The pull that drew her toward him was magnetic and automatic. Perhaps Anita and Lauren’s roommates were right that she spent too much time among the dead, because by contrast, Joe Caravello made her feel very much alive. Surely the attraction she felt was only natural upon renewing a lost connection.
As soon as he saw her, he closed the remaining distance between them. “I still say you should have let me pick you up rather than meet you here. I’d feel much better if I knew you didn’t have any trouble along the way.”
“I’m not a little girl anymore, Joe.”
“So I noticed.” A smile hooked his lips and fanned a spark inside her.
She ignored it, and he stepped behind her, helping her out of her cloak.
Lauren’s belted black dress with filmy sleeves and handkerchief hem wouldn’t come close to matching the glamour of the other guests. At least her carnelian-and-turquoise earrings and matching hair combs fit an evening dedicated to Egyptian art.
“I assume my father is upstairs,” she told him after he returned from the coat-check room. Noticing his bow tie hadn’t been tied correctly, she stepped into the shadow of a potted palm tree, and he followed. “You did say I was here to help you,” she whispered, pulling the ends of his tie to unfasten it.
A lump shifted behind his collar.
With only one false start, she looped and tucked until it lay right. Satisfied, she gave a light pat to her handiwork and peered up at him. “Perfect. Shall we?”
“By all means.” He offered his arm, and after a brief hesitation, she took it. “Is this too old-fashioned a gesture for you?” he asked.
“Not at all. I’m as old-fashioned as I ever was.” She patted her chignon and glanced pointedly to all the shingle bobs and fringed dresses on other women milling about, tendrils of smoke rising from cigarettes. “I don’t even smoke.”
“I believe the term you’re looking for isclassic.” He kept pace by her side. “You know the great thing about classics, don’t you?”
“I’m an Egyptologist. I could talk your ear off about the great things about classics.”
He chuckled. “Never out of style. Tonight’s gala being a case in point.”
Her face heated by the smallest degree. “Egypt is endlessly fascinating,” she deflected as they stepped into the elevator.
“Indeed.” Joe watched the needle above the door that marked their progress as they climbed ever higher. On the mansard level, they stepped out, passed through the promenade, and headed to the banquet hall.
With buttressed ceilings, this hall was decorated in the Louis XV style and was one of many reasons Hotel Astor was known as the crown jewel of Times Square. Plush carpets patterned with medallionscushioned Lauren’s heels, and fan-shaped chandeliers dripped with crystal and amber light. Around the perimeter, linen-clad tables displayed Egyptian artifacts in locked glass cases.
“You’re here!” Lawrence broke away from the men with whom he’d been conversing and made his way to Lauren and Joe. “Come, you shall have a private viewing of the items we’ve brought before the masses arrive.”
“Shall I look for forgeries among them?” Lauren teased.
“Do your worst, Doctor.” Lawrence grinned. “But you’ll not find a fake here. All of these came directly from Egypt after having been uncovered and procured by legal means, in full cooperation with the Egyptian government.”
Joe edged toward one of the tables. “You’re holding an auction with these?”
“The items on those two tables are all open to silent bidding this evening. But those three tables over there hold some of the artifacts we’ve been curating for the Napoleon House over the last few years. We’ll not be parting with those tonight. They’re too valuable not to share them with the general public as soon as the house in Newport is renovated and passes inspection. You’ll pardon me, both of you, but I’ve got some final preparation to do. Take your time and enjoy.”
While Lawrence excused himself, Lauren moved to the closest table. Through the glass, she peered at a breathtaking necklace made of teardrop beads of gold, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, and green feldspar. The pectoral, which was about eight centimeters wide and more than four centimeters tall, was backed in gold and inlaid with all the semiprecious stones present in the necklace, with the addition of garnet.
Joe stood near her. “Explain it to me. Explain all of it.”
She lifted her gaze to his and found he was in earnest. “All right, Detective—”
He held up a hand. “I know we normally use our professional titles in public, but how about for tonight, you call me Joe. I don’twant to put people off if they learn I’m a detective before I have a chance to make a fair first impression.”
“But you will be honest with them, won’t you? About who you are and what you’re doing?”
“Of course. I’d just like to make it through the small talk before they decide to clam up.”
Fair enough. With a nod, Lauren turned her attention back to the necklace in the case. “You can see from the card placed next to it that the pectoral—that’s the pendant—is inlaid with three hundred seventy-two cut pieces of semiprecious stones. It also tells us the necklace is dated from circa 1887–1878 BC, and that it was excavated in 1914. What the card doesn’t say is that the symbols of the falcons, cartouche, cobras, sun disks, and the figure holding up two palm ribs all combine so that together, it translates to ‘the god of the rising sun grants life and dominion over all that the sun encircles for eternity to King Khakheperre.’ This would have been worn during the Middle Kingdom by a royal woman in the king’s family.”
Joe studied the falcons, each row of their feathers alternating between turquoise and lapis lazuli. The tail feathers were tipped in carnelian, and everything was framed in gold. “And your father didn’t want to keep this for his museum?”
