Curious Minds (28 page)

“But whoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy,” Emerson said, opening the doors to the other booths and freeing still more coins into the church. Thirty thousand of them in all.

There was stunned silence for ten seconds, and then there was bedlam. Everyone had their phones out, taking selfies and video. C-SPAN clicked back on. Security locked arms to keep people away from the coins. The network news trucks returned to the cathedral and jockeyed for position. And Werner vomited all over the floor of the men's room.

Bertie Grunwald threw the remote at the flat-screen but it fell short. Fucking modern televisions, he thought. Too damn far away.

R
iley had been in the interrogation room for six hours. For most people, this would have been a terrible hardship. Even a few weeks ago, Riley herself would have seen it as a nightmare.

Now she just thought it was a nice place to sit down and take a rest. After all, she wasn't climbing down a rope into a dark cavern or getting pushed over a cliff, tied up in a car. True, the agent was asking her all kinds of questions, but he didn't have any type of surgical instruments on him at all. And on top of that, he was kind of cute.

Besides, answering his questions was nothing more than relaxing. Because she simply had to tell him the truth. How hard was that?

“Where did the coins come from?” he asked.

“Günter Grunwald's boat. He had them hidden there.”

“Why did he do that?”

“Because he didn't want anyone to know that he had them. Because he stole them from his brothers. Because they stole gold from the Federal Reserve and made the coins from that. But I'm sure Günter's telling you all about this.”

“Is he?”

“Come on,” Riley said. “Knock it off. You know that as well as I do.”

Günter and Dr. Bauerfeind had met up with Riley and Emerson when they were being escorted out of the cathedral. Günter and Bauerfeind had to talk their way into the paddy wagon. Eventually they convinced the Secret Service that they were a part of this madness. Now they were somewhere in this building on L Street being questioned. It was one big happy family.

“Dr. Bauerfeind will be able to tell you the origin of the gold in the coins,” she told him. “Much of it will be from the Deutsche Bundesbank in Frankfurt, Germany, by way of the United States Federal Reserve.”

“How did you get into the cathedral? The Secret Service had it cordoned off.”

“We brought the coins into the church before the Secret Service arrived. Emerson did a favor for Archbishop Aberrai a couple years ago, and the archbishop returned the favor by letting us into the church. Now it's my turn,” Riley said. “What's your first name? Where'd you grow up? Who's your favorite Batman?”

“I'm not the one being questioned here.”

“Am I under arrest?”

“No.” He blew out a sigh. “I hate when they have me interrogate people with law degrees.”

“So?”

“Jordan. Atlanta. Kevin Conroy in
Batman: The Animated Series,
” he said.

“I agree, isn't he the best?” Riley stood and stretched. “I'd like to go home now. I've told you everything you need to know.”

“By your own confession, you broke into the Federal Reserve vault in New York, you trespassed onto restricted Air Force property in Nevada, and you disrupted a Roman Catholic liturgy in Washington, D.C. And there's more. Do you want me to go on?”

“Not necessary. There were circumstances. You're dealing with the biggest gold theft in the history of forever. And everybody knows about it. It was on television. You can't make us disappear, because too many people saw us. People are going to have to know the truth. You cannot just make this go away. And if all that isn't enough, I'm pretty sure I saw Bill O'Reilly in the audience at the church.”

R
iley sat opposite Myra at the kitchen table. When Emerson's father had been in residence, the table had been used by household staff. When Myra took over, the table became the heart of the house. The only time the large formal dining room table was used was when the iguana climbed up and tried to eat the candles.

“They made it all go away,” Riley said to Myra. “
Poof!
Swept under the carpet.”

“Have another cookie,” Myra said, pushing the brown bear cookie jar over to Riley. “You accomplished what you set out to do. Em got to see his gold. And no one's trying to kill you anymore. It's all good.”

“I suppose that's true. Although Emerson's gold now has Bertram Grunwald's face on it. At least Blane-Grunwald was able to gather it all together for Emerson to see.”

“I imagine they'll melt it down and Bertie's face will go away,” Myra said.

“Eventually. Fortunately Dr. Bauerfeind's technique was able to determine ownership of most of the gold.”

“So everybody will get their gold back.”

“I've been told that the process of discreetly reshaping and removing the gold from Nellis Air Force Base and transporting it back to the Federal Reserve vault in New York will take several years to complete. But yes, everyone should ultimately get their gold back.”

“And the Grunwald boys disappeared and Bertie went back to being dead.”

“Except for Günter,” Riley said. “He was rewarded with a clean record and temporary stewardship of the firm of Blane-Grunwald.”

“Are you going to work for him?” Myra asked.

“I haven't decided.”

Vernon walked in and took a handful of cookies from the cookie jar.

“Hey, Rye,” he said. “You're looking pretty today. Did you see the new RV Emerson got me? It's totally sweet. Got a shower and everything in it. It's even got my name embroidered on the bedspread. The old Redhawk was an okay babe magnet, but this one's a killer.”

“What happened to the old Redhawk?” Riley asked him.

“I gave it to Andy, since his got sort of beat up and abandoned.”

Riley ate a cookie and looked at her watch. “Emerson said he'd meet me here an hour ago. Where the heck is he?”

“You know Emmie,” Myra said. “He runs on Emerson time.”

“I saw him a while back,” Vernon said. “He was in the greenhouse talking to that yogi guy.”

Riley took one last cookie and went to the conservatory. She wandered along the overgrown paths, keeping a watchful eye out for snakes and spiders, finally stumbling into Emerson. He was sitting cross-legged by a small lily pond. He saw her and rose.

“You're an hour late,” he said to Riley.

“I was waiting for you at the house.”

“Yes, but I'm not at the house.”

“How was I supposed to know that?”

“I'm sure I told you,” Emerson said.

“No.”

“Well, it's insignificant because here you are and here I am.”

Riley supposed that was true.

“I have a business proposition for you,” Emerson said. “I've decided that we should be a team and embark on a great adventure.”

“What adventure would that be?”

“I don't know. That's what makes it an adventure. It will involve detective work. I think we're very good at doing detective work.”

“We're
terrible
at detective work. We almost died!”

“Yes, that part was exhilarating.”

“You must still have a concussion.”

Emerson touched the back of his head. “Perhaps, but I feel fine.”

“I'll have to think about it.”

“There's nothing to think about,” Emerson said. “It's the chance of a lifetime.”

“Would I get paid?”

“Is that important to you?”

“Yes.”

“Would you like a zebra?” Emerson asked her.

“No. I'd like money.”

“Well, then, it's not an issue. I have lots of money.”

“Tempting.”

Emerson raised a single eyebrow and smiled slyly. “I rather like the idea that I might tempt you.”

One for the Money
•
Two for the Dough
•
Three to Get Deadly
•
Four to Score
•
High Five
•
Hot Six
•
Seven Up
•
Hard Eight
•
To the Nines
•
Ten Big Ones
•
Eleven on Top
•
Twelve Sharp
•
Lean Mean Thirteen
•
Fearless Fourteen
•
Finger Lickin' Fifteen
•
Sizzling Sixteen
•
Smokin' Seventeen
•
Explosive Eighteen
•
Notorious Nineteen
•
Takedown Twenty
•
Top Secret Twenty-One
•
Tricky Twenty-Two

Curious Minds
(with Phoef Sutton)

The Heist
•
The Chase
•
The Job
•
The Scam
•
The Pursuit

Wicked Appetite
•
Wicked Business
•
Wicked Charms
(with Phoef Sutton)

Visions of Sugar Plums
•
Plum Lovin'
•
Plum Lucky
•
Plum Spooky

Metro Girl
•
Motor Mouth
•
Troublemaker
(graphic novel)

How I Write

J
ANET
E
VANOVICH
is the #1
New York Times
bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum series, the Lizzy and Diesel series, the Alexandra Barnaby novels and Troublemaker graphic novel, and
How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author,
as well as the Fox and O'Hare series with co-author Lee Goldberg.

evanovich.com

Facebook.com/​JanetEvanovich

@JanetEvanovich

P
HOEF
S
UTTON
is a writer, producer, and novelist who has written for shows such as
Cheers, NewsRadio,
and
Boston Legal.
Sutton is the winner of two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, and a Peabody Award.

phoefsutton.com

Facebook.com/​PhoefSuttonWriter

@PhoefSutton