Extreme Malice

  Chapter 31

  Wednesday, December 7th 3:18 pm

  Jack hustled out of the courtroom with his mother at his side. The two of them pushed through the scrum of news reporters and cameras to the back of the courthouse and into Jack's car.

  He was thinking about the bank. He needed to get there before it closed. His mother did not understand why it was so urgent, and Jack would only say that he had forgotten all about Donna's safety deposit box and wanted to get to it today. It was very important.

  Jack supplied the death certificate to the teller, which he kept in his wallet since her death. After filling out a number of forms, he was escorted into the back to a private cubicle where he opened Donna's safety deposit box alone.

  There was not much inside. Some photos, Donna's passport, two pearl necklaces, some insurance papers, and a number of quality certificates for Donna's jewelry.

  Jack fumbled through the papers until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out the Certificate from Spence Diamonds for the earrings. He stuffed the envelope with the certificate inside into his breast pocket and returned the safety deposit box.

  Louisie held the door open with a cigarette hanging from her lips when Jack returned. "What's with you today? You acted strange all day at court and now all this rushing around."

  "It's nothing. I just got a little stressed from being up front there."

  "And what about that detective? He was staring at you an awful lot today. Why was that?" Louisie pinched her cigarette off, tossed it to the ground, and closed the door. Jack started the engine.

  Jack just shook his head and continued the drive home without answering her. He had a lot to think about and a lot to do tonight.

  Jack settled his mother in the front room to watch TV. He made her some tea and left her to watch Dancing with the Stars, which they recorded the night before.

  Jack retreated to the kitchen and quickly opened the pantry door. He pulled out a zip lock bag that had been tucked away in the back corner of the lower shelf behind the bag of flour. The zip lock bag was filled with popcorn, which Jack immediately emptied onto the counter. He began sorting through the popcorn in search of one specific popped kernel. It only took a few minutes to locate. Jack smiled as he pulled an earring that was pressed into the middle of one piece of popcorn. The earring was a single, one-carat diamond set in a six prong platinum teacup. It looked exactly like the one Ron had Dean identify in the courtroom.

  Jack disposed of the popcorn in the trash and dropped the earring into the envelope with the certificate from Spence Diamonds.

  The truth was, this earring may have looked exactly like the one at court today, but it was not the same. This one was an exact match to the one found in Donna's jewelry box. The one Dean identified in court was purchased by Jack with cash at Spence Diamonds in Vancouver two weeks after he purchased the ones for Donna from the Calgary Spence Diamonds.

  Jack had planned this moment nearly two years ago, and it was time to reel Dean in.

  Jack said goodbye to his mother. He told her he would be back soon. He hopped in his vehicle and headed down to the police station.