Page 76 of Caper Crush
William:Are you coming back?
IleftwithMijuand Lena because to stay would look suspicious. We all cleaned up together. Oddly, William’s fiancée left too.
Me:No. Tired. Going home. I left your handkerchief in a bag in the drawer with the hand towels. Thank you.
William:Okay, good night. See you tomorrow.
I need to get my game face on by tomorrow. I can’t moon over William at lunch. And this is not what’s important now. It’s bad enough that it caused me to lose focus during the party, wasting valuable questioning time. Luckily, I’ll get a second chance on Sunday night. But I can’t be distracted by unrequited feelings for an engaged man.
It’s the next day, and we’re convening at Uncle Tony’s for brunch. Both Takashi and William have yet to arrive from their respective offices. In the kitchen, Uncle Tony gives me a small cup to sample his magical lemonade. I lean against the counter.
“Did Diane, Donald, or Dan have any insights to add when you interviewed them?”
“No,” Tony says. “Just shock that someone would do that. And Diane said that Edmund still seems to be in love with Annabelle.”
“And now he may even succeed in dating her again.” I still don’t believe he’s dating someone new. I sigh and then sip my glass. “Yummy. What’s the secret?”
“Don’t skimp on the sugar,” he says.
“How much sugar?”
“Enough to make it worthwhile.” He smiles mischievously.
I smile back. That’s the thing I love about Uncle Tony. He’s an all-in kind of guy, a role model for me. No let’s-keep-this-all-buttoned-up, stiff upper lip for him.
I’m just about to ask him if William has a fiancée when Cleo barks. The rest of our team has arrived.
“How are you?” William asks.
“I’m fine. I needed some sleep. I got some good leads from the party.” I finish my glass of Uncle Tony’s lemonade and help myself to a second.
“What leads?” William asks.
“Vinnie was hanging out in the kitchen during Uncle Tony’s party. Miju and Lena joked about how he was hitting on them while they were working in here, and he gave them his card.” I show William the card and explain why they gave it to me.
Uncle Tony hands me a platter of cookies to bring out to the dining room table. My phone rings. It’s John’s press secretary. I answer.
“Sorry it took me a while,” she says, “but my PI finally found Fedora tipsy last night, and she asked about that article he ran about you.”
I click the phone speaker. She says, “It seems his source was some art dealer named Vinnie who was at the party. That guy told Fedora that you coordinated the theft with your sister, and she carried the paintings out in a portfolio-size bag. He saw you guys talking and hugging in the hallway. Then she went to get her coat and came out with the bag.”
“Weird,” I say. “I did hug her goodbye in the hallway. But how did Fedora connect with Vinnie?”
“That I don’t know,” she says. “But seeing you talking and hugging your sister in the hallway isn’t enough to build a case against you.”
“Thanks, you’re the best.” I hang up and look at the others. “Vinnie was the one who talked to Fedora and made up that story. I really thought it was Edmund.”
We sit down at the dining room table, each with a glass of lemonade.Vinnie.Vinnie is sabotaging my career because I spurned his advances ten years ago? I can’t believe it.
“We should check out Vinnie’s art gallery tomorrow,” I say. “While you guys divert attention, William can go to the bathroom and search the storage room. The key is in the desk drawer, so you’ll have to grab it when you grab the bathroom key from the desk. Opening up the desk drawer will be the tricky part. The storage room is packed, so we will need both of us, but there’s only one bathroom. If I climb up the fire escape, you can let me in there. I can’t think of any other excuse for both of us to leave the gallery.”
“Is Vinnie’s art gallery still the same one where you interned?” William asks.
I nod yes.
“Have you climbed up the fire escape before?” William asks.
“I did it a lot that summer,” I say.
