The Last Templar

Chapter 13

L ucien Boussard paced cautiously across the floor of his gallery. He reached the window and peered out from behind a fake ormolu clock. He stayed there for several minutes, thinking hard.

Part of his brain registered that the clock was in need of cleaning and he carried it back to the table and stood it on the newspaper.

The one with the pictures of the Met raid, staring up at him.

He ran his finger over the photographs, smoothing the newspaper's folds.

There's no way I'm getting involved in this.

But he couldn't simply do nothing. Gus would kill him for doing nothing just as easily as he would kill him for doing something wrong.

There was only one way out and he'd already been thinking about it while Gus was standing there in his gallery threatening him. Turning Gus in, especially knowing what he had done at the museum, was dangerous. But given Gus's swordplay outside the museum, Lucien felt reasonably sure he would be safe. There was no way the big man would be coming out of prison to take revenge on him one day. If they didn't change the law and give him the needle, Gus was looking at life without parole. Had to be.

Just as important, Lucien had problems of his own. He had a cop on his back. A relentless salopard who'd been after him for years and was showing no signs of going away or even easing off. All because of a goddamn Dogon statuette from Mali that turned out to be more recent than Lucien had said it was and that was, consequently, worth a fraction of what he'd sold it for. Its septuagenarian buyer had, luckily for Lucien, died of a heart attack before the lawyers got their act together. Lucien had wormed his way out of a very tight spot, but Detective Steve Buchinski didn't let go of it. It was almost like a personal crusade. Lucien had tried feeding the cop a few tips, but they hadn't been enough. Nothing would ever be enough.

But this was different. Feed him Gus Waldron and maybe, just maybe, the leech would let go.

He looked at his watch. It was half past one.

Sliding open a drawer, Lucien rummaged through a box of cards until he found the one he wanted.

Then he reached for the phone and dialed.