Page 16 of Alex Cross Must Die

Grey offered a game smile. “It was a very nice party. But I’m here on business. Can I come in?”

“Why not?” said Poe. “The friendly sunshine smiles.”

Grey was in a dark suit with a bulge at her hip. As she stepped into the main space, she looked around and gave a low whistle. “Wow. I guess things got more lively after I left.”

“Espresso, anybody?” Marple called out.

“God, yes,” said Holmes.

“I wouldn’t say no to one,” said Grey.

She took a seat on an island stool as Marple fired up the complex Rocket Espresso machine.

“Has Boolin cooled off about the press conference?” asked Poe.

“Not by a long shot,” said Grey. “He thinks you three orchestrated the whole thing for your own purposes. If you want some friendly advice, I’d stay out of his way for a while.”

“So you’re not here to arrest us?” said Marple.

“Believe it or not,” said Grey, “I’m here to give you your next case.”

CHAPTER 17

MARPLE COCKED HERhead, immediately suspicious. She knew that Detective Grey didn’t totally trust her or her partners. So why give them a lead? Was she testing them? Tricking them? Trapping them? Marple passed the cups of hot espresso down the island counter.

Grey added sugar and rattled a small spoon in her cup. She leaned forward. “The man you need to talk to is Huntley Bain.”

Holmes frowned. “Bain? The media monster?”

Grey nodded and took a sip of her espresso. “That’s the one.”

Marple wrinkled her nose in distaste. Bain was a legend in New York. Big ego and an even bigger mouth. CEO of a network of internet content providers, mostly second-tier news outlets. The rumor was that his seed money had come from running European-based porn sites in the 1990s. The corporation they’d spawned was now worth billions.

“An insufferable lout,” said Marple.

Grey nodded. “And one of the mayor’s biggest contributors.”

“So who did he kill?” asked Poe.

“This is not about murder,” said Grey. “It’s about an art theft.”

Marple stared at Grey. “Art theft? But you’re Homicide.”

“I’ll explain,” said Grey. She pulled out her notebook. “The missing pieces are a Shakespeare First Folio and a 1455 Gutenberg Bible. Bain has only owned them for four months. Now they’re gone. Stolen sometime after 6 p.m. two nights ago. No alarms triggered. When he checked his vault the next morning, it was empty.”

Marple exchanged glances with her partners.

Holmes wrinkled his brow. “I thought many of the Shakespeare First Folios were in the Folger collection.”

“The Folgers have nothing to do with this,” said Grey. “Bain acquired the Folio on his own, through his connections in Europe.”

“It’s authentic?” asked Holmes.

“Certified and documented,” said Grey. “He has all the paperwork.”

“What about the Bible?” asked Poe.

Grey checked her notes again. “One of twenty-one known copies left in the world.”

---