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Jane quickly reached for her tablet computer and scrolled through the hundreds of photos she’d taken the day before. “I’ve been dreaming about the mural.”
Caleb sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Of course you have.”
“I’m serious.” She was still scrolling through the photos. “I’ve been going through every inch of that mural in my mind ever since we first saw it. The right side looks…different.” She pinched her screen to zoom in on one of the mural shots. “See what I mean?”
Caleb squinted at it. “I’m afraid I don’t.”
“The style and colors are the same, but the brushstrokes have a slightly different quality to them.” She zoomed in on the lower right-hand corner, where there was a slight discoloration. “And look at this.”
“An imperfection?”
“It’s more than that. It’s a chip.” She pointed at the spot. “Maybe something was bumped against this painting at some point. In any case, it shows that there’s something underneath this section of the painting. It’s been painted over.”
Caleb nodded. “Don’t artists do this all the time when they’re creating their works? Including you?”
“Of course. But coupled with the difference in brushstrokes in this entire side of the painting, this looks like a drastic revision, possibly by someone else. There has to be a reason for it.”
“Interesting.”
She stared at the photo a moment longer. “I want to see what’s underneath.”
He nodded. “Museum researchers have equipment that can do that, don’t they?”
“Yes. They use infrared reflectography scanners.”
“I know some people at the Louvre who can—”
“I want to see it now.”
He smiled. “Well, unless you happen to have an infrared reflectography scanner with you…”
“I do, kind of.”
His smile faded. “What?”
She reached for her bag and pulled out her camera. “Most digital cameras can be modified for infrared photography. If you know what you’re doing, it only takes a few minutes.”
“And you know what you’re doing?”
She nodded. “I’ve done some IR work myself for a mixed-media piece I did a few years ago. It’s not at the level of a full-bore museum scanner, but depending on the paints used, it could work. You just have to try different focus points to find the layer underneath. I want to go over to the Reiver train now and check it out.”
“Now?”
“Why not?”
“Well, perhaps because we’re waiting for people to arrive who want to kill us?”
“You told me there’s an entire squad of MI6 agents out there making sure that won’t happen.”
“It won’t happen.”
“So if we’re stuck here, why not make use of our time? We’re here, the mural’s here, let’s do this.”
He leaned his jaw on his fist, his lips curving with amusement. “It’s still early. We have plenty of time to do anything we feel like doing.”
“No, we don’t.” She sat up. “We’re on borrowed time just as Farrell and Fiona were. Only this is our decision. I was just lying here and wondering if they were struggling to find a way out, too, when Farrell was painting that wonderful mural.”
“Maybe. We don’t know.”
