Page 68 of Mission: Possible

We thanked Melinda and followed the suited lady, almost losing her when she moved into one of the galleries. "Wearing a white suit is a real power move," said Lily. "I would spill something on it within the first ten seconds."

"Me too," I agreed, "but Laeticia looks great in it."

Laeticia was a tall, curvy woman with dark black skin, a closely shaved head and luminous eyes. I had to wonder if she'd been a model in a former life. I could only aspire to look that flawless. We stopped her in front of a still life painting and explained who we were.

"I had no idea," she told us when I produced the card. "Poor Sophie. Will she recover soon and be okay?"

"The doctors are very optimistic," I told her, offering her a pen. "We thought it would be nice for her to know how many people were thinking of her when she wakes up."

"She's very lucky to have friends like you. I hoped she would make some friends when she started working here. She was so shy at first."

"I don't think her dominating brother was much help," said Lily, shooting Laeticia a knowing look. "He's kind of a jerk, if you know what I mean."

"Oh, I certainly do," agreed Laeticia with a weary shake of her head. "He seemed nice at first... anyway, I told her he couldn't come here anymore. I didn't like his attitude."

"Why's that?"

"It seems silly now, and I'm sure he was joking around, but at the time, I was worried that he actually meant what he said. Then Sophie met Austen and Zach stopped showing up anymore. I almost forgot all about it."

Lily and I exchanged glances as Laeticia contemplated the card. "Did he threaten Sophie?" I asked, my heart thumping in anticipation of her answer.

"Not exactly. I suppose Sophie could have told you already so it won't matter what I say. I overheard Zach telling Sophie she should take a close look at the museum security because some of our stuff was so rare and valuable that he could get good money for it." She handed me the card. "He said it would solve all their problems."

Chapter Fourteen

"Do you think Zach would really steal from a museum?" asked Lily as we left.

I wrinkled my nose. "Hard to say but it didn't sound like Laeticia assumed he was blowing hot air."

"I don't feel in any position to criticize, given the fossil I liberated but it sounds like Zach wanted to steal something valuable and sell it. Do you think he succeeded?"

"I'm sure Laeticia would have mentioned a theft." I paused as we hit the sidewalk. "I want to say from everything I've learned about Sophie that she wouldn't steal anything but there's still a large amount of cash I can't account for. It could be proceeds from an illicit sale, but if so, why would she have the money, not Zach?" I gulped, realizing that my question put Sophie in a firmly guilty position. Yet, Sophie left the museum months ago. For someone who apparently loved her job, that seemed strange to me. Was it because Zach embarrassed her at her place of work? Or really to stop him from getting access to its valuable contents? Whichever way I viewed it, Zach didn't come out looking good, and neither did Sophie.

"Maybe she double-crossed him? He came up with the idea, but she executed it, fenced the artifact, and chose to keep the cashandthe rich husband?"

I laughed. "This is getting too complicated."

"Complicated doesn't mean it's not true."

I contemplated that. Lily was right. Something weird was going on but so far, everything nasty I discovered seemed to follow Zach. No one had a bad word to say about Sophie. With my new information, I had to talk to Zach again. But before that, something else occurred to me. "Money seems to be a recurring theme in this case," I said. "Austen has a lot of it. Sophie has none, except by marriage. Zach's job doesn't scream big bucks. And Laeticia said Zach inferred they had a money problem."

"Whatever problems Sophie had, surely, marrying a wealthy man solved that?"

"She might not have told Austen if she were in debt."

"Is she?"

"Not that I could find, but there's plenty of debt that doesn't show up in financial records. She could owe loan sharks or bookies." That didn't sound right but Lily got my gist: there were plenty of ways a person could owe money that wouldn't show up in official channels.

"Then why did she have all that cash?"

I shook my head. Lily had me there. "Beats me," I admitted. "That kind of money solves a lot of problems."

"Let's go to Sky Outdoors and talk to the brother. Maybe if we pretend we already know what's going on, he'll 'fess up."

"I've got a better idea. Let's go to his apartment."

"If it's close by, that's a much quicker way to talk to him."