Heads You Win Read online

  “Have you moved the Warhol from the Jefferson bedroom?” she asked, still out of breath.

  “What are you talking about?” said Lawrence, putting down his coffee.

  “The Warhol, it’s gone. It’s not there.”

  Lawrence leaped up from his place and walked quickly out of the room. He took the stairs up to the first floor two at a time, before making his way along the landing and into the Jefferson room. He found a bare hook on the wall where the Warhol had once hung.

  “When did you last see it?” he asked as Evelyn stared at the faint outline of where the picture had been.

  “I can’t be sure. I’ve just got so used to it being there. But I do recall seeing it on the night of your party.” A long silence followed before she added, “I feel ashamed, Lawrence, because I think it could be my fault.”

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “I got a little drunk on the night of your party, and allowed someone to join me in my room.”

  “Who?”

  “Your friend Alex Karpenko.”

  “Did he stay the night?”

  “Certainly not. He’d left by the time I woke in the morning. I just didn’t think…”

  “You never do,” said Lawrence. “But if anyone’s to blame, it’s me.”

  “Perhaps I should try and contact him, and see if I can get the picture back?”

  “That’s the last thing you should do. If anyone’s going to speak to Alex, it will be me.”

  “Will you have to inform the police?”

  “I don’t have any choice,” said Lawrence. “As you well know, the picture doesn’t belong to me, it’s part of our grandfather’s bequest, and as it’s worth a million, possibly more, I’ll have to report the theft to the police, as well as to the insurance company.”

  “But he saved your life.”

  “Yes, he did. So if he returns the painting immediately, perhaps I won’t press charges.”

  “I’m so sorry,” said Evelyn. “He seemed such a nice guy.”

  “You never can tell about anyone, can you?” said Lawrence.

  * * *

  That afternoon, Alex called Evelyn, and the phone was picked up by the butler, who told him Miss Lowell had left the house around eleven, and he couldn’t be sure when she would be returning. She didn’t call back, so Alex rang again in the evening. This time Lawrence answered the phone.

  “What a wonderful party, Lawrence. You’re a great host, and I’m looking forward to seeing you and Evelyn tomorrow.”

  “I didn’t know you were coming to Boston for the weekend.”

  “Didn’t Evelyn tell you?”

  “Evelyn left this morning for her home in the south of France, and I’m visiting my mother in Nantucket.”

  “But we’d agreed that I should join you both for dinner on Friday evening, and go sailing on Saturday.” There was such a long silence, Alex thought the line must have gone dead. “Are you still there, Lawrence?”

  “I apologize for asking you this, Alex, but when you left the house on Sunday morning, the butler said you were carrying a package under your arm.”

  “A Warhol,” said Alex, without hesitation. “Somewhat reluctantly, I might add. But Evelyn insisted I take it as security.”

  “Security for what?”

  “I loaned her half a million to invest with Todd Halliday, who intends to back my company.”

  “Todd Halliday is her husband, and doesn’t have a penny to his name.”

  “Evelyn is married?”

  “Has been for years,” said Lawrence.

  “But she told me Todd specializes in start-ups.”

  “Todd only specializes in breakdowns that always involve other people’s money,” said Lawrence. “Yours on this occasion.”

  “But Evelyn assured me he was considering investing ten, possibly fifteen million in Elena’s.”

  “I’m not sure Todd could afford to invest ten dollars, let alone ten million, in anything. I hope you haven’t given him any money.”

  “Her,” said Alex. “My check was cashed this morning.” Lawrence was glad Alex couldn’t see the expression on his face.

  “But don’t worry, I still have the Warhol as security,” Alex added.

  Another long silence followed before Lawrence said, “That picture wasn’t hers to give. It’s part of the Lowell family collection, which is held in trust, and always left to the firstborn son, who then passes it on to the next generation. I inherited the collection when my father died a couple of years ago, and although Evelyn is next in line, until I have a son, my father made it clear in his will that if I were to die in Vietnam, the collection was to be bequeathed to the Boston Fine Arts Society, and not a single work was to go to Evelyn.”

  “I’ll return the painting immediately,” said Alex.

  “And I’ll pay you back your half a million dollars,” said Lawrence.

  “No, you will not,” said Alex firmly. “My agreement was with Evelyn, not you. Let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and assume she’s invested my money in a blue-chip company.”

  “The only blue chips that woman ever invests in are to be found in casinos. In future, whenever she comes to stay, I’ll have to nail every picture to the wall. But that doesn’t stop us working as a team just as we’ve done in the past, and see if we can find a way of getting your money back.”

  “I’ll do anything I can to help,” said Alex. “And of course I’ll return the painting. I’m only sorry to have caused you so much trouble.”

  “You should have left me to die on the battlefield, Alex. Then you would never have met my sister.”

  “Mea culpa,” said Alex. “Jezebel, Lucrezia Borgia, Mata Hari, and now Evelyn Lowell. She knew a sucker when she saw one.”

  “You’re not the first, and you probably won’t be the last. What’s more, I’m afraid I’ll be away for the next month, as Mother and I always spend August in Europe. Why don’t I send you a check now, and you can return the painting as soon as I get back. Then we can go sailing, and leave Evelyn on dry land.”

  “No,” said Alex. “You can give me the check but only when I return the painting.”

  “If you insist. Just make sure you don’t lose it, because if you do, Evelyn will deny ever having given it to you.”

  “Lawrence, can I ask why you assumed I was the innocent party, and you didn’t immediately take your sister’s side?”

  “Form. When I was nine, Evelyn used to steal my pocket money, and when she was caught red-handed she blamed it on our nanny, who got the sack. And after a string of similar incidents at school, my dear father had to build a new library to prevent her being expelled.”

  “But that doesn’t prove I’m innocent. Don’t forget, I’ve still got a painting that’s worth over a million.”

  “True, but Evelyn made a mistake when she cast you as nanny on this occasion.”

  “How come?”

  “She told me you’d left the house before she woke on the morning after the party, despite the fact that she joined me for breakfast at around eight thirty.”

  “You’ve lost me.”

  “But you hadn’t left, because you asked Caxton to call a cab around that time to take you back to your hotel. Much as I admire your nerve, courage, chutzpah, call it what you will, Alex, even you wouldn’t have the gall to walk out of the house with a Warhol under your arm and expect the butler to hold open the door of a taxi for you.”

  Alex laughed. “So what are you going to do about your sister?”

  “I’ll wait for her to make her next mistake,” said Lawrence, “which, given her past record, shouldn’t be too long.”

  25

  SASHA

  London

  “I now pronounce you man and wife,” said the vicar. “You may kiss the bride.”

  Sasha took Charlie in his arms and kissed her as if they were on a first date. The congregation of nearly a hundred people burst into applause.

  The bride and groom progressed slo