Chapter 457 The Thief Revealed
Nolan picked up the phone.
From the other end, voices filtered through the static–Eliza could faintly hear some background noise. followed by Mr. and Mrs. Leaf’s voices.
Mr. Leaf took the phone directly and said, “Mr. Hayes, I’ve already had this looked into. It was a mistake on our staff’s part. The ring had already been purchased by you, but a sample was still being displayed at the counter. A gentleman offered to buy the replica. According to our policy, exhibition replicas are not for sale but one of our employees accepted a bribe and sold the display piece. That employee has since been terminated. We’re deeply sorry.”
Though Mr. Leaf sounded genuinely apologetic, this was clearly not the kind of answer Eliza and Nolan were hoping for.
Nolan replied coolly, “I want to know who the replica was sold to and when. I’m not interested in how you handled your employee.”
Mr. Leaf wiped the sweat from his forehead. “That… that’s the problem. We actually don’t know. It was a private transaction between the employee and the customer, so we don’t have any record of it. And we haven’t been able to contact that employee since yesterday.”
When Nolan heard that the employee had vanished, he immediately understood–they hadn’t simply been fired.
They’d run off with the money.
Nolan said nothing, but the silence made Mr. Leaf even more flustered. “Mr. Hayes, I swear this wasn’t intentional. We’ve already begun a full internal audit. Please rest assured…”
Before he could finish, Nolan hung up.
Eliza could tell from Nolan’s expression that the call hadn’t yielded anything useful.
“No need to be discouraged,” she said. “If someone was capable of stealing the ring from Tracy, then we’re probably dealing with someone pretty impressive. Finding out who they are might not be so easy.”
“There aren’t many people in Westbrook who could pull something like that off.”
“In that case, we can narrow down the list and start checking them one by one, right?”
No sooner had Eliza spoken than the sound of a car engine came from outside.
She glanced downstairs and saw Halbert’s car pulling up.
He’d taken a pretty late flight, but he made it in good time.
Halbert adjusted his coat as he stepped into the house.
Seeing him, Eliza crossed her arms. “You got here pretty fast.”
“If it hadn’t been for the traffic, I would’ve made it even faster.”
Halbert walked over to stand in front of Eliza and Nolan. “You don’t need to rack your brains trying to figure out who took the ring.”
Chapter 457 The Thief Revealed
“What do you mean?”
From Halbert’s tone, Eliza could already tell–he knew exactly who had it.
“Henry took the ring.
“Henry?”
Eliza froze, clearly not expecting him to be the one.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Halbert nodded. “He didn’t admit it, but I’ve already called him. The ring has to be with him.
“What did Henry say?”
“He denied it, of course. But that doesn’t matter. He’s the only one who’s been watching Nolan’s house. He’s the only one who could’ve pulled off the swap so quickly.”
Halbert added, “The ring’s in Henry’s hands now. Getting it back from the Foster family won’t be easy. You’d better think it through before you act.”
“That ring definitely holds some kind of secret. We can’t just let the Foster family keep it. Nolan and I are going to confront Henry and take it back.”
Just then, Eliza’s phone rang.
Matteo’s name lit up on the screen.
She answered.
From the other end, Matteo said, “Naomi claims she has the ring. Do you want to see it?”
“Naomi?”
What did Naomi have to do with any of this?
Could it be that Evelyn had kept part of her mother’s belongings hidden?
No way. The Rivers family lost all their money a while ago. If Evelyn really had anything valuable from her mother, she would’ve sold it back then.
There’s no way she’d still have it now.
Eliza said, “I doubt Naomi has the ring. She’s probably just trying to squeeze something out of you. If she really had it, she wouldn’t have ended up clinging to Nathaniel in the first place.”
That ring could’ve brought her something far more valuable than whatever she got from Nathaniel.
Naomi wasn’t stupid.
If she knew the ring’s worth, there’s no way she would’ve let it go so easily.
Matteo thought about it carefully.
Chapter 357 The Thiet Revealed
And to his surprise. Eliza’s reasoning actually made a lot of sense
He’d let his guard down and almost believed Naomi had the real ring.
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