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To her credit Clarisse showed no reaction to this question.
“What makes you say that?”
“Just something you mentioned in passing.”
“I must be more careful in choosing my words with you, then.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Everybody has problems.”
“You had to take a call when we were talking one time. I think you believed you had disconnected our call but you hadn’t. I noted the tone of your voice. It was like mine when I got a call that my dad had been taken to the hospital with chest pains. Trying not to panic, but barely keeping it together.”
“You love your parents, right?”
“Of course.”
“Well, that’s where you and I differ.”
Gibson said, “All right, so all you want out of this is the treasure? Is that it? Just money.”
“Sometimes money is more than money,” replied Clarisse.
“What then?”
“Debts must be paid, Mickey. Otherwise there are consequences.”
“You were rattled tonight. By Sullivan. That’s why you’re here.”
“I have found that in life strategic alliances are the only way to achieve certain goals. You are one of those alliances.”
“An involuntary one.”
“Break this case and you can name your own ticket. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life hiding behind a computer.”
“Isn’t that what you do?”
“Obviously not, or else I would not have been at Stormfield tonight where I indeed did find a clue.”
Gibson looked intrigued. “Where and what was it?”
“In the old wine cellar. It was behind the label of an old bottle. Get it, messageoutsidea bottle? It said that we’re in thetwenty-first centurynow, so act like it. And then it called the finder an idiot.”
“Do you have any idea what that means?”
“It means the treasure is not buried somewhere for us to dig it up. Apparently we have to look at moremoderndevices.”
“Any thoughts on that?”
“I will have them. Perhaps you, too?”
“Perhaps.”
Clarisse glanced upward. “How are your children?”
Gibson’s lips set firmly. “Sleeping. Peacefully. I want to keep it that way.”
“Children are precious.”
