Lifeguard - James Patterson [91]
“And what was it you wanted, Sol?” I looked at him.
“Justice, kid, just like you.” He slowly dealt out the cards.
I didn’t pick them up. I just sat there, staring at him. Then I put my hand on his as he went to turn over the play card. “I want you to know, Sol, I never told anyone. Not even Ellie.”
Sollie stopped. He tapped his cards and pressed them, facedown. “You mean about the Gaume? How I knew all that stuff was written on the back? That’s good, Ned. I guess that sorta makes us even, right?”
“No, Sol,” I said, looking at him closely, “not even at all.” I was thinking about Dave. And Mickey and Barney and Bobby and Dee. Murdered for something they never had. “You’re Gachet, aren’t you? You stole the Gaume?”
Sol stared at me with those hooded gray eyes, then he hunched his shoulders like a guilty child. “I guess I owe you some answers, don’t I, son?”
For the first time I realized I had totally underestimated Sollie. That comment he made once, about Stratton believing he was the biggest fish in the pond but there always being someone bigger.
I was staring at him now.
“I’m going to show you something once, Ned,” Sol said, putting down the cards, “and for your silence ever after I’m going to pay you a lot of money. Every penny you thought you were going to make that day when you went to meet your friends.”
I tried to remain calm.
“That’s a million dollars, Ned, if I remember right. And while we’re at it, how about another for your friends, and another for Dave. That’s three million, Ned. I can’t repay you for what happened to them. I can’t bring back what’s been done. I’m an old man. Money’s all I have, these days. . . . Well, not entirely . . .”
There was a sparkle in Sol’s eyes. He got up from the card table. “Come on.”
I got up and Sol led me to a part of the house I’d never been in before. To an office off his bedroom wing. He opened a plain wooden door I never would’ve figured was more than a closet. But it faced another door. A keypad on the wall.
With his skinny fingers, Sol punched in a code. Suddenly the second door slid open. It was an elevator. Sol motioned me in. Then he punched in another code. The elevator closed and we began to go down.
A few seconds later the elevator stopped and the door opened automatically. There was a small outer room with mirrored walls and another door, solid steel. Sol pushed a button and a metal shield slid back, revealing a small screen. He placed his palm onto the screen. There was a little flash, then a green light, and the steel door buzzed.
Sol held my arm. “Hold your breath, Neddie. You’re about to see one of the last great wonders of the world.”
Chapter 114
WE STEPPED INTO a large, beautifully lit room. Plush carpet, gorgeous molding on the ceiling surrounding a recessed dome. The only furniture was four high-back leather chairs in the center, each chair facing a wall.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
There were paintings on the walls. Eight of them. Masterpieces.
I was no expert, but I could tell the artists without having to look in a book. Rembrandt. Monet.
A Nativity scene. Michelangelo.
Images indelibly imprinted in my brain. All priceless.
One of the last, great wonders of the world!
“Jesus, Sol,” I said, looking around wide-eyed, “you have been a busy fucking bee.”
“C’mere . . .” Sol took me by the arm. On a wooden easel, set in the center of the room, I saw what I had only heard described before. In a simple gold frame. A washerwoman in a gray dress. At a basin. Her back to the viewer. A ray of gentle light illuminating her as she worked. I noticed the signature at the bottom.
Henri Gaume.
In every direction there were masterpieces. Another Rembrandt. A Chagall. I shrugged at Sol. “Why this?”
Sol stepped over to the painting. He gently lifted the canvas. To my shock, there was another painting hidden behind it. Something I recognized. A man sitting at a table in a garden. Fuzzy red hair peeking from under his white cap, sharp blue eyes. There was a thin, wise look on his face, but his eyes were cast in