Free Played by Barbara Freethy

been with him for four years and knew almost as much about Evan as he did. She was probably asleep and would give him hell for waking her up, but it wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.
    As expected, Tracy answered the phone in an annoyed voice. “This had better be important, Mac.”
    “It is. I need you to find out everything you can about Christina Alberti. Oh, and while you’re at it, check out her father. I think his name is Marcus Alberti.”
    “Christina, got it. She’s the chick at the auction house?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Is tomorrow good enough?” she asked. “I’m kind of busy at the moment.”
    He heard a man’s voice in the background and suspected he’d caught Tracy at a very bad time. Sometimes he forgot that other people had actual lives. “Tomorrow is fine. Oh, and I also need you to track down a Professor Howard Keaton. He works at a museum in Vancouver. He’s probably staying at a hotel in San Francisco.”
    “That’s all you know?”
    “For now. Call me tomorrow—as soon as you can. Evan’s plan is already in motion, and I don’t want to be the last one to find out what it is.”

    When Christina arrived at the small lab on the first floor of Barclay’s Auction House where they conducted their jewelry appraisals, she was shocked to find her part-time assistant, David Padlinsky, looking through the gem scope at the Benedetti diamond. David, a grad student from Berkeley, had joined Barclay’s a month earlier. Somewhere in his late twenties, he looked more like a rock star than a historian, with a diamond earring in one ear and long dark hair that today was swept back in a ponytail. A thick beard and mustache covered the lower half of his face. But it wasn’t his appearance that upset Christina; it was his actions.
    “What are you doing?” she asked shortly.
    “Setting up the scope for you.” He straightened up, giving her a curious look. “Is something wrong?”
    She hesitated, realizing there were more people in the room than usual. Normally she did her work in the lab on her own or with David, but today Alexis and Stefano Benedetti were also present, as well as J.T., who was currently following every word of the conversation between her and David. “No, nothing is wrong,” she said.
    “What’s with the audience?” David murmured, as she joined him by the worktable.
    She shrugged. “Everyone wants to make sure the diamond is all right.”
    “Why wouldn’t it be?”
    “No reason.”
    David sent her an odd look, but she didn’t want to explain any of J.T.’s suspicious theories to him. She pulled up a tall stool and sat down, adjusting the scope so she could examine the diamond. David opened a file on the adjacent computer screen that showed a digital drawing of the diamond from several angles. She would compare her findings to the initial appraisal conducted by their associate in Florence.
    First, she wanted to look at the clasp on the chain. She moved the necklace under the eye of the scope. The clasp was very old and ornate but didn’t appear to be broken or loose. Perhaps it just hadn’t been attached properly the night before. She tried to remember who had closed the clasp. There had been so many people around her, Alexis, Jeremy, Sylvia—wait, Sylvia. Christina distinctly remembered the head of public relations taking the necklace from Alexis and fastening it around her neck. Sylvia must not have snapped it all the way closed. She probably wouldn’t admit to that, though. She was tight with Alexis, and very ambitious. She wouldn’t want to be blamed for the necklace falling off of Christina’s neck.
    “Well?” J.T. demanded in an impatient voice. “What do you see?”
    “The clasp looks good,” she murmured.
    “So why did it break?” he asked, stepping forward.
    She wished she could tell him to move back. His nearness was distracting. She could smell the musky scent of his cologne and feel the heat of his breath on the back of