She unfolded the paper and looked at the list.
“Maybe some of what you have here is ready to go?” Audrey asked hopefully.
London sighed. “Only one. It’s a small one, but the Leach painting is ready. I haven’t even started on the rest of these.”
The last item on the list caught her eye. She waved the paper at Audrey. “What is this? A tree topper?”
Audrey didn’t take the sheet. Didn’t even look at it. Instead, she looked at London as if she was stupid. “It’s the thing that goes on top of a Christmas tree.”
London closed her eyes for a moment. “I know what a tree topper is. How is this art?”
“Oh. It’s hand-blown glass encrusted in diamonds.” Audrey set her mug on the table and pulled out her phone. A few swipes and she turned the screen to London.
London took the phone and zoomed in. “We have a problem. I don’t know how to do glass. I’ve never worked in glass as a medium. Unless I smashed it to make a mosaic.”
Audrey blew out a breath. “I was afraid of that, and I did some digging. I thought I had a solution. One of the victims on our list was actually a glassblower.”
“No way.”
“Yeah. I figured two birds, one stone, you know? Call them up, commission the tree topper and pay them an exorbitant amount of money for it. Then we get a forgery and take their name off the list.”
“But?” London asked hesitantly.
“The dude’s shop closed down. His son has his own shop, so I called him. When I asked about a specific custom piece, he shut me down flat. Wouldn’t discuss it and practically hung up on me.”
“Damn. Should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. I still don’t know how to blow glass.”
“Well, babe,” Nikki said, slapping London’s thigh, “it’s a good thing you have a month to learn.”
A month? To learn how to blow glass and come up with reasonable fake diamonds? “Why a month? It’s not even Thanksgiving. Plus, most people leave the tree up until the new year.”
Nikki laughed. It was not a good sound. It held just enough of an edge that London knew there were more problems besides the fact that she didn’t know how to blow glass.
Audrey reached for the wine bottle and topped off London’s cup. “The tree topper belongs to Bruce Moore. He has an annual Christmas party. Huge bash. His Christmas trees are legendary.”
“And?”
“The tree is up for exactly one week. He always has a real tree delivered and decorated the weekend before the party. The day after the party, the tree is taken down and all decorations put back in storage because he spends the rest of the holiday season in Barbados.” Nikki leaned back and spread her arm along the back of the couch.
“Wow.” London had nothing else to say to that. “That’s...”
“Ridiculous?” Audrey offered. “Not worth our time?”
London turned to the hacker. “If it’s not worth our time, why do it? Why not skip this one?”
“Because it’s a challenge,” Nikki said with a gleam in her eye. “We have plenty of time to case the house and watch the staff. A week is plenty of time to break in. And worthwhile? It’s covered in fucking diamonds. It’s worth more than some of these masterpieces we’ve been dealing with.”
“I wanted to skip it,” Audrey said. “Nikki is feeling a bit spicy, so we left it on the list. If you don’t think you can produce a good forgery, though...”
“Challenge accepted,” she said with a smile and raised her glass to clink with her friends. She hadn’t felt much of a challenge in a while. This might be just what she needed to get her creative juices flowing again.
Ezra Fisher snuckinto the back door of the shop hoping to avoid his sister. He owned the damn business, yet he was sneaking around like a teenager. He shouldn’t have to, but he’d been dodging Bronte’s calls and texts, and he knew she’d hunt him down eventually. He was beginning to regret letting her have the apartment above the shop. When he’d bought his house to have a better work-life balance or some shit, he’d told Bronte she could move in. After her divorce, she needed a fresh start. But having her live over his head meant it was more difficult to avoid her.
For him, walking into the shop was better than coming home. Most people went home to relax and escape the office or job. His job, on the other hand, calmed him in ways nothing else could.
So it was almost midnight, and he’d come back to the shop to work.
He checked the computer to see what orders they had, as if he didn’t already know. He always kept tabs on orders, even though it was Bronte’s job to run the administrative end of the business. He’d never thought he’d be running a family business when he started selling his glassworks, but he had no desire to do the office end. Bronte was extremely organized and made sure paperwork was filed. Plus, she loved dealing with customers. She was a people person.