Everyone's Dead But Us (22 page)

Movado said, “If you give the people down there any trouble, I’ll shoot your buddy. If he gives me any trouble, they’ll shoot you.”

Gavin gave me an unfriendly kick. I landed with an “oof.” I was on my hands and knees looking down the last few stairs.

It was kind of hopeless. Every time I tried to put weight on my foot, I saw stars and felt woozy. I wound up hopping down the bottom two steps. I hopped, fell, stumbled, and hit my ankle while making my way over to the nearest wall. I suppose it would have been comic if it wasn’t likely I would be dead in just a few minutes.

Alice Gavin and her flashlight followed me down, her gun carefully aimed at me all the way. Crushton had preceeded all of us down. Scott and Movado followed Gavin. My ankle throbbed. I leaned against a wall to keep myself upright. Scott’s feet appeared first. When he saw me, he hurried over.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’ve been better.”

When Movado’s head appeared he said, “In the middle of the room. Both of you.”

Scott said, “Something’s wrong.” He wasn’t looking at me. I followed his gaze. He nodded around the room. I hung onto him and managed to swivel my head without losing my balance. Flashlight beams swept the room.

Every piece of artwork in the place was gone. No
Sex and
No Gutenberg Bible on its stand. No Maltese Falcon. All of it. Gone.

I said, “There’s something odd going on here.”

Alice Gavin said, “Where the hell is everything? We agreed we’d deal with this stuff once we were done with these two. Which of you guys took it?”

“I had nothing to do with this,” Crushton said.

Movado added, “Is one of us betraying the others?”

The order for us to move to the center of the room had been forgotten.

They eyed each other warily. They hadn’t raised their guns at each other. Crushton’s eyes wavered between his cronies and us. He was too alert for me. I hoped when it came time for action, my ankle would hold long enough.

I said, “You’ve got a bunch of unpleasant options. One of you is lying through his or her teeth and preparing to betray your buddies, or there is another person alive on the island who is taking advantage of an opportunity you have presented or is in league with some combination of you three.”

“They can’t get away,” Alice Gavin said. “We have the only way to communicate to get off the island.”

I said, “You’ve got a secret way. Maybe they’ve got another secret way, a different one, just like you’ve got a secret way to escape from the island without someone suspecting you were responsible for all these dead bodies.”

“This is fucked,” Crushton said. “I was going to live off the proceeds of the sale of these things.”

I said, “This whole thing was a scheme to steal this stuff?”

“A by-product,” Crushton said. “Getting hold of a few of the real things aboveground was going to keep me wealthy for the rest of my life.”

“Who would have the nerve to buy any of this stuff?” Scott asked.

“With a small amount of care,” Alice Gavin said, “it’s fairly easy to sell all this stuff.”

“No one would notice a
Sex and
in someone’s parlor?” Scott asked.

Gavin said, “There’s a whole lot of missing art that has made it into all kinds of living rooms in all kinds of places in the world.”

Crushton said, “Selling it isn’t the problem. Where the hell is it?”

“You’ll have to search the island,” I said. “You don’t have that much time left. The replacement staff will be here from Santorini eventually.”

“Bullshit,” Crushton said. “This is bullshit. Let’s blow these two up and start searching. This much artwork can’t have been taken that far.”

Alice began unloading materials from her backpack. She had explosives, the kind in movies that are about the size of a brick but that blow the hell out of anything they’re attached to.

“How come you have explosives?” I asked.

Alice Gavin said, “In my archeology persona I can get things like this. It’s not hard.”

Movado was watching his two companions carefully. He hadn’t said as much as them or wrangled as much.

I said, “Where would someone else be concealed on the island? Could the someone else have been doing some of the killing? Which ones did you guys kill exactly?”

Crushton said, “I set the explosion under the tower. That caused the fall of the Atrium so I get to take credit for whoever died in its collapse.”

“Where is Tudor’s body?”

“It got blown up.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Why do the explosion? Weren’t you risking the loss of all your stuff?”

“No. The Great Hall wasn’t in real danger. With the two-feet-thick walls and solid six-inch-wide doors, there was little chance of it going up. Stone doesn’t burn. I didn’t know about this stuff yet.”

“I knew that,” I said then asked, “Why do all this killing now?”

Crushton said, “I believed in my causes like I told you earlier. This other stuff is pure bonus. Thasos actually precipitated it. Henry Tudor figured out he was a spy about a year ago. We were planning with him to kill Thasos and sell some of the legitimate paintings. Tudor did need money, but he got cold feet. He had to die. Thasos also seemed to be getting uncomfortably close to discovering who I was. I wasn’t lying earlier. I really did want to send a message to the rich of the world.”

“Wait a minute,” Scott said. “You didn’t know about the treasure room until we found it. You guys have only been fellow conspirators since the killings started?”

Crushton and Gavin nodded. Crushton said, “Alice and I have been planning for years. Our conspiracies happened to coincide with other plans and plots. All these real paintings out in the open and the Minoan artifacts were too good to resist. When you uncovered the hidden artwork, it was a bonanza.”

“That’s partly why so many died,” I said. “You were working spontaneously.”

Scott said, “That doesn’t sound like you, Mr. Movado. You’ve struck me as someone who planned very carefully. You don’t leave things to chance.”

Movado said, “I take advantage of the chances that come my way. Henry had to die. He couldn’t plot and plan or scheme secretly. Several times he talked about revealing to the world what we had. Our refuge would be gone. He was going to betray over a century of secrets. Thasos was the trigger. These two happened to help out. When I realized what was going on, I decided to join forces with them.”

Scott asked Movado, “How exactly did you find out what these two were up to?”

Gavin said, “Bonehead here screwed up. He always screws up.”

Movado said, “I saw him coming out of the castle after he’d killed Henry Tudor. When you announced you’d found the body, I figured it out. I bided my time then had a little talk with him.”

“How did Thasos get a job here?”

Movado said, “He was eminently qualified. Those who were after the art were a dedicated bunch. They tend to count their time in years rather than hours or minutes.”

“Why not get rid of him before this?” Scott asked.

“We knew who he was. Better a spy you knew than one you didn’t.”

“Had he uncovered the cache?”

“No,” Movado said. “There were only seven of us who knew of the room: me, Henry, Fitzgerald, O’Quinn, Klimpton, Deplonte, and Seymour. None of the seven ever told anyone. Not a servant, not a lover. We had initiation ceremonies once a year at New Year’s, that is if anyone new had qualified to be let in on the secrets. Everyone learned the ritual of the precautions. Everyone took a blood oath not to violate it.”

I said, “Who killed who?”

Movado said, “Crushton got to Henry Tudor before I did. I had to get rid of the ones who knew about the treasure room, and were in on the plan to start selling some of this. They would make trouble, and they would want a cut. I don’t work and play well with others. They would certainly not permit me to make off with any of it without them getting a share of the profits. If one piece of the artwork appeared anywhere or got any kind of publicity, the police could follow the trail. O’Quinn had to die so I would still inherit. Idiot Klimpton knew. Why Henry let him into the treasure room was so moronic. He was infatuated with the idea of a gay football quarterback. Honestly, you’d think he’d have more sense. Deplonte, Fitzgerald, and Seymour had to die. I took care of them. Chester, my bodyguard, was pretty much a straight arrow. I couldn’t count on him not blabbing about my being here although he didn’t know about the treasure.”

Gavin said, “I killed Morgan and Harris. Neither of them took enough precautions. Sexist pigs. They didn’t think they had to be afraid of a woman. I pitched Bracken out of the boat before I put bullet holes in the bottom, and it started to sink. He was far too trusting as were all of them frankly.”

“The lovers had to die,” Movado said. “They could report people.”

Gavin said, “With the sinking of the boat, I took care of most of the lovers and a few others.”

“Why not wait until they were all together?”

Crushton said, “They never were, and one at a time was easier.”

I said, “Maybe some of them would have united and fought back and you would have had to fight your way to a successful completion of your plan?”

Movado said, “They’d never unite. I made sure of that. They’d rather believe they were invincible than cooperate. When you have that kind of money, you don’t have to cooperate.”

“And the innocent people who died in the collapse of the Atrium?” I asked. “How were you going to get around all the staff who would try to stop you?”

Crushton said, “The collapse of the Atrium was a bonus. That most of the staff died at one time worked out for us.”

I said, “You killed all those people. Not a one of the three of you seems to care. Look at how many people are dead. You have no sense of guilt? No shame?”

“Well, no,” Movado said. “These two have been on the run for over thirty years. And do you think this is the first time I’ve had to make tough decisions?”

“This is murder.”

“And you’re next,” Movado said.

I said, “How’d you know we found the treasure room?”

“Chasing you around this island was a pain in the ass. Most often we kept a lookout on top of Henry Tudor’s place. We’d give you time in each place then send somebody to find out what the hell you were doing. I was the only one qualified to enter the Great Hall.”

I said to Movado, “I still don’t see how you’re going to get away. This admiral would take you and your two pals? They aren’t part of your old boy network.”

“He trusts me.”

“There’s got to be more to it than that,” Scott said.

Movado said, “There are more places to hide on this island than you can imagine. The inner circle knows them. I’m the only one from the inner circle left. We wouldn’t have to leave on the very next boat. This island doesn’t have even the security of a small airport of a Third World desert oasis.”

“Where’s the stuff?” Crushton asked.

“I don’t know,” Movado said.

Crushton said, “Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit! You know! Where is it?”

Gavin looked at Crushton. “You need to stay in control of yourself.”

“Like you did in Greenwich Village?”

“You and I got out alive.”

“Our friends didn’t.” He pointed at Movado. “He’s lying. Maybe you’re in it with him. I always thought you might have been the one to cause the chaos in the Village.”

“Why would I have?”

“Then they couldn’t testify against you in any trial.”

Movado said, “Is this really a good time for a lover’s quarrel?”

Gavin said, “We’re not lovers. We never were. I tried once with him. That’s how I found out he preferred boys, and frankly, it was one of the moments when I got the insight that women would be a whole lot easier to love. Barney, you’re a pain in the ass. Always were. Always will be. Truthfully, I wouldn’t mind blowing up the two lovebirds here and you, too. If I knew where the damn art was, I’d give it a try.”

“I don’t have it,” Crushton said.

He turned his gun on Movado. “That leaves you.”

With his attention distracted, Alice brought the flashlight down on Crushton’s wrist. The light swung wildly. Crushton dropped his flashlight. Movado moved his light to the two of them.

I heard a noise at the top of the stairs. I thought, ha— Feige, the agent, didn’t die. Gavin screwed up. But a pair of black shoes followed by tattered and torn black pants appeared on the top stair. Feige had been wearing jeans and running shoes. The knees swayed. The others became aware of him.