Page 94 of Captive Lies

“I know I messed up, Mr. Thorne,” Tyler said, looking atme.

“You sure did,” Grant grated out. “You’re lucky Blaire stuck up for you or you’d be finding a newjob.”

Tyler’s face reddened as he looked at thefloor.

“Don’t make the same mistake again,” Grant toldhim.

“What? Getting me hotdogs?” Iquipped.

“Blaire this isn’t funny. That suit guy could have kidnappedyou.”

“I would have put up a fight, Grant, and Tyler would have returned by then,” I argued. “I’m here. I’m alive. You need Tyler. You’re two men down, so can we moveon?”

A protracted silence reigned in the room and I could feel Grant’s struggle not to go off on Tyler some more. He finally lifted his chin at my bodyguard. “What do youhave?”

“There was not much crime scene to process. The thieves were in and out of there in minutes. They wore gloves. Cops found the jammer at the cable box right outside the gallery and I found a hidden camera attached to thecurtains.”

“What?” All three of uschorused.

“The guy in the suit knew when to approach you, Blaire. He came in when the paintings they stole were uncrated and he knew I wasn’t with you,” Tyler said. “Anyone could have clipped that camera there. I have a copy of the surveillance footage from today, but my guess is, the camera was placed when we went out to lunch and Jeff was in his office. I talked to Sofia and she said they had a rush of people aroundnoon.”

“Did the gallery post any announcement about the forthcoming exhibit,Grant?”

“Yes,” he said. “It was posted in the New York Times art section two weeksago.”

“That means we can’t base our suspect list on people who knew about the art being there. Is this where you’re going with this, Blaire?” Jakeasked.

I nodded. “So who knew the Sergei paintings would be in the crates arriving fromRussia?”

“Our people in Moscow,” Grantsaid.

“Are they contractors?” Iasked.

“Yes. They specialize in shipping valuable art work, but I have trusted people who supervised the entire process from extracting the paintings from the basement of the apartment building to their shipment.” Grant looked at Jake. “Can you coordinate with Heather? We need to check the history of ownership on that building for the past twentyyears.”

“Sergei might have used an alias,” I pointedout.

“That’s very likely,” Grant muttered inagreement.

There was another knock on the door and Colette stepped in, looking very put together even at ten in the evening. “The senator and your mother have arrived, Mr.Thorne.”

“Show them into the living room, will you, Colette?” Grant requested. “Tyler, Donovan, give us a minute.” He pulled mecloser.

When everyone left the room, he turned me slightly so I was facing him. His hands went to my shoulders. “Blaire, I know I don’t have a good track record when we’re facing my father, but whatever I say in there, please go along withit.”

“I don’t want tolie.”

“We won’t be lying. We will be omitting some facts and there isn’t enough time to explainwhy.”

I trusted Grant, and yet, I had an odd feeling he was bulldozing me intosomething.

“Okay.”

The triumphant gleam in his eyes made me want to renege on agreeing with his request, but he was already leading me out of theoffice.

36

Grant

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