Curse of the Jade Lily by David Housewright

your rich, club-owning girlfriend a long time ago.”
    I had nothing to say to that. I went to the coffeemaker and poured out a mug, then sat at the kitchen table across from her.
    “So, Heavenly,” I said. “Where are your playmates?”
    “It wasn’t my turn to watch them.”
    “No?”
    “Besides, I needed a break. They’re so needy.”
    “I thought that was one of your requirements.”
    “Only in accomplices. I demand more from my men.”
    “How’s that going for you? Still seeing Boston Whitlow?”
    “That ended a long time ago.” Heavenly exhaled loudly when she said it, and I wondered if it was a sigh of regret. “Are you going to invite me to your bedroom?”
    “Why would I do that?”
    “Geez, McKenzie, if you have to ask…”
    “Didn’t we have this conversation once before? I’m old enough to be your father.”
    “Only if you knocked up my mother when she was about fourteen.”
    “Besides…”
    “Besides, you’re still loyal to Nina Truhler, whom you haven’t married after—how many years? McKenzie, you can be had.”
    “I know. Why do you think I refuse to take you seriously?”
    “You took me seriously enough to sic Lieutenant Rask on me.”
    “Oh, that.”
    “He’s not a very nice man, is he?”
    “I don’t know. His wife and kids adore him. Obviously, he let you go.”
    “Why not? I haven’t done anything illegal.”
    “’Course not.”
    “You told him about Tatjana?”
    “Yep.”
    “But you didn’t tell him that I kidnapped you.”
    I shrugged at that and sipped my coffee.
    “See, I knew you liked me,” she said.
    “What are you doing here, Heavenly?”
    “Since we’re friends, will you tell me something? Why did you quit the museum? Why have you refused to recover the Lily?”
    “That damn museum has more holes than the Vikings’ secondary.”
    “Well?”
    “Well, what?”
    “I know it’s not because you‘re afraid.”
    “On the contrary. I’m becoming very cautious as I get older.”
    Heavenly looked at the corridor leading from the kitchen to the front of the house. “Not going to invite me upstairs, huh?” she said.
    “Nope.”
    “What else can I offer to make you change your mind?”
    “About what?”
    “About going after the Lily?”
    “Not much, although your proposal is a lot more enticing than anything else I’ve heard today.”
    “What have you heard?”
    “Well, the State Department, for one, has threatened to make my life a living hell unless I steal the Lily and give it to a representative of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
    Heavenly was on her feet in a hurry. “That’s insane,” she said.
    “Any more insane than giving it to you?”
    “The Bosnians stole the Lily from my client, and somehow Dr. Arnaud Fornier stole it from them, and now Jeremy Gillard has it. The Lily rightfully belongs to Tatjana Durakovic.”
    “That’s not the way Branko Pozderac sees it.”
    “Pozderac? That bastard?”
    “You know him?”
    “He’s a rapist and a murderer. He and his militia terrorized Sarajevo, terrorized half the country during the war. Do you know how many innocent people he slaughtered?”
    “Well, now he’s a member of the People’s Assembly or House or whatever.”
    “How is that possible?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe he had a great campaign manager.”
    “It changes nothing, McKenzie. The Lily belongs to Tatjana.”
    “Possession is nine points of the law.”
    “McKenzie, you and I both know there is no specific legal ruling to support that proverb.”
    “Maybe not, but time and again the person in actual possession of the property has a clear advantage over the person who doesn’t have it. Right now, the artnappers who swiped it from the museum, they own it. After they pay the ransom, the insurance company will own it.”
    “I’m just asking you to do the right thing.”
    “You keep saying that. Your client could invest in a good lawyer instead of hiring a couple of thugs to return her property—maybe