Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,40
if you will, with the single bullet. Then there, on the East Coast, so messy, so tragic. Nine years ago they didn’t think so at first. Then they did, but time marches on and memory fades. Why now? And why you?”
“I have an art degree, which I’m sure you both know. I’m reviewing cold cases because I’m on leave from my post in Rome, which I’m sure Gates already determined. This one seemed interesting. It had threads to pull.”
Dav frowned for a moment over the idiom. “Leads, things you can follow up on now, that they didn’t nine years ago?”
“Exactly. Perhaps more perspective as well. With the tempering of time, the connections are pretty obvious.” Ana ticked points off on her fingers. “The paperwork is by the same forger, even if it had multiple destinations. While some of the galleries were cleared, both Prometheus here in the City, and the Moroni Gallery in New York, were implicated. Ms. McCray was cleared, and that seems likely since her gallery took such heavy losses. Moroni, on the other hand, was apparently hip-deep in the whole matter. The disappearance of the principals and staff for Moroni is a fair admission of guilt as well.”
“Would it help you,” Dav said slowly, as if feeling his way, “if I made some calls to the other victims, the ones you’ve said have shut you out? Encouraged them to assist you?”
Although he didn’t look at Gates, she did. He looked resigned, and once again, exhausted. “How does your security expert feel about that offer of help?”
Dav smiled. “As is obvious, he doesn’t like it. However, he knows that this bothers me, continues to bother me. It was something I asked him to look into when he began working for me.” He shrugged, a very Continental gesture. “I was never satisfied that it was over. Luke Gideon and Carrie McCray were personal friends as well. As good as it was to see them cleared, the suspicion was difficult for them, and for Carrie after Luke’s death.”
Gates leaned back as well, a more relaxed posture. “He’s right, of course, on all counts. Another thing to consider is that these people were never caught. The more you pursue this, the more dangerous it may be. We,” he indicated Dav, “feel that the group went under, quit cold until the heat died down. You’re the first person in nine years to touch this. I’ve wondered about the lack of interest in the case. The why of it. As in why no one pursued it.”
Ana did her best to match their calm demeanor. The idea that the two agents she’d talked to might have stalled the case jumped to mind, but she pushed it aside. Even so, it set her stomach churning. Seven people, five for sure, were dead, and they deserved some justice, not only for the fact of their deaths, but for how they had died.
“I’m not sure what to tell either of you about that, but I can say that I’m very good at what I do,” she said, putting aside her doubts. She looked at Dav now. “And any nudging you’d care to do with your fellow victims would be helpful.”
“I have no doubt of that,” Gates said, a scowl twitching his features. “That’s why you need to be cautious. I’m not in favor of Dav pulling any strings here, you should know that up front.”
“But—” she began.
He held up a hand. “Hear me out. There are enough people targeting Dav as it is, domestically and outside of the US. The authorities,” he circled a hand to indicate the US policing forces, “have a lot on their plates and can’t focus the manpower to fend off nebulous threats to Dav’s safety. That’s not only my full-time job, but employs a lot of other people around here. Stirring this up may bring on more heat from areas we’re not expecting.”
“I have no doubt. Powerful, wealthy men attract enemies, whether they deserve them or not,” she stated. Her parents hadn’t deserved the enemies they had, nor had Gates’s parents, from what she’d read. She turned to Dav. “No matter how you do business, and from reports, your business is strong and above-board, you make enemies. If nothing else because you refuse to do business under the table.”
“Precisely,” Dav agreed. “How do you say it? Damned if you do, damned if you do not.”
“It also means,” Gates interjected, “that we have a lot already going on, as I said. Putting yourself