Wainwright

The world of diamonds and diamond jewelry is a world of its own. Combining beauty, value and portability makes them ideal for private ownership and the movement of wealth. On occasion important and well-known pieces of famous jewelry disappear.

Walter Wainwright knew little of this world and had no interest about missing jewelry. Today he was only concerned about being able to make it back to his cabin in the foothills near Dubois, Wyoming before dark. The Wednesday morning flight from Washington, D.C. to Denver gave him time to get there and, on the way, make a quick stop at The Hitching Rack in Lander for dinner.

He was tired, depressed and still hurting from having been shot. It has missed his vitals and now only causing him pain if he moved. His attempt to recover a young man from kidnappers had gone badly. The victim was dead, and the three kidnappers killed when they tried to collect the ransom on the offshore transfer.

Turning his Mercedes camper van into The Hitching Rack’s parking lot the lack of any cars or trucks had him remember it was closed on Wednesday. He decided to drive around the building to return to the highway and it was there that his life would change. Behind the building a strange scene was unfolding with a big man in the bed of a pick-up throwing someone’s belongs onto the ground. He then dragged an attractive young woman out of the cab and pushed her onto the pile. Seeing Walt approach he decided to make his exit.

It is here that Walter meets Susan Sussman, sitting upon her possessions with no place to go and no way to get there. They would spend that night in the van together at the Dubois Campground and the next night outside the cabin he had used to run his recovery programs over the past ten years. He resigned his position, lost the use of the cabin and started his new life with Susan.

Their chance meeting of ninety-six-year-old Mary White in Dubois leads them on a search for two of the most prized and missing diamond jewels in the world. First finding the Tiffany Hazelnut necklace and pendant, followed by the much more valuable Egyptian Queen Nazli’s Van Cleef and Arpels tiara.

WAINWRIGHT is the story of how they were found and the love story of the two people who found them.