Chapter 17
Ileft with Miju and Lena because to stay would look suspicious. We all cleaned up together. Oddly, William’s fiancée left too.
I need to get my game face on by tomorrow. I can’t moon over William at lunch. And this is not what’s important now. It’s bad enough that it caused me to lose focus during the party, wasting valuable questioning time. Luckily, I’ll get a second chance on Sunday night. But I can’t be distracted by unrequited feelings for an engaged man.
It’s the next day, and we’re convening at Uncle Tony’s for brunch. Both Takashi and William have yet to arrive from their respective offices. In the kitchen, Uncle Tony gives me a small cup to sample his magical lemonade. I lean against the counter.
“Did Diane, Donald, or Dan have any insights to add when you interviewed them?”
“No,” Tony says. “Just shock that someone would do that. And Diane said that Edmund still seems to be in love with Annabelle.”
“And now he may even succeed in dating her again.” I still don’t believe he’s dating someone new. I sigh and then sip my glass. “Yummy. What’s the secret?”
“Don’t skimp on the sugar,” he says.
“How much sugar?”
“Enough to make it worthwhile.” He smiles mischievously.
I smile back. That’s the thing I love about Uncle Tony. He’s an all-in kind of guy, a role model for me. No let’s-keep-this-all-buttoned-up, stiff upper lip for him.
I’m just about to ask him if William has a fiancée when Cleo barks. The rest of our team has arrived.
“How are you?” William asks.
“I’m fine. I needed some sleep. I got some good leads from the party.” I finish my glass of Uncle Tony’s lemonade and help myself to a second.
“What leads?” William asks.
“Vinnie was hanging out in the kitchen during Uncle Tony’s party. Miju and Lena joked about how he was hitting on them while they were working in here, and he gave them his card.” I show William the card and explain why they gave it to me.
Uncle Tony hands me a platter of cookies to bring out to the dining room table. My phone rings. It’s John’s press secretary. I answer.
“Sorry it took me a while,” she says, “but my PI finally found Fedora tipsy last night, and she asked about that article he ran about you.”
I click the phone speaker. She says, “It seems his source was some art dealer named Vinnie who was at the party. That guy told Fedora that you coordinated the theft with your sister, and she carried the paintings out in a portfolio-size bag. He saw you guys talking and hugging in the hallway. Then she went to get her coat and came out with the bag.”
“Weird,” I say. “I did hug her goodbye in the hallway. But how did Fedora connect with Vinnie?”
“That I don’t know,” she says. “But seeing you talking and hugging your sister in the hallway isn’t enough to build a case against you.”
“Thanks, you’re the best.” I hang up and look at the others. “Vinnie was the one who talked to Fedora and made up that story. I really thought it was Edmund.”
We sit down at the dining room table, each with a glass of lemonade. Vinnie. Vinnie is sabotaging my career because I spurned his advances ten years ago? I can’t believe it.
“We should check out Vinnie’s art gallery tomorrow,” I say. “While you guys divert attention, William can go to the bathroom and search the storage room. The key is in the desk drawer, so you’ll have to grab it when you grab the bathroom key from the desk. Opening up the desk drawer will be the tricky part. The storage room is packed, so we will need both of us, but there’s only one bathroom. If I climb up the fire escape, you can let me in there. I can’t think of any other excuse for both of us to leave the gallery.”
“Is Vinnie’s art gallery still the same one where you interned?” William asks.
I nod yes.
“Have you climbed up the fire escape before?” William asks.
“I did it a lot that summer,” I say.
William raises an eyebrow. “Did you smoke?”
“No, but I had a crush on the guy one floor below, so I used to hang out with him on it,” I say. “He smoked.”
“Which one was that?” Uncle Tony asks.
“It never came to anything. We hung out all summer, but nothing ever happened.”
“I brought you up better than that,” Uncle Tony says. “You should have told him you liked him.”
I shrug. “It was right after the Weeping Willow incident. It didn’t seem fair to subject anyone else to that press attention. Sometimes I’d even leave via the fire escape in the back if someone warned me a lone photographer was out front.”
“We need to be able to communicate with you from the gallery, just in case. Did that phone app work well?” Uncle Tony sips lemonade. He’s also made a quiche, and there are cold cuts and bagels.
“Yes. How long will it take us to go through the storage room?” William asks.
“He organizes his art alphabetically,” I say. “But it would be weird for him to stick stolen paintings in among the rest.”
“Why do you think he took those paintings to the gallery?”
“To give them to Edmund in an unsuspicious manner. And I’m hoping that he doesn’t want anything to happen to them to diminish their value. That room is climate-controlled. Can we go to his gallery tomorrow?” I ask. “I’m waitressing in the afternoon and bartending that night, but I have the morning free.”
“I can’t get off,” Takashi says. “Also, Vinnie is usually there on the weekdays. Isn’t it better to go on a weekend when he’s not there and it’s only the gallery assistant rather than both of them? She may be less suspicious.”
“Yes, let’s go Saturday morning first thing,” William says. “I’ve got client meetings tomorrow morning.”
Time is ticking. Saturday will be two weeks since the paintings were stolen. But it would be better if Vinnie wasn’t there and it’s only the gallery assistant we have to get past.
“We have a plan.” I turn to William. “So how did you propose to your fiancée?” Okay, not the smoothest transition.
“My fiancée?” William asks. “I don’t have a fiancée.”
“Oh, Miju heard you introduce someone as your fiancée, but maybe she got it wrong,” I say very casually.
William frowns. “I referred to Kiyoko jokingly as my omiai fiancée to my friend Yoichi. My grandmother wants Kiyoko and me to get together, but we don’t feel that kind of attraction. He’s got the same situation, where his grandmother wants him to get married to the granddaughter of a friend here. And they don’t suit either.”
I feel such a burst of relief. I give William a big smile.