Taken at the Flood by Nene Adams

Author:Nene Adams [Adams, Nene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781594934780
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2016-05-19T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Booking a last-minute flight to Buenos Aires from Saint Paul proved impossible. Better news came from the hotel’s assistant manager. Because of the broken window and the police investigation, they’d been given a different room on another floor.

Inside the new room, Rue made a call, spoke to someone for several minutes, and ended the call with a satisfied smile. “A corporate jet will be ready for our use in the morning,” she reported.

“Whose corporate jet?” Meredith asked from the king-sized bed where she lounged, flipping through Krause’s journal. She’d borrowed the book from Rue. She couldn’t read German, but wanted to get a feel for the man by studying the powerful, impatient, slashing lines his fountain pen had made on the unlined paper decades ago.

Rue bit her lower lip. “I probably shouldn’t tell you—”

“But since we’re partners, you should tell me anyway,” Meredith concluded.

“You have a point.” Rue came over to settle cross-legged on the bed next to her hip. “His name won’t mean anything to you.”

“Tell me.”

“Elliot Painter Velse.”

Meredith frowned. “You’re right, I don’t know him.”

“He’s a very, very wealthy man,” Rue explained. “He’s also a very, very private man.”

“Well, if he’s not after the value of the U-boat’s cargo, what’s his motive for funding the expedition? Why’d he hire you?”

“Many of his family’s former possessions are on the U-boat, stolen by Krause and his gang during the War. Would it help if I told you that ‘painter’ in Dutch is ‘schilder’?”

Meredith had to grope for the recollection. “Isn’t that the name of the diamond merchant in Antwerp whose brother-in-law betrayed the family to Krause? I seem to recall a necklace with a blood-red diamond.”

“Exactly. My client is the grandson of the only member of the Schilders family to survive Breendonk: Levi Schilders’s daughter, Zivah. After the camp was liberated in ’44, she emigrated to New York and anglicized her surname.”

“She married well, presumably.”

“Incredibly well, as in multimillions which became billions,” Rue said, toying with her cell phone. She grimaced and put the phone on the nightstand. “Velse owns the world’s most valuable private company. Anyway, he intends to restore his family honor by retrieving the artworks and other valuables taken by Krause. From stories his grandmother told him when he was a boy, he was able to point me in the right direction.”

Meredith shifted on the bed to sit up with her back against the headboard. “We’ll be on Grazione’s turf,” she said, feeling the need to voice a caution.

“If you don’t want to go on—”

“No, no, I’m sticking with you. I’m in this jaunt for the duration.”

Rue stretched out on the bed on her side, her head propped on her hand. “What’s your concern? Talk to me, Mer.”

“My concern?” Meredith blinked. “Grazione might kill us, for one.”

“Clearly, we have something he wants. Logic seems to point to the journal. Or the papers we found in Krause’s lockbox are also a possibility.”

“So he captures us and tortures us to get what he wants. Don’t discount the possibility. Thiago Grazione doesn’t strike me as the kind of man who uses ‘pretty please’ a lot.

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