Prologue

Summer 1978

The man slid from shadow to shadow inside the darkened building.  Light shimmered through the windows, intermittently casting long squares of light in the hallway through the occasional open door.  At the end of the corridor, a tall, slim man blended into the wall next to a securely locked door.  He crouched, sliding a pair of metal instruments into the lock.  Without a single sound, he turned the knob
with a gloved hand and pushed the door open.

Inside the little office, the safe was situated exactly as described.  He pressed an ear to the combination lock and had it open in less than twenty seconds.  He located the pretty emerald necklace and matching earrings by feel alone.  His fingers danced across the remaining jewelry and loose stones, looking for the unusual, but only the ordinary remained.

Per his usual modus operandus, he trailed his sensitive fingers across each surface and object in the office.  On the top edge of the window frame, he found the extraordinary.  He moved away from the glass and hunkered down on the floor in the moonlight.  Three tiny stones spilled out of the miniature envelope into his glove, flashing red in the low light.  He returned them to the packet and concealed them with the necklace and earrings inside a special pocket hidden in the seam of his jacket.

He left the office, leaving the safe open and breaking the door knob behind him.  He tripped the alarm on his way out the door.