Page 27 of The Diamond Thief
In fact, that was interesting timing. The flat tire. Elliott leaving the van. Jacob’s arrival.
My blood begins to pound again. Time for some questions of my own.
“Interesting how you showed up right as we had a tire blowout.”
He leans forward conspiratorially. “I have a small confession. Can I trust your discretion on this matter?”
I hadn’t expected this. “Sure.”
He sits back. “I own this particular van. It has more features than even Elliott and the crew know about.” He lifts his phone. “I can blow out a tire with the tap of my phone.” He holds his finger over the screen.
I reach out my arms. “Don’t do it again. I believe you.”
“I got sidetracked,” he says. “Elliott despises people who are late. For the sake of our friendship, I decided to find a way to catch up.”
“For the sake of your friendship, you blew out the tire and delayed the job.” I do not keep the incredulity out of my voice.
He shrugs. “Members of the Den are not particularly known for their honesty,” he says with a grin.
I have to give him that.
He reaches into a small compartment next to him and pulls out a bottle of chilled white wine. “Also something I keep aboard all my vehicles,” he says. “Please tell me I can interest you in a glass?”
“Okay,” I say. He asked in a way that didn’t really leave room for a no.
He removes a corkscrew from its holder in the door and sets to opening the bottle.
“I’m generally more of a liquor sort of man,” he says. “Do you like whiskey?”
This can’t be a coincidental question. He’s playing a game.
“Can’t stand it,” I say. I can play too.
“A pity.” He sets aside the corkscrew and withdraws two stemmed wine glasses. He fills them both and hands one to me.
He glances out the window. “They sure are taking their sweet time fixing the tire.”
I murmur my agreement. I’m still not sure whether to stand my ground or run.
He lifts a glass. “Let’s get acquainted. Tell me about your most lucrative job.”
He’s toying with me. He knows exactly who I am, and he’s gotten everyone else away before he dispatches me. The back of my neck prickles.
So I decide to play along. I really have no other choice.
I sip my wine. “Recently, I was on a smallish job, sort of technical, some traditional alarm systems plus a rather unusual one involving action sequences.” I pause to see if he reacts, but his poker face is very much locked in.
“While I was picking up the items I was interested in, I noticed an unusual safe in the vault, so I cracked it. I took some strange objects from inside, nothing of any obvious importance. They got heavy on the way home, so I dropped them in the Hudson River.”
He freezes. I have to smile inwardly. If he wants to play cat and mouse, I can do that all day long.
“You didn’t even check the contents?”
“No. I didn’t bother. I had what I wanted. Whatever those hunks of metal were, they were heavy and pointless.”
His thumb brushes across his phone screen, sending my senses on high alert. What did he just summon? Elliott to return? The bodyguard to come collect me?
I laugh. “None of that is true. I find a lie much more interesting than the dull truth, don’t you?”
