Clara: You can't search me! That's against the law!
Mark: This is my property, and you are currently suspected of stealing from my family. Empty your apron, or I will have security hold you until the officers arrive.
Clara: Fine! Take it! It's just my personal stuff anyway!
Clara pulled a red velvet pouch out of her apron and threw it onto the marble floor. It landed with a heavy clinking sound near my shoes.
Eleanor: That's my mother's diamond necklace!
Eleanor knelt down and opened the pouch, pulling out a sparkling diamond chain that glittered under the high daylight.
Eleanor: This was inside my locked jewelry box in the master bedroom!
Mark: Still want to tell me you were just cleaning, Clara?
Clara: I... I found that on the floor! I was going to bring it to you later!
Mark: You found a locked jewelry box item on the floor? Inside a velvet pouch?
Lily: She was in Mommy's room earlier, Daddy! I saw her opening the big wooden drawers with a little metal key!
Clara: You little snitch!
Mark: Watch your tone when speaking to my daughter!
I took a step forward, towering over Clara as she cowered against the stair railing.
Mark: Who gave you the key to the master bedroom and the safe code, Clara? A housemaid doesn't pull off a multi-million-dollar estate theft alone.
Clara: Nobody gave me anything! I did it myself!
Mark: You don't know how to forge my corporate signature, Clara. I've seen your handwriting on the supply lists. You can barely write in cursive.
Eleanor: Someone else is involved in this, Mark. Someone inside the family or the business.
Mark: I know exactly who it is.
I pulled my phone out of my jacket pocket and dialed my younger brother, Julian.
Julian: Hey, Mark. What's up? I thought you were taking the morning off with Lily.
Mark: I need you to come over to the house right now, Julian.
Julian: Is everything okay? You sound pretty tense.
Mark: We just caught Clara trying to steal the estate trust papers and Eleanor's jewelry.
There was a long pause on the other end of the line. The silence lasted for nearly five seconds before Julian spoke again.
Julian: What? Clara? That's crazy. Did you call the police yet?
Mark: Not yet. I wanted to talk to the person who recommended her for the job first.
Julian: Look, Mark, I just hired her through an agency six months ago. I didn't know she was a thief!
Mark: She had the combination to my study safe, Julian. The combination I only gave to you last month when I was on my business trip to New York.
Julian: I... I must have left my notebook open on my desk at the office! Maybe she saw it there!
Mark: Get over here, Julian. Now. Before I hand this forged transfer document over to the district attorney.
I hung up the phone without waiting for his answer.
Eleanor: You think Julian is behind this?
Mark: He's been asking for a loan from the family trust for three months because of his failed real estate investments. When I told him no, he found another way to get the money.
Clara: Mr. Sterling, please! Don't involve me in your family business! I was just doing what I was paid to do!
Mark: So you admit he paid you?
Clara clamped her mouth shut, realizing she had just confessed to being an accomplice.
Mark: Sit down on that bottom step and don't move a muscle until the police get here.