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body sprang all the plants and animals."
"You can tell me in the car."
He urged her to the door, but she simply couldn't move until
she'd said it all. "The religion wasn't brought to Rome until 68
B.C., and it spread rapidly. It's similar to Christianity in many
respects. The ideals of brotherly love." Her voice broke, forced
her to swallow. "The Three Stars were thought to be a myth, a
legend spawned by the Trinity, though some scholars believed
firmly in their existence, and described them as symbols of love,
knowledge and generosity. It's said if one possesses all three, the
combination of these elements will bring power and
immortality."
"You don't believe that."
"I believe they're powerful enough to bring about great love,
great hate, great greed. I found out what my brothers were
doing. I realized Timothy was creating duplicates in the lab."
She scrubbed at her eyes. "Maybe he could have hidden
something like that from me if he'd been more methodical, more
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careful, but he was always the more impatient of the two, the
more reckless." Now her shoulders slumped as she remembered.
"He's been in trouble a few times, for assault. His temper is very
quick."
"He never hurt you?"
"No, never. He may have hurt my feelings from time to time."
She tried a smile, but it faded quickly. "He seemed to feel that
my mother had only married his father so that the two of us
could be taken care of. It was partially true, I suppose. So it was
always important to me to prove myself."
"You proved yourself here," Cade said.
"Not to him. Timothy was never one to praise. But he was
never overly harsh, not really. And I never thought he or
Thomas would be dishonest. Until we were commissioned to
assess the Stars."
"And that was more than they could resist."
"Apparently. The fakes wouldn't fool anyone for very long, but
by the time the stones were found out, my brothers would have
the money and be gone. I don't know who was paying them, but
they were working for someone."
She stopped on the stairs, stared down. "He chased me down
here. I was running. It was pitch-dark. I nearly fell down these
stairs. I could hear him coming after me. And I knew he'd kill
me. We'd shared Christmas dinner every year of my life since I
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was fourteen. And he would kill me, the same horrible way he'd
killed Thomas. For money."
She clutched the railing as she slowly walked down to the
lower level. "I loved him, Cade. I loved both of them." At the
base of the steps, she turned, gestured to a narrow door. "There's
a basement down there. It's very small and cramped. There's
where I ran. There's a little nook under the steps, with a lattice
door. I used to explore the building when I was young, and I
liked sitting in that nook, where it was quiet. I'd study the gem
books Charles gave me. I don't suppose Timothy knew it was
there. If he'd known, I'd be dead."
She walked into the sunlight.
"I honestly don't remember how long I stayed in there, in the
dark, waiting for him to find me and kill me. I don't know how I
got to the hotel. I must have walked part of the way, at least. I
don't drive to work. I live only a few blocks from here."
He wanted to tell her it was done now, but it wasn't. He wanted
to let her rest her head on his shoulder and put it behind her. But
he couldn't. Instead, he took her hands, turned her to face him.
"Bailey. Where are the other two stars?"
"The " She went dead pale, so quickly he grabbed her certain
she would faint. But her eyes stayed open, wide and shocked.
"Oh, my God. Oh, my God, Cade, what have I done? He knows
where they live. He knows."
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"You gave them to M.J. and Grace." Moving fast, he wrenched
open the car door. The cops would have to wait. "Tell me
where."
"I was so angry," she told him as they sped through afternoon
traffic. "I realized they were using me, my name, my
knowledge, my reputation, to authenticate the gems. Then they
would switch them and leave me leave the business my
stepfather had built holding the bag. Salvini would have been
ruined, after all Charles had done to build it. I owed him loyalty.
And, damn it, so did they."
"So you beat them to it."
"It was impulse. I was going to face them down with it, but I
wanted the Stars out of reach. At least I thought they shouldn't
all be in one place. As long as they were, they could be taken.
So I sent one to M.J. and one to Grace, by different overnight
couriers."
"Dear Lord, Bailey, you put priceless diamonds in the mail?"
She squeezed her eyes shut. "We use special couriers regularly
for delivering gems." Her voice was prim, vaguely insulted.
She'd already told herself she'd been unbelievably rash. "All I
could think was that there were two people in the world I could
trust with anything. I didn't consider they'd be put in danger. I
never realized how far it could go. I was certain that when I
confronted my brothers, told them I'd separated the diamonds
for safe-keeping and would be making arrangements to have the
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diamonds delivered to the museum, that would have to be the
end of it."
She hung onto the door as his tires spun around a corner. "It's
this building. We're on the third floor. M.J. and I have
apartments across from each other."
She was out of the car before he'd fully stopped, and racing
toward the entrance. Cursing, he snatched his keys out of the
ignition and sprinted after her. He caught her on the stairs. "Stay
behind me," he ordered. "I mean it."
Both the lock and the jamb on apartment 324 were broken.
Police tape was slashed across it. "M.J." was all she could
manage as she pushed at Cade and reached for the knob to M.J.'s
apartment.
"There you are, dearie." A woman in pink stretch pants and
fluffy slippers scuffed down the hall. "I was getting worried
about you."
"Mrs. Weathers." Bailey's knuckles turned white on the knob as
she turned. "M.J. What's happened to M.J.?"
"Such a hullabaloo." Mrs. Weathers fluffed her helmet of blond
hair and gave Cade a measuring smile. "You don't expect such
things in a nice neighborhood like this. The world is going to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]