Golden Lies (17 page)

Paige hated the way Riley was dissecting everything so clinically, so dispassionately. This was her father they were talking about. Just thinking about his attack made her feel sick.

"I've asked my assistant to see if she can locate Mr. Li," Riley added. "For now, I think we should concentrate on the Chen family."

She turned away from the sharp look in his eyes. She knew what was coming next, and she didn't want to hear it. Instead she walked back over to the table and picked up the family photograph. She handed it to him. "This is my family."

"Nice picture. Who's the other girl?"

"My sister, Elizabeth. She died when I was six, and she was seven. That picture was taken just a few months before she got sick."

"You had a sister who died?" He looked surprised. "I never heard about that."

"It's not a secret, but it happened a long time ago."

"How did she die?"

"She had leukemia. It was awful." A word that didn't begin to describe the horrible disease that had stolen Elizabeth's life. "Nothing was the same after she died." Paige stared at the photograph in his hand. "It happened almost twenty-three years ago. If that girl, Jasmine's daughter, is really my half sister, then she was born in the year after Elizabeth died. Maybe that's why the affair happened. Or maybe that's what I want to believe. Either way, I'm not sure I can accept this other girl as my sister. Elizabeth is my sister. It would be wrong to put anyone else in her place. It would be as if she hadn't existed."

"Alyssa Chen isn't going to make you forget or love your real sister any less."

"I'm not so sure." She debated telling him what she was feeling, but her emotions and words seemed to run amok when Riley was nearby. "Sometimes I forget what Elizabeth looked like, sounded like, smelled like," she confessed. "I see the pictures and I remember her, but I'm not sure I remember her from my memories or from the pictures. Does that make sense?"

"It makes a lot of sense. It's been a long time, Paige. Memories fade. And you were a little girl. How much do you remember from when you were six years old?"

"Probably not as much as I should." She took the picture from his hand and set it back on the table. "Every year on Elizabeth's birthday, my father and I go to the cemetery, and he gives her a birthday present. It's always a dragon. She loved dragons. My father started her collection, and he still contributes to it every year. In fact, we're going to display the collection in the new Hathaway exhibit at the Asian Art Museum."

"A dragon like the one my grandmother had?" Riley asked sharply.

"Any kind of dragon. The gifts have all been different. But, yes, he was interested in your grandmother's dragon for that reason, as well as a dozen others, I'm sure. Elizabeth's birthday is next Wednesday. He has to wake up before then."

"I hope he does, but everything you've told me, Paige, only makes me believe that your father knew something about that dragon that we don't. We have to find out more about it."

"You're right. Now I wish I'd majored in art history instead of business economics."

"You majored in business economics?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"After my mother. She said it was more important to be able to run the business than to appreciate the goods that we sell. Unfortunately, right now that's not helping us at all."

Riley's cell phone rang, interrupting their conversation. "I better take this," he said, checking the number. "Hello? Grandma?"

Paige watched Riley's demeanor change. His face tightened. His eyes grew hard. He looked as if he wanted to hit something or someone.

"Stay at Millie's," he said. "Don't go back to the house. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"What happened?" Paige asked as he ended the call.

"My grandmother's house was broken into."

"Is she all right?"

"She's fine. She wasn't home when it happened. I have to go."

"I'm coming, too." Paige grabbed her purse as she followed him to the door. "What do you think they were looking for? Your grandmother doesn't have the dragon anymore."

"Maybe someone thinks she has the other one." He sent her a pointed look. "Didn't that story say there might be two?"

The drive across town seemed to take forever as the Friday morning traffic was heavy in the downtown area. Riley hit the brakes hard as yet another red light stopped him in his tracks.

"You couldn't have predicted this," Paige said quietly.

"I certainly should have. Dammit." He hit the steering wheel with his fist. "As soon as you told me that story about the two dragons, I should have connected the dots. And those hang-up calls—"

"What hang-up calls?"

"My grandmother said someone kept calling and hanging up. She thought it was my mother, which I immediately dismissed as ridiculous."

"Why would your mother be calling and hanging up? That seems odd."

He uttered a short, bitter laugh. "That's my mother, odd."

"What do you mean?"

"Never mind." He turned the corner sharply and pulled up in front of his grandmother's house before she could press him further.

Riley jumped out of the car and ran up the driveway to where Millie and Nan were standing. Paige followed, feeling a strange tightness in her throat as she watched him hug his grandmother with a fierce tenderness.

"Good heavens, Riley. You're squeezing the breath out of me," Nan told him. She smiled and stroked his face with her fingers. "I'm fine. But the house is a mess. They went through everything, dumping out my drawers and undoing all the beds. I don't know what kind of fortune they thought I was hiding in there, but I don't think they got much for their trouble. I couldn't have had more than twenty dollars in cash lying around. And my jewelry isn't worth much."

"I'm going to check it out. You wait here. Paige will keep you company."

"Oh, dear. I didn't even see you, Miss Hathaway." Nan looked from Riley to Paige, then back to Riley. "Did I interrupt something when I called?"

"Nothing that can't wait. I'll be back in a few minutes. Just stay put. You, too," he told Paige.

As Riley sprinted across the yard, Paige found herself being perused by two pairs of very curious eyes. "It's nice to see you both again. I'm sorry the circumstances are so distressing."

"Let's go to my house and have some coffee," Millie suggested, leading them next door.

Paige followed them into the kitchen, where Millie filled several mugs with coffee and placed a chocolate cake on the table in case anyone was hungry. Then she excused herself to answer the phone, leaving Nan and Paige alone.

"I was so sorry to hear about your father," Nan said, patting Paige's hand where it rested on the table. "How is he doing?"

"He's still unconscious." Paige paused. "I'm sorry your dragon has gone missing in the midst of all this. I feel terrible. The House of Hathaway has never lost an art object before."

"Someone wanted that dragon very badly. What I don't understand is why anyone would break into my house. I don't have it anymore."

Paige wasn't sure if she should tell Nan about the possibility that there might be two dragons. It was only a theory, and not much of one at that.

"I'm a little afraid it might be Mary behind this break-in," Nan said, surprising her with the comment.

"Who is Mary?" Paige asked.

Nan looked a little guilty at the question, as if she wished she hadn't brought it up. "She's my daughter, Riley's mother."

"Why would your daughter break into your house?"

"Well, she wouldn't." Nan shook her head. "I'm sure none of this has anything to do with her. She left Riley with us a long time ago, when he was a teenager. Even before that she was barely around. She wasn't much of a mother to him, that's for sure."

"That's too bad. Riley said something about hang-up calls?" she queried.

"Sometimes I think Mary is calling me and hanging up because she just doesn't have the nerve to speak." She sent Paige a thoughtful look. "I'm surprised Riley mentioned his mother to you. He must like you."

"Barely mentioned, and he doesn't like me at all. He thinks my family is trying to cheat you."

Nan brushed that away with a wave of her hand. "Riley always believes people are out to con him. He doesn't trust anyone. That's the legacy my daughter left him with, I'm afraid. I wish I could have stepped in sooner to take care of Riley, but she took him away from us early on, and there were years when we didn't know where they were."

Paige saw regret and sadness in Nan's eyes. It must hurt her deeply to speak ill of her daughter. Nan seemed like such a nice lady. Paige couldn't help wondering how her daughter had turned out so badly.

"She got involved with drugs at a young age," Nan said, answering Paige's unspoken question. "Barely fourteen when she started. Mary had the kind of personality that needed a lot of attention. She was never happy with what she had. I thought it was teenage years," Nan said reflectively. "I blame myself for not seeing that she needed real help. I did so many things wrong."

This time Paige reached across the table and covered Nan's hand with her own. "Sometimes people are just born with a personality that takes them into trouble."

Nan smiled. "You're a sweet girl, and very kind not to blame me. Riley doesn't blame me, either, and he should. He's the one who had to pay."

"Riley seems to have turned out okay."

"I know it looks that way, but I still worry about him. Sometimes I wonder if I did the right thing asking him to come home and run his grandfather's business."

"The security business belonged to your husband?"

"Yes, but when Ned started getting sick about four years ago, I asked Riley if he could come back and help us out. He was debating whether or not to re-up with the Marine Corps at the time. He was doing so well in the service. He was always cagey about what he was doing or where he was going though. I knew it was dangerous, and he was probably being reckless, because Riley has always believed he has nothing to lose." She shook her head, with regret in her eyes. "At any rate, he came home to help out and has been here ever since. Now he runs the business better than my husband did, and he's settling down, a little bit, anyway. I wouldn't mind seeing a woman in his life," she added hopefully. "He is a good man. A little pushy sometimes."

"That's an understatement," Paige said with a wry smile. "How on earth did he ever learn to take orders?"

"It took awhile. But the marines straightened him out. He got into some trouble when he was young. Ned, that's my husband, thought the service would put Riley on the right track, and he was right. Riley is very smart, caring, and he's loyal to a fault. A woman could do worse."

Paige smiled. "Well, that may be true, but just so you know -- I have a boyfriend." It felt strange to call Martin her boyfriend, but she needed something to dampen Nan's growing enthusiasm for a possibility that would never happen. As soon as they found Nan's dragon, Riley would be out of her life, and she would be out of his.

"Of course you do. I keep telling Riley that if he doesn't hurry up and get serious, all the good ones will be gone."

"I don't think he'll have any trouble finding someone."

Paige looked up as Riley entered the kitchen, a grim expression on his face. "The house is a mess. It will take some time to clean it up. I think you should stay here for a while, Grandma. And I definitely don't want you in the house tonight."

"Surely they've taken what they wanted," Nan replied.

"They may have been interrupted when you came home."

"What do I have that anyone would want so badly?"

"There may be another dragon. Paige and I have been doing some research, and we've found information about two dragons that connect together, and they both look like the one you had. Someone might think you have the other dragon, too."

"I'm sure I don't. We cleaned out the attic last week, Riley. You know that."

"But no one else does. Why didn't you turn on the security system when you left the house?"

"I only went to the store. I thought I'd be gone for just a few minutes. And it's broad daylight. I thought burglars usually came at night."

"You should turn it on every time you leave, no matter what."

"I'll do better, Riley, I promise."

"And you'll stay here with me today and tonight," Millie said, returning to the room.

"I don't want to impose on you and Howard," Nan protested.

"You could never do that. We'll go shopping. You've been wanting to walk down Union Street. And tonight we'll have dinner and then you'll keep me company while Howard plays on that computer of his. I'll be glad to have the company."

"Then it's settled," Riley said.

"I'll still need to get some clothes. I don't have anything with me."

"I'll go with you to the house. We'll get whatever you need."

"Riley, the police are still there, aren't they?" Nan asked.

"Yes, but—"

"Then I'll be fine. I'll go over and talk to them. I won't stay there alone. Once they leave, I'll come back here. You and Paige can go on and do whatever you were doing."