The Trouble with Mirrors (An Alix London Mystery Book 4) by Charlotte Elkins & Aaron Elkins

Author:Charlotte Elkins & Aaron Elkins [Elkins, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781503940437
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2016-10-24T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

Alix had been to the museum’s curatorial offices in the past, before Norgren had arrived there from Seattle, so she knew where to find them.

“Good God, what’s down there, the crypt?” Chris exclaimed, looking dubiously at the dimly lit staircase before them. It was tucked into an inconspicuous concrete-block nook near the gift shop, and led uninvitingly down to an even dimmer basement landing. “The dungeons? Is that where they keep the heretics chained to the walls?”

Alix laughed. “It’s where they keep the curators, but it’s not as bad as it looks. Or at any rate they don’t keep them chained to their desks.”

But before they could start down, they were hailed by a pint-sized, middle-aged woman pushing a cart loaded with a thermal jug and coffee fixings, a carafe of what looked appealingly like white wine, a glass bowl of mixed nuts, and several mugs and stemless wine glasses. “Ms. LeMay? Ms. London?”

“That’s us,” Alix said.

“Dr. Norgren is waiting for you in the boardroom. He thought it would be better. It’s back down at the other end of the hall. Come along, I’ll show you. I’m on the way there myself.”

“Mm,” said Chris, “those goodies—are they for us?”

“Unless Dr. Norgren intends them all for himself, I suspect so, yes.”

The Legion’s boardroom turned out to be small but handsomely furnished, with just enough space for a gleaming, oval, eight-person conference table and big, comfortable-looking executive chairs. Behind the table, Christopher Norgren, fit-looking at fifty or so, with only a few silvery strands glinting through his slightly thinning blond hair, stood up. His trim mustache, which had turned completely white, still looked good on him. “Chris, Alix, it’s great to see you both.” Considering that he was going to be staying beyond the normal working day to help them out, his smile seemed relaxed and genuine. “It’s been too long.”

“Thanks very much, Mrs. Lesnevich,” he said, taking the tray and setting it down. “This was over and above the call of duty.”

“You bet it is, and don’t think I’m going to let you forget it.”

As she left he came around the table to greet the newcomers, hugging Chris, who responded with vigor, but correctly reading Alix’s less demonstrative nature from her posture and settling for a friendly handshake. And very friendly it was. She owed him a lot. It was Christopher Norgren who had really launched her career as an art consultant by recommending her to Chris two years earlier, when Alix, living in the off-putting shadow of her father’s notoriety, was having a hard time finding clients.

Afterward, she had stopped by his office in the Seattle Art Museum to thank him, and they’d wound up going out for gyros at a nearby Greek hole-in-the-wall restaurant. They’d talked for nearly an hour and she’d liked him right away. He’d struck her as perhaps the least self-important art museum curator she’d ever met; this in a profession in which an unassailable sense of self-worth sometimes seemed like a prerequisite. It would

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.