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“Tad’s galleries are primarily fine jewels, ancient artifacts, and exorbitantly priced wines, according to the dossier my boss just emailed over.” She wiggled the phone.
“But?”
“But he has all these modern, neo-minimalist areas within the galleries.”
“The exorbitant world is Tad. The Zen-minimalist is his ex or soon-to-be ex-wife, Veronica Gaiman.”
Andi arched her brow. “That’s a new one. What on earth is Zen-minimalism?”
“It’s defined as an ‘extension of simplicity,’ according to Veronica,” he said, using air quotes. “She says it’s where you take complex things to simple, getting rid of anything that’s unnecessary.”
“So the plain white tables and chairs, the lack of artwork in the break room or the offices,” she said.
“Exactly.”
“They sound like an interesting pair.”
Christian’s eyes widened on an inhale, then he streamed it out. “You don’t know the half of it. We probably could add Veronica toour suspect list too. I pray after tonight we’ll have caught the thieves and we can track down who all might be involved.”
“Tad’s on the suspect list, the mystery woman he supposedly can’t remember...”
“Me...” He moved to take a seat on the floor, propping his back against the wall and stretching out his legs.
She moved to sit beside him. “You kinda have to be on the list, given your knowledge of the security systems. It would be unprofessional of me to just assume your innocence.”
“I get it.”
“But my gut says you’re far from involved.”
“Why’s that?”
“You’ve been with me when both letters were left. The one is in a woman’s script. You said Joel ... Sheriff Brunswick ran through the heist footage, and he would have noticed if one of the thieves was your size.”
“A perk of being tall, I suppose.”
“So who else should we have on the list?”
“Besides Veronica, Tad’s ex–business partner, Brad Melling.”
“So he’s got two exes.”
He chuckled. “In a manner of speaking, yes.”
“So what happened with Tad and Veronica’s split?”
“It was public and ugly. Both accusing the other of cheating.”
“Any merit to the accusations?” She relaxed, letting the solid wall hold her full weight. As soon as tonight was over, she was crashing out—at least for a handful of hours. She was going on fumes.
“Knowing both of them ... it wouldn’t surprise me on either end. Neither did their splitting up.”
“Oh?” She arched a brow as he bent a knee, draping his right arm over it.
“They were a flash-in-the-pan couple. Whirlwind romance and then a crash and burn.”
“I’m looking forward to meeting her,” she said. Veronica Gaiman was high on her list of suspects. She had to be, given the situation. A scorned ex and all that.
Christian chuckled. “She’s certainly entertaining.”
