Donovans 01 - Amber Beach

do-whoever is for sale.”
    Ellen gave Kyle a cool look. “You’re not being much help, babe.”
    “Unless you owe someone more than money,” Jake said calmly to Kyle, “tell Uncle the method and keep the names to yourself.”
    Kyle hesitated.
    Archer came into the bedroom and leaned against the door frame. “That’s good advice. Don’t make any enemies until you have to.”
    “I used the Russian military in Kaliningrad,” Kyle said to Ellen. “They haven’t been paid in so long they’re selling everything from socks to fighter jets in order to eat. They got me and the shipment to Kamchatka. I gave the truck to someone who was my height and coloring. He drove to Russia and disappeared with the truck to draw people off my trail.”
    Archer and Jake exchanged swift looks.
    “Nice work on short notice,” Archer said simply.
    Jake nodded.
    The look on Kyle’s face said that he wished he had been smarter sooner-with Marju, for instance.
    For about ten seconds, the sound of Ellen’s red nails tapping against her leather purse was the only break in the silence.
    “Okay,” she said briskly. “You’re in Kamchatka. Then what?”
    “You saw the shipping carton for the amber,” Kyle said, his voice rough. “What do you think?”
    “I think you went to that fishing outfit on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Vlad Kirov got you out of there along with the amber panel.”
    Kyle nodded.
    “So that really was you who came in through SeaTac?” Ellen asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Hell. I owe that guy in Immigration a twenty. I really thought it was the DOA using your passport. How did you kill him?”
    Simultaneously Jake and Archer said, “No.”
    They didn’t say anything else. They didn’t have to. Ellen moved on to her next question without a pause.
    “If you were Marju’s dupe, why didn’t you call your family when you needed help?”
    The corners of Kyle’s mouth turned down. “I thought I could take care of it myself. I sure as hell didn’t want to put their necks on the line.”
    “Was Jake in on it with Marju?”
    Kyle stared at her.
    “Oh, come on,” Ellen said impatiently. “It wouldn’t be the first time in history that a best friend and the best friend’s girl get it on in the sack and then dump one corner of the triangle.”
    “Jay didn’t like Marju. He tried to warn me.” Kyle shrugged. “I didn’t listen. When it came to her, all my brains were below my belt.”
    Ellen started to ask another question.
    Jake beat her to it. “How did you find out about the amber panel?”
    “In other words, who betrayed Kyle?” Ellen asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “Marju.”
    “Wrong answer,” Jake told Ellen. “Marju doesn’t have the kind of connections to get to you.”
    “What will you give me if I tell you?” Ellen asked.
    “What do you want?” Jake replied.
    “Is the panel genuine?”
    “Like I told Pete, I haven’t done tests.”
    “All I want is your expert opinion,” Ellen said.
    “You’ll get it. Who betrayed Kyle’s escape route and destination to the Russians?”
    The agent’s black eyebrows rose, revealing the intense blue of her eyes. “You planning a little revenge?”
    “Why, is the leak one of yours?”
    “No. The leak was Kirov’s brother-in-law. He’s a screw-up with a gambling habit. He traded the information about the amber panel for his gambling debts with the mafiya .”
    “And word got back to Pete.”
    Ellen shrugged. “You know Resnikov better than I do, babe.”
    “I doubt it. From the start you were all over this panel like a cat covering shit,” Jake said. “That tells me you already had a line on the Amber Room scam.”
    “So you think the panel is a fake?” she asked quickly.
    “For several years the Russian government has been openly making a replica of the Amber Room, trying to reclaim a lost bit of heritage,” Jake said. “Then the government ran out of money for art, along with everything else. The artisans weren’t paid. When they began making amber artifacts on their own and selling them the same way-on their own-the mafiya moved in. They high-graded or outright stole amber from the Baltic mines and put the artisans to work making copies of old imperial splendor and selling them overseas.”
    “Was the panel you saw part of the scam?” Ellen asked.
    “It could have been. It also could have been real. Before you twist an opinion out of me, call your boss.”
    Ellen went still. “Why?”
    “If the Amber Room has been rediscovered and