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“What do you want?”
“I wanted to ask a few questions about your grandfather.”
His shoulders slouched forward, and he rested his hand on a dusty table. “What about him?”
Before I could answer, a sneezing fit came over me. “Sorry,” I said when it finally stopped.
“Come in the back. It isn’t quite as bad.” He motioned with his hand.
“I was sorry to hear your father passed.”
“Thanks. Have a seat,” he pointed to a chair and then walked over and shut a door. Before he did, I saw an ancient-looking safe in what appeared to be a small storage room. “What do you want to know?”
“I understand your grandfather confessed to transporting the Irish Crown Jewels to the Waterford Clock Tower?”
Jimmy nodded with hooded eyes.
“The authorities searched the tower but found nothing.”
“So the story goes.”
“Are you suggesting they may have lied?” I asked.
“There are many clock towers in Ireland.”
“I’m going to ask you outright, Mr. Mallory. Do you know where the Irish Crown Jewels are?”
“No.” While his answer was emphatic, his body language and eye movement were clear indicators he was lying. “Is there anything else?”
“What do you intend to do with the shop?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve not decided yet.”
“Seems as though there may be many treasures to be found in it.”
“Doubtful, even under all the layers of dust.”
“You never know. Perhaps you’d even find the lost jewels.”
His nervous laugh and the way he blinked his eyes in rapid succession told me I was on the right track. In fact, I’d lay odds that the lost Irish treasure was being held in the safe he hadn’t wanted me to see.
25
Smoke
Meet me at Lyon Metropolis, urgent, said the text I received from Casper.
Here, I responded.
Be there in fifteen.
Shortly after, my cell phone rang with a call from Decker.
“Smoke,” he said. “I’m glad I reached you. One of Byrne’s underlings is on the move.”
“Headed to Kinsale?”
“Yep. Casper already told you?”
