Chapter 35
I grabbed Eric’s arm. “Please don’t do this. Leave Jack alone.”
“It’s my job to get rid of creeps who follow women. You wait here.”
“Eric! Please don’t bother him.”
Edgar and I waited a few yards away while Eric played cop. He and Jack were all smiles in two minutes.
Eric waved to us to come over.
“It’s not you he’s following,” said Eric. “Meet Jack Miller, of the FBI Fine Art Crime team.”
Jack grinned at me. “An art thief was released from prison recently, and we were hoping he’d lead us to the place where he hid the things he stole. I’ve been tailing him. Then word got around that Professor Maxwell was looking for a van Gogh sunflower painting on the black market, so I was keeping an eye on him.”
“That’s why you were following him when he left a bar with van den Teuvel.”
Jack laughed. “And what were you doing tailing me?”
“You knew?”
“You followed me for blocks. It would have been difficult not to notice you.”
“I was making sure the professor made it home okay,” I explained.
“Sorry that I scared you the night van den Teuvel broke in to Color Me Read.”
“It was you who jumped off the awning?”
“And it was Jack who sent the flowers as an apology,” said Eric.
“Those got me in a lot of hot water with Eric.”
“Sorry about that.”
“Then why were you following Edgar?” I asked.
“You were following me?” Edgar appeared shocked.
“You were meeting up with a lot of antiques dealers and some black market dealers, asking questions about a Thomas Jones. We know Orso had to stash the goods somewhere and you landed on my radar.”
I wasn’t smiling anymore. “Orso is also known as Thomas Jones?”
“Not many people call him that, but it’s his real name.”
I gazed at Edgar. “No wonder weird things have been happening to you. Orso is your dad! Do people think Edgar has the items Orso stole?”
Jack shrugged. “They think he might lead them to their whereabouts. And we all noted that he showed up shortly before Orso was released from prison.”
“That’s why van den Teuvel attacked you,” said Eric.
Jack shook his head. “What a nut job. Did he use the British accent?”
“He’s not British?” I asked.
“He’s actually Gary Robertson from Pomona, California. A thorn in my side. When he shows up, there’s always trouble.”
I did note that Eric slyly wrapped an arm around me while we spoke with Jack. It wasn’t necessary, but it was sort of cute.
We finally left Jack and made our way along the block in the direction of Dolly’s house. Eric was limping a little bit more, but he didn’t complain.
As we walked through Dolly’s gate, we could hear people yelling inside the house.
The front door opened and Percy stumbled out backward. Maisie and Veronica appeared on the stoop. Both of them were angry and shouting. Percy took one step too many backward and tumbled down the concrete stairs.
Edgar and I rushed to him.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
Percy tried to sit up. “I think I may have broken something.” He moaned in pain.
Priss and Olivia showed up behind Maisie and Veronica, who appeared horrified.
“An ambulance is on the way,” called Eric.
With Percy and Edgar side by side, I compared their faces. Percy’s was narrower, especially around the jaw. Their eyes were brown, but slightly different shapes. And Percy’s eyebrows were thinner than Edgar’s.
I left them to talk and trotted up the stairs. “What happened?”
Maisie and Veronica gazed at each other.
It was Maisie who said, “He was two-timing us.”
Veronica asked, “Will he be okay? We didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“We wanted to,” said Maisie. “And he would have deserved it.”
Veronica sat down on the top step. “I didn’t want to believe you, Florrie. I hate it when you’re right.”
“I fell for him twice!” Maisie complained. “How could I be so stupid after he broke off our engagement and dated someone else?”
“He deserves what he got,” said Priss.
Olivia appeared pained. “Maybe we should go in.”
“No!” Priss was adamant. “You’re always bossing me around, just like Florrie bosses Veronica. Birth order does not give you the right to tell us what to do.”
Oy. I wanted to walk away. Instead I looked at Veronica. “I’m sorry. I just found out about it first. It’s hard not to tell your sister she’s being two-timed. But I don’t like to see you being taken advantage of and I certainly don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Well put, Florrie,” said Olivia.
“My mom tried to warn me about Percy.” Maisie spoke softly. “She hated his guts. Maybe I should have listened.”
The ambulance rolled to a halt on the sidewalk and a little crowd gathered.
Just beyond them, across the street, Mike looked on.