by Rosett, Sara
Zoe’s gaze flew to Jack’s face as she rearranged the bits and pieces of information they knew. It all made sense if you flipped everything around. It was like looking through a telescope the wrong way first—everything was distorted and fuzzy—but when you switched it around, the view was clear and sharp.
She could see Jack had the same thought. His face, even his stance, relaxed.
She looked back at Harrington. “You were buying it back, not selling.”
He smiled as if she’d just correctly completed a geometry proof. “Yes. It was a recovery operation. The tip of the iceberg, I think.”
“You mean McKinley has more?”
“He says he has the rest of them, and I certainly hope he wasn’t lying, since I just handed him several thousand euros and promised him more tomorrow night. He said that there was more where that had come from.”
Jack frowned. “Did he mean specifically from that robbery, or just more jewels in general?”
“Oh, he meant that robbery. He thinks I’m working in conjunction with the insurance company as an independent investigator so he knows I’m only interested in the Rowan House jewels.”
“He knows you’re connected with Millbank and Proust? And he’s willing to talk to you?”
Harrington shrugged. “The police usually have little success with recovering stolen property, especially gems. A gem can be recut and entered into the legitimate retail market, making recovery extremely difficult—almost impossible. So insurance companies are often willing to ransom certain stolen items in order to get them back.”
“But doesn’t that just perpetuate the cycle?” Zoe asked.
“I didn’t say it was a good system, or that I agreed with it. Millbank and Proust have an official policy of not paying ransom, but in this case—well, desperate times and all that. It seemed the only way. And, technically, Millbank and Proust aren’t ransoming jewelry. I am, acting on my own.”
That glimmer of concern she’d noticed during their meeting before the exhibit hadn’t shown the depth of his apprehension. He was so worried about his career that he was willing to operate outside normal boundaries, something Zoe couldn’t fault him for. When your back was pressed against the wall, you sometimes had to do things outside normal channels.
“So if McKinley has this,” Jack pointed to the brooch, “he could have the Flawless Set?”
“It’s possible,” Harrington said slowly. “But they’ve only been missing for what? A day? That’s an awfully short amount of time. Logistics alone…getting them from Rome to here…”
“We came from Rome to here,” Jack said. “No reason someone else couldn’t do it.”
“And all the Millbank and Proust employees were scurrying out of Rome as fast as possible,” Zoe said.
“Like ancient Romans fleeing the barbarians,” Jack said. “Some people had already left, right?”
“Yes. Carlo was gone, and Amy was on her way to the airport,” Zoe said. “Mrs. Davray was scheduled to leave later that afternoon.”
“Well, I’ll definitely ask him tomorrow, let him know I’m interested in the Flawless Set as well.”
Zoe ran her thumb over the smooth, icy cold stone. “Why the delay until tomorrow? Why not buy all the jewelry back now?”
“Two reasons. First, because McKinley is cautious.” Harrington gestured to the brooch. “This little exchange was a test, for both of us. I proved I could produce the cash, and he proved he had the stolen goods.”
Jack said, “Sort of a dry run for the larger deal?”
“Exactly.”
“And the other reason?” Zoe asked.
“My retirement account has taken quite a hit. I can’t afford to purchase the whole lot on my own.”
Zoe blinked. “You bought this back with money from your retirement account?”
“I told you this whole operation is off-book. I don’t know whom I can trust in Millbank and Proust. I couldn’t afford to tip anyone off that I had a line on the stolen jewels.”
Jack said, “If you’re out of money, how are you planning to pay McKinley tomorrow?”
“Now that I have proof that McKinley has the jewels, I’d planned to directly contact the board of directors tonight to request a wire transfer to a Swiss bank account to buy the rest, which would insure the recovery of the jewels—the top priority of Millbank and Proust.”
“But what about McKinley?” Zoe said.
Harrington grinned. “I had intended to contact you to see if you’d be interested in more work—following McKinley.”
Jack nodded. “You were going to keep the recovery of the jewels quiet and see if McKinley’s path crossed with anyone from Millbank and Proust.”
“Yes. Not the best plan, but my company is most interested in recovery, not arrests. They are…reluctant to involve the police unless absolutely necessary.”
Zoe’s mind was racing as she went over the last twenty-four hours, rearranging what she and Jack knew. “The files with the details of the robberies, those were your notes. You weren’t planning the crimes,” Zoe said.
“You were reconstructing them,” Jack said.
“You’ve seen my files?”
“Yes. We were quite motivated to find you and tracked down your private digs near the Pantheon.”
“The apartment rental was a precaution. I couldn’t risk anyone I worked with running across my research. Hotel rooms are just not that secure.”
Zoe closed her hand around the brooch as she thought. “And the file with the list of people, that was your list of suspects. You were checking alibis.” She tilted her head as she said, “But how could you suspect Jack? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Suspect Jack? That’s absurd. He was never on my list of possibilities.” Harrington looked completely perplexed.
“The page about Safe Haven with the notes about Jack. It was in the suspects file.”
Harrington closed his eyes and shook his head. “I ran out of file folders. If I had any left, the Safe Haven information would have gone in its own file, but since I was out, I put it in the back of the last folder.”
Zoe shook her head at Jack. “Lumped in with the suspects because of an office supply shortage. We certainly leapt to a conclusion there, didn’t we?”
Harrington asked, “How did you find the apartment?”
“Luck,” Jack said. “After our meeting at the Pantheon, we got turned around and had to retrace our steps. We happened to see a man who resembled you going in the building and noticed that you didn’t ring the bell, but entered on your own.”
“Hmm. Sloppy on my part.” Harrington looked a bit miffed.
“It’s hard to watch your back twenty-four/seven,” Jack said.
“Well, apparently, I didn’t do anything very well if the Flawless Set is gone, and the police suspect you.”
“They have you pegged as the mastermind,” Zoe said. “Jack and I are just your minions.”
“As delightful as it is to know the police think so highly of me, I don’t find it a great comfort.”
Jack asked, “Why didn’t you return my calls yesterday?”
“My phone didn’t have service in Germany,” Harrington said. “I had to get a new SIM card this morning, and I haven’t listened to my voicemails yet. Today has been rather busy. Didn’t you get my message?”
“What message?”
“Before I left town, I called your hotel and left a message that I couldn’t meet you for lunch.”
“We never saw the desk clerk that morning.” Zoe cocked her head. “Do you hear a siren?”
They paused, and the distinctive alternating high then low pitch of a European emergency siren carried faintly to them.
Jack was already moving back to the car. “It might be for something completely unrelated to us.”
“Maybe,” Zoe said, but she followed quickly. As they moved through the trees to the white car, she handed the brooch to Harrington, and he slipped it back into the glove.
“Do yo
u have anything in here you need?” Jack asked as he wiped down the inside of the door with the edge of his coat.
“No, everything is back at the hotel.”
“Then you can ride with us. We’ll take you to Garmisch so you can clear out of your hotel room.”
“We can’t just…leave it here.” Harrington gestured at the car with the glove. “The tire tracks in the snow will lead them directly to it.”
“Yes, but if you’re not with it, you can’t answer their questions. You’re a wanted man.”
Jack closed the door with his hip, wiped down the door handle, and then moved to the other side of the car and did the same thing on the driver’s side. “If you stay, you’ll be answering their questions from a cell for the next several hours, and I think we still have quite a bit more to discuss.”
The off-key wail grew louder, grating on Zoe’s nerves. “There’s no time to get it turned around and back on the road, even if you did get it started. And that crumpled front end and the scratch on the side would be as good as a flashing sign, leading the police right to you.”
“Not to mention the person who ran you off the road.”
Harrington pocketed the glove. “Yes, I suppose that would tip them off that I had survived,” he said as they hurried through the trees to the yellow car, their breaths creating little frosty clouds.
Chapter Fourteen
Jack started the yellow car and pulled onto the road as soon as the doors closed. “Any idea why someone ran you off the road? Or who it was?”
“Not the slightest,” Harrington said from the backseat. “And I thought I was so careful. I—” An ambulance, its lights flashing and siren pulsing, raced toward them on the opposite side of the road, and Harrington fell silent.
Zoe twisted around. “Looks like they’re slowing down where you went off the road.”
The sirens cut off, and there was a beat of silence. “Well, at least it was only an ambulance. No police car. Not yet, anyway,” Zoe said.
“Yes, I’m sure they’ll be along soon,” Jack said. “Especially when they realize no one is in the car.”
Jack’s gaze lifted to the rearview mirror where he caught Harrington’s gaze. “You said you were careful?”
“Not careful enough, apparently. I was more concerned about someone in Millbank and Proust discovering my interest in the thefts, so I set up my headquarters, as it were, at the rented apartment and kept all my documents there. At the hotel, we were spread out across several floors, so as long as I showed up early and was the last one up to bed at night, no one realized what I was doing. At least, at the time I didn’t think anyone knew, but now…well, I must have been wrong. When I got the lead on McKinley—I heard he had a fabulous brooch in the shape of a bird—I made arrangements to come here to meet him, making sure not to use my company credit card. I took a few days of holiday time but didn’t mention the trip to anyone.”
“But everyone at Millbank and Proust didn’t know where you’d gone,” Zoe said.
“Odd. Perhaps the email didn’t go through.”
“That was how you notified them, email?” Jack asked.
“Yes. That’s the way we normally do it.”
“There should be a record of it somewhere. If it’s not on a server, then it will be in your sent mail.”
“Let’s hope that is the case, but if things have gone as off-kilter as you say, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that my email has been tampered with. I did use the company email system for that email.” He sighed. “Of course, I wasn’t trying to completely cover my tracks and have used my mobile phone as well as my personal credit cards.” He took the back cover off his phone and pried the battery out. “A bit late, but there it is. At least they won’t be able to track the signal now.”
“I’m sure Alessi has already pulled your credit card charges and knows we’re in Germany,” Jack said.
“You mentioned him earlier. Carabinieri, you said?”
“Yes. He showed up at our hotel—was it only yesterday?” Jack looked to Zoe.
“Seems longer, doesn’t it?” she said and filled Harrington in on the discovery of the planted bracelet.
“Good God, you hid it in your toiletries?”
“Well, I could tell from the conversation I overheard that it wouldn’t go well for us if they found that bracelet.”
“Where is it now?” Harrington asked.
“It’s safe,” Zoe said quickly. Apparently they’d been completely wrong about Harrington, but Zoe had learned a long time ago to never trust anyone completely—well, except for Jack. He was the exception to that rule, but there was no way she was giving up all their information to Harrington right now. Jack looked at her out of the corner of his eye, but didn’t say anything.
Zoe said, “Until we get either the rest of the Flawless Set or enough evidence to take to Alessi to prove we didn’t commit the theft, the bracelet stays where it is.” Harrington didn’t press for details.
“Tell him about the plaque,” Jack said, neatly shifting the subject as they arrived in Garmisch. The lifts had closed as sunset neared, and skiers and snowboarders were returning from the slopes. Zoe told Harrington about the hollow plaque as they crawled through the stop-and-go traffic, halting every few minutes at red lights.
“I ordered that plaque myself,” Harrington said. “It sat in my office for over two weeks. Anyone could have switched it for another one during that time. What puzzles me even more is, when were the jewels replaced with fakes?”
“Alessi thinks you did it when the jewels were transferred to the case on opening night,” Zoe said.
“And how was I supposed to accomplish this feat?”
“Sleight of hand,” Jack said as he inched the car forward. They rolled to a stop at the next intersection. The sun was almost down, and the whole town was in shadow. Lights glowed from homes and businesses, and streetlights came on with a flicker. The mountains themselves were darkening as the light faded. The peaks looked rough and forbidding against the last tinges of the pink and gold sky.
Harrington snorted. “I’m a magician now? Obviously, this Alessi has a vivid imagination.”
“I think you’re the only option,” Zoe said, remembering the details with a sinking feeling. “You ordered the display, you coordinated the plaque and brought us in for the award, and you placed the jewels in the case.”
“Hmm. Yes, even I can see that looks suspicious.”
“Add in the other things that we know that we hope Alessi doesn’t know, like our private meeting, and it looks even worse,” Jack said. “Alessi also mentioned that the computer sensor attached to the display of the case showed the case had not been moved. Therefore, according to Alessi, the switch had to be made before the glass case was fitted in place.”
“So the theft must have been discovered after I left Rome?”
“Yes, that morning. The clasp on the bracelet in the display wasn’t broken.”
Harrington looked out the window, but he wasn’t studying the ornate harvest season mural on the side of a hotel. “Interesting that this theft is different, bolder. And, the use of reproductions doesn’t fit the pattern of the other thefts. Why would the thief do that?”
Zoe turned toward the backseat. “To buy time, maybe? If the clasp hadn’t broken on the bracelet, how long would it have been before the glass case was opened?”
“Most likely, the end of the exhibit.”
Jack said, “But then why frame us with the hollowed-out plaque? That required planning.”
“It could be a different thief,” Zoe said.
“You like that theory. I seem to remember you brought that up earlier as well,” Harrington said. “And you’re right. There is that possibility. Or it might just be that replacing the Flawless Set with fakes was the only way to steal them unless the thief was willing to commit an aggressive smash-and-grab robbery during the exhibition. Those types of robberies have risks, risks that our thief hasn’t wanted to take. But perhaps the Flawle
ss Set itself was too much of a temptation. Normally, the Flawless Set isn’t worn or displayed. It’s kept locked away in an undisclosed spot, which even I couldn’t discover the location of.” Harrington leaned forward to point at the next cross street, but Jack already had the blinker on for the turn.
“You seem to know exactly where to go,” Harrington observed.
Zoe handed him the driving directions. “We found this in the trash in your apartment rental. Brought us right to you.”
“Police,” Jack said as he cruised by the hotel, raising his hand to rub his eyebrow as they passed a police car parked in front of the hotel steps. Zoe slid lower in the seat, but Harrington swiveled and peered out the back window. “That’s my room, top floor on the right.” Zoe glanced back and saw the curtains hadn’t been drawn. The interior light threw the shadows of two people moving around the room against the window.
Harrington dropped back into the seat. “They’re searching my room.” He looked dazed, like he had when Zoe had first opened the car door after the accident. She supposed it was one thing to hear the police suspected you, but seeing evidence of it was a whole other thing.
“What did you leave in the room? Anything important?” Jack asked.
“No.” Harrington’s gaze pinged back and forth across the backseat of the car. He patted his coat. “Just clothes, shave kit, that kind of thing. I have my passport on me and my money belt.”
“Good.” Jack made a few turns through a quiet neighborhood of stucco houses with heavy wooden balconies and high fences enclosing their front gardens. “I think we better get out of Garmisch. There are only a few roads in and out of this town. I don’t think they’ll set up checkpoints to look for us, but…”
“Better to get out now,” Zoe said, wholeheartedly agreeing with Jack. The last thing they wanted was to be trapped in a mountain town. “I don’t want to reenact the Sound of Music finale.”