Suddenly remembering that Teren was still hurt, she pulled back. “Jeez, I’m sorry, Ter, are you okay? I didn’t mean —”
Teren laughed and held up a hand. “I’m fine. You didn’t hurt me.” She tweaked Alex’s nose. “Nice to see that smile again.”
Alex hugged her again, more gently this time. She glanced at Gerd to find his amused eyes on them. “I guess we’ll be leaving you, then, Gerd. Will you miss us?”
The blonde German laughed. “More than I can tell you. Things are always much quieter when Teren isn’t around. But when she’s in town —” he rolled his eyes, “everything under the moon happens.”
Teren gave him a mock glare. “I can’t help it if I’m always having to come to your rescue.”
“Rescue? My rescue? Sure, and what about the time —”
Teren put a hand to her head, and feigned a groan. “Suddenly I feel my headache coming back, full force.”
“Teren, would you please move those so I can put the plates down?”
The dark head nodded absently, but the papers in front of her didn’t move.
Alex sighed and put the plate in front of her friend right on top of the paper she was trying to read.
“Hey, stop that. I’m trying to read.” Teren moved the plate to the middle of the table.
“No kidding. And I’m trying to set the table. Gerd’s going to be back here with the pizza soon.” She shook her head. “I still don’t see why we’re having pizza, something we can get all the time in the US, while we’re in Germany. Shouldn’t we be having something with German sausage?”
“It does have German sausage.” Teren finally raised her head. “Besides, this is the absolute best pizza place I’ve ever been to. It’s called ‘Quo Vadis’ and they make a great crust, with loads of toppings.” She licked her lips. “You’ll love it, wait and see.”
“Uh-huh.” Alex looked unconvinced. “Would you please at least put those papers away for now? The doctor would shoot me for letting you read.”
“Hey, the doctor released me, remember?”
“Yeah, less than an hour ago.” There was a knock at the door, and Alex went to open it. She called back over her shoulder, “And he said you still need to take it easy. So, put the papers back in the folder, and rest.”
Teren snorted. “I’ll get plenty of rest on the plane.” But she dutifully put the papers into the folder, and set it aside.
Alex opened the door and let Gerd in. “Mmmm. That smells wonderful.”
“It will taste even better.” Gerd deposited the pizza box on the table and opened it. Inside was a large pizza, with thick crust, extra cheese, German sausage, onions, peppers, and tomatoes.
Teren grinned and reached for a slice.
“Hey,” Gerd slapped her hand, “wait your turn. Alex goes first, then me, then you.”
“Why am I last?”
“Because I paid for it, and Alex set the table. We did the work, we get the first rewards.”
“How do you know I didn’t set the table?”
The German raised an eyebrow. “Because if you tried, Alex would have tied you to the chair to keep you off your feet.”
Alex laughed, and Teren grumbled. She glared at each of her friends, but waited until they’d both served themselves.
“Yeah, you just wanted the biggest piece, Gerd, I know you.”
“Absolutely. The biggest and the best, Teren, that’s me.” He bit into his piece and smiled at them. Teren rolled her eyes.
For several minutes there was nothing but the sound of crusts being crunched. Alex noticed that Teren’s eyes kept wandering back to the file still sitting next to her on table.
“So, Teren, what’s in the file? Gerd looked at a few sheets, but didn’t get a chance to really tell me.”
Gerd shrugged. “I wasn’t sure what I was reading about. Obviously made a lot of connections, but I didn’t understand it all. There were names there that we had talked about, and a few reports addressed to Eisenbein.”
“There’s a lot more there than that.”
Teren took another bite, and Alex waited patiently. Finally, she said, “Well, tell us what you read.”
The dark haired woman chewed and swallowed, then took a drink.
“The file includes orders from John Treville concerning pieces of the treasure, which means at the very least he could end up in court for trafficking in stolen goods. However, he identifies certain pieces that he wants, and why he wants them. In one letter, with his signature, he says he’s going to give George Mather a silver cup and several coins with Hitler’s portrait. He says it will be an added payment for the ‘service’ he’s done for the cause.”
“But that doesn’t actually come out and tie Treville to the killings,” observed Alex.
“No, not in his words. But, later on, less than three months ago, he sent another message talking about how Mather was trying to sell the goblet. He was furious, and said he would see Mather burn.” She took a bite of her pizza, and chewed quickly. “A report from Stephen Radcliffe said that CJ had approved Treville’s plan to kill Mather in return for his betrayal. He also said it had been stupid to think Mather had any honor, quote, the man just likes killing and would have killed Fletcher and Dabir for half the price, unquote.”
Alex leaned back. “Well, that ties Treville to the conspiracy, but we no longer have Radcliffe to confirm what he wrote. Therefore, it could be argued as hearsay.”
“True. It’s not a strong enough connection on it’s own. But we do have Jane Brogan’s eyewitness account.”
“We hope.”
Teren frowned. “Yeah, hope.” She sighed. “I don’t like this with Radcliffe getting killed. I have a bad feeling that someone, possibly White or Treville, or even CJ, are trying to break any possible connections with the plot.”
“My bet is CJ.”
“Mine, too. That means another string of bodies, unless we can get to him first.”
Tapping her fingers, Alex nodded. “Yeah. All we have to do is figure out who he is.” She looked up at the ceiling and rotated her neck a few times. “Well, we know he works for either the FBI or the CIA, possibly in a higher than average position.”
“Hmm,” Teren leaned forward, and picked up the letter to CJ, “no, I don’t think he’s CIA.”
“Why not?” Gerd asked.
“Well, in Eisenbein’s letter to CJ, it mentions that both agents were killed by Mather. Now, later in the file, close to the very end, there’s a note from Treville saying that there’d been a mistake; one of the agents had survived, and CJ had just found out. If CJ was CIA he would have known almost immediately that I wasn’t dead.”
“Does it say anything else about you?” Alex asked curiously.
“Not really. Treville said he was glad I didn’t know him, and that CJ had decided not to send anyone after me because it would draw more attention.” She gave Alex a feral grin. “Besides, they thought I couldn’t do any damage without my partner. Who would think that a woman could give them problems?”
Her partner gaped at her. “Treville said that?”
“Yep.” She winked. “Bet he thinks differently, now that we cut his lifeline.”
“Actually, he cut his own.”
“How so, Gerd?” Teren popped the last bite of pizza into her mouth and reached for another slice.
“Well, the money. First off, Eisenbein is dead, and he was one of the two signers. You said that Radcliffe was the second signer, but he’s been killed as well. No one can legally touch the Swiss bank account.” He nodded to himself, adding, “and with the copies of the bank records, there is a possibility, small though it is, that we can retrieve it through an international court, and put it to good use.”
Alex raised an eyebrow. “I think we might have different ideas on what that good use would be, Gerd.”
“True,” he said quietly. “But perhaps we could agree it would do the least amount of good in the vaults of the Swiss bank.”
“Oh, yeah,” Alex nodded, “I can definitely agree with that.”
Teren wouldn’t admit it, but Alex could tell that her head was hurting again. She knew she was right when Teren stumbled as she got up from the table. Gerd grabbed her to keep her from falling. Alex was around in seconds to take her other arm, and they walked her over to the couch.