Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,14
the damn floor needing CPR at this rate,” Ana muttered, embarrassed that she’d been so immersed as to not hear Pretzky’s approach.
“So? What do you have?”
“Not that much,” she stalled, not wanting to reveal something she hadn’t fully researched, fully documented. “Just another thread to tug, which is pretty much cause for celebration since yesterday I had diddly-squat.”
“Diddly-squat? How quaint. So? What is it?”
“Just a gallery in the city. It’s very prominent, and it’s also connected by patronage to ninety-seven percent of the list of those with fraudulent works.”
“And that? What’s that?” Pretzky pointed to the second screen showing the logo of the Bootstrap Foundation and its donors.
“There’s a fundraiser at the gallery tomorrow night, I decided to cross-check the art patrons list with the list of donors at the charity. Seventy-five percent duplication, and of the duplicates, all are on our fraud list.”
“Coincidence?” Pretzky said facetiously. “I think not. So, get yourself to that gallery opening, talk to some people, poke around.”
“It’s invitation only.” Ana didn’t want to involve Jen if she could help it.
“I can call Washington if you want.” Pretzky’s grin was feral. It was as if she could feel how much Ana now hated going out in the field for that kind of assignment. Since Rome, everything was hard. It was hard enough doing interviews, calling people cold. Once upon a time she’d enjoyed it, seen it as dress up and catch the bad guys, even though she wasn’t a trained covert-ops agent.
Data was her deal. She needed to stick with it.
And Pretzky knew she didn’t want to call DC for help. DC tended to jump in and take over, which every regional bureau despised. More than that, Ana didn’t want anyone in DC hearing her name before her hearing with the Panel of Inquiry.
“Not yet, thanks. I think I may have an inside track. I’ll let you know.”
“Do that,” Pretzky said as she stalked away.
Great. Now she was going to have to agree to go with Jen. Jen would take it as a sign that she was weakening on the dating thing. Ugh.
On the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt to drop by a gallery opening. Check out the legendary Carrie McCray, maybe get a chance to assess Jen’s millionaire, Jack D’Onofrio, in person. She might even see some nice art. However, even though she had a degree in art, what some people defined as art frequently baffled Ana.
Ana braced herself, picked up the phone, and called Jen. Before she even got more than a hello out, there was a whole new spate of Jack-this, and Jack-that. Evidently she’d just hung up with the man himself. He was out of town, on the East Coast in some kind of hush-hush meeting, so Jen hadn’t expected to hear from him.
“Jen,” Ana finally got a word in edgewise. “Hey, would you mind if I joined you on Friday, just for a bit?”
There was a moment of silence, then a squeal of glee. “Really? You’d go? Like dress up and everything?”
“Sure. It’s business though. I need to be there. Check stuff out with the gallery owner.”
“With Carrie McCray?” Jen was incredulous. “Seriously?”
“Well, I want to take a look at this guy of yours too.” She was tweaking Jen now and waiting to see how she’d take it.
She could hear the pout in her friend’s voice. “You’re not going to weird him out with the third degree are you?”
“No, really, I won’t. Besides a gun and weighted blackjack don’t go with the dress I’m planning to wear,” she joked, getting a reluctant laugh from Jen. “It’s just that I do need to go to that gallery, for a cold case I’m checking out, and it would be great if I could do it unofficially first. You know, incognito.”
“Wow, cool, like undercover?”
Ana grinned. “Sort of. I’d use another name, look a little different, but meet you there so I have an entrée. That is, if your date doesn’t object.”
“I’ll text him and double-check, then let you know. You gonna be in your office?”
“Yeah, but text me on my phone for now rather than e-mail. I’ve got a go-ahead, but I’d like to keep this off the radar.” Jen wouldn’t question that, but Pretzky would have. Ana wasn’t sure why she wanted to keep Jen’s connection to her visit to Prometheus and Carrie off the official notes for now, but she did.
“Got it,” Jen said, her mind obviously now on other things because she didn’t have anything else to say about Mr.