“Not the wimple,” said Le Goff, “but the bobble hat. You two and your stupid sense of humour! Well, the joke’s over, Maximilienne.”

“There’s been some mistake,” said Max, hardly able to take it in. “That hat is from my great-aunt. I have her letter to prove it.”

… except, she realized, that she didn’t. Her letter was at 21 Téli Út with Istvan Marek. Or, more likely, in a bin somewhere in Hungary.

How had the diamond got into her hat? Or – had it been there all along? Max remembered the newspaper article: it is not known when the real diamond was removed. Somebody could have slipped it in before she even left – before she even got the parcel.

“My great-aunt,” she repeated faintly. “You should ask her. Elodie Morel. She can tell you. It was just a hat.”

Le Goff just raised an eyebrow about half a centimetre, before realizing that was tiring and putting it back down again. “Madame Morel is on her way,” he said. “We phoned the number on your luggage label and explained the situation. In the meantime, Max, I suggest you give some thought to cooperating.”

There was a long silence, as Max tried to make sense of what was happening. The first early cars grumbled below. The room was icily cold, and Max was hungry: it was difficult to think straight.

“But what about Ester’s case?” she managed at last. “All those jewels? And Klaus? He was there as security…”

Le Goff had started wearily filling out a form, and didn’t look up, but recited flatly: “Madame Rosenkrantz took the decision to remove her jewels from Fort Vaults after the incident with the masked robbers, the week before the Phantom theft was discovered. She was, I believe, hoping to sell a few, and deposit the others with a security firm in Turkey, who are currently thought to be the best in the world. Naturally, she was concerned for their security; but she didn’t want to draw attention to their presence by sending them under official protection. So she brought them herself, with the security fellow incognito.”

It had been there in the article, Max remembered: many are taking steps to move their most valuable jewels to new secret locations. And she had known that Ester stored her jewels at Fort; Marguerite had said so. She had been so close – she was right that Klaus was security, and right that Ester was hiding diamonds – but she had imagined all the wrong reasons. No wonder Ester had been so angry when Klaus had left the suitcase unguarded in the lockers, back at the Budapest baths.