got it,” Dan said, his hands on the steering wheel.
“Forget it, Dan,” Amy said.
“I drove it here.”
“One block,” Amy said. “Move over. There are police everywhere. We have to get out of here.”
“Without the diamond,” Dan said. His face was ashen.
“We’ll talk about it as we drive.”
Dan scooted over. Jake pulled away from the curb and left the Pergamon disaster behind.
Jake drove the Benz several blocks north, then pulled into a parking lot.
“What are you doing?” Amy asked.
It was the first words any of them had spoken since leaving the museum. In a few minutes, the Vesper phone would
ping
with the news that one of their friends had died.
“This mustache is driving me crazy,” Jake said. “I need to get it off me.”
Dan got out of the front seat and opened the back door. He unlocked Amy’s and Atticus’s handcuffs with Agent Vanek’s key.
“I’ll sit back here with Atticus,” he said.
Amy got into the front seat with Jake.
“How did Vanek figure out you were in the Pergamon?” Jake asked, pulling back into traffic.
“I didn’t get a chance to discuss it with him,” Dan answered flatly.
“Maybe he’s a Vesper,” Atticus suggested.
“Not likely,” Dan said. “You should have heard him when I mentioned Luna Amato, who we
know
is a Vesper. If she had been there, he would have strangled her.”
“It’s a good question,” Amy said. “How did he know? He was inside the museum before we got there.”
“All I know is that it’ll be a while before he picks up our trail again,” Dan said. “I have his passport, cash, credit card, and keys, thanks to Lightfinger Larry.”
“Who?” Atticus asked.
“I’ll tell you about him later,” Dan said. “What I want to know is what set off the metal detector.”
Amy shook her head. “I don’t know. All I had in my pocket was the diamond. I’d even taken off my belt and my —”
She stopped in midsentence and started frantically going through her backpack.
“What?” Jake said.
“What are you looking for?” Dan asked.
“My watch!”
Dan’s stomach lurched. “Are you sure?”
Amy threw the last of her gear out of the pack and held it upside down. “It’s not here. We need to go back to the Pergamon.”
“Are you kidding?” Atticus said. “The place is crawling with police. They know who we are.”
“We’ll get you another watch,” Jake said.
“Not like the one she had,” Dan said. He and his sister exchanged a panicked look. “Are you sure you left it there?”
“As soon as the lights went out, I grabbed my pack and the tray with my cell phone, but I completely for-got about the tray with the watch. How could I be so stupid?”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Jake said. “Tomorrow, when things settle down at the museum, I’ll go to their lost and found and pick up your watch. I bet there were plenty of things left there when the lights went out.”
“That won’t work!” Amy yelled. “I’m an idiot!” She pounded her fists on the dashboard as hard as she could. Tears streamed down her face.
For a second, everyone froze. Dan glanced at Atticus and saw that his eyes were as wide as Dan’s were. Amy did
not
freak out like this. But she was slamming her fists down over and over again until Jake reached over and grabbed her, pinning her arms against her sides so she wouldn’t hurt herself.
“Amy! They don’t know who I am!” he said. “It was too dark for Rommel to see what I really look like. I’ll say my sister left it there or something.”
Dan wasn’t sure she had heard him, which was probably lucky for Jake. His plan would not have worked. The back of the watch was engraved with Amy’s name, cell phone number, and e-mail.
Dan leaned forward and put his hand on Amy’s shoulder. “We stole a Caravaggio,” he said. “We shouldn’t have any problem stealing something that actually belongs to us.”
Amy looked at him and blinked several times as if she didn’t