Page 105 of Forging Caine

“Jason!” hollered Fiori from downstairs.

We walked to the railing and looked down to see him climbing up to meet us, One and Three with him.

Once he reached the top, he dismissed the guards, who took up positions further down the hall. “What did she want?”

“To know what happened in Detroit.”

“And what did you tell her?”

It was all another test. She asked me questions, no doubt reported back to him, and he verified. “I told her exactly what you wanted me to. I continued the ruse that Samantha was sleeping off a hangover and that we’re here for work. We promised to keep your silence and we will.”

“Good,” he drawled.

“I’ll take care of your paintings, but I need to know something for certain first. I’m asking for the same honesty you request from me. Did you believeThe Concertwas authentic?”

He slid his hands into his pockets and rocked on his heels, tilting his head back. Was that question a step too far? “I do like you, you know?”

“Grazie.” But that was hardly an answer to my question.

“The four I showed you earlier—I’m not sure.The Concertis the one I truly want.”

“Did you think the one you sent to me was the real thing?”

A sly grin emerged, and he eased his eyebrows up. “No. Zane made that one, but I told him to say he’d authenticated it if anyone asked.”

That explained why the cocky conservator was so offended when we called it a fake. It was true, but it meant he’d failed in under six hours. “Why go through all this to convince us you thought it was real?”

“It’s the great prize, is it not? The most valuable piece of stolen art in the world. It’s a legend. Every cheap art thief claims to have it.” He shifted closer to me. “But if a man like me says the same thing and has at least one of the other originals, what do you think happens?”

Other than the FBI beating down his door? “I don’t know.”

“Someone is going to crawl out of the woodwork and proclaim mine is a fake because they have the real one.”

“And then you’ll know who to go after for it?”

He inclined his head toward me. “And that is how you’re going to help me.”

“What if the other four are all fakes?”

He shrugged, as though it hardly mattered to him. “Then I suppose I’ll need a new plan, won’t I?”

But did that mean Samantha and I would still be free?

“Jason.” Fiori turned away from me and began in the opposite direction from the conservation studio. “With the FBI snooping around, I want you with me. The other two can protect my artwork.”

Chapter 36

Antonio

Anhourpassed,withBodyguards One and Three loitering in the conservation studio. Samantha had seemed nervous when I returned, but perhaps that reflected how I felt. My nerves were a jumble with Jason’s revelations that Fiori had Jimmy killed and Special Agent Bernard on his payroll.

The two supposed Rembrandts lay side by side on my table. Had I done anything other than stare at them for an hour? It had been such a long day, starting with the helicopter ride here, my brain was beginning to protest the work.

Zane came to my side. “I’d start with chemical analysis.”

I craned my neck slowly to glower at him. “I was thinking about starting with an infrared comparison, given how the first two paintings Pasquale asked me to confirm both had incorrect sketches underneath.”

His lip curled. Good. Calling out his easy failures had been my goal.

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