Page 39 of Caper Crush
I turn around to look at the Versal and step back. A shiver goes through me.
“You see it.” He stares at me.
“It looks like an eighteenth-century portrait of Annabelle.” The resemblance is eerie.
“Yes, exactly.” He ogles the painting. “I was tempted to buy it before, but I thought it might be painful to see it every day. Given that she chose David over me. But now … maybe.”
“So you’re here to buy it?” I ask.
“Yes.”
He seems very sure that Annabelle is going to choose him this time. It’s too soon. Annabelle has got to be hurting from David’s betrayal and in no shape to be choosing her next partner. But it’s not like Edmund is someone new. And he is good-looking with his wavy, brown hair and cleft chin, his lean build—better-looking than David, who works constantly without any time to go to the gym.
I casually check out Vinnie’s desk. A brochure for the Vertex art show is on top of a folder labeled Miranda Langbroek.Creepy.Vinnie seemed very uninterested in my career a moment ago. If only Edmund would leave so I could see what’s in the folder.
“You don’t have any objection, do you?” he asks.
“To you buying the painting?”
“To me dating Annabelle.” He stands tall, as if trying to impress me.
“No.”Yes. Still.But I’m not a love expert.
His eyes narrow.
Did Annabelle tell him that I said she shouldn’t date him?
Edmund looks around, leans close, and whispers, “I heard that your uncle’s Kimimoto is for sale.”
“What? How?”
“Through connections with some nefarious types.”
Only Edmund would use the word nefarious.
“You do?” I ask. “Why?”
“I want to be the guy who buys the next newly discovered Renoir.”
My eyebrows rise. “The likelihood of that does not seem worth the risk of hanging out with such people. But have you told Officer Johnson?”
“I take calculated risks all the time in business.” He interlaces his fingers, like the three of us used to do when we were kids to signal that we were allied together against our parents. “Don’t tell Officer Johnson. It might look suspicious that I know such types.”
“Why are you telling me?”
“I want to help you get your painting back,” Edmund says. “ThatSquirrelquote from the Vertex Art Exhibit curator was pretty firm that you needPlaying Around 1:30to participate.”
Say another painting might work.Use Takashi’s decoy strategy. “Yes.”I can’t.I can’t risk another painting stolen.
“You’ve got to get your painting back,” Edmund says. “You heard Vinnie out there. It really seems like this is your last shot.”
Tighten that screw right into my chest, Edmund, why don’t you?
“I know I’ve always said you should have stuck to figurative, but I do want you to succeed.” He looks again at the Versal and then at me. “I can say I knew you when.”
Edmund seems to have done a one-eighty to now become my biggest supporter.
“Should I try to set up a meeting with them for this week?” he asks. “You can pay me back when you sell your painting.”
