St Kilda Consulting 04 - Blue Smoke and Murder

ones.”
    Frost’s second canvas had a thumbprint as well.
    “I’ll get the rest of my paintings,” she said.
    Very quickly the vault was lined with upside-down paintings.
    All of them had a thumbprint along the bottom edge of the stretcher, a few inches in from the right side.
    “You’re frowning,” Jill said. “You should be grinning and giving me high fives.”
    “I’m just wondering how unknown thumbprints will stack up in court against droit moral and the entire Western art establishment.”
    “Unknown thumbprints? Don’t you think it stretches credulity tobelieve that someone other than Dunstan put his thumbprint on all these canvases?”
    “Lawyers live to stretch credulity. It’s how they make money.” Zach said something under his breath. “If only Dunstan had lived twenty years later, his fingerprints would be on file somewhere.”
    “They might be.”
    Zach’s head snapped around toward her. “Where?”
    “Canyon County jail in Blessing. That’s where he hung himself.”
    “They took fingerprints?”
    “All the lawmen in the Purcell family were medieval in their views of women,” Jill said, “but the men prided themselves on being on the cutting edge of law enforcement.”
    “Polygamy excepted?”
    “There’s no polygamy in the Mormon West,” she said sardonically. “That’s just a figment of prurient media imagination. Doesn’t exist.”
    “Makes it a lot easier not to find something if you aren’t looking for it.”
    “Is your middle name Purcell?”
    “God, I hope not.” He grabbed her, kissed her soundly, then released her slowly. “We’ve got too much to do for what I really want to do.”
    She took a deep breath. “Right. What comes first?”
    “I call St. Kilda and start spending money.”
    “Start? You’ve been doing that since we met.”
    “You ain’t seen nothing yet. Framing pictures costs as much as chartering planes.”
    “Why are you framing pictures?”
    “First thing Frost taught me was that when it comes to selling art, presentation is all.” Zach pulled his sat phone out of his back pocket and looked at the battery indicator. Deader than Kelsey’s nuts. “Where’s your sat phone?”
    “Cell is cheaper.”
    “St. Kilda will pay.”
    “I’ll get it.”
    Zach started making lists in his mind. When Jill returned, he took the phone and punched in some numbers. Then he punched in more numbers. Finally he talked to someone long enough to get transferred to Joe Faroe.
    “Faroe here. How’s Frost doing and what happened to your phone?”
    “As well as can be expected and the battery died,” Zach said. “I’m running barefoot, so listen up. I need the same cargo experts I had for yesterday’s flight, and I need them now. Make sure they come ready to party. Have them bring an extra car. And another airplane card. Mine’s about done and I need it for at least one flight immediately.”
    “How’s your own party gear?” Faroe asked.
    Zach felt the weight of the pistol in the holster digging into the small of his back. “Ready, willing, and waiting for an invitation to dance.”
    “Hold.”
    He waited with outward patience while Faroe called logistics and got everything in order.
    “Bet Faroe is regretting the day he insisted on running this whole op himself,” Zach said to Jill. “I outright love giving that man gofer orders.”
    “Have I mentioned that you’re a real Y gene?”
    “You didn’t complain about it after dinner.”
    She smiled slowly. “Sometimes Y genes have a place.”
    “Yeah, and it’s right between—” Zach broke off and listened.
    “You’ll have what you need in half an hour,” Faroe said. “And you’ll have a new sat/cell phone, too. Try not to kill it before the op is over. What’s your destination?”
    Zach thought quickly and then shrugged. They had to file flight plans, and flight plans were public. “Closest airport to Blessing, Arizona, and a car on that end.”
    “Hold.”
    Faroe was gone for only a few moments. “Go to the All West charter agency. A plane will be waiting for you. There will be a car on the other end. Where do you want the cargo to go?”
    “I’ll tell you when I’m not running barefoot.”
    “I’ll be waiting for your call.”
    Faroe punched out before Zach could.

57
    BLESSING, ARIZONA
SEPTEMBER 16
2:30 P.M.
    S heriff Ned Purcell made Jill and Zach wait for twenty minutes in his outer office. They sat side by side on two straight-backed wooden chairs, like truants