake up sometimes in the middle of the night, picturing her falling.”
46
Laurie’s next stop was the Metropolitan Museum. She had called Sean Duncan, the head of security, after her interview with Marco Nelson. After initially trying to avoid anything negative about Marco, Duncan confirmed that Marco’s girlfriend had used a concealed pocket within her purse to steal merchandise from the store and that the museum never had any direct evidence to implicate Marco. According to Duncan, if it had been up to him, the Security Department would have handled the matter differently, but the prior boss had been the one to suggest to Marco that it might be better for everyone if he moved on, which Marco had been considering in any event.
Duncan also confirmed that the curator of the exhibit, Cynthia Vance, was still employed at the Met and offered to put Laurie in touch with her. When Laurie explained why she was calling, Cynthia suggested that they meet right away.
Now Laurie was seated in the members’ dining room of the Met, enjoying a cup of coffee and an enviable view of Central Park. Cynthia Vance smiled at her from across the table. She was probably in her early sixties, with curly auburn hair, a round face, and rhinestone-adorned glasses resting on the top of her head. Her smile was warm and broad, and she radiated a hum of energy. “The bracelet,” she announced, pressing her palms together for emphasis. “I was so angry that we lost it.”
“When did you notice?”
“Not until after the exhibit was over, and I still blame the mono. I was out for weeks—more than a month, actually. I mean, mono is awful for anyone, let alone at my age, and the timing literally could not have been worse. I had the exhibit all planned, thank God, and nearly all of the work had been done. I thought I just had a bad cold and was trying to power through, but two days before the opening, I woke up feeling as though I’d been hit by an eighteen-wheeler. Once my doctor said I had mono, the director of the museum gave me strict orders to stay home. They can’t have one of the curators infecting hundreds of patrons. I had to oversee the rest of the work by Skype. My poor staff—I had them running around the galleries with iPads, scanning every inch so I could inspect every last detail. It’s the only gala I’ve ever missed. I still need to find an occasion for my amazing dress—inspired by Mamie Eisenhower if you can believe it. Very retro.”
“You didn’t notice the bracelet missing when you got back?”
“Right. The bracelet,” she said, getting herself back on track. “So, by the time I got back to work, it had been weeks since I’d seen my own exhibit. Each piece was gorgeous, and I was so proud of the work we had done to tell a compelling story about the changing role of an American first lady. But, honestly, I was catching up after missing a month of work, and perhaps wasn’t overseeing the details as closely as I would have if I weren’t so far behind. After the exhibit was dismantled, I was inventorying all of our pieces to return them to the lenders. And, for the life of me, I could not find that darn bracelet.”
“That seems like a big thing to miss.”
“Well, I certainly take it seriously. But the reality, Laurie, is that we have, literally, hundreds of thousands of items in this museum, some of them extremely small—an arrowhead, a bullet, a little charm bracelet in this instance. Things get repaired, moved, lent to other museums, and, very occasionally, misplaced. I was heartsick about it, but, fortunately, the woman from the Kennedy estate was very understanding. You see, the strand of pearls they loaned to us for the exhibit was authentic, but the charm bracelet was strictly costume jewelry—I loved the idea of pairing a classic necklace with one of the whimsical, inexpensive pieces that Jackie so often favored. She was brilliant about combining high and low fashion. So, I suppose if I had to lose something—every curator’s nightmare—it could have been worse.”
“You didn’t go through the security footage to try to figure out when it went missing?”
“We only keep footage for a week, and by the time I realized it was missing, the exhibit had been down for longer than that. It really never dawned on me until you called that the bracelet might actually have been stolen.”
“I just keep thinking about the alarm that was triggered during the gala that night.”
“Which I completely understood once you laid it all out for me. But, believe me, that bracelet was quite literally one of the least valuable things a person could steal from a display here, if one were inclined to do that. And it is exactly the kind of small item that could get lost in the shuffle of dismantling a large exhibit. I don’t solve mysteries for a living, but I wouldn’t lose much sleep over this one.”