Read From Manhattan with Revenge (The Fourth Book in the Fifth Avenue Series) for Free Online Page A

at this point, she knew they
already had gone through it and taken any incriminating evidence. If there was
any.
    She checked the time. In an hour, she’d
meet with Spocatti’s elderly, nameless contact. She needed to shower. She’d
have to wear the same clothes, but so be it. Until this was resolved, going
back to her apartment was out of the question. She needed to set up shop
somewhere else, so it might as well be there.  

 
 
 
 
    CHAPTER
SEVEN

 
    The address he gave her was 118 East
Sixty-First Street, which turned out to be a brick-and-limestone townhouse
protected by a black iron gate connected to four limestone columns, on top of
which were two original iron lamps.
    There was a large maple tree in front,
which was a few leaves shy of being fully exposed to the waning days of fall,
and a doorbell on one of the posts, which she pressed.
    She watched the first- and second-story windows
for movement, but saw none. After a moment, there was an audible buzzing sound,
she opened the gate and stepped down the stairs to the black front door, which
opened as she approached it.
    Behind it was a middle-aged man with a
patch over his eye. But not just any patch. Sewn into the front of it was a
working watch, sapphire in color, with a ticking second hand, which caused her
to pause before she could collect herself from the surprise of it. He had short
graying hair and appeared as tall and as broad as the doorway itself. Clean
shaven. Face devoid of emotion. She knew an ex-Marine when she saw one, and she
was looking at one now.
    “Carmen Gragera?”
    She focused on his other eye, which was as
blue as the watch’s sapphire background. “That’s me.”
    He moved to his right. “Step inside,
please.”
    She did, and then he closed the door and
she held out her arms for him in the sunlit entryway. “It’s in my jacket
pocket,” she said as he patted her down. “After last night, I couldn’t be on
the streets without it. I hope you understand.”
    “I don’t understand anything about what
you do. But it isn’t my job to judge.”
    I think you just did.
    He took the Glock and continued his
search. Even if Spocatti did send her here with his blessing, she felt nervous
and naked without her gun. When he was satisfied she carried nothing else on
her, he asked if he could take her coat.
    She slipped it off and handed it to him.
When he took it from her, she noted that his hands were triple the size of
hers. Alex was six-foot-two, but this man was much taller. Six-foot-eight? She
looked around the wide, aged oak foyer and saw all the delicate antiques on the
side tables and walls. On this level, the ceilings were high. Probably twelve
feet.
    She bet he was happy for the extra space.
    “This way,” he said, motioning in front of
him. “Mr. Gelling is waiting for you in the library.”
    Gelling? The name meant nothing to her.
    “And your name?” she asked.
    “Mr. Gelling will decide if you need
access to that information. Follow me, please.”
    Jesus.
    She followed him down a long hallway and
past a beautifully designed living room that had the sort of furnishings that
suggested either Gelling came from money or he knew exactly what to do with it
when he earned it himself.
    On a round mahogany table in the center of
the room was a Lalique Bacchantes vase. Just from the depth of its opalescence
alone, Carmen knew it was an original made by Rene Lalique himself.
    The current revivals the company made were
beautiful, but inferior. Some thought they looked like frosted glass. But this
was the real thing from the late twenties, something she’d only ever seen in a
museum. With its graceful series of nudes surrounding the vase, it was the
epitome of the Art Nouveau movement she loved so much. She was a long way from
her days as an art history major in Spain, but the bug hadn’t left her. A part
of her wanted to go over and admire the vase. She wanted to touch it.
    But Big Ben was having none of that. There
was no