Read Sharp Edges for Free Online Page A

days you should take a real vacation."

    The following afternoon Cyrus eased the Jeep into one of the two short lines of cars waiting for the small, privately operated ferry to Frog Cove Island. It took him less than sixty seconds to spot Eugenia Swift.
    She was in the silver Toyota Camry at the front of the other row of vehicles. Her window was rolled down. He could see that she was speaking to someone on a cellular phone. There was no way to overhear the conversation at this distance, but he could tell that she was very intent on it.
    He studied the boldly sculpted planes of Eugenia's face while he punched in a number on his own phone. She was not especially pretty, let alone beautiful, but there was a striking vitality about her that made it hard for him to look away. Her dark hair was pulled back into a sleek knot at the nape of her neck. She wore a close-fitting, long-sleeved black pullover that accentuated her slender, lithely built frame. She had fine-boned wrists and high breasts.
    He was too far away to see the color of her eyes, but he remembered that they were a very rich shade of amber.
    Sleek and smart. Wore a lot of black. Liked long scarves.
    The arty type. Probably wouldn't know what to do with a can of tuna fish.
    The impression he had formed at their first meeting held firm. She looked like a lady cat burglar.
    The ringing on the other end of the line stopped.
    "Quint here."
    "This is Colfax." Cyrus watched the way Eugenia's elegantly shaped fingers curved competently around the steering wheel. "What have you got for me?"
    "Nothing to get excited about," Quint Yates said. "I hate to disappoint you, but the lady seems to have led what used to be called a blameless existence."
    "Nobody leads a completely blameless existence." Cyrus kept his eyes on Eugenia as he spoke to his assistant. "Give me what you have."
    "Very little beyond what you already know. Graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Fine Arts and an expertise in glass. Studied in Venice for a while. Went to work for the Leabrook Museum as an assistant curator. Endeared herself to Tabitha Leabrook the first year on the job when she persuaded Dorothy McBrady to put her collection of fifteenth-century Venetian glass on permanent loan in the museum."
    "Go on."
    "Our Ms. Swift sailed on to new heights a year later when she detected a forgery in a collection of early-Roman cameo glass that had been loaned to the museum for an exhibition. She pulled off the same trick again six months later when she curated a display of eighteenth-century Chinese glass."
    "She found another fraud?"
    "Yep. After that, her reputation was made. Major glass collectors routinely consult her."
    Cyrus was not surprised. He had known she was good. During the past three years he'd made it his business to be aware of the art experts who specialized in glass. "Anything else?"
    "Two and a half years ago Tabitha Leabrook promoted her to the position of Director of the Leabrook Museum and gave her a whopping budget. You know the rest."
    "Yeah." The museum's collection of ancient and modern glass was well on its way to becoming one of the best in the nation. Even the big European museums respected the Leabrook for its depth and quality. A new wing featuring contemporary studio glass art had recently been completed.
    "She gets job offers from other institutions all the time," Quint said. "But she routinely turns them down."
    "I have a hunch it's because she enjoys the authority she has at the Leabrook." Cyrus watched Eugenia through the window. "She pretty much gets to run the whole show there. Something tells me she's the kind who likes to be in charge."
    "That's it on the professional side."
    "What about the personal angle?"
    "Not much there, either. Thirty years old. Never been married. Oldest of three children. Brother and sister both went into academia. One teaches at a college here in Oregon. The other is an assistant professor at a school in