Tell Me No Lies Read Online Free PDF

door.
    "They'll arrest you," taunted White.
    Lindsay ignored him and opened the door.
    "Ah, hell, Lindsay. You know I'm just kidding. Sit down and drink some coffee."
    Lindsay looked over her shoulder at her boss. He was tall, dark, very wealthy, twice-divorced and considered handsome by women who lacked the desire or brains to look beyond his surface. His father and grandfather had been avid collectors of Oriental objects d'art. White was an avid collector of weekend affairs. There were days when Lindsay seriously considered becoming one of his two-day stands simply to end the relentless pressure. She had no doubt that once he had bedded her, he would lose interest in her. Again, it was nothing personal. It was simply the way L. Stephen White was with women. Like many collectors, whatever he hadn't yet acquired had far more allure than all the pieces that had been bagged, tagged and filed under Yesterday.
    "Cream or sugar?" O'Donnel asked quietly.
    Lindsay's indigo eyes measured him and saw only a desire to defuse the situation. "Yes, please," she said. "Both."
    "Coming up." O'Donnel vanished into an adjoining room.
    "How was Canada?" asked White. "See anything good?"
    Lindsay thought she heard more than the usual amount of interest in the latter question. "Beautiful. No."
    "In that order?"
    Lindsay nodded.
    "Hell," sighed White. "My father's all over me like a rash about the hole we have in our Warring States and early Han bronze collections."
    "Then why did you send me to look at an early Chou collection?" she asked.
    "Not close, huh?"
    "You missed it by several centuries," said Lindsay dryly. She was accustomed to the fact that the director of the Museum of the Asias was militantly uninterested in ancient Chinese bronzes. That was why she had been hired – to placate the grandfather to whom Chinese bronzes represented all that was sublime in art. It was unusual, however, for White to miss the mark so widely.
    "Nothing else, uh, turned up?" he asked.
    This time Lindsay was certain she heard more than casual curiosity. "No. Were you expecting something?"
    O'Donnel came back through the connecting door, carrying two mugs of coffee. Lindsay murmured her thanks and looked at the mug curiously. It was thick, cream-colored and emblazoned with the FBI seal in gold and deep blue. She looked up as another man came into the room, a man who needed neither badge nor seal to mark him. From the short steel-gray hair to the wing-tipped shoes, the man fairly shouted FBI.
    "That was quick, Brad. Did you get him?" asked White, looking up from his coffee. Despite the first-name familiarity, there was respect in White's voice as he spoke to the older man.
    The man shook his head. "Still busy. I'll give it a few more minutes and then send a car for him."
    "Bradford Stone, Lindsay Danner," said O'Donnel, completing the introductions with admirable economy.
    Suddenly White's familiarity with O'Donnel and his boss made sense to Lindsay.
    "Mr. Stone," said Lindsay, holding out her hand. "Jason White has mentioned you many times."
    "Still telling Korean war stories, I'll bet," Stone said, smiling and shaking her hand firmly.
    "More than one Oriental art collection began then," said Lindsay. "The spoils of war."
    Stone smiled enigmatically and changed the subject. "Have Terry and Steve told you why you're here?'
    "No."
    "Please sit down, Miss Danner," Stone said politely. "Or is it Ms.?"
    "Whichever you prefer."
    "Well, then. Miss Danner, I understand you're an expert on old Chinese bronzes."
    "Er, yes," murmured Lindsay. She sipped the potent coffee. Like the rest of the FBI setting, it was masculine and utterly lacking in finesse.
    "I also understand that you have an uncanny talent for telling forgeries from the real McCoy."
    Lindsay blinked and wondered if now was the time for modesty. "Any expert – " she began carefully.
    "Don't get coy on me, Lindsay," interrupted White, cutting across her cautious words. "You know damn well that's why I hired