“Like a fan, you mean? Or a tribute band?” Tracy asked mockingly.
“Is that so unlikely?”
“Unlikely? From where I’m sitting, it’s completely ridiculous. Look. Your only viable suspect for these robberies is Elizabeth Kennedy. She’s a woman, she’s active, and she operates at this level. I know for a fact that she’d been working Sheila Brookstein for months. But I can assure you that that woman is no fan of mine. She seduced my husband, Inspector. She destroyed my life. And not for money. For fun.” Tracy’s voice hardened. “I hate her. And I’m pretty sure the feeling’s mutual.”
“Yes, but don’t you see?” said Jean. “That still makes you the link. Elizabeth Kennedy emerges as a new suspect, totally unknown to Interpol until now . . . and even she’s connected to you.”
“Meaning?”
Jean groaned. “I don’t know. I don’t know what it means.”
He’d lost the thread, if he ever even had one in the first place. He was hungry and exhausted. Trying to hold on to a thought felt like swimming through molasses.
“Forget me for the moment,” said Tracy. “Let’s assume there is a link between the robberies and the murders. Let’s also assume that Elizabeth was involved in all the robberies. Given that we know I wasn’t.”
Jean nodded. “Okay.”
“Shouldn’t your next move be to find Elizabeth? Whatever your doubts, Jean, the way I see it, she’s all you’ve got.”
“You could be right. But finding Elizabeth Kennedy may be easier said than done. The young lady’s a pro. She’s given the FBI the slip on at least three occasions that I know of. She evaporated out of L.A. after the Brookstein job even faster than you did.”
“And more successfully, evidently,” Tracy added ruefully. “So what do you know about her?”
“Not much.” Jean gave her the bare bones of Elizabeth’s history as provided by the FBI. Her upbringing in England, her juvenile record, the string of crimes in which she’d been identified as a “person of interest” and some of her known aliases. “The feds are convinced she works with a partner. A man. Just like you did with Jeff Stevens.”
“I doubt that.”
Jean looked surprised. “Why?”
“Why split the money if you don’t have to? Jeff and I were different. A one-shot deal, if you like. Only a man would assume that a woman like Elizabeth needs a man behind her, pulling the strings.”
Jean signaled for the check.
“Thanks for coming out tonight, Tracy.”
“I didn’t have much choice, did I?” she said.
“Look. I like you,” said Jean. “I do. I can see you’ve built a good life here. I don’t want to cause trouble for you and your son.”
“Then don’t.” Despite herself, Tracy’s eyes began to well up. “I’ve told you as much as I know. Truly. Please leave us alone now.”
“I can’t,” said Jean. “Not yet.”
“What do you mean, you can’t? Of course you can!”
Jean shook his head. “I have a job to do, Tracy. I have to catch this bastard before he kills again. If the FBI catches up with Elizabeth Kennedy before I do, they’ll charge her with the thefts and send her to jail and we’ll lose our only link to this psycho, whoever he is. What you said just now was right. We need to find Elizabeth.”
“I didn’t say ‘we.’ I said ‘you,’ ” Tracy shot back angrily. “You need to find her, Jean.”
“We need to find her and follow her until we find him.”
“If there is a him.”
“I need your help, Tracy.”
“For God’s sake, I don’t know Elizabeth,” Tracy pleaded. “How can I possibly help you? I told you, I ran into her in L.A. by chance. Before that I hadn’t seen her in years. Almost a decade! I didn’t even know her real name till tonight.”
“The point is, she knows you,” said Jean. “She thinks like you. She operates like you. You’re inside her head, Tracy, whether you want to be or not. You have to help me find her before Milton Buck does.”
“And if I refuse?” Tracy’s eyes flashed defiantly.
“I’ll expose you. I’ll tell your son the truth. I’m sorry, Tracy”—Jean sighed—“but I don’t have a choice.”
There were a few moments of silence. Then Tracy said, “Once we find her, do you swear you will leave me alone? You will never, ever try to contact me again?”
“You have my word.”
Jean offered her his hand. Tracy shook it. He had a firm handshake, and his palm was warm and dry against her own.
Tracy thought, I trust him.
God help me.
Jean signed the check and they walked outside. The crisp night air felt reviving to both of them as they walked to Jean’s car.
“So,” said Jean. “You’re Elizabeth Kennedy. You’ve spent the last six months planning to steal the Brookstein rubies only to have your archrival beat you to the punch at the very last moment. What’s your next move?”
Tracy thought for a moment.
“Regroup. When a job goes wrong, you need some time to recover. You analyze it, try to learn from your mistakes.”
“Okay. Where? If it were you, where would you go to do that?”
“If it were me?” Tracy paused, then smiled. “Home. If it were me, I’d go home.”
CHAPTER 15
LONDON
THREE MONTHS LATER . . .
EDWIN GREAVES WATCHED THE rain stream down his kitchen windowpane and wondered, What did I come in here for again? Edwin Greaves’s large, comfortable flat looked over Cadogan Gardens. The communal tennis courts were drenched and deserted, overhung by trees stripped bare of their leaves by the driving rain and bitter autumn winds.
I used to play tennis. Charlie could always beat me, though. Even as a little boy.
Where is Charlie?
Charlie Greaves, Edwin’s son, usually came on a Tuesday, to help Edwin with his mail and his grocery shopping at Harrods. Edwin Greaves always shopped at Harrods. One must maintain some standards after all, even in one’s nineties.
Why wasn’t Charlie here yet? Perhaps it wasn’t Tuesday? Although Edwin could have sworn it was.
“Can I help you with the tea, Mr. Greaves?”
A young woman’s voice drifted through from the drawing room.
Ah, that was it. Tea. I’m making tea for me and the nice young lady from Bonhams auction house.
“No, no, my dear. You make yourself comfortable. I’ll be through in a moment.”
The young woman smiled warmly when the old man finally shuffled back into the room. Setting down the tray with a rattle, he handed her a cup of tea in an antique Doulton china mug. It was stone cold.
“Thank you.” She sipped it anyway, pretending not to notice. “I’ve signed the paperwork here and attached the check. But perhaps we should wait for your son?”
“Why? It’s not his painting.”
“Well, no. But . . .”
“I’m not dead yet, you know.” Edwin Greaves laughed. His lungs made a ghastly, wheezing sound, like a broken accordion. “Although to hear Charlie’s wife talk, you’d think everything I owned was already theirs. Bloody vultures.” The old man’s face darkened suddenly. The young woman dealt with a lot of rich, elderly people. She knew well how their moods could shift at the drop of a hat, like clouds in a stormy sky.
“Besides,” Edwin went on, “it’s not as if it’s a genuine Turner. Everyone knows it’s a fake.”
“That’s true,” the young woman said amiably. “But it’s still valuable. Gresham Knight was one of the most brilliant forgers of his generation. That’s why my client is prepared to make such a generous offer.”
“May I?” Edwin Greaves’s gnarled fingers reached for the check. He held it up close to his face, scanning and rescanning the number with his rheumy old eyes. “Fifty thousand pounds?” He looked at the woman from Bonhams in astonishment. “That’s far too much money! Good gracious, my dear, I can’t possibly accept that.”
She laughed. “Like I say, it’s not a Turner, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless. My advice is that you make the sale. But of course, if you prefer to wait for your son . . .”
“No, no, no,” Edwin Greaves said tetchily. “Charlie’s coming on Tuesday. It’s not his painting anyway. We’re going to go through my mail.”
The young woman passed him a pen. Edwin Greaves signed the papers.
“We were going to play tennis, but then this beastly rain set in.”
“That’s a shame. May I take the painting now?”
“Charlie comes on Tuesdays.”
She slipped the painting into the padded canvas bag she’d brought along for the purpose.
“There’s the check, Mr. Greaves, on the coffee table. Would you like me to put it somewhere safe for you?”
“This dratted tea’s gone cold.” Edwin Greaves frowned down at his cup in confusion. “He’s terribly good at tennis, Charlie. He always beats me.”
The old man was still muttering as the young woman took her leave, closing the front door of the flat behind her.