Just so you know, this is not actually a murder mystery, I don't write in that genre but I thought this would be a cool thing. I read that traditional pearl necklaces are knotted between pearls, and in dramatic scenes where the pearls scatter you're just revealing that they wore cheap plastic necklaces. So this would be in a murder mystery or something, thus the title is what it is. Also, in my head I imagined this would take place in the roaring twenties but feel free to use your imagination!

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Three ladies stood murmuring on the sidewalk, glancing over to Betty's home now and then. The detective approached them, and their voices quieted.

"Evening ladies." He nodded his head. "This isn't really a place for you to be hanging around, can I ask what you're doing here."

One spoke up when it became clear the other two would say nothing. "Well we heard a rumor that her maid found her and slipped on all the pearls from her necklace." He narrowed his eyes.

"Information about the case is confidential, I'll have to ask where you got that information." She turned sharp eyes back to him.

"So it is true!" She tsked and shook her head slightly. "My my, the poor girl."

He was taken aback by this, "She was murdered."

She waved a hand as if this information meant nothing to her. "Well yes but beyond that the poor woman was destitute. I heard a rumor she had to sell her pearls and went around wearing fakes to save face. What a shame." Facts started to whir around his mind and he asked

"How can you be sure?"

"I wouldn't really expect you to know, I don't see a ring on that hand, so you don't have a wife to buy for. But real pearls", she held up her own wrist to show him the pearls adorning it, "have knots between them. If they all fell off, then hers were clearly fakes." Pieces fell into place and he left the ladies without a word, heading back into the house and back to his partner.