Free Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich Page B

Riley. “Down the hall and turn left. Say hello to Melody. She’s the new housekeeper.”
    “Not for long,” Melody said. “I didn’t sign on to work in no zoo.”
    Riley found the dining room and thought that “banquet hall” would describe it better. It looked like it belonged in Downton Abbey’s fancier annex. Huge tapestries depicting maidens in flowing white dresses attending to knights in shining armor hung from the walls. Towering stained-glass windows cast multicolored light on the massive mahogany eight-pedestal dining table where Emerson sat hunched with a power tool in his hand, a protective plastic visor covering his face.
    The visor distorted his smile as he looked up at her. “Riley, there you are!” He lifted the little Dremel circular saw to reveal the gold bar they’d taken from Günter’s study. It was split down the middle.
    “I have to talk to you,” she said, walking around the table.
    “First things first. Come and see.”
    The bar had a thin veneer of shiny yellow gold, and under the gold the bar was dull gray metal the rest of the way through.
    “It’s a golden shell around a tungsten bar,” Emerson said. “Tungsten’s about the same weight and mass as gold. It makes a good substitute for counterfeiting.”
    “So it’s fake?”
    “A beautiful, expert fake. Now, what did you have to tell me?”
    “Maxine Trowbridge is dead.”
    Emerson whipped the visor off his head. “Tell me everything.”
    “Werner called me into the office so he could give me the news, but I think he was mostly looking for information. He wanted to know if you’d made any progress, and he wanted to know what you did yesterday. And Hans was there. He acted as if he didn’t see me in the kayak, but he lied about knowing Maxine, so he’ll lie about anything. He said he’d never met Maxine.”
    “How did Maxine die?”
    “Stabbed. She was found on Liberty Street in the Financial District in New York.”
    “New York? Interesting.”
    “I think someone in a dark suit grabbed her in the boathouse parking lot, knocking her sunglasses off her face. Then they took the gold, killed Maxine, and drove her to New York to dump her on the street.”
    “Why would they drive her to New York? That would be unnecessarily complicated. I think after the river meeting Maxine rushed off to New York and was subsequently killed.”
    “Werner said it looked like a robbery. The killer took her jewelry and her purse.”
    “No mention of the gold?”
    “None.”
    “What did you tell them about me?”
    “I told them that you talked to Irene and Maxine, but that nothing came of it. And I told them I thought you were loony.”
    “Clever of you to mix a truth with an untruth, but you realize eventually lying will damage your karma.”
    “What about white lies? Are they damaging?”
    “White lies are a gray area,” Emerson said.
    The big double doors of the banquet hall opened and Melody poked her head in.
    “I just want you to know, I quit. Capybara doody is one thing. I’m not cleaning up after no kangaroo. Oh, and there’s some strange little man with bulging eyes here to see you.”
    “Why do you have so many weird animals?” Riley asked.
    “My father collected them. He thought owning a private zoo would make him interesting. And I suppose at some level it did.”
    “What are you planning to do with them?”
    “Take care of them. They’re my responsibility now. Just as the gold is my responsibility.”
    “Do you have a zookeeper?”
    “I have Aunt Myra.”
    “Wow. Aunt Myra does a lot. How many animals do you have?”
    “I have no idea, but they seem to be everywhere.”
    Emerson wrapped the two pieces of the fake gold bar in a tea towel and put the package in his rucksack.
    “About you, Miss Moon…”
    “Riley,” she said.
    “Very well, Riley. You lied to Werner on my behalf. Am I to assume you’re no longer working as an informant for him?”
    “I never agreed to be an informant. I agreed to be