She had struck a nerve. He felt threatened by her. This was risky, and she must be careful not to overplay her hand. In the end, she was holding no cards.

“You think I was some wartime profiteer, yes? Because I did business with your grandfather.” He lowered his voice as the bearded man wandered closer, but his whisper was harsh, unpleasant. “Doing business with a thief does not make you one. We were very different men, I assure you.”

“Are you calling my grandfather a thief?”

“I have told you that my sins are heavy, but at least I know what they are. I was forthright in my actions, and I believed certain things, right or wrong. Your grandfather believed in nothing, had no scruples, played every angle. All from his fat, easy perch of neutrality.”

“Hang on now.” It was one thing to have your own suspicions, another to have a stranger attack what was yours. “I didn’t come here to listen to you insult my family.”

“Did you not?” He was clearly warming to his subject. His round, wrinkled face was flushed pink. “You came to learn about your grandpa, no? It’s what you have been begging me to speak of. What did you expect to hear? Does my opinion of him surprise you?”

Jan had appeared in the far door, shadowing the bearded man about thirty feet behind.

“I know he was involved in some shady deals,” Ana responded. “And he felt bad about those. But he truly believed he was saving works that would have vanished otherwise.”

“Child, you have no idea. The museums would not take work from him, and they will not take it from you, because they know it is tainted. Your legacy is dirty money. You sleep among pilfered treasures. I am sorry if I am the first to tell you this, but somehow I doubt that.”

Ana was too shaken to think clearly. She had broken his shell but had not found what she wanted inside. The bearded man wandered out the near door, and Jan doubled back to the far one. When she glanced at del Carros again, his face was placid once more.

“You know,” he said, in a very different tone, warm, surprised, “I now begin to think that I am the foolish one, and that you are a clever girl.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“I think you do. You are too wise a woman not to know about your grandfather. You have deliberately provoked me, and I have reacted. And now, perhaps, you think that you have learned something. The question remains, why?”

“I haven’t learned anything, except that you hate my grandfather.”

“Is it for yourself or someone else? Come now, speak to me, do not be afraid. We are exchanging information, that is all, and it is clear that we have both been holding back.”

Two middle-aged women entered the chapel at the far end, gabbling happily, but their presence only slightly alleviated Ana’s rising panic. Do not be afraid. There were no more frightening words he could have spoken to her.

“I think I have to leave.”

He reached over and touched her arm.

“We should both leave. We require more privacy, I think. I intend to reward your cleverness with answers, but I will require some in return.”

“I really have to be someplace soon.”

He took gentle hold of her forearm.

“Ms. Kessler. I may have to insist.”

She bolted. His grip was just tightening as she slipped it, stood quickly, rattling the old chairs, and raced out through the near stone arch. Instinctively, she turned left, toward the front of the church. There was no danger that del Carros would catch her, but she remembered Jan’s coiled energy and watchfulness. Nothing could happen here, surely, with all these other people around, yet it was hard to be certain and she walked as quickly as she could without running. Down the steps into the open space of the crossing, past the roped-off section before the choir, and toward the central aisle of the nave. Halfway there, the bearded man appeared before her suddenly.

“Ms. Kessler,” he said, “wait.”

She reversed and immediately noted the side exit, simultaneously seeing Jan bouncing down the steps from the direction of the chapel. They nearly had her boxed. Ana ran now, pure adrenaline guiding her toward the daylight beyond the exit.

A steel staircase led down into the front end of a dirty, empty cul-de-sac between the cathedral and the sacristy. She turned right at the bottom and scampered toward the narrow parking strip that led out to the avenue. There was no one in the security guard’s box, damn it, just a square young man in a suit jacket standing in the middle of the lane, smoking a cigarette and looking hard at her. How many of them were there? This was ridiculous, what was going on, why the hell had she come here at all? And alone.

Again, she wheeled and went the other way. Five Asian tourists stared in wonder at one of the dazzling blue-and-green peacocks that roamed the grounds. Cameras whirred; a little girl shrieked with pleasure. Ana saw no safety among them and pushed on. To her right, steps and a broad path dropped away to a lower lane that led back to the avenue, but it was roundabout and she would be visible the whole way. She risked a look back and immediately felt like a fool. The square young man was embracing a woman and walking off arm in arm with her. Panic had sent her the wrong way. Jan emerged from around the corner of the sacristy a moment later, smiling and waving, like a friend asking her to wait up. Ana paused in confusion. She was jumpy as hell, had been since she arrived. Had she gotten it all wrong? Would Jan apologize now for the old man’s impertinence? Had she misread the whole situation? Too flustered to reason, she simply stood there as he drew closer.

The bearded man appeared behind Jan, and he did not smile or wave but bore down on them with a fierce energy. Released from her daze, Ana turned and moved off again, to the end of the lane: enclosed gardens on the left and right, the stone Cathedral School before her, and between the school and gardens a narrow path that seemed as if it must run out to Morningside Drive in either direction. She turned left instinctively, down the passage between walls.

Clearing the corner of the building, she saw her mistake. The greensward between the school and the rear of the cathedral was closed off from the street by a high chain-link fence; she would never get over it. There was no time to reverse. Like a child, she looked for a place to hide among the dense bushes. No, that wouldn’t do. Letting herself be trapped in an empty corner of the grounds would be exactly what they wanted. Meeting them in the open was her best chance. She raced back up the path.

Jan leaned casually against the stone wall of the north garden, smoking. He stood away from the wall as she approached, but made no move toward her.

“Ms. Kessler, you will exhaust both of us. I think there has been a misunderstanding.”

There was room to get past him, but she somehow knew he would be fast. An old woman’s hat bobbed in the garden. The Asian family had gone.

“Whose misunderstanding? Your boss threatened me.” She could not keep a slight quaver out of her voice.

“Threatened you?” Jan seemed amused by the idea. “With what, death by boredom? He only wants to talk.”

“Yes, by force if necessary. He’s got some wrong idea that he wants me to confirm. And he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“He has become quite a difficult fellow, it’s true. Stubborn, and his manners are appalling. We have discussed this, he and I. I’m sorry if he frightened you. I really don’t mean to make light of it, but he is just a harmless old man. Please come back and speak to him. I’m sure that he feels terrible.”

He had moved closer to her, without seeming to move at all, and she began to make a slow half-circle around him.

“I’m not going anywhere with him.”

“Of course not. We simply don’t want to part on bad terms.”

They walked parallel now, back the way they had come. Ana let herself relax a little.