“He would sit at the bar at the Settlers’ Club and yap away. There was nothing too trivial for him to talk about. Nat was the quiet type, although he liked to tell jokes. Anyway, he and his wife, Wendy, were very calm and placid. Maybe all those sheep rubbed off on them. You’ve seen the sheep?”

“Oh yes,” Regan said.

“Crazy, huh? Some people get attached to their pets. They got attached to their stuffed animals.”

“Everyone gets attached to something,” Regan said. “Now, I understand all four guys belonged to the club.”

“That’s right. Nat was the only one who lived there. But it was like their fraternity. They broke bread many times together in the dining room. Drink your schnapps.”

“It’s good,” Regan said as she took a small sip. “Did Nat talk about having a girlfriend?”

Edward’s eyes widened. “A girlfriend?”

Regan was evasive. “If he was seeing someone, he might have told her about the diamonds.”

“A girlfriend?” Edward waved his hand. “Nah! He was a little bit of a flirt with the ladies. The waitresses at lunch always loved him. But I don’t think he was seeing anybody. If he was, he sure never told me.”

“This might have been very recent.”

“Oh, I get it!” Edward said. “A girlfriend wouldn’t be too pleased if she heard he was giving away diamonds. After all, diamonds are a girl’s best friend.” He laughed but quickly became serious again. “That’s not appropriate. Nat is dead, after all.”

Regan thought that the schnapps was having a little bit of an effect on Edward. “Is there anything you can think of about Ben that might help me? Any of his habits? Anything that might not seem important but really is?”

“Hmmmm,” Edward said. “You know we all went to his house once. It was his birthday, and we surprised him. He was in the bathroom when his cleaning lady let us in. His journal was out on the dining room table. Boy, was he embarrassed. The guys really razzed him about that.”

“He kept a journal?” Regan said.

“At least up until then. That day he’d been writing a poem. It was pretty bad.”

“The cleaning lady was there?” Regan asked.

“She came in on Mondays. Ben said he could spend the rest of the week messing up the place.”

I want to get into his apartment, Regan thought. If he was still writing in that journal up until he died …

“I’m going to put an alert out to other jewelers about these diamonds,” Edward said. “They’re very high quality and will be easy to recognize. Although I bet they’ll be taken overseas to be sold.”

“Thanks.” Regan figured what the hell and drained her glass. When she stood up, her mouth was tingling from the peppermint taste of the schnapps.