Shadow Kill (Nick Teffinger Thriller) (27 page)

The line wasn’t that bad.

The coffee was hot.

The booth was clean.

“There’s one person Dandan can’t cut communications with,” he said. “That’s her black market friend, the one selling the painting for her.”

Del Rey nodded.

“And?”

“And if we could find her—she said he was a she, remember?—we might be able to use her as a conduit.”

“That’s just swapping one impossible task for another,” Del Rey said. “You’re not going to crack into that code.”

“True but Rail already has.”

Del Rey considered it and then shook her head.

“Even if he knows, or could figure it out, why would he tell us? Why wouldn’t he just follow the lead himself?”

“Because he doesn’t know there’s a problem yet.”

“Right but he will as soon as we tell him.”

“That’s why we’re not going to tell him.”

Teffinger
took a long swallow off coffee and then called Rail. “We don’t have Dandan completely on board yet,” he said. “She’s still mulling over the prospect of selling the painting herself.”

“Then she’s dead,” Rail said. “Tell her that.”

Teffinger exhaled.

“She’s working with a broker, a female broker. What I want to do is shut her down.”

“How?”

“I need her name,” Teffinger said. “Once I have it I’ll flood the Internet with buzz about how the FBI and INTERPOL are closing in on her. No one will want to touch her. Dandan won’t be able to find another broker. She’ll have no option but to take your offer.”

Silence.

“I don’t like this,” Rail said.

“Your call,” Teffinger said. “Either help me or don’t.”

He hung up.

Fifteen minutes
later Rail called back and said, “The woman’s name is Savina Bandini. She works at Gallery Corsa, which is an art gallery in Rome. You didn’t hear it from me.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

“Don’t let this drag out,” Rail said. “Starting at five o’clock tonight our truce is forever off. At that point you do what you need to do and so will I.”

“Fair enough.”

79

Day Nine

July 16

Wednesday Morning

Rome was ahead
of San Francisco, time wise; how far, Teffinger didn’t know, but it could easily be the end of the workday there or maybe even evening. He got Gallery Corsa’s number from the Internet and dialed from his cell.

Don’t be closed.

Don’t be closed.

Don’t be closed.

A man answered in Italian. Teffinger asked for Savina Bandini and got put on hold for a full minute before a woman’s voice came through.

“Ciao.”

“Is this Savina Bandini?” Teffinger said.

The woman answered in English.

“Yes.”

“I’m calling about a special painting that you may have for sale. It has a view of the sea in it. It was painted quite some time ago.”

“Who is this?”

“My name is Nick Teffinger,” he said. “I’m calling from San Francisco.”

“I’m with a client right now,” she said. “I’ll call you back.”

The line died.

Teffinger
powered off, swallowed what was left of his coffee and said, “She’s going to check me out.”

“Why’d you give her your real name?”

“Because I’m going to play this one straight up.”

“Do you think that’s smart?”

“We’ll find out.”

Thirty minutes later
Savina Bandini called back. Her voice was slightly different, possibly coming through a more secure line.

“No one knows you,” she said.

“That doesn’t matter. What matters is that your client, Dandan Phon, stole the painting.”

Silence, then, “I’m aware of the history.”

“Walk away from this one,” Teffinger said. “If you don’t, Dandan will be dead by the end of the week. My suspicion is that you won’t be far behind.”

“Are you trying to scare me?”

“I’m just stating facts. Trust me, this one isn’t worth the risk.”

“That’s interesting but it’s also moot,” she said. “The piece went under contract an hour ago.”

“Call it off.”

“That’s not the way this business works.”

She hung up.

80

Day Nine

July 16

Wednesday Morning

Teffinger’s head
filled with bark and bite. Rail would never tell him where Susan Smith was, or who killed Kelly Nine, unless Teffinger delivered the Van Gogh to him. Now that was impossible.

“The exchange hasn’t been made yet, right?” Del Rey said.

Teffinger nodded.

“That’s my assumption. If it just went under contract, the buyer would still need to travel to San Francisco, or wherever the exchange is going to be. The buyer’s also going to need to get the painting authenticated, meaning an expert will need to look at it.”

“So Dandan still has it.”

Teffinger nodded.

“That’s my assumption.”

“We still have time to find it then.”

Teffinger frowned.

“And what, steal it from her?”

“If we have to.”

He shook his head.

“She’ll end up dead.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know.”

Out of Starbucks
Teffinger maneuvered the 4Runner into thick traffic and went with the flow, needing motion but having no destination. He could deal with a lot of things but not knowing what to do next wasn’t one of them. It clawed at him from under his skin.

He needed a plan.

He needed it now.

A block passed.

Del Rey powered up the radio.

A Nirvana song filled the air.

Here we are now, entertain us—

“We have Sirius,” she said.

“See if they have a Beatles station.”

“They probably do.”

She leaned forward to work the knobs.

Suddenly
the windows exploded with a violent impact so absolute that Teffinger’s entire body jolted. His window vaporized. Noisy air rushed in where the glass should be. Del Rey’s window was equally gone. A blue car to their side squealed to the right around a corner. It was then that Teffinger realized what happened.

They’d been shot.

Del Rey’s face was contorted with fear but there was no blood.

She hadn’t been hit.

Teffinger focused on the disappearing car.

It was getting away fast.

He slammed on the brakes.

Someone from behind rammed him.

81

Day Nine

July 16

Wednesday Afternoon

A pale-faced detective
by the name of Eric Blocker processed the scene. Teffinger cooperated to the extent necessary, letting him know about the ripped bird in Del Rey’s house, the second one on the dock last night, and his theory that he might be the intended target. It was definitely an attempted murder, but attempted at to which one of them, he wasn’t sure.

Teffinger didn’t get much of a look at the guy in the blue car but the look he got was good enough to tell it wasn’t Rail.

So he said nothing about Rail.

He also said nothing about Dandan, Kelly Nine or the Van Gogh. Those dominos were too close together and too unstable to have a stranger stomping around them.

Trap informed Avis that their vehicle was being temporarily held for processing. They understood and amazingly delivered a replacement vehicle right to the scene.

It was two hours before Teffinger was able to get in the new 4Runner and pull away.

“You’re not impressed with that detective,” Del Rey said.

“Actually he’s perfect,” Teffinger said.

“Meaning he’s not smart enough to get in our way.”

He smiled.

“Let’s just say he processed an attempted murder scene right at the scene without removing the intended victims to a safe location. I didn’t say anything because I was hoping the guy in the blue car would swing by to gander at all the stir he created.”

“Did he?”

“Possibly,” he said. “There were a few potentially matching cars with male drivers. I jotted down their license numbers.”

“So that’s what you were writing.”

He nodded.

“Actually this whole thing was good. I’m glad it happened. First of all we know that Rail was telling the truth when he said it wasn’t him that was after you or me. That means he might also actually be telling the truth when he said Susan Smith was still alive. More importantly, though, it gave me a chance to slow down and clear my head. I think I may have come up with a new plan.”

“Tell me.”

“Sure, we’re going to head this way.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s the way we need to go.”

“Why?”

“Because if we don’t go this way we won’t end up at our destination.”

She punched him on the arm.

“You know what your problem is? You never stop being you.”

He smiled.

Then he called Sydney and said, “I have some California plates I need you to run. But first, what’d you find out about that Tuesday? What happened that turned Kelly Nine into a contract?”

“Unknown,” she said. “Nothing’s visible yet.”

“Keep digging.”

“I will.”

“All the way to China,” he said.

Dandan
lived on the second floor of a narrow house between the financial district and Chinatown, a short walk from the Market trolley. Teffinger circled the area three times before finally finding a parking spot big enough for the 4Runner.

Del Rey wasn’t in the best of moods.

“Tell me what the plan is,” she said.

Teffinger exhaled.

“I’m technically still not sure I want to go through with it, but here it is in rough form,” he said. “Obviously Dandan can’t renege on the contract that her broker got for her. She still has the painting, though, at least short-term. What I’m hoping she’ll do, if we can get in touch with her, is let me borrow it.”

“Borrow it?”

“If I can get it in hand and then prove to Rail I have it—which pretty much means showing it to him—I’ll make him give me the information on Susan Smith and on Kelly Nine before I turn the painting over. Once I get the information, screw him.”

“You don’t give him the painting?”

“No. The painting goes back to Dandan.”

“That will be tricky, logistically speaking,” Del Rey said. “How are you going to not give him the painting?”

“I’ll think of a way to slip it out of the case at the last minute. He’ll walk away thinking it’s inside. By the time he figures it out, I’ll be gone.”

Del Rey wasn’t impressed.

“I doubt that he’s that easily fooled,” she said. “And even if you succeed, he’ll come back and kill you. Plus he’ll figure out that Dandan was working with you and kill her too.”

Teffinger cocked his head.

“He’s already out to kill her,” he said. “The only way she can get out of that is to turn the painting back over to him, which she’s not going to do. She’ll have to go on the run but that’s something she’s got to do in any event, at least until Rail is either behind bars or dead.”

“You actually want him to come after you,” she said. “That way you can kill him and it will be self-defense.”

Teffinger shrugged.

“I’m not going to force him to come after me,” he said. “It will be his choice. If he chooses to do so he better be prepared.”

“This is all a big plan to avenge the death of Kelly Nine.”

Teffinger went to deny it.

No words came out.

They were
at the front door.

“So what do we hope to find inside?” Del Rey said.

“Something that tells us where Dandan is,” Teffinger said. “Rail’s calling the truce off at five o’clock. If I’m going to have a painting to show him it’s going to have to be quick.”

The house had two front doors, one for the lower unit and one for the upper.

They tried the knob for the upper unit.

Surprising, it turned.

The door opened.

A stairway led up.

They took it.

At the top was another door.

It wasn’t closed.

It was ajar several inches.