TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Three
Technicians were carefully removing some
papers from the safe and placing them in a tray of water to separate them
safely. Nearby, other artifacts from the staterooms were being washed and
preserved.
Buell was on the satellite phone with the
investors. Lovett was yelling at the video crew.
"You send out what I tell you when I
tell you. I'm signing your paychecks, not 60 Minutes. Now get set up for the
uplink."
Buell covered the phone and turned to Lovett.
"The partners want to know how it's
going?"
"How it's going? It's going like a first
date in prison, what do you think?!"
Lovett grabbed the phone from Buell and went
instantly smooth.
"Hi, Dave? Barry? Look, it wasn't in the
safe...no, look, don't worry about it, there're still plenty of places it could
be...in the floor debris in the suite, in the mother's room, in the purser's
safe on C Deck..."
Buell interjected, "Jimmy's office
briefcase..."
Lovett glared at him, then noticed something
the technicians had found.
"Hang on a second."
A tech coaxed some letters in the water tray
to one side with a tong...revealing a conte crayon drawing of a woman.
Brock looked closely at the drawing, which
was in excellent shape, though its edges had partially disintegrated. The woman
was beautiful, and beautifully rendered. In her late teens or early twenties,
she was nude, though posed with a kind of casual modesty. She was on an Empire
divan, in a pool of light that seemed to radiate outward from her eyes.
Scrawled in the lower right corner was the date: April 14, 1912. And the
initials JD.
The girl was not entirely nude. At her throat
was a diamond necklace with one large stone hanging in the center.
"Give me the photo of the
necklace!"
Buell glanced at the drawing. "Looks
like we might have something here."
Lovett grabbed the reference photo from the
clutter on the lab table. It was a period black-and-white photo of a diamond
necklace on a black velvet jeweler’s display stand. He held it next to the
drawing. It was clearly the same piece, a complex setting with a massive
central stone which was almost heart-shaped.
Lovett looked at the two pictures, realizing
what he had found.
"I'll be God damned."