Emerson appeared to weigh her options, and he had the sense that no amount of argument would rush her.
“I’m going to need to borrow your phones and frisk you to make sure you’re not wearing electronic recording devices.” Emerson spoke in a no-nonsense way, as if she’d just mentioned that the forecast called for rain.
“Agreed,” Britt said at the exact moment that Zander said, “Deal.”
It seemed that Emerson had decided to talk to them. He understood why she’d first want to be sure they weren’t recording her.
They gave her their phones, which she carried toward the back of the condo.
He frowned at Emerson’s day planner, across from him on the sofa. Did he have time to check it? Should he risk checking it now, right before she might come clean? If she caught him, she might change her mind—
She returned. He and Britt rose so that Emerson could give them both a thorough pat down, then she went to stand near the electric fireplace. Nonchalantly, she leaned a shoulder against the mantle and crossed her arms. “What would you like to know?”
“Were you, Ricardo, and Frank the ones who pulled off the Triple Play?” Zander asked.
“Yes.”
Her admission thumped the breath from him. Frank, Ricardo, Emerson. The Triple Play thieves.
“A contact of mine in Chicago let me know that Frank and Ricardo were moving to Seattle,” Emerson said.
“They didn’t come to Seattle specifically for the heist?” Britt asked.
“No, they came because Ricardo had family there. I’d had my eye on the Pascal for some time, and I had a good bit of the job planned. In order to pull it off, I knew I needed partners. I got to know Ricardo and Frank over the course of several weeks. I came to trust them and, eventually, we started making plans.”
The only difference between Emerson and Zander’s father? Emerson was a successful thief. His father, unsuccessful. Because of his experience with his dad, Zander comprehended much about Emerson. He could expect her to have only one code and only one motivation. Self-interest. “Did Frank actually work construction in the city, or was that just a cover story?” Zander asked.
“He worked construction. We all had day jobs.”
Thieves with day jobs. They’d contributed to the community they’d stolen from.
“We decided that Frank would case the Pascal,” Emerson said. “In order to visit the museum frequently without arousing suspicion, I felt that he should become a museum member. But we couldn’t have him in the museum’s system under his real name.So he remained James Ross in the other spheres of his life, including at work. Whenever he visited the Pascal, he visited as Frank Pierce.”
“Did he choose the Frank Pierce identity?” Britt asked.
“No, I did. I drove out of town and walked around a cemetery until I found a grave for a male born around the same time as Frank.”
“We visited that cemetery,” Zander said. “In Enumclaw.”
“Enumclaw. Yes.”
“Your heist was a success,” Britt prompted.
Emerson didn’t fidget or shift. She held herself with uncommon stillness. “Except for the fact that Frank was shot.”
The data they’d found so far pointed to the believability of what Emerson was saying. Even so, the conversation had a surreal quality to it. They were talking aboutFrank... having committed one of the most famous unsolved crimes in the county. His Uncle Frank was the man who’d insisted he make his bed every day before school, who’d taken him to his first professional basketball game, who’d ribbed him about spending too much time playing video games, who’d loved him.
“Where did you take Frank to get the bullet wound treated?” Britt asked.
“My brother had graduated from med school and was doing his internship at that time. We took Frank to his house, and he did the best he could to stitch Frank up. It wasn’t ideal, and it wasn’t according to my plans.” A twitch of consternation crossed her mouth, and he could tell that it still bothered her that something about the heist had gone wrong.
Ricardo had lied to them when he’d said he knew nothing about Frank’s bullet wound, when he’d said he and Frank had lost touch after moving to Seattle.
“Had you planned for Frank to continue to visit the Pascal after the heist?” Britt asked.
“I had, because I felt attention would be drawn to him if he suddenly severed his visits after a crime had been committed. Wehad to wait longer than I would’ve liked for his leg to recover. But as soon as he was well enough, he resumed his visits to the museum. I intended for him to show himself at the Pascal for a couple of months, then gradually taper off his attendance in a way that wouldn’t raise anyone’s eyebrows.” She released a disapproving sigh. “Instead, he fell in love with Carolyn and neither Ricardo nor I could talk him into giving her up. By then, it wasn’t as if Frank could tell Carolyn what he’d done or confess that he’d been pretending to be someone he wasn’t for months. So he did something I didn’t endorse. He cut ties with his previous life and he became, permanently, the man he’d told Carolyn he was.”
“Did you keep in contact with him after that?” Britt asked.
