Back in Erie, Nicole met up with Marcus Terry, who’d already rented the storage locker, and he took the violin in a cardboard box to the unit.
Marcus Terry: her boyfriend. They’d supposedly had a terrible breakup, Marcus was out of her life, and she used a burner phone to communicate with him. Otherwise they stayed apart in case detectives were watching her. He’d been in on the theft from the beginning.
Ray’s whole relationship with Nicole was based on her lies. She’d seen an opportunity when she’d met a lonely violinist with a priceless violin—and she’d taken it.
In prison awaiting trial, Nicole reached out several times to Ray: she called, texted, emailed. He wouldn’t respond. He wondered if the only reason she wanted to see him was for him to plead with the prosecutors for leniency. He imagined her telling him that Marcus Terry had dreamed up the whole idea—that she went along with it only because Marcus Terry had some diabolical hold over her. Marcus Terry, criminal mastermind and Fruity Pebbles connoisseur.
And then she’d email. He’d deleted several earlier ones, but this email he opened.
Dear Ray,
Are you getting any of my emails?
I know that saying sorry doesn’t ease your pain. I never wanted to hurt you.
I know you wont believe me but its true. My idea was that nobody would get hurt. Everybody wins. If Benson paid out the ransom right away like it was supposed to, you would’ve gotten your violin back before the competition. If they didn’t pay it out, you raised the money anyway. In any case you’d get your violin back and I get a nest egg so I don’t have to worry so much about making ends meet. Not everybody has your talent and you know I didn’t want to stay in a third-rate orchestra all my life. A little more money would have gone a long way. I could’ve bought a new viola and taken lessons with Caitlin Landuyt. You know how I always wanted to do that. It would’ve given me a shot. The same shot you had. You can’t blame me for wanting the same opportunity you had. It’s not my fault. It’s Benson’s.
Anyway I wanted to write you because I didn’t want you to be mad. I love you very much and I just want you to be happy. I just wanted to be happy too.
Please come see me and we can talk about this in person? I really want to see you and talk face to face.
Love,
Nicole
Ray didn’t respond and didn’t open any of the other dozen emails she sent him in the following couple weeks before he asked the prosecutors to make sure she couldn’t contact him again.
The trial took more than a year, and Ray videoed in his testimony from Sweden, where he’d been playing with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra before heading off to a special monthlong recital and retreat in Tokyo.
He couldn’t forget her. He’d wanted, so many times, to talk to her, to ask her how she could have done this, how she could have done this to him. He’d thought they were in love; he’d thought they shared intimacy and a real connection. Was any of it real? Was it all, and always, about the violin, and the money?
Dear Ray,
I’m sorry for everything I put you through. I want you to know that. I really care for you and you need to know your violin was never in any danger. I would have gotten it back to you no matter what. It was all Marcus’s idea, I just went along because he told me to. Please believe me.
The sentencing is coming up next week and it would mean everything to me if you’d just testify on my behalf. Ask the judge for leniency. Please do it. You mean everything to me. I really screwed up and I’m more sorry than you could ever know. Please????
Love,
Nicole
By the time her sentencing rolled around, Ray was back in the United States, playing at a special sold-out exhibition at Berkley.
As Nicole had asked, he wrote a letter to the judge.
Dear Judge Kastenmeier,
Nicole Sellins spent nine months lying and deceiving me. She pretended to love and support me, all while planning to steal my violin. She almost got away with it. She is heartless and manipulative. She wrote me a couple weeks ago asking for leniency. She planned on cheating me and thousands of other people out of millions of dollars. She stole a violin that meant more to me than all the money in the world. Feel free to give her the maximum sentence.
Sincerely,
Ray McMillian
Both Nicole and Marcus Terry ended up going to jail: eight years and a $1.8 million fine for Nicole, and five years and $950,000 fine for Marcus Terry.
Nicole’s orchestral career was over. She would be lucky to play in a community orchestra. Ray sometimes wondered what she would do when she got out of prison but tried not to think about her too much.