Crime Of The Heart

by Allie Harrison

  Erin stepped down into the room as Lee walked around. “I couldn’t begin to guess. But some of it looks like junk.”

  The air was so still, so quiet, so dead, Lee was almost afraid to move, but he stepped up close to a sculpture of an angel and tentatively touched it.

  “You don’t recognize any of this as being stolen?” he asked.

  “No, but then my reporting usually dealt with issues, not news happenings,” she replied.

  “Burke talked about moving the painting The Cornucopia . I don’t see it here. I wonder where it’s stashed. I mean, this would be the perfect place.”

  “It certainly is neat and tidy down here,” Erin noted. “See how the paintings are stacked just so.”

  “All except for this ugly one here near the stairs,” Lee said, picking up the framed work and peering at it. “Who in his right mind would find enough beauty in this donkey to paint it. I wonder if this is the donkey’s good side,” he joked. “If it is, I’d hate to see the other side.” He looked at it more closely, then held it away again. “I think I did a paint by numbers when I was a kid that was better than this.”

  “And I don’t know about you,” Erin added, “but except for the angel over there, I think most of this sculpture is pretty ugly, too. Why do you suppose Burke’s got it hidden down here?”

  “Maybe he’s too ashamed to have it upstairs where someone might see it,” Lee replied, his attention still on the ugly painting of the donkey he was holding. A donkey? He still couldn’t believe it. And yet there was something about it that continued to catch his eye.

  “I mean, look at this,” Erin went on, rubbing her palm against the sculpture of a fat little girl holding an umbrella. “I suppose you could hide this in a bunch of greenery in a garden and it would look okay.” She stopped suddenly. “It’s rough.”

  “What?” he asked, turning his gaze to Erin.

  “It’s rough, feels like clay, almost like the mud pies I made when I was a kid.”

  “Mud pies?” Lee came closer.

  “Yes. While you were doing your paint by numbers, I was making mud pies in the backyard.”

  “And your father approved of that?” he asked.

  “My father helped me,” she replied absently, looking more carefully at the sculpture.

  Lee had a hard time picturing Erin mixing mud pies in the backyard of the Wilmette home, with the guest house and the shores of Lake Michigan not too far away. But he didn’t have much time to dwell on it. What caught his attention was the dust that came off when Erin roughly scratched at the sculpture with her nails.

  A moment later, the umbrella the child was holding fell away completely, revealing the point of a spear. Then, from under the child’s face appeared the face of a man.

  Erin gasped, starting and stepping away.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked, concerned.

  “This I recognize. It’s called The Warrior. It was stolen last fall from a museum in New York. The reason I remember is because I had worked for days on an article about a new landfill, and at the last moment, it got scratched, and the article about this piece being stolen took my space. There was a picture and I threw darts at it for a week.”

  Her words faded away as she stared at the sculpture beneath the sculpture.

  Lee looked at the painting he still held. Pulling out a small pocketknife he always carried, he set to work gently cutting the canvas along the edge of the frame.

  “I see now how Burke is planning to smuggle all the stolen art out of the country,” he said a moment later after he’d cut away the top layer of canvas. Underneath was the original artwork. And even though he’d never seen this painting, Lee knew its name. The Cornucopia. “The real art’s underneath. But it all looks like a bunch of worthless junk.”

  “So why is he having an auction? He could just pack this stuff up, looking like it does, and take it with him if he wanted to get it out of the country. The customs agents would probably laugh when they saw him with it.” Erin absently kept scratching away at the sculpture to reveal more of the handsome face of the warrior.

  “Maybe he didn’t steal it for himself,” Lee said, staring hard at the famous painting in his hands. “Maybe he stole it for somebody else, somebody who would pay him a great deal of money when they come to the auction tonight and bid on what others think is nothing more than junk. They’d be taking home priceless art for their own private collections or maybe even to sell to someone else, and no one would ever know. Besides, seeing someone as prestigious as Burke with junk that looks like this might be enough to raise suspicion.”

  “How perceptive of you, Mr. McGrey.” The voice that echoed through the small room was crisp and now very familiar. It was the same voice that contacted the traitor who’d leaked their whereabouts.

  Erin gasped.

  Lee turned his head to take in Jimmy Doreli standing at the bottom of the stairs with a gun pointed at them. With his pockmarked face and pointed nose, Lee thought he would know the man anywhere. He was even uglier than his mug shot. Behind him stood Forest Burke. He looked exactly like all his photographs—well-groomed, arrogant, untouchable. Even now, standing on the cramped stairs, he stood straight and tall and haughty. Lee thought he could live to be one hundred and never forget a single detail about the man—his tailored suit, bolo tie and pointed snakeskin boots.

  And Lee especially wouldn’t forget the way he was smiling.

  Chapter 9

  “Gosh, you don’t look anything like a hunchback.”

  Lee looked up briefly, silently praying that Jimmy Doreli wouldn’t shoot them for what Erin had just said. He himself was finding it hard to believe she’d even uttered the words, considering Jimmy Doreli was pointing a gun at them. Besides, she knew Doreli wasn’t a hunchback. She’d seen his mug shot. She’d seen him kill her informant.

  A puzzled look passed over Jimmy Dareli’s expression, but he said nothing about Erin’s comment. He just held the gun steady on them. And Lee supposed Doreli wouldn’t shoot them unless Burke ordered him to.

  “Of course Mr. Doreli isn’t a hunchback,” Forest Burke said, sounding as though he might be talking to a small child. “But then you knew that, didn’t you, Ms. Flemming? You have seen Mr. Doreli before, haven’t you? On a pier, perhaps?”

  Erin didn’t answer, which was most likely all the answer Forest Burke needed.

  Lee thought about the weapon he had hidden in the holster under his jacket. Could he reach it in time? Looking at Doreli, he saw that Doreli had his own gun pointed more at Erin. Maybe Doreli thought her more of a threat, considering the information she might have. Lee didn’t know if he could beat Doreli in a draw, but with Erin in the line of fire, he couldn’t take the chance. So he slowly raised his hands hoping that he’d get to use his gun before Doreli used his own.

  “Well, Mr. McGrey,” Forest Burke said, shifting his attention to Lee, his voice thick with formality, “how nice it is to finally meet you in person. Mr. Doreli?” Burke turned his attention back to his right-hand man. “I’m certain Mr. McGrey has a gun. Please take it.”

  Doreli moved without hesitation to do his bidding.

  Lee felt the cold touch of a steel gun barrel against the back of his neck before Doreli roughly searched for his gun. Standing there and letting Doreli take his gun, his only weapon, was one of the hardest things Lee ever had to do. But he didn’t dare fight for it. Erin was too close, and he wouldn’t be any good to her if he got himself killed.

  “You’re a very interesting man, Mr. McGrey,” Burke went on once Doreli stepped back with Lee’s gun in hand and went back to pointing his gun at Erin.

  The man was immaculate. From his perfect double-breasted black suit to his wavy dark hair, there was nothing out of place. He could have stepped right off the front cover of a man’s fashion magazine. Lee wondered what would happen if Burke’s hair ever got ruffled or if dirt got smeared on his clothes or if—heaven forbid—he ever stepped in anything smelly wearing those snakeskin b
oots.

  “That’s nice,” Lee muttered.

  “Yes, your being a Special Division Officer, your flawless record. Too bad you had to get shot.”

  Lee said nothing.

  “Anyway,” Burke went on, “I read your file, and I thought you were almost as interesting as Ms. Flemming. Speaking of whom, I can’t tell you how much of an aggravation she has been to me.” Burke spoke as though Erin wasn’t standing directly in front of him. “I was beginning to wonder if she was part cat, considering how many lives she seems to have.” Burke continued to smile a cold, heartless smile. “But now, it seems as though she’s been caught with her paw in the canary cage, wouldn’t you say?”

  And it seemed that the only life in Burke’s eyes was a calculated sparkle of glee at having caught her, Lee thought.

  Lee still didn’t say anything. He wanted more than ever to tell Burke to go to hell, but had the terrible feeling that those words would be enough provocation for Doreli to send him there instead. So he clamped his jaw shut. Tight enough that after a few seconds, his face began to ache. He wanted even more to leap on Jimmy Doreli and rip his heart out for threatening Erin with the gun. It was taking all the willpower he possessed to stay perfectly still and hold his hands in the air.

  Erin didn’t even appear to be breathing as she stared from Burke to Doreli and the nasty, deadly gun he held pointed at her.

  “So,” Burke continued, “I suppose the question is, just what exactly do I do with the two of you.”

  “You could let us go,” Erin suggested.

  Lee threw her a glance, but otherwise never moved. He recognized her false bravado in the way her voice shook slightly. She continued to hold her chin up, despite the way the color had drained from her beautiful face.

  “At least let her go,” Lee said, looking at Burke and trying to ignore Doreli and the way Doreli was looking at Erin.

  Burke laughed. But it was a hollow sound, a sound as cold and deadly as his smile had been. “Surely you don’t expect me to do that. This woman has been a thorn in my side for far too long.” His face grew suddenly hard, the smile gone in an instant as though it had never been there at all. “I don’t like anyone pushing his—or her—way into my life. I don’t like anyone searching for answers they have no business knowing. And that’s what you did, Ms. Flemming. You stuck your little reporter’s nose into my life and my business. I guess you didn’t understand that I grant interviews and give out information about myself at my choosing. No one else’s.”

  “But I never really found out anything,” Erin insisted.

  “Yet you were trying, Ms. Flemming,” Burke countered. “And talking to the wrong people, such as Jenkins, didn’t help put you in my good graces.”

  “If you had nothing to hide, you wouldn’t have had to worry about it, now would you?” Erin snapped.

  Hell, Lee thought, this isn’t the time to get angry, Erin.

  Forest Burke drew close to her, close enough that Erin took an involuntary step backward, only to bump into one of the sculptures. Lee half expected Burke to slap her or, worse, order Doreli to shoot her.

  “You deal with so-called issues at that rag you call a newspaper, don’t you, Ms. Flemming? Issues like child neglect and spousal abuse and environmental protection?” he asked. The question was casual, but his voice was cold, slicing icy daggers through the air, directed right at Erin.

  Just hearing it gave Lee goose bumps, and he couldn’t begin to think how much fear Erin must be feeling. And he still had no idea what to do, how to get them out of this. Doreli pointed his gun steadily at Erin. Lee was afraid to even breathe, much less move. Or reach for Erin and pull her away from Burke.

  “Yes,” Erin finally replied to his question, knowing full well Burke already knew the answer.

  “Well, let me tell you, you’ve never dealt with an issue that compares to dealing with me,” Burke grated, his gaze chilling enough to match his words.

  Erin swallowed so hard that Lee could see her do it. He had to take a chance if he was going to get them out alive. He looked again at Doreli. And he remembered Erin’s words about entering the lions’ den. Doreli was looking at Erin like a lion getting ready to pounce and devour her. He was all but licking his chops. The man was definitely enjoying every moment of this, and even more, he was anticipating what might come in the future. He stared at Erin with an open, uncontrolled hunger.

  Oh, great, that was just what they needed.

  “Get some rope from those crates over there, Mr. Doreli,” Burke instructed. “Tie them up so we don’t have any more trouble out of them while we figure out the best way to take care of them once and for all.”

  “Yes, sir,” Doreli replied, handing his gun, as well as Lee’s, to Burke and hastening to do his bidding.

  Doreli tied Erin up first, fastening her wrists together with a rough length of sturdy rope. All the while he kept glancing at her with a gloating I’ve-got-you-now smile on his face. Of course, Erin didn’t miss the look in his eye or the evident lust. Not missing a beat, Erin spit at him, catching him smack on the cheek.

  God, this is it, Lee thought with certainty. We’re dead. Burke would shoot them both now. If nothing else, Doreli would give her a good hit, maybe enough of a blow to break her neck before she even reached the floor.

  To Lee’s amazement, Doreli’s smirk only broadened, leading him to believe that their predicament was even worse than he thought. Yes, there were things worse than death. Lee could see them in Jimmy Doreli’s cold, feral eyes. The words he uttered next were enough to send chills up Lee’s spine.

  “I’m going to enjoy taming you, you little spitfire,” Doreli said with a deadly, terrifying calm. Absently, he wiped away the spittle with the back of his hand. “I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. A lot...” Holding Erin’s tied hands in one of his, he reached up with the other to touch her cheek, his thumb brushing against her lips.

  Lee couldn’t wait any longer. He couldn’t stand here and watch Doreli put his hands on Erin. He couldn’t let himself think about what Doreli wanted to do to her.

  Lee could see Erin was trying to maintain a brave front, despite the way she visibly paled even more. She cringed at Doreli’s touch and tried to back away, but there was no place for her to go. She was up against a sculpture already. Lee could see her wanting to scream or cry. Her glistening emerald eyes were threatening to spill over with tears at any moment. Yet she refused to look away from Doreli. She refused to back down, just as Lee had known she would.

  Lee wanted to hug her for her courage. If he ever got the chance...

  Lee lunged at Burke, who was still holding both guns. He seemed to be entertained by Doreli’s actions. Lee’s only hope was to knock one of the guns far enough away to give him enough time to get his hands on the other one.

  He collided with Burke, knocking the tall, self-possessed man off his feet with the unexpected move. His hope became reality as one weapon flew out of Burke’s hand. Where it landed, Lee had no idea, nor did he care.

  It was the chance he needed. Lee grabbed the other gun and swiped it out of Burke’s grip. That was all that mattered. He had managed to get his own gun. Feeling elated at the idea of giving Burke a taste of his own medicine, Lee felt a crazy urge to laugh.

  He held his gun on Burke. And smiled.

  All they had to do now was march Burke out of here, down the street to the FBI guys who sat watching their cars. Piece of cake. Pure and simple.

  Then Erin screamed his name. The loud, shrill sound echoed through the small room.

  Blinding pain hit his leg in the next instant. He groaned at the blow, thinking it was happening all over again. The shooting, the instant flash of white-hot pain. Except this time, he never heard the shots fired.

  Still, it swept his feet right out from under him, and the floor came up to meet his face before he ever realized what exactly was happening.

  Oh, God, not again, he prayed. Please, not again. He didn’t think his body could survive
another bullet. Not in the leg, not anywhere.

  The pain began to lessen, and Lee groaned again. Trying to focus, he blinked against the light that seemed too bright. He thought he could see Erin kneeling beside him, but for a moment, he saw two of her. Even when the two blended together into one, she was still rather fuzzy.

  When she cleared, he could see she really was crying now. The tears had finally spilled over and were now coursing down her cheeks in glistening streams. And Lee had never felt so helpless in his life. Even when he’d lain waiting after getting shot in the leg, knowing some unknown assailant was coming and it was only a matter of time... Even then, he hadn’t felt this helpless. Even then, he’d had his gun in his hand and felt he’d had a small chance.

  It was then that he noticed he no longer had his gun. It was also then that he noticed Jimmy Doreli standing over him, and he knew in an instant he hadn’t been shot. Lee had been so intent on watching Burke, the man with both guns, that he had missed Doreli’s quick action. Doreli had kicked his bad leg right out from under him. And he hadn’t even seen it coming.

  All this time, they had joked of Burke resembling a bird of prey, when it had been Jimmy Doreli who was able to swoop down without a sound like a hawk capturing a rabbit.

  Panic rushed through Lee like molten metal, and it quickly mixed with the pain pulsing through him.

  Forest Burke chuckled, an empty, hollow sound echoing through the room. “It certainly pays to know an enemy’s greatest weakness, doesn’t it?” he remarked coolly.

  Lee didn’t reply. He merely tried to force himself to his feet. He tried even more to keep what little control he had left from slipping away. But it was hard to do when the realization hit him so strongly that he and Erin were about to die and there was nothing in the world he could do to stop it. They were going to die and no one would ever know about the leak or about Burke’s secret little room that held countless treasures or about how Burke planned to .get those stolen treasures out of the country. The FBI was going to watch Forest Burke leave the country in the morning and there was no way they would ever be able to stop him. Despite the millions of dollars of evidence surrounding Lee right now.