Gift for the First Lady

First published in This Week, May 3, 1964. Reprinted as Selena Robs the White House in the anthology Murder Most Foul edited by Harold Q. Masur, 1971.
The President of a newly democratized African nation has arrived in DC for meetings and to extend a gift to the First Lady, a beautiful powder music box. Since it had gone missing briefly in transit, Section Q is certain something bad had been done to it and asks Selena Mead to investigate. Bad, indeed.
Note: this story had sadly been submitted on November 21, 1963, the day before the assassination of JFK. In respect to the slain President and a grieving nation, it was held for several months before being published.