Frenzy

“Sounds painful and unprofitable.”

“So you’ve got your answer on the age of the birdbath bust,” Renz said. “And while it’s an imitation, it’s a damned good one. So if nothing else, we’ve further established that Michelangelo was a breast man. Now we can go to bed.”

“I don’t think I will.”

Renz knew his old fellow cop and knew the signs. There had been a subtle but profound change in the investigation. A quickening. “We’re getting close, aren’t we?”

“Closer,” Qui

After hanging up on Renz, Qui

He knew the look. It frightened some people. It was that of a predator about to close on its prey. There was nothing about it that suggested reason or mercy. The time for conscious pla

The fang was ahead of the brain.

76

Renz hadn’t wasted any time in telling Mi

Castle was wearing a nicely tailored suit and a red-and-blue-patterned ascot with matching handkerchief. He sat calmly in his wing chair, while Mi

“And you had no idea that Bellezza was hidden in your birdbath?” she was asking Winston. She was bright and incredulous.

“Nor that the bust was an imitation,” Castle said. He sounded absolutely British on TV. Qui

He and Pearl were seated at their kitchen table in the brownstone, facing the small flat screen on the counter.

“I’m glad we decided to watch this,” Pearl said. “Winston is a really great bullshitter.”

“World-class,” Qui

“You’d think he just tossed on his post-foxhunt suit and was a guest at a summer lodge. Are you sure he isn’t really British nobility?”

As if he’d heard her, Winston nonchalantly crossed his legs and draped an arm over the back of the wing chair.

“I don’t think he’s sure what he is,” Qui

“Are you and your incredibly dedicated family pla

“Of course. But I think we’ll want to learn more about the imitation that was concealed in the birdbath in the Far Castle garden. We don’t want to dash off half-cocked somewhere and have everything go all pear shaped.”

Pear shaped?

“No,” Mi

“Even on a noble quest like ours,” Winston said, “there come times when the most productive thing one can do is simply nothing. It gives the mind a chance to catch up with all this dashing around we’ve been doing.” He smiled broadly. “I will say the search has become even more interesting.”

Mi

Castle smiled modestly. “ ‘Sir’ will be just fine, Mi

Mi

Castle smiled thinly and Britishly, not exposing his teeth.

Qui

“Did we really just see that?” Pearl asked.

“The baby IT guy?”

“You know what I mean,” Pearl said. “Sir Winston Castle.”

Qui

Said, “Cheerio, old thing.”

It was priceless, the way Pearl glared at him.

77

Qui

At the same time, Mi

Qui

No one would have dreamed that a creation of Michelangelo might lie beneath a crude layer of concrete, or that a much sought after concealed object might be a worthless facsimile.

This investigation reminded Qui

It all reminded Qui

Qui

He dragged his desk’s land line phone over to him and called Pearl.

She was still at the brownstone, and sounded calm when she answered the phone. Which meant that Jody had probably left. They had begun the day with the two women arguing about whose phone the government had legal and moral authority to tap. Pearl and her daughter could discuss such subjects until they were all talked out and Qui

“Still reeling from the Mi

“Not per se,” Qui

“That sounds like something Winston Castle would say. He must have gotten to you with his member-of-parliament persona.”

“I suppose that’s why I’m calling,” Qui

“Or the right card,”

“Never play poker with them,” Qui

“Rabbits?”

“People. Like the ones in Winston Castle’s whack-job family, or whatever it is. They have their patter.”

“Meaning?”

“Maybe somebody has a real Michelangelo up a sleeve.”

“Magicians,” Pearl said, not quite understanding. “I’ve always kind of liked them.”

“Their act wouldn’t work if you didn’t.”