Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,114

Hines’s name, and put arrow markers to what she thought of as the wilds of the Oregon territory.

“Dates aren’t too long after the last murder. Anybody check his financials?”

“Nothing to see,” Ana said. “We have full financial disclosure every year. We have to account for every penny that comes in.”

Both men gave her disappointed looks. “Hey, I know he’d hide it. I’m just saying the average search wouldn’t pull it and nothing chimed for the auditors, okay?”

“Right, so Hines hares off to Oregon,” Gates said, summing things up. “The Moronis disappear, Pratch disappears, Luke Gideon dies, and four other people associated with the situation get dead. What brought you to New York?”

“New information from Pretzky.” Ana stopped, suppressing the urge to curse. “I’m not sure if it plays in. This guy, Davis, worked with me the last few days calling other victims. By the way,” she smiled at Dav. “Thanks for paving the way there.” The pressure Dav had applied had definitely greased the wheels.

“Another side benefit of Gates getting shot, I’m afraid,” Dav said. “Thank him.” Gates threw a wadded-up piece of paper at him, but Dav only laughed.

“However it happened, it uncovered the fact that both Moroni and the Miami gallery, Artful Walls, shipped to Pratch in Berlin through this warehousing and shipping company in White Plains.”

Cocking her head to one side, she asked a question that had been niggling at her. “What happened with the shooter? Did Detective Baxter turn anything up?”

Dav’s frown went dark, and Gates scowled as well. It was he who answered. “Turns out the woman who was hired to kill my family is free.”

“Free?” Outraged, Ana half-rose. “How did that happen?”

Gates grimaced, shifting in his seat as if uncomfortable with her ire, and his own situation. “Routine transfer from prison to a prison-run farm. According to their guards, one minute she was there, the next, two guards were dead and she was gone. That was two years ago.”

“They didn’t see fit to tell you?”

“We were in India, I believe,” Dav said, sounding apologetic. “Overseeing some holdings. Apparently the word never reached us.”

She was about to delve into that when Alexia knocked and made her perky way into the room.

“Excuse me,” Alexia said. “But you ordered lunch, sir? It’s here.”

The server and serving cart with lunch, followed by Callahan, one of Gates’s team, came into the room. Ana caught Dav’s inquiring look and Callahan’s nod. Apparently the food had been checked out. Callahan was followed by a nurse who bustled over to take a blood pressure reading on Gates. Behind his back, she shook her head in answer to Dav’s questioning look.

“We’ll eat, then take an hour’s break,” Dav stated, glaring at Gates when he protested. “Don’t give me that look, and don’t torment the nurses, they’re just doing their job.”

Gates muttered all through lunch, but acquiesced when Ana said she was going to go lie down as well. “I’ve not gotten much sleep the last few days.”

“How did the Inquiry go?” Dav asked.

Gates stopped at the door, obviously listening, but he didn’t turn around.

“I’m cleared,” she said.

“Congratulations, my dear.” Dav beamed at the news. “Does that mean you’ll be leaving the United States again?”

Gates waited, his back stiff with tension.

“I don’t know,” she said, unsure what his tension meant, or where Dav’s questions were going. “I won’t know until this case is wrapped. I won’t leave without seeing it through.”

“Exotic locales,” Gates said sardonically. “Isn’t that what the recruiters always tell you?” He never turned to look at her. Something was bothering him; it was obvious from the set of his shoulders, the tense line of his back. “You’ll enjoy getting back to that, I guess.” He moved carefully away, through the doors to the bedrooms without another word.

“Don’t let him get to you, Ana-aki,” Dav soothed, as he stepped to her side. “He’s angry at himself for pushing you away, and angry that he does not want to keep doing that. And furious that he doesn’t know how to bring you back.”

It took Ana a moment to find words to meet that unlikely statement. “It’s probably not smart anyway, Dav,” she said, looking anywhere but at this unlikely Cupid. “He’s got his life, working with you. I’ve got my work, which takes me”—she swallowed her tears—“as he said, to such exotic locales.”

Dav just watched her for a moment. It was unnerving. “We’ll see,” he said finally. “Get some rest.”

Ana hadn’t intended to sleep, but she did. The palatial Waldorf room was dark