Glass Houses (34 page)

“Who is we?” Olivia said. The annoyance she felt was probably out of line.

“We,” Aiden said. “Chris and I. We worked together long enough not to have to do a lot of talking about the obvious.”

A little, dark-haired girl wearing a red sleeper pattered into the room at a pace that threatened to land her on her nose. She ran straight to Chris, who caught her up and held her, feet pumping, above his head.

Olivia’s annoyance melted. “This must be Anna Talon, who is not quite two.”

Everyone but Aiden laughed. Aiden appeared bemused. “Grinch talk,” Sonnie told him. “But you soon will be two, won’t you, Anna?”

That earned Anna’s mom a solemn nod and two raised fingers.

“Okay, madam,” Chris said. “Say hello to your Uncle Aiden or you’ll hurt his feelings.”

Anna looked around, sighted Aiden at once, and gave him a fierce frown. He said, “Hi, Anna. You’ve grown, and it’s only been a few months since I saw you. And you get prettier and prettier.”

The child stuck several fingers in her mouth and smiled around them before hiding her face.

“Flattery gets ’em every time,” Chris said. “Cuddle with your eyes closed, or back to bed. Which is it to be?”

Anna settled down on her father’s lap and closed her eyes. Aiden studied Chris and his daughter and remembered a hundred times when he and Chris had ridden as partners around New York City. Chris had been as tough as they came, and still was when he had to be. Back then Aiden couldn’t have visualized this moment, or the contented way the other man stroked his daughter’s curls.

Was Aiden thinking it might be nice to have a child of his own to hold? Olivia wandered.

This calm, quiet domestic scene could lull a person into forgetting her own life was a circus.

“I can’t sit here and wait,” Aiden said suddenly. “I’m going to hang out at Sea-Tac. If we don’t try to stop her, Kitty’ll get back out for sure.”

“Chris?” Sonnie’s voice filled with alarm.

“Don’t worry, he’s not going. I’ve got clearance to have flight manifestos checked.”

“Checked for Kitty?” A
iden asked. “She isn’t going…
Hell, yes, she’s probably going to use her own name because of her needing to produce ID.”

“Our friend Ryan will be calling the shots,” Chris pointed out. “He could have her take a bus or rent a car to meet up with him.”

“If we don’t get real lucky, he’s going to get everything he wants,” Aiden said. “Unless we find something in Olivia’s photos, and she doesn’t think we will.”

“I didn’t see anything,” Chris said.

Sonnie got up and started clearing the table.

Chris placed the now-sleeping Anna in Aiden’s arms and helped his wife. “Let’s see them again, Olivia, please. I’ll get a magnifying glass.”

“I have a good one in my bag,” she told him, trying not to stare at Aiden and the little girl.

Olivia got up and collected her bag. She arranged the photographs on the table in the order they were taken and found her magnifying glass. Boswell roused himself and plodded to flop down again at Olivia’s feet.

“We need more light.” Chris left the room and returned with a halogen desk lamp.

One by one the photographs were studied by each of the four of them. And one by one, they failed to find anything of note.

“These are for one of those home magazines?” Sonnie said, using a second magnifying glass Chris had produced.

Olivia said, “Yes. I don’t like most of the artwork either, but you learn to put your own taste aside and make the best of the material you’re given.”

“I think we’re going to lose this one,” Aiden said. “But that could turn out to be good news for us, I guess. If Ryan and Fats figure they’re in the clear and do a bunk, we’re in the clear. If, if, if. If only we knew why they’re going to such lengths.”

“To protect themselves, of course,” Sonnie said.

Aiden decided not to pursue the point. “Even when it’s all over, there’ll still be some tough explanations to give.”

“Like why you snooped around Ryan’s computer, you mean?” Chris asked mildly.

“I’m glad he did,” Olivia said at once. “That’s selfish, but who knows what would have happened to me?”

“Be nice, Chris,” Sonnie said.

Aiden looked much too smug but said, “The other photos are more or less duplicates of these?” as if his mind was only on business.

“Not exactly. Penny wanted some different angles. We could make another set if you think it would be worth it.”

“Make another set?” Chris narrowed his eyes at her.

Olivia looked from face to face, from s
tunned face to stunned face. “
Yes, make another set. From the negatives. Why not?”

The atmosphere had changed. Aiden turned Anna toward his shoulder and covered the back of her head while he leaned toward Olivia. “The negatives aren’t with the photos in your grip?” he asked.

“I’ve got all the negatives with me.”

Chris leap
ed to his feet. “
There could be something in the other batch. If we could compare the two we might notice a difference.”

“Chris,” Sonnie said, “there’s no need to shout.”

“Oh, no,” Olivia said, burying her face. “I just assumed all you were worried about was those photos falling into the wrong hands.”

“We
were
worried about that,” Aiden said. “You weren’t to know, but it would have helped if we’d known we had the neg
atives and could make copies.”
Anna stirred on his shoulder, rubbed her nose, but fell deeply asleep again.

Chris bowed his head and said, “I’ll go get the other set of prints made.”

O
livia was past being tired. Punchy came closer to the way she felt. Chris had taken less than an hour to return with very good quality prints made from the negatives she hadn’t thought to mention. Each time she thought about it, she screwed up her face and willed the memory from her mind. Not that there had been any revelations since Chris got back.

“We need to try something different,” Aiden said. “Break our concentration, then refocus. Let’s just shuffle the whole lot up,” Aiden said. “Each set is numbered on the back but if we don’t know which is which, we might—”

“Okay, okay,” Chris said. “You don’t need to draw us a map. Mix ’em up, not that I think it’ll make any difference. We aren’t going to identify anything useful.”

Aiden moved the photographs around like a magician hiding a card. “Look for shots of the area, line ’em up, and give it your all.”

That bought him some glares but they all went to work again.

The only sound was of breathing.

Boswell snuffled.

“Anna went down okay, then?” Chris said after a while.

Sonnie nodded, but didn’t take her eyes away from the magnifying glass she was using.

“Oh, my.” Olivia’s scalp tightened. She tapped a photo and looked up. “This was taken in that wide corridor. The one leading to a hall at the back. The glass sculpture was at the opening into the hall. Look at this painting.”

S
onnie looked first and said, “
I don’t like it. And it looks just as bad in both photos.”

“Let me see,” Aiden said. He pored over the images. “I don’t think it’s
that
bad.”

Chris got up and leaned over Aiden’s shoulder. “It stinks. In both versions. You’re imagining things, Olivia. There’s nothing different.”

“I am not imagining anything.” She pounded the table with a fist and plopped a third shot down. “Same painting.” This time three heads bent over the exhibits, and two of them began to shake slowly from side to side.

“Got it,” Sonnie said excitedly. “This had to be in the second batch.”

Olivia pres
sed her hands to her cheeks. “
Look on the other side.”

“Second batch,” Sonnie said, her eyes shining. “How would someone do that?”

“Not sure,” Olivia said. “I’m no expert on things like that. But now I remember mentioning a funny smell, and Penny said she thought one of the bathrooms was being worked on.”

“Whoa!” Aiden snatched up the three photos. “Would you two min
d sharing your little secret?”

“Someone told me you could do that with Goof Off,” Sonnie said. “Do you have Goof Off in England?”

“I don’t think so. The smell was a bit like turps—turpentine—but not exactly.”

“Olivia?”
Aiden said.

She looked at him, then at Chris, who wasn’t smiling either. “Someone’s started removing paint from the canvas,” Sonnie said. “What do you see in that one?” She selected a photo.

“Ugly daubs,” Aiden said. “A bunch of shapes.”

“Colors?” Olivia asked.

This time it was Chris who said, “Red, purple, lavender, different shades of pink.”

Sonnie went directly to the third picture. “Now what do you see?”

Both men studied hard and said, “Same,” in unison.

“Check out the bottom right corners,”
Olivia said, bobbing on her toes. “Where you see a signature on one, and all but
the first letters missing on the second. And what about the color in that area on the second one?”

“Geez,” Aiden said. “I’ve got to be tired or I wouldn’t have missed that. Gray where it should be red.”

“Why would anyone do a thing like that?” Olivia asked. “Ruin a painting with some sort of solvent?”

Aiden ran a hand
around the back of his neck. “
One painting on top of another. Maybe I’ll plead that this is so simple, I didn’t even consider looking for it. The authentic painting is underneath. The painting on top is done to hide the real thing. The reason for taking some of the outer coat off is to make sure the real thing’s there.”

“I didn’t see it at the time,” Olivia murmured. “I wasn’t aware of anything but the shots Penny Biggies wanted. The place was really quiet. There was the smell, of course, but it didn’t mean anything much at the time.”

“This is great,” Chris said. “Or it is as long as Ryan sees it, too. If he keeps up the pattern, he won’t take a hike without trying to make sure these don’t get into official hands. Since the negatives aren’t with the photos Kitty lifted, he’ll have to assume we have them. He’s obviously involved with whatever went on there.”

“Art theft, presumably,” Aiden said, and was once again aware of a very important missing piece of the puzzle. “You and Penny must have interrupted them, Olivia. But if they took off without the painting, I don’t know what they’d be so worried about. We need to find out if there’s a case on record now.”

Chris hummed and looked over the water, where reflected light rocked on wavelets. “The way Fish and Moody have behaved can only mean there’s stolen art work involved. We know there is, otherwise Ryan wouldn’t be yelling about it in New York and blaming you and Olivia.”

“Ryan isn’t working with Fish and Moody,” Aiden said. “I listened to Ryan and Fats talking about it. Ryan knows every move the London boys make. They don’t know a thing about what he’s up to or even that he’s involved. Then the really weird thing is that Fats doesn’t know everything either. He
kept tr
ying to get Ryan to tell him why he didn’t want Fish and Moody to find out he was around, but Ryan wouldn’t say a thing except that’s the way he wanted it. And it’s all up for grabs unless we can get our hands on either Ryan and Fats, or the other two—or even Kitty—before they all disappear. Thinking about them rolling in stolen bucks and basking on a beach somewhere drives me nuts.”

Olivia put her hand on his. “Don’t you think the really bad news is that if Ryan and Fats, or any of them, do see that there’s evidence, they’ll want to make absolutely sure we don’t have it, too? They’ll come after us, won’t they? I’m not sure we can win whatever happens. We should leave, Aiden. We can’t risk drawing in those people here.”

Aiden looked to Chris, but rather than say yea or nay, Chris said, “We’re safe in hoping we’ve got a few hours before a
ll hell breaks loose—or not. Darn
it, this is a crazy-making case. Anyway, there are beds made up downstairs for the two of you. You’ll find some clothes to get along with. You’ll make do with some of mine, Aiden. Sleep. I’ll wake you up early and we’ll see what we’ve got by then. Go on.”

“I’m going to do just one thing first.” Aiden got out his cell phone. “I don’t want this call traced here.” He pressed numbers and covered the mouthpiece. “Don’t make a sound.”

“It’s two in the morning,” Chris said. “Who are you calling?”

“The chief’s secretary,” Aiden told him. “You remember Margy? She often gets in real early.”

Chris started to reply, but Aiden shushed him and said, “Good morning, Margy,” into the phone. “It’s Aiden. I’m okay. I’m glad you’re on duty. I was hoping you could give me a rundown on what’s happening back there.”

Margy didn’t say a word.

“Talk to me, Margy,” he said gently. “I don’t want to put you in a difficult spot, but I need some help.
With Vanni at the hospital, and
—”