Suspicious (On the Run) (14 page)

“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 you 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.

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 Flawless 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.”

“And I thought you’d be up for a good hike.”

“Not in the snow.”

She reached for the map, but Jack unhesitatingly made another turn that brought them out on the same street they’d just driven into town, but now they were cruising in the opposite direction, making good time on the open road. The other side of the street, the road going into town, was clogged. Trust Jack to have already assessed the situation and know their exit strategies.

They cleared the edge of Garmisch and followed the swooping curves of the road as it mirrored the river. The accident scene came up quickly. The ambulance was parked on the side of the road, lights still flashing. They were by it in seconds, and Zoe only had an impression of people moving through the trees. Jack said, “I’d rather not have come back this way, but this is the fastest way out of the valley.” As he drove, his gaze swept along the road. “I don’t see any speed cameras here.”

Zoe opened the map. “So no record of us going in or out of Garmisch.”

Harrington had been peering through the back window at the diminishing lights of the ambulance. As he turned back to the front, Zoe saw that he had the abstracted manner of someone working out a complex problem. His gaze fell on the map. “May I see that?”

“Of course.”

Jack asked, “So what do you think? Find some cheap, off the beaten path gästehaus for the night?”

“No.” The map crinkled as Harrington shoved it into the front seat. “Ischgl. We have go to Ischgl. Tonight.”

***

Gemma studied the abandoned car with its headlight buried in a tree trunk and compressed hood. Behind her, occasional traffic swished by on the road. Alessi huddled with Gustav, his contact in the German police force. On their flight to Innsbruck, Gemma had asked how the German police would react to their arrival. Alessi had flicked his hand, as if her worries amounted to nothing. “I helped Gustav with a missing altarpiece last year. He owes me.”

Alessi said it as if that would solve any problems that came up. It probably would for Alessi, but she wasn’t sure the welcome would stretch to her. She had waited until they were through security to text Nigel with the news she was traveling to Germany. Not that he’d have an issue with it. At least, she didn’t think he would. It would be the higher-ups who might fuss.

But she’d learned one thing in her time with the Art Squad—it was best to get the ball rolling and then inform the people up-chain after the fact. Harder to stop things, that way. Nigel would understand completely. Heck, he was the one who’d taught her the technique. She knew if they succeeded in finding the Flawless Set, and either evidence of who stole the gems in the country house robberies or—even better—apprehended the criminals themselves along with the gems, no one would care about her unauthorized foray into another European country.

Of course, both those possibilities looked remote now. They had gone straight from the airport to Garmisch and toured Throckmorton’s hotel room, which had contained nothing more exciting than a shaving kit and a run-of-the-mill suitcase. No hidden gems anywhere and no sign of his accomplices, Jack and Zoe Andrews.

Gustav had run their names through their databases and turned up nothing. No hotel or rental car reservations, and when Alessi checked back with his people in Rome, he was informed the Andrews’ hotel room was still empty. Gustav had requested footage from the Zugspitze, but it wasn’t in yet, so they couldn’t even be sure Throckmorton had gone to the peak today. The ticket purchase could have been a distraction.

Alessi slapped his friend on the shoulder then came across the snow to her. He wore a fur-lined hat with earflaps, a heavy wool coat, boots, and gloves. A wool scarf was wrapped around the lower half of his face, covering his mouth and nose. “This weather—it is inhumane, is it not? So cold. I do not see how Gustav endures it.” He stamped his booted feet and rubbed his gloved hands together before continuing. “It is the car that Throckmorton rented in Rome.”

“Well, that’s something, at least,” Gemma said. “Did you notice the snow?”

Alessi shook his head. “No, there had already been too much activity for prints. The emergency crews and local police.”

“But why would they go deeper into the woods?” Gemma pointed to several sets of prints that trailed away from the sight of the impact into the woods. “Looks like more than one person went that way, then doubled back.”

“You think, perhaps three?”

“It’s possible, isn’t it?” Gemma said, squinting at the pine branches against the now dark sky as she tried different scenarios. “Perhaps the Andrews couple ambushed Throckmorton.”

“You are thinking there was a falling out among the thieves? They ran him off the road and took the Flawless Set.”

Gemma shrugged, uncomfortable. She’d rather deal with facts, but they were in short supply right now. “But then where is Throckmorton?” Gemma asked, acknowledging the major question her speculations raised. “He couldn’t walk back to town without someone seeing him, surely? It’s too far isn’t?”

“Yes. And there are no homes or businesses here.”

“The river…?”

Alessi raised a shoulder in a shrug that conveyed both possibility and doubt. “Gustav’s men will check tomorrow during the daylight. Gustav has arranged hotel rooms for us in Garmisch for tonight. Then we can return to Roma.” He used the Italian word for the city and said it with relish as if he wished he were already there.

Alessi had made it quite clear that any other location, even the stunningly beautiful German Alps were inferior to Italy in general and Rome in particular.

Alessi pointed out the trail of footprints to Gustav, who sent someone to photograph them. Then Gemma and Alessi turned and walked back through the snow to the cars with flashing lights along the side of the road. She’d already examined the interior of the crushed car and circled around the scene. There was nothing else to do except go back to the hotel room and go over her notes again.