“I’m sorry. When she said she knew someone outside of Interpol who specialized in this sort of thing I suppose I assumed it would be someone…”
“Older?” Kat guessed.
“Well. Yes. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kat said, honestly unconcerned. “It’s nothing I haven’t heard before.”
Ms. Evans smiled, but it didn’t find her eyes. “It’s just… This is a very important matter.” She turned to Hale. “I’m sure you understand. Perhaps I was wrong to have Amelia keep my call off the books. Perhaps—”
“We can help you,” Kat said flatly.
“I’m sure you mean very well.” Elizabeth smiled and tried to soften her voice, and Kat had no doubt the woman wasn’t being rude; she was simply being desperate. “Of course, Mr. Hale, you had every right to know that something was wrong, but the more I think about our situation, the more I realize… Yes. I have to call the police. I should have done it immediately. I should have—”
“Did they get it in transit?” Kat asked, but it seemed to take a moment for the woman to hear her words.
“I’m sorry?” she asked.
“Was it in transit?” Kat asked again, but she didn’t really wait for a reply. “No. Of course it wasn’t. If the egg wasn’t in your possession when it was stolen, then you wouldn’t be so embarrassed. So it was on your watch which means… You wouldn’t keep it here,” Kat said, looking around the small lobby of the charity’s headquarters and pointing toward the door. “I could have picked that lock when I was four, and the surveillance cameras downstairs don’t even record, so I doubt you’d risk storing a ten million dollar egg here, which means you probably arranged to store it somewhere far more secure. Was it in a bank vault?” Kat asked.
It was far too easy to read the answer in the woman’s eyes, and Kat couldn’t help but smile. “Of course it was. But the bank wasn’t hit. If the bank had been hit then the authorities would be all over this, not to mention every insurance investigator and bounty hunter in Europe, so that means…”
Kat trailed off and studied the woman. Her dark suit and darker eyes. This woman wasn’t just angry or embarrassed or mad at herself and the world. This woman felt guilty, and in Kat’s experience that usually meant one thing.
The Magi Miracle Network hadn’t been robbed. The Magi Miracle Network had been conned. And in Kat’s world that made all the difference.
“You gave it to him, didn’t you? Did he say he was with an auction house?” Kat asked, then almost immediately shook her head. “No. I’m betting he said he was…an appraiser.”
Kat saw the woman start to crumble. Tears didn’t fall and her lip didn’t tremble, but her walls started to come down just the same. And at that moment, the head of the Magi Miracle Network looked angry enough to commit murder.
“How did you know?” the woman asked as if she couldn’t decide whether to be ashamed or impressed.
“If it were me, I wouldn’t steal the egg. I’d just get you to hand me ten million dollars and then I’d walk right out the door.”
Hale smiled like it was the punch line to his all-time favorite joke. “Of course.”
Kat eyed him. “It’s a classic for a reason.”
“Do you think there was a roper?”
“I don’t know. If it was combined with the Cat in the Hat then it could be a one-man job.”
In unison, the two of them turned to the charity’s director, as if expecting her to jump right in, but she just shook her head.
“I know you people are speaking English, but it doesn’t feel that way.” She squinted, as if staring into a too-bright light. “Who are you?”
“I’m the girl who knows how she would do it. Which means I have a better-than-average understanding of how someone else would do it. Don’t worry, Ms. Evans. Whoever did this was a professional. Of that much I am sure. I know it isn’t much consolation, but if a person is smart enough and if they want something badly enough then there’s not much that good people can do to stop them. You’re blaming yourself, I know. But you shouldn’t. It really isn’t your fault.”
Then she looked like she really would cry. Kat could tell that she wouldn’t let herself believe Kat’s words—not really, not yet. But she looked like perhaps someday she might and just that potential far-off someday was enough to make the woman smile.
“Thank you. For saying that. But I don’t feel like a good person at the moment. Ever since this happened I’ve just felt stupid. It’s humiliating. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You’ve never been conned before.”
“Oh.” Kat couldn’t help but think about a cursed emerald and an old woman and a lie that had changed her life forever. “You’d be surprised.” The woman looked skeptical, but Kat talked on. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
Elizabeth led them down a nondescript hall of the nondescript office. The only décor was a long line of stockings and even more black and white photos of smiling children surrounding trees. Kat tried to focus on why she and Hale were there. It wasn’t hard to remember with Hazel looking out from those black and white photographs, surrounded by children who were laughing, smiling. Happy.
This grifter didn’t just take an egg. He stole Christmas itself from who knows how many children, and Kat knew she wasn’t doing this for Amelia anymore. She wasn’t even doing it for Hazel or Hale. She was doing it so she could sleep at night.