Josh let out a sigh and conceded to the inevitable.“Can we save the postmortem for the den in Glencoe tomorrow?”he begged and swallowed down his nausea.“And who’s got the barf bags?I make no promises between here and the ER.”
“Sure, son,” Felix said, and some of the irritation and worry seemed to seep out of his stiff back as he turned to pay attention to traffic.“And while I’m not excited about the trip to the ER, I’ve got to say, you were right about everything else.Do you have the phone?”
Josh breathed out.“Liam, could you dig it out of my back pocket—the smaller one.”Liam’s hands were warm and familiar, and Josh felt a bit of resentment that they weren’t groping him for real.
“Give it to Danny?”Liam double-checked.
“Yes.”
“Danny?”Felix asked.
“Phone fully cloned,” Danny said.“I’ll hand it off to Stirling later tonight.”
“Well, then,” Felix said, sounding pleased.“Achievement unlocked.It’s time to get to the real work, right?”
Josh leaned back against his seat and smiled to himself, thinking he might make it without throwing up after all.His father was right.The first part of their plan was in place.
Kadjic was right there, exposed and ripe for the plucking.
Lightfingers wasback.
Serpent in the Garden
CARL KNEWhow to keep his face absolutely impassive.The son of a middle-class businessman and a chain-smoking harpy, Carl had found his center long before he’d become his company’s most highly sought after insurance investigator.Yes, he’d had to spend a month in rehab to figure out what it was, and another month in Danny Mitchell’s bed, but even at the time he’d known that for what it was.Danny had been using him to get through rehab and missing Felix, and Carl had been using Danny to reassure himself that his life and his profession weren’t a waste.
Long before he’d been part of the Salinger crew, he’d been solving cases that exposed the bad guys and protected the ones who were just trying not to get screwed by their company.He did it with a fountain pen, some misdirection, and a lot of damned hard work.He’d never considered himself a grifter or a con man, but after more than a year with Danny’s crew, he was proud to call himself both.
And he had more than enough confidence to walk into Celeste Buenaventura’s loft gallery and shoulder his way through the crowd.Neither Julia nor Leon let on by so much as a whisker that they knew him, but Carl detected something—was it a slight tremble in Julia’s lip or a certain grim set to Leon’s jaw?—that told him things were not going well.
“Ms.Buenaventura?”he inquired politely, although Celeste’s garish outfit pretty much announced her the bright red zinnia in the garden of black orchids.“I’m Carl Kohlcroft, your insurance investigator.I was nearby when your young art dealer, Mr.Morgan?”His company provided him with pseudonyms and backstopped IDs, but this was one that had been provided for him by Felix and Tienne, who, like his father, forged not only paintings but also some excellent identification papers.If anybody queried Serpentus, he’d say he’d heard Kadjic was there and had wanted extra-deep cover.
Which was pretty much the God’s honest truth—Carl Soderburgh had been forced to disappear after an incident on an island off the coast of Barbados the summer before.
And his delivery must have been flawless.Celeste nodded, some of the tension from her shoulders relaxing.
“Yes,” Carl said.“He called our office, and they asked if I could get here ASAP.Is the FBI investigator here yet?”
“Not yet,” said the ruddy middle-aged man standing rather awkwardly by Celeste.“I’m Harvey Merritt, head of security—”
“And I’m Andres Kadjic, the man who must bear this insult,” snarled the man himself.
Carl didn’t allow himself so much as an eyebrow raise for the man’s rudeness.“Kadjic,” he murmured.“Have I heard that name before?”
Kadjic’s crusty eyebrows shot up, and Carl could see the exact instant it occurred to the man that he should have kept silent.
“No,” he muttered, giving the two goons flanking him the side-eye so they’d stand down.“I am a businessman is all.”
“Then why would you suspect this—was this a theft?Was it fraud?I’m afraid my dispatcher was sketchy on the details.”
Celeste appeared absolutely baffled.“It was just so odd,” she said, almost to herself.“I… I could swear it’s the same painting we mounted and examined this morning, with J.D.And Harvey and I gave it one last peek this evening before the party.If it wasn’t for that one little?”
“It was myname,” Kadjic snapped, obviously forgetting his resolution to not make waves.“And it was Lightfingers!”
Carl gave a soft, fond laugh.“Oh, we do like to hear about Lightfingers,” he said, in such a way as to make it sound like he enjoyed a good fairy tale or scary campfire story.“But here.You three stand over here, and allow me to get the names and numbers of your guests for the FBI when they arrive, and then we can start our investigation.”
Carl was quick and good at his job, and while the plan had been to save Leon and Julia for last, appearing to get their statements in an official capacity when they all knew those statements would be conveniently lost when it came time to talk to the other authorities, he could tell that, while normally poised and able to stand for hours, Julia’s night was taking a toll.In fact, her pallor became more and more pronounced, and he turned from the group of people he’d just spoken to and gone to the couple’s side.
“I’m sorry,” he said, in character, “is Ms.…?”
