“In exchange for what?”

“Two things. First, and most important, safe passage off the island.”

“And the second?”

I drew in a breath. “Second, you let all the hostages live.”

It was a calculated risk, but it was one I had to take.

“And why do you care so much about those folks?” Clementine asked. “Considering that just a minute ago, you were telling me to put a couple of bullets into Eva Grayson?”

“Well, let’s just say that this isn’t exactly a solo job. As I’m sure you know, you can’t pull a heist like this without greasing a few palms. Well, more than a few. This is Ashland, after all. Anyway, I have a connection or two in the rotunda whom I’d like to see live through the night. Connections that will make it far easier for me to cash in on all my lovely, lovely diamonds.”

“Well, if you care so much about your supposed friends, I could just start shooting people until you decide to turn that tube over to me,” she threatened.

“You could,” I agreed. “Although there are, what, two hundred and some people in the rotunda? The odds aren’t good that you’ll kill my connections. At least, not immediately. Besides, you start shooting folks, and the others will rise up and try to stop you. Self-preservation has a nasty habit of kicking in like that. And while you’re busy fighting off a mob, I’ll be slipping off the island. I’ll find some way off this rock. Trust me on that. The second I’m back on the mainland, I’m a ghost, gone, and whatever’s in this fancy tube along with me. Do you really want to take that chance, sugar?”

She fell silent again. All around me, the others shifted on their feet. The hums of crickets and the bellows of bullfrogs filled in the quiet. In the distance, I could hear the faint sloshing of the Aneirin River as it flowed around the island.

“Fine,” Clementine finally snarled. “I want what’s in that tube more than I want to kill the hostages.”

Well, that, and she had been planning to let them live all along. But I’d take what I could get.

“Excellent,” I drawled. “I thought you might see things my way.”

“Meet me at the boathouse on the back side of the island,” Clementine said. “That’s where we’ll make the exchange. You don’t show, and I tell my men to start shooting.”

It took me a moment to figure out that she was talking about the dock. In the summer, the museum let visitors rent out small plastic paddleboats and steer them through a series of canals that had been carved into and around the island. All the paddleboats were launched from the large dock at the back tip of the island.