Page 51 of Merciless Heir
“Tonight?”
She shrugs. “That, too.”
I consider her words. Across the street is a bar. It’s tiny, dank-looking and not like Ruby’s that is the star of Coney Island. We’re off a Surf Avenue side street, and though we’re still in Brooklyn and people live and play and work in the area, we might well be transported somewhere else for the whole desolate feel it all has.
Time’s running slowly out. I know that. We’re not that far in, but four weeks isn’t long. “You worried about me?”
Sadie doesn’t look at me as she smiles. “I’m worried I won’t get paid.”
“Your larcenous, greedy heart appeals to a man like me, so be careful.”
“You don’t believe in love, Kingston, I’m safe.”
I laugh. “Neither do you, and who said anything about love?”
Her cheeks darken, but her smile doesn’t waver. “Just making sure you’re not going to fall for me. I’m not sure I’ve got the time to chase you away, stomp your heart to pieces.”
I laugh again, delighted. If she keeps going, I might really end up liking her. “That sounds a lot like commitment.”
“And you’re sounding like you lost your mind.” She slides a look at me. “If it’s the latter—with the tiara—it really could take longer than four weeks.”
“By setting up a big sale, you mean?”
“Gathering all the potentials together, yeah. You tease it out, let the word spread. Honestly, if it was the former, I’d have heard something solid long before all this, that the most expensive Sinclair piece was wanted.” She pauses, like there’s other things on her mind. “Both could work on similar lines, but…”
“If it was the former, someone would have contacted you to steal it, you mean?”
She shakes her head. “Maybe if there was someone out there with that kind of hard on for it making the rounds. No, I just mean I’d have heard the moment it was gone and I haven’t. That’s why I think the fencing is a lie and someone is trying to orchestrate some kind of big auction.”
I let what she’s saying and not saying wash through me.
Like the fact someone would have had to know where it was. “Let’s say this was some kind of opportunistic robbery. There’s no police report I’m aware of.”
“There isn’t one I’m aware of either.”
We look at each other. “Inside job?”
“You tell me. And while you’re at it, if it is, as in someone from the inner circle and not a thief who’s worked this from the moment the Sinclair ring confirmed the existence of the rest of the jewels, who do you think stands the most to gain?”
“I don’t know.”
And I don’t. Because this is more than just standing to gain with making money, this has the potential of bringing down the Sinclair family company. There are no stipulations about it being stolen, just it needs to be there on my birthday.
It’s convoluted, stupid, and regardless of what it could be worth, this tiara is fast becoming something complicated and maybe only worth selling.
Once I find out the value.
“We should have brought popcorn.”
“To watch people go in and out of a bar?” Sadie asks.
I half smile. “I’ve seen slower foreign art films that make even less sense.”
“Philistine.”
She shivers and I shift my chair closer. The darkness in here is broken only by the light from outside. The rain has stopped for now, but I could sit with her, doing nothing for a long time and I suspect it would be by far the most exciting and interesting thing I’d done in a while.
“So, apart from your winning personality, Sadie, why don’t you have friends?”