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“Yes, we are,” replied Devine.
CHAPTER
50
WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”asked Alex as she opened the door to her studio. There were paint smudges on her hands and a broad charcoal stroke on her nose.
Devine looked down at her. “Thought I’d check up on my favorite local artist.”
She grinned and then looked skeptical. “Why don’t I believe that?”
“Can I come in? Pretty cold out here.”
“You’ll have to watch me work. I’ve got a tight deadline.”
“My pleasure.”
He looked at the easel with a four-by-four-foot canvas on it.
“Coffee’s fresh,” she said, pointing to the pot on an electric plate and some cups next to it.
He poured himself a cup and leaned against a table to watch as she went back to work.
“Seems pretty sedate for you,” he noted as he looked over the painting of a lake’s surface with colorful water lilies floating on top. “No male genitalia or anything.”
She laughed. “The client loves Monet but can’t afford that sort of artwork, not that you can just go buy an original Monet these days. They’re either in museums or owned by billionaires. But I’m a good chameleon. I can imitate lots of styles.”
“But you prefer your own style?”
“Every artist does, but you have to pay the bills, too.”
“Did you mention to anyone that I slept here that night?”
She shot him a glance. “No, why?”
“Harper knew about it. He arrested me for breaking and entering—at least that was one of the charges.”
She lowered her palette and brush. “You’ve got to be joking.”
“I wish I were. He let me out but he could pick me up anytime.”
“I’ll talk to him and tell him it was fine that you were here.” “But, like I said, those weren’t the only charges.”
“What else? Urinating in public? From what I’ve seen you could get half the male population up here on that one,” she said jokingly.
He debated whether to say. “It actually involved a piece of evidence from...your case.”
She looked startled. “Mycase?”
“He accused me of stealing it.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I wouldn’t. And didn’t. But the evidenceismissing. Someone took it.”
She set her palette and brush down and came over to him. “What was it?”
He glanced at her before answering. She seemed equal parts angry and...frightened? “It was your rape kit.”
