The Lie Detective – Sunken Jewelry

A beautiful woman in a red dress swung open the door to the police station. Her heels clicked loudly as she walked to Detective Lance’s desk.

“You need to arrest this man!” She slammed a photograph onto the desk.

The detective closed his laptop and pushed several folders aside. He picked up the photograph and looked at it. The photograph showed a beautiful woman with long brown hair hugging a tall, handsome man wearing an expensive suit.

Detective Lance looked up at the woman. “Is this a photo of you and your… boyfriend?”

“Ex-boyfriend,” said the woman, sharply. She crossed her arms. “He is a terrible man. You must arrest him immediately.”

“OK, take a seat, please.” Detective Lance gestured to the chair in front of his desk. “Tell me your story, Ma’am.”

“Don’t call me Ma’am,” said the woman. She sat down on the chair and put her huge purse on her lap. “It makes me feel like an old woman. Call me Trisha.”

Detective Lance took out his notepad. “OK, Trisha. Tell me what happened.”

Trisha took a deep breath and started talking. “This awful man, Neil, took me out for a date on his boat. We were having a romantic lunch on the lake. Then, as always, he started complaining about how I don’t have a job. He said I needed to have an income, or else he would break up with me.”

“So, you are unemployed? Are you looking for a job?” The detective interrupted.

“No, no. You’ve got it wrong. I don’t have a job with a salary, but I’m quite busy! I recently started my own jewelry business. In fact, I told Neil that. I told him that I can’t get a job because my jewelry business is keeping me busy.”

“Have you sold any jewelry, yet?”

“No,” said Trisha, with an annoyed look. “And now, I may never get the chance. In my purse, I had been carrying all of the necklaces I made. I wanted to show him how beautiful they were! I had one necklace made of pearls, another made of plastic beads, another made of wooden beads, and two more made of silver. I showed him my beautiful necklaces. And can you guess what he did?”

“What did he do?” asked the detective, scribbling notes in his notepad.

“He grabbed them and threw them into the lake!” Trisha’s eyes became teary. “I worked so hard on those necklaces. The pearl necklace was especially difficult to make; it took me nine hours! I was going to put them all for sale on a website!”

“That’s terrible. I bet the pearl necklace was expensive to make.”

“It sure was! I was going to price it at seven hundred dollars.” Trisha’s voice was shaking in anger.

“Were you able to get the necklaces out of the lake?”

“No, of course not!” She shook her head. “All of the necklaces sunk straight to the bottom!”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“That’s why you need to arrest this man. I don’t care about the money. Those necklaces were priceless to me.”

Detective Lance stood up. He ripped the notes out of his notepad and threw them in the trash. “That’s a very nice story, Trisha, but I don’t need to hear any more. I’m very busy today and I don’t have time for lies. Please leave now.”

How did Detective Lance know that Trisha was lying?