Nick had brought with him a prospectus of his Tyersall Park buyback scheme, and he was about to take it out of his satchel to show Jirasit when the man abruptly stood up and announced, "Come, let us attend to the matter at hand!"
Nick had no idea what he was talking about, but he followed Jirasit as he strolled swiftly toward a pavilion on the other side of the lake, marveling at his pace. "Jirasit, I hope I'll be as agile as you are when I'm your age!"
"Yes, I hope so too. You seem quite slow for your age. Do keep up! I picked up yoga when I lived in India, and I've never stopped my daily practice. Also, it's important to keep your body alkaline, young man. Do you eat chicken?"
"I love chicken."
"Well, stop loving it. Chickens reabsorb their own urine-and so their meat is extremely acidic," the man said as he quickened his pace. When they reached the glass-walled pavilion, Nick noticed two guards flanking the entrance.
"This is my private office," Jirasit explained. They entered the room, which contained nothing but an ancient gold statue of Buddha inset into a niche on one wall and a beautiful black-and-gilt desk facing a window onto the lake. Jirasit went to a door against the back wall, and placed his hand on the security scanning pad. A few seconds later, the deadbolt unlocked automatically and he gestured for Nick to follow him into the room.
Inside, Nick found a space that resembled a walk-in vault with built-in cabinets along every wall. At the corner was an old antique Wells Fargo safe that had been bolted into the floor. Jirasit turned to Nick and said, "Here we are. The combination please?"
"I'm sorry, you want me to give you the combination?"
"Of course. This is your grandmother's safe from Singapore."
"Um, I have no idea what it is," Nick said, surprised by this turn of events.
"Well, unless you're good at safe-cracking, you're going to need the combination. Let's see, why don't we call Catherine in Bangkok and see if she knows what it is?" Jirasit took out his phone and moments later had Catherine on the line. The two of them spoke animatedly in Thai for a few moments, and then Jirasit glanced up at Nick. "Did you bring the earrings?"
"What earrings?"
"Your grandmother's pearl earrings. The combination is on them."
"Oh my God! The earrings! Let me call my wife!" Nick said in astonishment. He quickly called Rachel's cell phone, and moments later she answered in a sleepy voice.
"Honey, sorry to wake you. Yes, I'm in Chiang Mai now. Remember those earrings I gave you? The pearl earrings from my grandmother?"
Rachel crawled out of bed, went over to the dressing table and opened the drawer where she kept her jewelry.
"What am I looking for exactly?" she asked, still half asleep.
"Do you see any numbers carved on the pearls?"
Rachel held a pearl stud up to the window light. "Nothing, Nick. It's totally smooth and luminous."
"Really? Can you look again?"
Rachel closed one eye and squinted at each pearl as closely as she could. "I'm sorry, Nick, I see nothing. Are you sure we're talking about these earrings? They are so tiny, I can't imagine where someone would hide any information, unless it's inside the pearl."
Nick thought back to what his Ah Ma told him when she had handed them over. My father gave these to me when I escaped Singapore before the war, when the Japanese soldiers had finally reached Johor and we knew all was lost. They are very special. Please look after them carefully. The words took on a whole new significance now. He stared at the safe, wondering what it could possibly hold. Would there be gold bullion bars, stacks of old bonds or some other type of financial documents that would help him secure Tyersall Park? What was in there that was so valuable to his grandmother that she would go to such great lengths to protect it?
"Rachel, I'm sure those are the earrings. Maybe we do need to crack them open. Or maybe the numbers appear if you put them in water? I dunno, try anything," Nick said in frustration.
"Well, before we destroy these lovely pearls, let me try the water thing." Rachel went into the bathroom and turned on the tap to fill the sink. She looked at the earrings again-they were simple pearl studs on gold posts, each with a little gold disk as backing. Before dipping one of the earrings into the water, she decided to pry the backing off the stud. Suddenly she gasped. There, on the underside of the backing were tiny Chinese characters carved into the gold. "Nick, I never thought I'd ever get to say these words, but … EUREKA, I'VE FOUND IT! There are Chinese characters carved into the backing of the earrings!"
Rachel quickly deciphered the numbers: "9, 32, 11, 17, 8." Nick turned the dial to the corresponding numbers, his heart pounding as each of the locks seemed to click into place one by one. When he finally turned the lever to open the safe, he held his breath, wondering what he would find inside.