Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich

left in the safe to be…safe.”
    “Maybe. But think back. What was in the safe when I opened it?”
    “Just that gold,” Riley said.
    “Your eyes see, but they do not observe. Cast your mind back to when I opened the safe. What did you see?”
    “The gold,” Riley said.
    “And?”
    “A fly.”
    “Exactly. What kind of fly?”
    “A fly with big wings. Almost like a dragonfly, but smaller.”
    “It was a mayfly. Also called a shad fly or lake fly. An aquatic insect. It only lives for about twenty-four hours after it sprouts its wings.”
    “And Mrs. Grunwald said no one had been in that room or the safe for days.”
    “But someone was in that room, and in that safe, sometime in the last twenty-four hours. Someone, most probably, who came from the waterfront and tracked the mayfly larvae in with them. Someone who opened that safe but didn’t take the gold. Why not?”
    Riley finished his thought. “They took something else?”
    “Or they planted this gold inside.”
    “But you don’t know which.”
    “No, but I intend to find out. That’s why we’re going to Blane-Grunwald to see Maxine Trowbridge.”
    “Do you think she planted the gold?” Riley asked.
    “I think she has a dislike and fear of Werner and fond feelings for Günter. As his trusted assistant she would know many things, possibly including the combination to his home safe and the code for his security system. When you were working as Günter’s intern, what was your impression of Maxine Trowbridge?”
    “I thought she was very efficient. The ultimate professional. Always appropriately dressed. Always polite. Günter trusted and respected her, but I never saw anything to indicate that the relationship went beyond the office. She worked for Werner before Günter. That was the one oddity. Working for Günter would have been a demotion of sorts.”
    “Unless Werner put her in there to spy on Günter.”
    “Yes. And I suppose I could see him doing that,” Riley said.
    “Since he asked you to spy on me?”
    “It wasn’t stated that specifically, but yes.”
    “And are you spying on me?” Emerson asked her.
    “I suppose I am.” Riley kept her eyes fixed on the road, looking for the bridge exit. “How did you remember the name of an Edgar Allan Poe story?”
    “When the Siddhar was training me, he had me learn all of Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination by heart. Along with the first five books of the Bible, the Purva of Jainism, and the tragedies of Shakespeare.”
    “Just the tragedies?”
    “They have all the good lines.”
    “Why all that memorizing? Don’t you have a computer? Or Google?”
    “ ‘Wax on, wax off.’ ”
    “You’re quoting
Karate Kid
now?”
    “I also memorized a lot of movies from the eighties. But the point was to exercise my mind. The material I memorized was incidental.”
    “Oh, yeah. Like when Mr. Miyagi from
Happy Days
had Ralph Macchio wash his car. It was to teach him a greater lesson. I can’t remember what.”
    “Television lessons tend to be fleeting,” Emerson said.
    “What else did that Siddhar teach you? Did he teach you Kung Fu? I bet he taught you Kung Fu.”
    “He didn’t teach me Kung Fu. Although I know many forms of martial arts.”
    “Does he have a white beard and bushy white eyebrows? Does he wear a long white robe?”
    “No, no, and yes. The robe was terry cloth and I believe he ordered it from Pottery Barn.”
    “Did he do magic tricks? Walk on coals? Sleep on a bed of nails?”
    “I don’t think you take this seriously. But I’m enjoying this repartee. You have an agile mind.”
    “My agile mind is working overtime trying not to panic over the fact that we just committed a felony. Are you sure Irene doesn’t know about the gold bar?”
    “There’s one way we can be sure if she
does
know about it.”
    “What’s that?”
    “If we’re arrested for stealing it,” he said.

R iley pulled the Mustang into Günter’s parking space at Blane-Grunwald and cut