“Careful,” I said. “That’s awfully close to a nature metaphor.”
“Well,” Eddie said, “lucky for Haig, then.”
“Sure,” Jack said. “He only has two problems. One’s Lau, but he expected that. His plan, if he couldn’t pay him off, was to let Lau have Baxter/Haig and walk away. Find another sucker to finance him and start again.”
“You speak of that plan in the past tense. As though it were over.”
“It is. The other problem interferes. The PRC government’s seriously irritated with him. I don’t think he’ll be getting any more visas.”
Eddie To’s eyes lit up behind the round glasses. “Doug Haig, PNG in the PRC?”
Jack nodded and stuck the silver martini sword into his mouth so he could pull the olives off.
“Can it be?” Eddie said. “Doug Haig’s edge, gone? The era of Haig Hegemony over the field of contemporary Chinese art, coming to a close?”
“The sun sets on every empire,” I said.
“Drink your cosmo,” said Jack.
I held my pink drink up to the light as Eddie had his champagne and squinted at it.
“I’m not sure I want to hear any more,” Eddie said. “It almost sounds like you people framed Doug Haig for something he didn’t do.”
“Would that bother you?”
“Are you serious? I just don’t want to know too much because I don’t want to be arrested when you are.”
“We already were arrested,” I said. “And look at us now.”
“You were?”
“Well, close.”
Eddie waited, but no more explanation was forthcoming. “All right,” he shrugged and said. “The fact that Frank and I have suddenly become Rulers of the Universe is only one of the thunderbolts Lau threw. Among the items he wants us to unload are three new Chaus.”
“He told you you can’t do that until after next week, right?” said Bill.
“‘Unload’ is the least important word in that sentence.” Eddie frowned at Bill. “Three! New! Chaus!
“Well,” I cautiously brought the cosmo closer, “there’ve always been those rumors. And Bernard Yang is ready to authenticate these as real, and possibly new. Of course, authentications are often disputed.”
“These won’t be,” said Jack.
“Not that they’re Chaus, no. But that they were painted in the last year or so. I just want Eddie to be prepared. He may get a different opinion from Dr. Snyder, or from the real Dr. Lin.”
“There’s a fake Dr. Lin?” Eddie asked.
Jack didn’t answer that. Instead, he said, “He won’t.”
I’d been about to taste the pink thing, but I stopped. “Jack? What are you saying? Those are the Chaus from Anna’s room. From the Tiananmen days. They’re not new.”
Jack paused before he spoke. “When I told Dr. Yang about the plan, after the first burst of Jack-that’s-insane, he started arguing details. He said those three Chaus were Anna’s, given to her before she was born so she’d never forget what’s important. He couldn’t give them away, they weren’t his. Anyone else, I’d have thought he didn’t want to part with them because they’re worth so much. But Dr. Yang would do anything for Anna. So I thought maybe he wasn’t interested in any scheme that would get Mike Liu out of prison.”
“Mike Liu’s getting out of prison?” Eddie broke in.
“He’s out, Eddie.”
“Let Jack finish,” I said.
“But—” said Eddie, looking like the Red Queen had just suppressed him.
“It’s not public yet,” said Jack. “So keep it in your hat. It will be, in a few days.”
“I—” Eddie stopped. “Am I supposed to have any idea what we’re talking about?”
“No.”
“Oh. Fine.” He reached for a fig.
“So I asked him,” Jack said. “About Mike. He told me to back off. He’d opposed the marriage because he didn’t want Anna involved with a Chinese dissident, something he knew something about. But now Mike’s his son-in-law, now he’s family. I said, then for his son-in-law’s freedom, Anna’s happiness, and incidentally her career, this was his best shot. Now, Eddie, here’s what matters to you. Where Dr. Yang got stuck every time was at claiming Chau was alive. I told him we had to, that we had to make them want badly something that they couldn’t get, so they’d demand second best, which was the smuggler. He dug in and fought me. I thought his problem was the old idea of exploiting his friend.”
“But?” I said.
“Finally he told me he had to think and he’d call me. When he did and agreed, I thought I’d just worn him down. Then at the gallery he pulled those paintings out, and I got it. You were blindsided because he brought three. For me it was the paintings themselves.”
