Page 41 of Caper Crush
“Do you want to have dinner with us?” Vinnie asks.
“No, I think we’d better get back,” I say. William starts next to me.
We say goodbye and get into William’s car. The smell of smoke from a nearby chimney drifts over.
“I thought for sure you’d want to go with them and question them some more.” He buckles his seat belt.
“No, we should go back and check out those paintings once they’ve gone off to the restaurant.”
William’s head whips around to face me. “Are you crazy?”
“Slightly. But c’mon, two paintings were there.”
“You heard him. His explanation made sense. He didn’t look like he was lying.”
“It’s going to drive me crazy.”
“His house has an alarm system. We can’t break in.”
“You don’t have to break in. I’ll do it.”
“If I’m the getaway car, I’m an accessory. No.” William pulls out his phone and dials a number.
“Who are you calling?”
“Takashi. He’ll know Vinnie’s favorite paintings. Uncle Takashi? We’re outside Vinnie’s house.” William explains that we saw two wrapped-up paintings in the closet and how Vinnie responded. He murmurs goodbye and hangs up. “Those are Vinnie’s favorite paintings. He doesn’t know if Vinnie travels back and forth with them between houses, but he could.”
“You don’t have to be the getaway car. I’ll take the train home.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not. We came up here to see if he stole the two paintings, and there are two wrapped paintings in his closet. And you want to go home and not check them out.” How disappointing. I thought he’d have more spunk than this.
“Check it out? That’s a nice euphemism. Break into an alarmed house and get videotaped by his security cameras. Then we unwrap some packaging, which we probably won’t be able to rewrap the same,” William says in a clipped voice. But then he adds in a lighter tone, “And I thought he was telling the truth about those paintings.”
“He has video cameras?”
“Yes. Up in the corner of the foyer, aimed at the entranceway. Maybe that’s how he maintains security when he’s away.”
A video of me breaking into a house posted inThe Squirrelwould not be good. Shit. I close my eyes, lean my head against the headrest, take a deep breath, and count to ten in my head. Let it go.
“Okay,” I say. “I’m frustrated.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s not your fault. You’re right. I don’t need a breaking-and-entering charge on my record.”
“How much are the Versal and Boonland worth?” William asks. “Do those two sales make up for the loss of the Kimimoto?”
“I don’t think so. Maybe one hundred thousand dollars tops together.”
“Should we drive home now?” he asks gently.
I look away, out the window. Other single-family homes line the street. A jailbreaker friend is probably a total anachronism to him.
“But it is weird that Edmund drove up here to persuade Vinnie to give him first dibs,” William says. “Wouldn’t a call suffice?”
“I think he wants to buy the Versal and take it home today. Edmund is a real collector character. And I meet a lot of collectors of art, obviously. It’s like a visceral need to have it right then. And with Edmund, because his mom died when he was so young, I’ve always thought that for him, collecting is like a protection against death. He’s creating this collection that will outlast him.”
