Page 10 of Savannah Royals
There’s a second set of earrings on the counter, but I’m zeroed in on the first.
Target acquired.
“The marquise cut is so unique and elegant,” I say to her. “They’re a standout piece. The only one like it in the whole store.”
“Really?”
“Would you like to try them on?” I bend over to pull out a mirror.
“May I?” She looks to Ray.
“Of course, madam.”
We let her tinker in front of the mirror for a few moments before I pounce, hungry for the kill.
“Stunning,” I pronounce. “Simply stunning. They bring out the hazel in your eyes.”
“Hmm…yes…they really do. You know, my Mabel has bright green eyes, like yours…don’t know where she got them…but you’re right, these are stunning. One day, they’ll likely be hers.” She grins in the mirror. “I’ll take them.”
“Wonderful.” Ray is all smiles as he rings her up.
I wait until she leaves before releasing a nervous laugh.
“Well done, kid.” Ray claps me on the shoulder. “You’re getting a bump in your cut for that. You closed the deal like a pro.”
“I can’t believe how quickly you moved those. I only finished them last week.”
“I never have trouble selling your stuff, Kat. Your work is meticulous, as flawless as the real McCoy.Ican barely tell the difference between an original and one of your copies, and I’ve been in the business over forty years.”
“Thanks, Ray.” I push through the swinging door to the workroom.
My work with Ray is a myriad of things. He holds real estate on a corner lot in the busiest shopping district of downtown Savannah. It’s all very hoity-toity; the who’s who of high society are all logged customers in his black register book. Anyone who’s anyone gets engaged with one of Ray’s rings. And anyone who’s anyone wears his latest pieces to galas andparties. His front-of-shop reputation is pristine, but he also does a roaring black-market trade out of his back room. Jewelry and other desirables. For those in the know, of course.
Ray has never apprenticed an Academy student before, but Paul was using him as a fence when I enrolled. A little introduction here, a slip to Headmistress Helena about my jewelry interests there…andboom, I landed myself in his shop at the start of my second year. It’s a cushy arrangement, as far as apprenticeships go. Ray and I have no secrets between us. At first, I was merely a well-placed middleman, passing items from the Royals to Ray, moving cash from Ray back to the Royals. As long as we kept our black-market supply lines open, Ray signed my Academy supervision logs without batting an eye.
But it turned out, I have a lot of empty hours to fill at his shop. Under Ray’s tutelage, I discovered I have quite an eye for detail. A superb eye, really. My duties gradually expanded from middleman to shopgirl to jewelry forger.
Our fleecing enterprise had not always been so remote and high profile. During my youngest years with the Royals, the game was, in fact, to simply be invisible. I learned how to walk with a tread lighter than air. How to lift a watch from an unassuming pocket or dangling from a wrist at the produce stalls. How to melt into evening shadows, to stand in plain sight on the busiest of afternoons in the city market…but have no one’s eyes land on me at all.
If they can’t see you, they’ll never catch you…
There’s an art to invisibility, so an artist—avirtuoso—I became. The memories burn technicolor bright.
“The Kat Burglar strikes again,” Paul cawed the memorable day I came home with my first diamond necklace.
I was nine.
“Unbelievable,” Tony breathed.
“How’re we gonna movethat?” Abe’s eyes were wide.
“Leave it to me.” With a smile, Paul snatched up the gems and was gone.
Yes, at first the game was to be invisible, and I was a natural. But then, much to my chagrin, the game started to change. Paul, of course, was the one who told me.
“Kitty-Kat, you’re starting to get older now. People are gonna start looking.”
“I’m good, Paul. Nobody ever sees me. You know that.”
