Aurora Li Hua Chang, better known to her friends as Rory, owned the trendy fusion restaurant near the former site of the Carruthers Building. One day, much to her surprise, she received a fat letter with intriguing foreign stamps.

"What could this be?" Rory wondered, ripping it open eagerly. Quickly scanning the pages (and thankful that it was written in English) she discovered that she had received a special invitation from the Chinese government to go to China for a special course in "Nouvelle Chinese Cuisine" preparation and calligraphy, plus to teach a class on "How not to Prepare Hamburgers like McDonald’s Does."
"Wow," said Rory. "That’s quite an honor." She quickly sat down and wrote an acceptance and mailed it away. The day of her departure for the trip was only a few weeks away, and Rory made careful preparations for her absence. Never one to leave things unfinished, she went to Louise and told her that she had to be absent for a few weeks from her TV show as well as from her job of catering one day per week of the meals in the TV station cafeteria, but her cousin Jennifer would be substituting for her.

Jennifer Mae was Rory's 2nd cousin (3 times removed), and they had always shared an interest in cooking. Jennifer had also known Caitlyn when they were young, and she had just renewed her acquaintance with Caitlyn before she got the phone call from Rory asking for her help. Unfortunately, poor Jennifer would learn that when you dabble with the unknown the best place to turn to would be the C&D Detective agency.

It was Jennifer's very first day cooking for the cafeteria, when a crisis erupted. The dishwasher got blocked by a radish, and the whole kitchen started to flood! It certainly was not a very auspicious way to start her new career, and she had to make a plan and very quickly too. Lacking a suitable bailer she grabbed whatever was to hand. Unfortunately the closest thing was an dusty old crockpot which had been in the Heel family for years. Jennifer's wet hands just couldn't get a grip, and the crock slipped, landing on its bottom in a puddle of water.

Poor Jennifer, it just wasn't her day, "Maybe if I go out and come back in again I will get a second chance at starting over," she thought, picking up the broken crock "This crock is not all it was cracked up to be." she said to nobody in particular. The bottom of the crock was cracked, "This is a cracked crock! And it seems to have a double bottom."
She removed the pieces of the bottom, revealing a small space between the real bottom and what she now realized was a false one. Inside the space, wrapped in a piece of cloth was a huge diamond. "Oh, what a pretty piece of glass! I must show Caitlyn, maybe she can find me a nice holder for it."

Jennifer cleaned up the mess and worked a long shift, stopping every now and then to peer at the object. When the day finally ended, she changed into her special oriental outfit and took the shiney object along to the offices of the C&D detective agency where Caitlyn was just finishing off some paperwork. "Hiya Jennifer, what do you have in that piece of cloth?"
"Hi Cait, it's a pretty piece of glass that I found when I crocked a crack, I mean when I cracked a crock."

Caitlyn nearly fell out of her chair in shock "Jennifer, that's no ordinary piece of glass! That looks like the long lost "Star of Tamsen". It went missing a few years ago and nobody ever knew what happened to it."
"Does that mean it’s valuable?"
"Valuable is an understatement. The Star of Tamsen is reputed to be worth at least 20 million dolly dollars. The Sultanate of Tamsen has offered a huge reward for its return. You could be in the money very soon. It's also supposed to be very unlucky to those who possess it without being pure of armature. I have always wished that C&D could find that diamond. I even kept a newspaper clipping of it in my desk." Caitlyn took the clipping out of her desk drawer, "Here, read this Jen."

Jennifer read the article, "I see what you mean Cait, everything does point to Madame Heel being involved. But why was she there in the first place?"
"She was part of a trade mission to the Sultanate to see if she could do some cheap manufacturing of shoddy goods and exploit the local population in the making of yarn from the rare Mallory Mountain Sheep."
"But what is so special about those baa-baa's?"
"Their wool is hypo-allergenic and extremely strong too. It was never proved that our old nemesis was involved in the Star's disappearance, but one can never tell when it comes to Madame Heel and her shenanigans."

"Then we must return it Cait; I wouldn't want to keep something that didn't belong to me."
"I will contact the consulate and see what they say Jen, I have a feeling that the sooner you return it to them the better for you. If Madame Heel finds out that it has been found she is bound to try lay her greasy hands on it again."
"I thought Madame Heel had been locked away for a gazillion years."
"Her greasy fingers reach far beyond the borders of Birdwood Prison Jen, she still has lots of equally greasy fingered minions, friends and hoodlums."

The first secretary of the Consulate of the Sultanate of Tamsen was delighted to hear the good news and arranged that the Star Of Tamsen be collected as soon as possible. Princess Tammara, a member of the royal family would personally collect the jewel and arrange for it to be returned to it's rightful place in a museum in the Sultanate. She was already scheduled to visit the area to dedicate the new playground on the Carruthers site.
"We will need to hide the jewel away until they get here Jen, the banks are closed so we cannot get them to store it in their vaults, and our safe is very unsecure too. The consulate has asked us not to involve the police and keep a low profile. "
"Well," said Jennifer, "In my experience, the best place to hide anything is right under the nose of whomever is looking for it! Why not hide it in the kitchen again? I can sew it into one of our crocodile mascots. Nobody would ever think of looking there."
Even though Jennifer had never met Madame Hi Heel, she had gotten the sense that Madame Heel would never trifle with something as mundane as a stuffed animal.
"Great idea, Jennifer, and then you can just give the princess the mascot to carry in her luggage when she leaves the country."
Jennifer and Caitlyn went to the canteen and sewed the diamond into the crocodile mascot which usually sat on top of the counter. "There we go, we now have a crocodile rock."

Everybody knows that walls have ears, and an undersecretary's undersecretary at the consulate (who was in the pay of Alberta Moore), had overheard the telephone conversation between Caitlyn and the first secretary, and made a call to the unlisted number of Alberta Moore of Moore's Motors (Call 1-800-ALS-CARS for a quote). Alberta hurried over to Birdwood Prison and discussed the situation with Madame Heel.
"Hullo Hi, you are looking pale. I wanted to bring you a cake with a file in it."
"Alberta, don't you go using that old cliche too. Everybody who comes to visit says that. I hate it!"
"Don't loose your cool Hi. I have some news for you. An unnamed source at the Consulate of Tamsen says that somebody has phoned in to say they have found the missing ice that you lost some time ago. Some princess is coming across especially to escort the ice back to the Sultanate. "
"What? I bet it was that goodie two shoes C&D Detective Agency crowd. They are always meddling in my affairs. I need to get that ice back Al, thanks for the tip."
"Just remember what I always say Hi, "If you need a car or a truck, come to Al, and save a buck!""

Madame Heel was not very pleased. Having stolen the diamond in the first place, she had had it stolen in turn from her by a dissatisfied cook whom she had fired for burning the morning toast. She decided to call in her markers and went to visit "Silent Cecilia" who had her headquarters in the numberplate division of the prison. Silent had a vast network of heavies and minions who did her dirty work (Unlike Madame Heel who generally used her family members).

"Hullo Silent, long time no speak." Madame Heel said, taking up a brush.
Silent looked at Madame Heel whom she felt was usurping her long earned authority in the prison.
"I can see why they call you "Silent", not very talkative are you? Anyway, I need you to organise a kidnapping for me. I will leave the details behind the numberplate which says Hi-Heel. And, just so that there are no bad feelings I have also brought you a bottle of Eau D' Lenora."
Silent was pleased with that gift, the only smell in Birdwood Prison was Eau D' Cabbage. She took the bottle and nodded then carried on with her work. Madame Heel, who was not really a numberplate building enthusiast returned to her cell where she brooded on the bad luck that had put her inside.

Unfortunately good thugs are hard to come by and the pair Silent tasked to kidnap the princess were not the sharpest knives in the drawer. In their quest to impress their boss they grabbed the first person they saw who looked like a princess. Unfortunately this just happened to be Dawn (who bore a striking resemblance to the princess). They took her to the derelict Whitney mansion and tied her to a chair. Then they adjourned to another part of the mansion and played poker while awaiting further instructions, leaving poor Dawn to struggle against her bonds, totally unaware of why she had been kidnapped.