The Sacred Vault_ A Novel - Andy McDermott [193]
‘Yeah,’ she sighed. ‘Desmond and I talked about Rowan, how much we’re both going to miss him. But it’s going to be so much harder for him.’ She leaned against him, wiping her eyes. ‘I heard you talking to him - what did he say?’
‘Just . . . saying thanks,’ he said, honouring Desmond’s request to keep his bitter outburst private. ‘Sure you’re all right?’
‘I will be. Thanks.’ She put her hands on his. They stood in silence, looking out across New York together.
The moment was broken by the trill of the intercom. ‘Nina?’ said Lola. ‘Mac and Mr Jindal are here.’
Nina extricated herself from Eddie’s arms, surprised. ‘I didn’t know they were in town.’
‘Mac was with Alderley down in Washington for some intelligence debrief - he told me he’d see us before he flew back home. No idea Kit was here, though.’
The familiar Scottish and Indian voices reached them before the visitors themselves: ‘. . . with both of them on the team, they would easily be able to stand up to India,’ said Mac.
‘But how can you know? Scotland have never played in a Test match,’ Kit replied. He tapped on the open door, entering as Nina waved them in. ‘Hello! Good to see you both again.’
‘And you,’ said Nina. She noticed he was limping. ‘How’s the leg?’
‘Better, thank you. I can walk without a crutch now, which is a great relief! It still hurts, but it will heal completely soon.’
‘Already back at work at Interpol, are you?’ Eddie asked him as he shook hands with his old friend and mentor.
‘Yes - which is why I am here. But I will tell you in a minute. After Mac admits that I am right about Sachin Tendulkar being the greatest cricketer of all time.’ He grinned at the Scot.
Eddie shook his head. ‘Not more bloody cricket.’
‘You should learn from this lad, Eddie,’ said Mac. ‘He’s very sharp and capable. And polite and respectful, too. Even if his grasp of the facts about sport is somewhat tenuous.’ Now it was Kit’s turn to shake his head.
‘So what brings you here, Kit?’ asked Nina.
‘Well, the first thing is that I wanted to tell you I have been promoted! I am now the Chief Investigator of the Cultural Property Crime Unit.’
Eddie patted him on the back. ‘Nice one, mate. Congratulations!’
‘Well deserved, I think,’ Nina added.
Kit smiled. ‘Thank you. But the other thing is that I will be working with you again in the future. I have been appointed Interpol’s official liaison with the IHA in matters of cultural property crime. I just came from a meeting with the UN’s Mr Penrose - he will give you all the details, but I wanted to tell you in person. And I also wanted to bring you our first new joint case.’
He took a box from the briefcase he was carrying and opened it - to reveal the purple statuette Nina had seen amongst the Khoil’s collection of stolen treasures. ‘Interpol has not been able to identify its true owner, and so far we have found nothing in the Khoils’ records about it either. It’s possible Fernandez’s gang killed its owner, so its theft was never reported.’
‘Or,’ Eddie suggested, ‘maybe it wasn’t reported because whoever they nicked it from didn’t want anyone to know they had it in the first place.’
‘Why would anyone want to keep it a secret?’ asked Nina. ‘Nobody knows anything about it.’
‘The Khoils must have known, otherwise why would they have stolen it?’ said Kit. He looked across the room to the statuette’s not-quite-twin in the display case. ‘But now that you have two of them to examine, perhaps you will know too. I persuaded Interpol that you and the IHA were the best hope of identifying it.’ He handed the box to Nina and closed his briefcase.
‘Uh, thanks,’ she said, slightly taken aback by the unexpected ‘gift’.
‘Are you staying in New York?’ Eddie asked. ‘I’m afraid I can’t,’ Kit told him. ‘I have to fly back to Lyon right away - my new job somehow has a large pile of paperwork waiting for me already!