Liar's Key

“He was a respected expert in antiquities.”

“Know anything about ancient mosaics stolen recently in London, Emma?”

It was a calculated blurt. Despite his disheveled appearance and obvious fatigue and aches and pains, Gordy had clearly come to this meeting prepared. He watched her closely.

“No,” she said. “What do you know?”

“Not much. I overheard rumors at the tea party. Word is several sixth-century Byzantine Christian mosaics, possibly illegally obtained, were stolen a few weeks ago from an unnamed London collector. I’m no expert on mosaics but I did some quick research. Mosaic art flourished from the time of the ancient Greeks through the fall of the eastern Roman Empire—what we commonly refer to as the Byzantine Empire—in the fifteenth century. Sort of fell out of favor during the Renaissance.” He steadied his gaze on Emma. “Interesting, isn’t it? A mosaic expert dies and these rumors surface.”

“Are you suggesting the FBI should get involved?”

“No.” Gordy rolled his left shoulder, as if to work out a muscle spasm. He breathed, shuddering. “I kinked up on the plane yesterday.”

“Are you sure you won’t sit down?”

“Yeah. I’m sure. You don’t know anything about these stolen ancient mosaics?”

Emma saw no reason not to be straight with him. “I haven’t heard a peep.” She sat down again. She wished she’d had him meet her in the conference room instead of her office. He would be taking in everything, from the way she’d unloaded the files onto the sofa to the tidiness of her desk and her choice of artwork—or lack thereof. “Where are you off to now?”

“No firm plans yet. It’s only Thursday. I don’t have to be in Maine until Saturday. Are you going to be at the open house?”

“I’ll stop in, yes.”

“When do you head up there?”

“Later today.” She didn’t elaborate on her plans. “You have my cell phone number. Let me know if you need anything while you’re in Maine.”

He leaned toward her, his gray eyes serious, his skin more ashen with the light from her desk lamp hitting his face. “Emma, do we have an active investigation involving stolen ancient mosaics? We meaning the Bureau.”

“You know I can’t answer that.”

A bit of color returned to his face. “Figured I’d try. What about your fiancé? Is he going to be at the open house?”

Gordy’s question took Emma by surprise, but she knew it shouldn’t have. He would have checked with his contacts for her latest news, and her engagement definitely fit under that heading. “We’ll see. Do you know him?”

“Of him. Colin Donovan. A rough-and-tough type. Good for you, Emma. Engaged to be married, wedding in a few weeks, member in good standing of an elite FBI unit. Quite a change from your days with the Sisters of the Joyful Heart, isn’t it?”

She noted the edge to his voice but made no comment.

“The paths started and abandoned in life,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d been a nun before you joined the FBI?”

“It wasn’t a secret. It was just something I didn’t talk about.”

“And you never reported directly to me,” he added, almost knocking over folders stacked on the arm of the sofa. “I only found out a few months ago. I had to hear it through the vine. You think Wendell would have said something. We were in touch when you were in the convent.”

“I doubt it was relevant.”

“I guess. You’ve never riled easily. Those years as a postulant and novice must have helped. It’s true Yank recruited you out of the convent?”

“Yes. I never professed my final vows.”

“Whatever that means. The Sisters of the Joyful Heart. I like that.” There wasn’t a hint of sarcasm in his tone. “They specialize in art education, preservation and conservation and have a beautiful convent on the Maine coast. Life could be worse.” He eyed her, as if he were trying to picture her as a nun. “Sister Emma.” He wrinkled up his face. “That’s a hard one to wrap my head around. Except Emma wasn’t your name as a nun, was it? Didn’t you have to take another name?”

“I was known as Brigid then.”

“Good Irish Catholic name.”

Emma inhaled deeply. “Anything else?”

He grinned. “I like the impatience. I’d have threatened to throw me out the window by now. Do the good sisters work on restoring ancient mosaics?”

“I don’t know. They primarily work on pieces that can be safely transported to the convent.”

“They don’t fly out to archaeological digs?”

“Not that I’m aware of.”

“Fair enough. Is Oliver York coming to the open house?”

Another blurt designed to throw her off her stride. “As I said, I’m not involved with the open house, up to and including the guest list.”

“But you’d know.”

She got to her feet. She wanted to maneuver Gordy out of the small confines of her office. He was fishing. He wasn’t even trying hard to hide it. She nodded toward the door. “Agent Yankowski’s office is straight ahead if you want to stop in on your way out.”

“That’s okay. Yank knows I’m here. He can poke his head out of his office if he wants to see me. He’s got work to do, and we didn’t part on the best terms. We never saw eye-to-eye on his idea for this team. I’m not convinced I was wrong but results speak for themselves. Water over the dam now. I’m retired. A dinosaur.” There was no self-pity in his tone. “I should get moving. I might go see the penguins at the aquarium, or I might skip the penguins and drive up to Maine in time to take old Wendell out for a pint.”

“I’m sure he’d like that,” Emma said, her tone neutral.

Gordy started past her but stopped abruptly. “I hoped you’d level with me, Emma.”

“That’s a two-way street, Gordy.”

“I always believed there were no secrets between us. I should have known better. You’re a Sharpe, after all.”

“Sorry the fishing expedition didn’t work out for you.”

He laughed. “I had that coming. You’re tougher than you used to be. Maybe you had a little of Sister Brigid left in you when you worked with me. Or is the smart remark your fiancé’s influence?” He winked at her. “I bet you complicate his life.”

“I’ll see you on Saturday,” Emma said.

“Another careful answer.” Gordy pointed a finger at her. “That’s good, Emma. Be careful, because your grandfather will burn you if you aren’t. Mark my words.”

“Can you find your own way out?”

“Not a problem.”

“Take care, Gordy. You know how to reach me should you need to.”

“And you know how to reach me.”

She gave a curt nod. “Yes, I do.”

“Good to see you, Special Agent Sharpe.”

* * *

After Gordy left, Emma texted Oliver York and her parents, asking them to get in touch, and then she went into Matt Yankowski’s office. His windows overlooked Boston Harbor, glistening in the morning sun. Yank had her sit on a chair facing his desk and he didn’t interrupt her report on her brief, odd meeting with the retired agent.

When she finished, Yank grimaced. In his midforties, he was a good-looking, straight-arrow, buttoned-down agent out of central casting—except nothing about him was that simple. It was a lesson Emma had learned early in the four-plus years she’d known him. “Do you have anything on these stolen mosaics?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

Yank’s eyes narrowed. “But?”

“It’s entirely possible Alessandro Pearson’s death triggered the rumor mill. Something to do with his estate, maybe. Wild imaginations. I don’t know.”

“Could York and MI5 be creating the rumors to stir the pot?”

“Anything is possible.”

“Right now I wish your brother and grandfather hadn’t put Gordon Wheelock on their guest list. Do you know which one of them had that bright idea, when and why?”

“I don’t.”

“But you’re going to ask,” Yank said.

“I’m heading up to Maine after I’m done here.”

He heaved a sigh. “Did you know about this London party?”

“No.”

“But your parents were there as well as Oliver York. I was afraid his name would come up when I heard Gordy Wheelock had an appointment with you. Does York know Gordy investigated the thefts?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“What about Gordy—does he know Oliver’s the serial art thief he and your grandfather chased for years?”

“I don’t think so, but that’s only a guess. Gordy’s certainly suspicious of my relationship with Oliver.”

“He’ll figure it out, then.”

“I would bet on that.”

“Was Oliver at this party because Gordy was, or was it the other way around and Gordy was there because of Oliver?”

“I’ve already texted Oliver asking him to get in touch with me.”

“You said please, since he’s a British citizen protected by MI5?”

Emma shrugged, ignoring Yank’s sarcasm. “Whatever it takes.”

Yank looked pained. “I was hoping we were done with him for a while.”

“Same here.”

“Yeah. I ran into Gordy before he left. He invited me outside for a cigarette. Sarcastic SOB. He knows I don’t smoke. I said no. He never approved of HIT. He wrote a letter to the director articulating his disapproval. No love lost between us, but there’s no question he was one of the best.” Yank pushed back his chair and rose. “When I’m done with this job, I’m going quietly. I’ll go for long runs on the Esplanade, take up tai chi and help Lucy run her knitting shop.”

Emma got to her feet. Lucy was Yank’s wife, a psychologist who’d been reluctant to move from their home in northern Virginia. She’d finally agreed to move north and was adapting to Boston life, moving into a Back Bay apartment and opening a knitting shop. She and Yank had no children, and he was convinced she would go back to psychology. Colin was, too, but Emma wasn’t. Lucy Yankowski was getting into yarns, needles, knitting patterns and classes.

“Oliver’s an expert in tai chi,” Emma said finally, with a slight smile.

Yank scowled as he came around his desk. “Do we have a bored retired agent on our hands who’s trying to connect dots that don’t connect because he wants to feel relevant, or is Gordy Wheelock on to something?”

“I can’t say for certain.”

“I’m not asking for certainty. I’m asking for your gut take on what he’s up to.”

Emma tended to be analytical and objective, gathering bits and pieces of information and evidence and letting them point her in the right direction. Gut takes were Colin’s strength, given his training, experience and natural instincts, and an asset in his work as an undercover agent.

“Gordy was deliberate and reasonably well prepared,” she said. “But he wasn’t in great shape, whether it was jet lag or what, I don’t know. I didn’t work with him during his last few months on the job. I’ll look into what he left unfinished.”

Yank nodded. “Good. Gordy could have made up the rumors to get in here and try to pump you for information. Him, MI5, Oliver York and your family. Not my favorite combination.” He heaved another sigh. “I don’t need more Sharpe trouble, Emma. I really don’t.”

“Understood.”

She headed out of his office, shutting the door behind her. To get to her own office, she had to pass through an open-layout area of tables and cubicles where HIT team members could meet or work on their own. Sam Padgett, the newest member, had set up at a U-shaped table with his wireless keyboard, laptop, separate monitor, a stack of printed spreadsheets and notebooks and several Sharpies. He was a dark, ultrafit, good-looking Texan, full of contradictions and foiled stereotypes, an expert marksman, a whiz at numbers and a total wimp when it came to New England winters. He’d arrived in Boston last fall and Emma swore no one had ever been so happy to see the green grass of spring.

He looked up at her. “Bad?”

“Not great. A retired agent was just here. Gordon Wheelock. Did you see him?”

“Nope. I was in my office gathering up my gear so I could spread out here.”

“And he didn’t see you?”

Padgett shook his head. He had on a dark suit, a crisp white shirt and loosened red tie, but he always managed to look casual. “Why, you want me to tail him?”

“Maybe,” Emma said, then explained the situation. “Think you can find out where he stayed last night? Knowing Gordy, it will be convenient and relatively inexpensive.”

“I never use inexpensive and Boston in the same sentence. Convenient to here?”

“He mentioned penguins. Try near the aquarium. I’m concerned he’s working his own agenda and could infringe on something he shouldn’t.”

“A freelancing retiree. Just what we need. I’ll go see the penguins. You off to Maine?”

“I’m on my way out now. I’m supposed to have lunch tomorrow with my future mother-in-law.”

“Lobster rolls and wild blueberry pie?”

“Very possibly. They’re not quintessential Maine foods for no reason.”

“No doubt. I’ve met your future mother-in-law. Nothing fazes her. You can tell.”

Emma smiled, some of her tension easing after her visits with Gordy and Yank. “Four sons would do that,” she said.

“Especially when all of them are Donovans. We’ll stay in touch about Agent Wheelock.”

She returned to her office and collected the contents of the files spread out on her sofa, stuffing them into their appropriate folders, then stacking the folders on her desk. She grabbed her jacket off the back of her door. Was Gordy invited to the open house on Saturday—or had he lied about the invitation as a maneuver to get her to talk?

One of a thousand questions coming at her.

No wonder Yank had hidden in his office during Gordy’s visit.

3

About forty children around ten years old were congregated at the entrance of the New England Aquarium, laughing and elbowing each other as their teachers counted heads, when Emma arrived. She’d decided to take a quick look on her walk back to her apartment. She wasn’t surprised not to see Gordy lined up at the ticket booth. A stiff breeze was blowing off the harbor but it didn’t freeze her to the bone the way it would have even a month ago. Spring had taken hold of New England, and that meant her wedding was getting closer and closer.

If only Colin were close, too...

She pushed the thought aside and walked the short distance to the nearest hotel, a four-star chain hotel on a small wharf jutting out into the water. It was probably more expensive than Gordy would have liked, but it was an easy walk to HIT and not a bad cab drive from the airport, assuming he hadn’t lied and he’d come in from London yesterday.

Emma didn’t quite know why she was thinking the way she was—not simply that Gordy Wheelock hadn’t told her the whole story about why he was in her office, but that he might have deliberately lied to her—but there it was.

She approached a cheerful bellman, explained who she was and showed him her FBI credentials. “I’m looking for a friend of mine,” she said, then described Gordy. The bellman pointed her to a colleague, an older man flagging a cab for a young couple. Emma waited until he finished.

He remembered Gordy. “Sure, sure. You missed him by a few minutes. I just put him in a cab.”

Emma stepped back from the curb, away from an arriving cab. “Has he checked out?”

“Yes, ma’am, he had his bag with him.”

“Do you know where he was headed?”

“I don’t, sorry.”

“Was he alone?”

The bellman nodded. “He was, yes. I never saw him with anyone. I worked late last night and I got in early today. I didn’t see him leave the hotel, but I saw him come back—he was on foot. Alone. Only weird thing...” He hesitated. “I probably shouldn’t say anything.”

“Go ahead, please,” Emma said. “He’s not in any trouble.”

“Well, he tripped last night. That’s what he said—I didn’t see it happen myself. He was bleeding...here.” He pointed to a spot behind his left ear. “We keep hand towels by the door for runners. I gave him one. He wasn’t real coherent but he thanked me. He said he tripped and went flying on the steps by the aquarium when he went out for a smoke.”

“Did you believe him?”

“Yes, ma’am. Of course. Why would you lie about something like that? At first I thought he’d been mugged, but he’s a big guy—not the target you’d pick, you know? Then he said he tripped and that made sense to me. I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it. I asked him if he needed an ambulance, but he said no, he’d be fine. He looked okay just now.”

“Anything else you can think of?”

“There was one other thing. A cab driver gave us an envelope to deliver to him.”

“To Mr. Wheelock?”

The bellman nodded. “The driver said he left his passenger window open while he was chatting with another driver, and when he got back in, the envelope was on the front seat. He didn’t see who left it. He said there was a label on it but it blew off.”

“What did the label say?” Emma asked.

“Just the guy’s name and that he was a hotel guest. He’d checked his bag with the front desk. I found it and put the envelope in an outside pocket.”

“Did you look inside the envelope?”

“No, ma’am, I did not,” the bellman said, obviously offended.

Emma thanked him and headed back to the street. She called Sam Padgett and filled him in. “No wonder Gordy looked as if he was in pain,” she said.

“I’ll talk to housekeeping and see what they can tell me about the state of his room. Good work, Agent Sharpe. Are you going to call Wheelock and ask him what the bloody head and this envelope are all about?”

“Doing that next.”

“He didn’t mention falling either because it’s embarrassing, tripping while out for a smoke, or he was attacked and doesn’t want you to know.”

“Or it didn’t occur to him to mention it.”

“It occurred to him,” Sam said with his usual certainty.

“What’s your take on the envelope?”

“Was he expecting it or was it a surprise? Something from a source? A threat? Red Sox tickets? Lots of possibilities. We’ll stay in touch.”

After they disconnected, Emma called Gordy on his cell phone. When he didn’t answer, she left a voice mail. “It’s Emma Sharpe. Call me.”

She continued along the harbor to the tiny waterfront apartment she’d rented upon her arrival in Boston last March to join Yank’s team. Happy to be back in New England, working on challenging investigations on a small team led by a senior agent who’d always been her champion, she’d settled into her new apartment and new routines. Not for a second had she envisioned—or even dreamed—that by fall, she would be in love with a deep-cover agent with roots in a small fishing village a few miles from her own southern Maine hometown.

Now she and Colin were getting ready for their wedding.

She smiled, thinking of him. His dark hair, his smile, his blue-gray eyes that reminded her of the ocean.

“I miss you,” she whispered, as if he could hear her.

After several months back and forth to Washington, he’d finally disappeared in mid-March on his latest undercover mission. Despite her own role with the FBI, Emma didn’t know what his mission was or where it had taken him. She only knew it was intense, dangerous and exhausting. He’d come home for a few days in late April and then left again. Since then, not a word—not so much as a text message, email or cryptic voice mail.

Matt Yankowski knew where Colin was. Yank had been Colin’s contact agent on his first deep-cover mission four years ago. Last October, he’d gone out on a limb to get Colin, at least nominally, into HIT and had put up with his relationship with one of his team members. Emma would never ask him to give her hints as to Colin’s whereabouts. She respected their professional relationship, but she also respected Colin’s silence and his trust in her to handle the situation.

Never in a million years did I think he’d put a ring on your finger, at least not this soon.

That was Yank in November. He’d never been one to mince words. Emma smiled, remembering that rainy Dublin night when Colin had dropped onto one knee in a crowded pub and proposed to her.

Wherever he was, she knew he was safe. She felt it.

As she unlocked her apartment door, she noticed a new sailboat had arrived at the marina that shared the small wharf with her building, another renovated warehouse. There would be more boats with the warming weather.

She went inside and was helping herself to a yogurt out of the fridge when a text message came in. Video chat in ten minutes?

Oliver York. Emma texted him back. Five.

* * *

“You look uptight, Emma,” Oliver York said in his genuine upper-class English accent. “Or do you continue to insist I call you Special Agent Sharpe?”

“Agent Sharpe will do.”

“Mmm. That sort of call, is it?”

“It’s always that sort of call, Oliver.”

She’d placed her laptop on her coffee table and was seated on the sofa in her small living room. Just as well they were talking here instead of her FBI office. Nothing about her relationship with the wealthy Englishman, sheep farmer, mythologist and serial art thief was regular. He was in his late thirties, with curly tawny hair and lively, light green eyes. His features were deceptively boyish, betraying none of the psychological trauma and physical pain he had suffered as a child.

“I see.” He narrowed his gaze on her. “For someone usually so cool and analytical, this uptight look of yours worries me. You and Colin haven’t canceled the wedding, have you?”

“It’s Agent Donovan and no, we haven’t.”

“Have you relented and decided to invite me after all? Is that why you texted me?”

“I’m not inviting you to my wedding.”

“Is Agent Donovan inviting me, then?”

“No.”

“A pity, but I’ll send a gift, regardless.” He sat back, putting a bit of distance between him and his screen. “You’re home early. I recognize the moody seascape on the wall behind you. It’s the work of our fair Irish artist friend, Aoife O’Byrne.”

“It’s a signed print. I can’t afford her original art.”

“Who can these days? But a signed print is worth something. It’s only four o’clock here. That means it’s just eleven in the morning in Boston. Did you get fired?”

“Not yet. It could happen anytime with you in my life.”

“I see you tried and failed to smile while making that comment. What can I do for you, then, Agent Sharpe? Does the FBI need my help given my expertise in mythology?”

Emma barely heard him. She was looking past him, taking in his surroundings. She recognized the bright, contemporary furnishings and the view from the partially open window behind him of the Irish Sea. “Oliver...” She gritted her teeth. “Oliver, you’re in Declan’s Cross. You’re in a seaside room at the O’Byrne House Hotel.”

“I am, indeed. I’m taking in a delightful breeze off the sea as we speak. Spring on the south Irish coast is quite lovely. I believe I’m in the room where you and Colin stayed on your last visit this winter.”

“It’s not the same room.”

“As if you’d tell me if it were.”

“Why are you in Declan’s Cross?”

“I couldn’t resist Kitty O’Byrne’s scones.”

Kitty was Aoife’s older sister and the proprietress of the boutique hotel, which a decade ago had been a rambling old seaside house owned by their uncle. Ten years ago, the house had been broken into by a clever, brazen art thief, still officially unidentified and at large, although the stolen works had mysteriously reappeared last fall.

Oliver did have nerve.

“I’m leaving once we’ve finished our chat,” he said. “Kitty kindly allowed me a late checkout without extra charge. So, my dear, if you’re tempted to sic the Irish guards on me, there’s no need.”

He was referring to the Gardaí, the Irish police. Kitty’s love interest happened to be a Dublin-based garda detective who owned a farm in Declan’s Cross.

Sean Murphy would love an excuse to interrogate Oliver York.

“I’m not going to sic the guards on you,” Emma said. “But if you’re hatching a plan to resteal the art you returned to the O’Byrnes, you can forget it. You’ll be arrested. MI5 won’t be able to save you.”