Hemlock Bay

I’d been five or six days out of surgery. I was okay, thanks to a psychiatrist who . . . well, never mind about that. But I was feeling just fine. A young guy got on an empty bus, sat beside me, and pulled out this really scary switchblade. He was lucky to get away.” And Lily gave him a big smile, the first one he’d gotten from her. He smiled back.
    “Very good. Your brother taught you?”
    “Yes, after Jack . . . No, never mind that.”
    “You have a lot of never minds, Ms. Savich.”
    “You may have to get used to it.” But she saw him file Jack’s name away in that brain of his.
    Simon said, “As for the fourth painting, Effigy, I thought it was just fine at first, but then I realized that the same forger who did the other three did that one as well. No leads yet on Effigy, but we’ll track it down. It probably went to the same collector.”
    Mr. Beezler, shaken, wiped a beautiful linen handkerchief over his brow and said, “This would be a catastrophe to a museum, Mr. Savich, like a stick of dynamite stuck in the tailpipe of my Mercedes. You, Mr. Russo, you are, I gather, in a position to perhaps get the original paintings back?”
    “Yes,” said Simon, “I am. Keep the black velvet warm, Mr. Beezler.”
    Savich said, “I’ll speak to the guys in the art fraud section, see what recommendations they have. The FBI doesn’t do full-blown stolen art investigations at this time, so our best bet is Simon finding out who acquired the paintings.”
    Simon said, “First thing, I’ll do some digging around, hit up my informants to get verification on who our collector is, find the artist, and squeeze him. The instant our collector hears that I’m digging—and he’d hear about it real quick—he’ll react, either go to ground, hide the paintings, or maybe something else, but it won’t matter.”
    “What do you mean ‘something else’?” Lily asked.
    Savich gave him a frown, and Simon said quickly, shrugging, “Nothing, really. But since I plan to stir things up, I’ll be really careful who’s at my back. Oh yeah, Savich, I’m relieved you didn’t use the shippers that Mr. Monk wanted you to use.”
    Savich said, “No, I used Bryerson. I know them and trust them. There’s no way Mr. Monk or Tennyson or any of the rest of them could know, at least for a while, where the paintings ended up. However, I will call Teddy Bryerson and have him let me know if he gets any calls about the paintings. Simon, do you think anyone will realize that these four paintings are fakes if they’re out in the open for all to see?”
    “Sooner or later someone would notice and ask questions.”
    Lily said to Mr. Beezler, “I can’t very well let a museum hang the four fakes. What do you think about hanging all of them here for a while, Mr. Beezler, and we can see what happens?”
    “Yes, I will hang them,” said Raleigh, “with great pleasure.”
    Lily said to Simon, “Do you really think you can get the paintings back?”
    Simon Russo rubbed his hands together. His eyes were fierce, and he looked as eager as a boy with his first train set. “Oh, yes.”
    She imagined him dressed all in black, even black camouflage paint on his face, swinging down a rope to hover above an alarmed floor.
    Savich said, “Just one thing, Simon. When you find out who bought the paintings, I go with you.”
    Sherlock blinked at her husband. “You mean that you, an FBI special agent, unit chief, want to go steal four paintings?”
    “Steal back,” Savich said, giving her a kiss on her open mouth. “Bring home. Return to their rightful owner.”
    Lily said, “I’ll be working with Mr. Russo to find the person who forged them and the name of the collector who bought them. And then we’ll have proof to nail Tennyson.”
    “Oh no,” Savich said. “I’m not letting you out of my sight, Lily.”
    “No way,” Sherlock said. “No way am I letting you out of my sight either. Sean wants his auntie to hang out with him for a while.”
    Simon Russo looked at Lily Savich and slowly nodded. He knew to his bones that when this woman made up her mind, it would take more than an offering of a dozen chocolate cakes to change it. “Okay, you can work with me. But first you need to get yourself back to one-hundred-percent healthy.”
    “I’ll be ready by Monday,” Lily said. She raised her hand, palm out, to her brother before he could get out his objection. “You guys have lots to worry about—this Tammy Tuttle person.