“He’s dead,” Hunter said. “He didn’t talk about anything but getting shuck of the artifacts. He was afraid of them, or of whoever would take delivery.”
“You’re not making this any easier,” she said under her breath.
“Easy or hard, it’ll get done. Somebody knows where those artifacts came from. Somebody looted them, sold them, maybe they were resold a few times before they were packed in bags of cement mix and taken north. When I find the looters or the middlemen, I’ll find the name of the end buyer. Somewhere along that line, someone will talk. Someone will know about these artifacts.”
Lina was still caught on the bags of cement. “Was it a commercial load in a commercially licensed truck?”
“No. I had a source check it out. The truck was stolen from a building site on the Riviera Maya.”
Thank God, Lina thought. “You know that part of my family’s business in Mexico and the U.S. is cement?”
Hunter nodded. “The bags weren’t from Chel Balam International.”
Not that the wrapping proved anything. Buying bags of cement mix was about as complex as buying tortillas.
“Yet you still came to me,” she said.
Silently he watched her, waiting for her to realize there was no way out.
“This is extortion,” she said. “You want me to walk away, I’ll walk,” he said, reaching for the photos.
“And talk, no doubt,” she said bitterly, smacking his hand away from the photos.
“Does that mean you want me to stay?”
“It means that I have no choice. And we both know it.”
“I’ll pay for your time and expertise,” Hunter said, letting out a hidden breath of relief.
“I’m not a whore with a Ph.D. Now shut up and let me concentrate on these photos.”
Hunter shut up.
About the Author
Elizabeth Lowell’s acclaimed suspense novels include the New York Times bestsellers Blue Smoke and Murder, Innocent as Sin, The Wrong Hostage, Always Time to Die, The Color of Death, Die in Plain Sight, Running Scared, and Moving Target, as well as four books featuring the Donovan family: Amber Beach, Jade Island, Pearl Cove, and Midnight in Ruby Bayou. Lowell has more than thirty million books in print. She lives in Arizona and Seattle, Washington, with her husband, with whom she writes mystery novels under a pseudonym.
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Also by Elizabeth Lowell
Death Echo
Blue Smoke and Murder
Innocent as Sin
The Wrong Hostage
Whirlpool
Always Time to Die
The Secret Sister
The Color of Death
Death Is Forever
Die in Plain Sight
Running Scared
Moving Target
Midnight in Ruby Bayou
Pearl Cove
Jade Island
Amber Beach
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER was previously published in an altered form entitled VALLEY OF THE SUN by Silhouette.
BEAUTIFUL DREAMER. Copyright © 2000 by Two of a Kind, Inc. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2001 ISBN: 9780061800429
Excerpt from Beautiful Sacrifice Copyright © 2012 by Two of a Kind, Inc.
Beautiful Dreamer with Bonus Material Epub Edition Copyright © March 2012 978-0-06-220884-2
First William Morrow hardcover printing: January 2001
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About the Publisher
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