“He’s a scholar and a gentleman. We get along just fine.”
Unlike Frost and Zach.
Jill winced at the undercurrents, but hesitated to get between the two men. Besides, the room was fascinating. She itched to look in every drawer and cabinet.
“So you’re back in the art business?” Frost asked, his expression still guarded.
Zach shrugged. “I’m here, aren’t I? When I’m not out there, practicing carchaeology.”
“What the hell is that?”
“Collectible muscle cars. But if you still have that old International Travel-All of yours, I’ll give you five grand for it,” Zach said.
“Why?”
“I know a man who is looking for one and will pay at least eight thousand.”
“I don’t believe you,” Frost said. “What’s his name?”
“Nobody you know,” Zach said.
“I’ll find out,” Frost said. “There isn’t anything in the world of collectibles that I can’t discover in time.”
“Yeah?” Zach asked. “Then find me a 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible with a 426 Hemi engine.”
“I just might,” Frost said curtly. “If I have time to waste.”
“You’ll need a lot of it,” Zach said. “There were only nine of them made and eight have been found. Supposedly the last one was turned into scrap metal at a junkyard somewhere here in the Southwest, but I think that baby is still out there.”
“So what? Cars aren’t art.”
“Tell that to the guy who paid two million and change for convertible number eight,” Zach said.
“Two million dollars?”
“And change.”
“I’ll be damned,” Frost said. “But it still isn’t art.”
“Matter of opinion.”
“Quit baiting our host,” Jill said to Zach without shifting her attention from the paintings on the far wall. “You know art when you see it. And I’m looking at some really fine art right now.”
Zach and Frost both seemed surprised to be reminded that they weren’t alone. They followed Jill’s glance.
Eight Western landscapes flowed across the wall. All of them were beautifully presented with gilt museum frames and recessed illumination that brought out every bit of light and darkness in the canvases.
“Great Basin, western Rockies, Northwest coast, high plains, Southwest, every season and mood,” she said, moving toward the paintings. “Incredible.”
And two of the paintings were Dunstans.
SEPTEMBER 15
6:14 P.M.
Anything new?” Score barked into his headphone.
“Do you see anything new in your files?” Amy’s voice said more than her words just how irritated she was. “I’m on a date and my phone keeps vibrating like a scared hamster. I’ve spent so much time in the women’s can that Dave thinks I’ve got diarrhea.”
“You’re getting overtime.”
“I’d rather get laid.”
Score bit back a string of curses. The problem with hiring bright young computer techs was that they were younger than they were bright.
“There is nothing new on the phone bug,” she said, spacing the words like Score was an idiot. “I said I’d call if there was.”
“When was the last time you checked?”
“The last time you called. That would be four minutes and sixteen-no, seventeen-seconds ago.”
“Where’s your computer?”
“At the office, rigged to call the cell phone in my other pocket if something changes. I also have Steve babysitting my computer, in case something good pops. Why don’t you just text-message him and cut out the middleman?”
With a disgusted sound, Score punched out of the conversation. He frowned at one of the computers he had with him. The pulsing light of the locater appeared over a street map of Taos.
The only good news was that the locater had finally stopped moving.
He zoomed in on the map until he had the address. Then he fed the information into his other computer and waited impatiently for directions to appear on the screen. While he waited, he watched the locater.
Still motionless.
“That’s it, babe. Stay where you are. Papa’s coming to get you.”
And he really hoped the Breck bitch got in the way. Nothing personal. She was just more trouble than she was worth. Like her great-aunt. With a little luck, Ms. Breck would be talking to the old lady soon.
Assuming the dead talked.
SEPTEMBER 15
6:21 P.M.
So you like Western landscapes,” Frost said to Jill, breaking the long silence. “Especially the Dunstans. Why?”
She started, only then realizing she’d been wholly involved in the art, ignoring everyone in the room. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude.”
“Not at all,” Frost said. “Seeing your reaction reminds me of just how great those paintings are. I get so busy fitting pieces of pottery together that I forget to look up often enough.”
Jill glance at Zach, silently asking him how much she should say to Garland Frost.
“Whatever is said doesn’t leave the room,” Zach said to Frost. “Agreed?”
Frost measured Zach with shrewd dark eyes. “Just like the old days.”
Zach nodded.
“Agreed,” Frost said. “What do you have?”
“Questions about twelve landscapes that have been in Jill’s family for three generations,” Zach said.
“Good paintings?”
“I like them,” Zach said. “A lot.”
Frost grunted and asked Jill, “Who bought the paintings?”
“I suspect they were a gift.” Or even a theft. “I certainly didn’t find any sales receipts in the family papers.”
“Provenance?” Frost asked Zach.
“From Jill’s grandmother, to her grandmother’s younger sister, and then to Jill.”
“There are plenty of experts and St. Kilda Consulting has a reciprocal agreement with Rarities Unlimited. Why come to me?” Frost asked.
“Until Thomas Dunstan killed himself, my grandmother was his on-again, off-again lover,” Jill said before Zach could. “Originally there were thirteen paintings. When the land taxes were more than Modesty could afford, she sent the smallest canvas out to be appraised by a gallery in Park City, Utah. Somehow they ‘lost’ it.”
Frost’s eyes narrowed but he didn’t say anything.
“Someone gave the painting back to me as a handful of canvas scraps,” she said bitterly.
“Destroyed?” Frost demanded.
“Beyond repair,” Zach answered. “The rags are in her belly bag. Don’t ask me why. I told her they’re worthless.”
Jill shrugged, unsnapped the bag’s strap, and threw the whole thing at him. “Then you get rid of them. I can’t.”
“Later.” One-handed, Zach caught the bag and fired it toward the nearest sofa. The satellite phone gave the bag just enough heft to keep it aloft for the nine-foot flight. “The important thing is the death threat came with the scraps. That’s when she called St. Kilda Consulting.”
Frost looked at the metal suitcase Zach was still holding. “That better be one of the family paintings.”
Zach put the case flat on the floor, unsnapped the catches, and opened it. When he removed the protective coverings, there were two canvases in perfectly cut foam nests, one canvas for each side of the case.
In complete silence, Frost stared at the paintings until Jill wanted to shake him.
“Take them out,” Frost said. “Let me see them more closely.”
Carefully Zach took the paintings out.
“Did you remove them from their frames?” Frost demanded.
“As far as I know, they were never framed,” Jill said.