Curse of the Jade Lily (Mac McKenzie #9)

Curse of the Jade Lily (Mac McKenzie #9) Page 29

“Geez, McKenzie, if you have to ask…”

“Didn’t we have this conversation once before? I’m old enough to be your father.”

“Only if you knocked up my mother when she was about fourteen.”

“Besides…”

“Besides, you’re still loyal to Nina Truhler, whom you haven’t married after—how many years? McKenzie, you can be had.”

“I know. Why do you think I refuse to take you seriously?”

“You took me seriously enough to sic Lieutenant Rask on me.”

“Oh, that.”

“He’s not a very nice man, is he?”

“I don’t know. His wife and kids adore him. Obviously, he let you go.”

“Why not? I haven’t done anything illegal.”

“’Course not.”

“You told him about Tatjana?”

“Yep.”

“But you didn’t tell him that I kidnapped you.”

I shrugged at that and sipped my coffee.

“See, I knew you liked me,” she said.

“What are you doing here, Heavenly?”

“Since we’re friends, will you tell me something? Why did you quit the museum? Why have you refused to recover the Lily?”

“That damn museum has more holes than the Vikings’ secondary.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“I know it’s not because you‘re afraid.”

“On the contrary. I’m becoming very cautious as I get older.”

Heavenly looked at the corridor leading from the kitchen to the front of the house. “Not going to invite me upstairs, huh?” she said.

“Nope.”

“What else can I offer to make you change your mind?”

“About what?”

“About going after the Lily?”

“Not much, although your proposal is a lot more enticing than anything else I’ve heard today.”

“What have you heard?”

“Well, the State Department, for one, has threatened to make my life a living hell unless I steal the Lily and give it to a representative of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

Heavenly was on her feet in a hurry. “That’s insane,” she said.

“Any more insane than giving it to you?”

“The Bosnians stole the Lily from my client, and somehow Dr. Arnaud Fornier stole it from them, and now Jeremy Gillard has it. The Lily rightfully belongs to Tatjana Durakovic.”

“That’s not the way Branko Pozderac sees it.”

“Pozderac? That bastard?”

“You know him?”

“He’s a rapist and a murderer. He and his militia terrorized Sarajevo, terrorized half the country during the war. Do you know how many innocent people he slaughtered?”

“Well, now he’s a member of the People’s Assembly or House or whatever.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he had a great campaign manager.”

“It changes nothing, McKenzie. The Lily belongs to Tatjana.”

“Possession is nine points of the law.”

“McKenzie, you and I both know there is no specific legal ruling to support that proverb.”

“Maybe not, but time and again the person in actual possession of the property has a clear advantage over the person who doesn’t have it. Right now, the artnappers who swiped it from the museum, they own it. After they pay the ransom, the insurance company will own it.”

“I’m just asking you to do the right thing.”

“You keep saying that. Your client could invest in a good lawyer instead of hiring a couple of thugs to return her property—maybe that’s the right thing.”

“Did you just call me a thug?”

“Granted you’re more beautiful than the image the term usually conjures, still…”

“That’s a terrible thing to say.”

“You should hear what Nina calls you.”

“I can imagine. McKenzie, it takes years for a case like this to wind its way through the courts. Decades. You need to help me.”

“Heavenly, all day long I’ve been hearing from people who demand that I get the Lily for them. Your claim might be a little less mercenary than the others, but not by much, and it still doesn’t change the simple fact of the matter—the Lily doesn’t belong to you. Or to them. It belongs to Gillard. Funny thing is, he’s the only one who’s not a fanatic about getting it back.”

“That’s because he doesn’t want it back. He wants the insurance money.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Gillard is broke, McKenzie. His old man took a huge hit in the housing crisis, and then he lost some more when commercial real estate started going south, too. He was holding his business empire together with smoke and mirrors. All this came out when they audited his estate. Gillard’s inheritance amounted to pennies on the dollar. I mean, he’s not broke broke like you and me, well, me anyway, but a three-point-eight-million-dollar insurance claim will set him up nicely.”

“How do you know this?”

“It’s me, remember. I did the research.”

“Heavenly, if what you’re saying is true, then Gillard would want the Lily back for the same reason that Tatjana wants it—because it would sell for more at auction than the insured value.”