Read Online Jade Island by Elizabeth Lowell - Free Book Online Page A

O’Toole’s kitchen was fine with him. “And assume his grave was found.”
    “When?” Lianne said, chewing and swallowing quickly. “Before or after Mao?”
    “Does it matter?”
    “If the goods left mainland China before Mao, the problem of rightful ownership is sticky but not insurmountable.”
    “Like your fingers?”
    Caught with her tongue in mid-lick, Lianne managed to look both guilty and defiant. “There aren’t any chopsticks, and the toothpicks are too slippery.”
    Kyle laughed and wished he knew Lianne well enough to lick those elegant, saucy fingertips himself. “But provenance is insurmountable after Mao?” he asked, watching her closely.
    She nodded, hesitated, then calmly finished licking hoisin sauce from the side of her finger before she put another hors d’oeuvre in her mouth. Slowly her eyes closed while the flavors and textures melted through her.
    “Unbelievable,” Lianne said, and reached for another sliver of duck in a tiny nest of shredded raw vegetables. The second bite was even better than the first. She savored it as she reached for a third tidbit. “Addictive.”
    Kyle forced himself to look away from her intriguing sensual pleasure. “Why are things stickier after Mao?” he asked after a moment.
    “Because it became illegal to export anything more than fifty or a hundred years old from China. Except people,” Lianne added wryly. “They aren’t considered cultural treasures.”
    “Since when has provenance become such a problem for collectors? An avid collector is the last one to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
    “Of course. But when the U.S. and China started to do the trade dance, provenance became a hot-button topic. You can still buy, sell, and own anything your morals are comfortable with; you just can’t display black market goods publicly anymore.”
    Kyle wondered where Lianne drew the line on collectorsand ethics, but he didn’t ask. That would have been as rash as sucking sauce off her fingers.
    A large group of Japanese men approached the buffet tables. Despite the clots of people standing around the food, the men proceeded to go through the buffet as though no one else was in the room. There was nothing intentionally rude in their actions. They were simply accustomed to being at the top of the cultural pecking order.
    “Good thing we filled our plates,” Kyle said, guiding Lianne away from the sudden crowd. “So when was the Jade Emperor’s Tomb found?”
    “Who said it was found at all?”
    “Lots of people.”
    Lianne didn’t bother to argue. She was too busy enjoying a mouthful of lobster in a sauce that tasted like a rainbow with just a tiny bite of lightning at the finish.
    “I’ve heard that the tomb was found during the civil war, before Mao was in power,” she said, swallowing. “I’ve heard that the tomb was found twenty years later. And I’ve heard that it was dug up last year.” She shrugged. “What have you heard?”
    “I’m new to the jade game. I’ve just heard a few rumors. But if the tomb exists, it holds the result of a lifetime of collecting by a man whose bank account was as big as China and whose whim was law. Can you imagine it?”
    “I try not to. I especially try not to think what he might have collected from the Warring States period, which is my special jade passion.”
    “Passion or obsession?”
    “I don’t have the money to be obsessive.”
    He smiled. “And I try not to think about what the Jade Emperor would have collected from Neolithic times, which is my passion. Yet I can’t help imagining what it would be like to discover the greatest collection of Chinese jades ever assembled on earth.”
    “Dream on.”
    “Hey, it’s free. But if a collection like that was found and smuggled out of China, how would it be sold?”
    “That’s what makes me think it hasn’t been found,” Lianne said simply. “There hasn’t been a sale of that size.”
    “Maybe you weren’t invited.”
    “Doesn’t matter.