“I was beginning to wonder if I upset you. It’s been how long since we last spoke?”
She laughed. “Yesterday when I interrupted your take-?out lunch.” Rook must have heard her laughter, and he appeared from the hallway to hover. She turned and took a few steps away from him, not needing that layer of scrutiny, but she could see him hanging close by in her periphery.
“See? Almost a full twenty-?two hours. A guy could get paranoid. What’s the occasion this time?”
Heat told him about the theft of the art collection. Her news was followed by a long, long silence. She said, “Are you still there?”
“Yeah, I—You wouldn’t joke. I mean, not about something like this.”
“Noah, I’m standing in the living room now. The walls are absolutely bare.”
Another long silence and she heard him clear his throat. “Detective Heat, can I get personal?”
“Go on.”
“Did you ever get hit with a big shock, and then, when you think you can’t deal with it, you work through it, and then—ahem, excuse me.” She heard him sip something. “And so you man-?up and work through it, and just when you do, out of nowhere comes another crushing blow, and then another, and then you reach a point where you just say, What the hell am I doing? And then you fantasize about chucking it all. Not just the job but the life. Be one of those guys down on the Jersey Shore who make sub sandwiches in a hut or rent hula hoops and bikes. Just. Chuck. It.”
“Do you?”
“All the time. Especially this minute.” He sighed and swore under his breath. “So where are you with this? Do you have any leads?”
“We’ll see,” she said, adhering to her policy of being the sole interrogator in an interview. “I assume you can account for your whereabouts last night?”
“Jeez, you cut right to it, don’t you?”
“And now I’d like you to.” Nikki waited, knowing his dance steps by now: resist then cave to pressure.
“I shouldn’t be pissed, I know it’s your job, Detective, but come on.” She let her cold silence push him and he surrendered. “Last night I was teaching my weekly night course at Westchester Community College up in Valhalla.”
“And that can be verified?”
“I was lecturing twenty-?five continuing ed students. If they run true to form, one or two may have noticed me.”
“And after that?”
“Home to Tarrytown for a big night of beer and Yankees-?Angels at my local hang.”
She asked the name of the bar and wrote it down. “One more question, and I’ll be out of your life.”
“I doubt that.”
“Were the paintings insured?”
“No. They had been, of course, but when the vultures started circling, Matthew canceled the policy. He said he didn’t want to keep shelling out a small fortune to protect something that would just go to the bankruptcy creditors.” Now it was Nikki’s turn to be silent. “Are you still there, Detective?”
“Yes. I was just thinking Kimberly Starr is going to be here any minute. Did she know the insurance was canceled on the art collection?”
“She did. Kimberly found out the same night Matthew told her he canceled his life insurance.” Then he added, “I don’t envy you the next few minutes. Good luck.”