To Marry For Duty

“The surveillance cameras trained on the area where Christie’s receives merchandise caught a picture of the courier who delivered the jeweled comb. As soon as the CIA agents ran it through a routine check in the international database, one of the Interpol agents tracking an art crime ring recognized him.

“He’s a dark-blond Dane in his mid-twenties who uses several aliases. One of the names he goes by is Lars. This is the man.”

Piper studied the half dozen copies of photographs Nic took from his pocket. The blond, fit-looking Scandinavian type reminded her of men who spent their time in a gym working out.

“A few months ago some Monet paintings were taken from a private collection in Giverny, France, during a daring armed robbery that left two people dead. This Lars turned out to be one of the hit men they caught on tape. Though the police captured two individuals, he managed to escape and has been on the loose ever since.”

“That’s horrible,” she muttered.

“I faxed my cousins the pictures to apprise them of the new development in the case. The second Luc saw the man, he positively identified him as the person he saw Nina kissing so passionately the day she was killed.”

Piper tore her eyes from the pictures to stare at him in disbelief. “Your fiancée was unfaithful to you with an armed murderer?”

Nic took the pictures back and put them in his pocket. “It appears that way, though I had no knowledge of it at the time. My purpose for taking Nina skiing that weekend was to tell her I wanted to end our engagement.”

Shock upon shock.

“End it? I don’t understand. I thought your engagement was binding.”

“It should have been, but as the time grew closer to our wedding, I realized I couldn’t go through with it.”

With every utterance that came out of his mouth, Piper’s mind reeled a little more. “If you felt that way, why did you get engaged in the first place?”

“From the time I was little, our families were close. At thirty-three I still hadn’t found my soul mate, and she was an attractive, eligible woman. Knowing how my father and Señor Robles desired an alliance of our two families, I bowed to the pressure and became engaged to her. I reasoned that at least there would be no surprises in our marriage.

“Unfortunately as the time grew closer to the wedding, I realized I’d only been lying to myself. A union without passion wasn’t to be considered. With my mind made up, I decided to plan a ski trip to Cortina where I could break our engagement and we would talk things out.

“After a few ski runs, we left Max and Luc on the slopes, and went back to the chalet where I finally expressed my feelings. I expected tears and anguish from her. Instead she said she needed to be alone to think, then she rushed out of the chalet.

“That’s when Luc saw her join up with the other man. He followed them and witnessed their embrace. After they parted, she got in line for the tram. Instead of waiting for Max, who’d gone in the ski shop for a minute, Luc followed her to confront her.

“An hour later Max reached me on his cell phone to tell me there’d been a horrendous tram accident involving a group of skiers, among them Nina and Luc.”

Incredible. All of it. “I—I don’t know what to say. It’s ghastly.”

“You’re right. Naturally I suffered over her death the way I would have done for any close friend, but I was never in love with her. In light of what I learned in New York this trip, Luc’s positive identification of the man named Lars has shed a whole new light on the accident.”

“Of course it would.” Piper felt chilled and rubbed her hands along her arms to keep the circulation going.

“More than ever it makes sense why the police never could prove the tram suffered a mechanical failure. After talking it over with Luc and Max, we believe Nina may even have played a role in the theft.”