Free Tell Me No Lies by Elizabeth Lowell Page A

Stone and Stone's counterpart in the CIA. If the Chinese wanted to know how deeply American intelligence had penetrated Asian communities at home and abroad, it would be a simple matter to leak "confidential" information about Qin bronzes in China and see where and how quickly the information surfaced elsewhere. Like dye markers tracing otherwise invisible river currents, the leaked rumors of Qin bronzes would outline the American intelligence network as informants and agents brought the information to the CIA or to the FBI – and thence directly to Chen Yi himself.
    "A Chinese sting," said Catlin flatly.
    "Yes." Stone's light blue eyes pinned Catlin. "Does that change your mind about cooperating with us?"
    "I am cooperating."
    "Yeah?" challenged Stone. "How?"
    "I agreed to work for Chen Yi."
    "You mean you were ordered to work for Chen?" asked Stone.
    "Another beer?" Catlin asked, coming to his feet in a single smooth movement.
    "No." Stone stood up quickly, knowing that his last question, like nearly all the others he had asked, wasn't going to be answered. He looked up at the man across the table from him. "I hope I get a chance to bust your ass, Catlin," said Stone matter-of-factly.
    "You've read my file. You've read Yi's." Catlin glanced at his watch. "Pick your devil, Stone. I've got a date."
    Suddenly Catlin looked up from his watch. The bleakness in those amber eyes made Stone remember all the years missing from Catlin's file.
    "I'll tell you this," Catlin added softly. "If someone helps me, I never forget it."
    He didn't need to add that if someone hurt him, he never forgot that, either.
    There was a moment of electric stillness. Slowly Stone nodded. He headed for the door, not waiting for Catlin to show him out.
    "Tell your boys to be more discreet," Catlin called after him, "or I'll take them out at night and lose them. There's no point in scaring the Danner woman before she's agreed to help us. If she agrees."
    "She will," Stone said grimly.
    Catlin raised one black eyebrow. "Flattery, blackmail, intimidation or bribery?"
    "Would you believe patriotism?" Stone asked, his tone sarcastic.
    "Would you?" Catlin asked curiously.
    Without a word Stone shut the apartment door behind him.
    Catlin finished dressing, shrugged into the specially tailored suit coat that fell without a wrinkle over gun and holster, and left the apartment. He was followed by two men who were discreet and a third who was very nearly invisible. Curious about the third man, Catlin maneuvered until he was close enough to identify him. O'Donnel.
    Only one of the men followed him into the Museum of the Asias. It wasn't O'Donnel. Catlin stood in the door of the secretary-receptionist's office. The sign on the desk said Sherry. Her face said available. She looked at him the way a cat looks at fresh cream. Catlin smiled and silently wished that Lindsay reacted to men in the same way. It would have made things so much cleaner, less complicated.
    Safer.
    "Jacob Catlin," he said. "I have an appointment with Lindsay Danner.''
    When Lindsay heard Sherry's light laughter and the click of her high heels as she crossed the margin between two hall rugs, Lindsay knew that her afterhours appointment was a man who fell into that broad category called "interesting." Other men, and all women, who checked in at Sherry's office on their way to finding Lindsay were given verbal directions rather than a smiling close-up of Sherry's personal charms.
    "Lindsay, this is Mr. Jacob Catlin," said Sherry, stepping over the threshold.
    Lindsay smiled professionally at the man who was being led into her office by Sherry's crimson-tipped fingers, which were buried in the sleeve of a custom-made silk suit coat that L. Stephen himself might have envied.
    "A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Catlin," Lindsay said, rising and extending her hand. The name was familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. She decided that Catlin must be one of the many collectors she had heard of but never