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She just wished the paintings gave a bigger clue than just a general place to go.Why weren't there more specific directions?They'd gone to the trouble of creating a set of paintings that would lead to a location.Why stop there?
On impulse, she grabbed the painting from the back seat and turned it over.The canvas had been attached to the frame by small tacks.There was nothing written on the back of the canvas.But there was a loose edge between the canvas and the frame.
"What are you doing?"Nick asked.
"I want to take this apart."
"Why?"
"To see if there's anything hidden on the wood frame beneath the canvas.I need something to pull up the tacks."
Nick shifted is his seat and then took a small compact tool kit out of his pocket."You should be able to find something in this."
"Wow.You're quite the Boy Scout."
He laughed."I was never a Boy Scout, but I often find myself in situations where I need the right tool."
She found a flathead screwdriver and pushed it under the first tack.With some maneuvering, she pulled the tack out and then continued along until she had released two sides of the canvas.Pulling up those sides, she saw nothing written on the frame or the wood, but she'd gone this far.She might as well keep going.She finished taking the painting apart and as she turned the wood around, her pulse jumped.
"There are numbers," she said."One-five.I wonder what that means."
"No idea," he muttered."Could it be the fifth painting?"
"Possibly.But what does the one mean?Maybe it will make more sense when we get to the school.I wish I knew if the other paintings also had numbers on the frame.This could mean absolutely nothing."
"Wasn't there a number in Lucinda's sketchbook that we couldn't figure out?"
"Yes," she said, remembering the number two that had been placed on one of the stairs in the sketch but then taken out.She looked at the actual painting again, but there weren't any numbers on the art itself."There's no number on the canvas, just the frame."
"Those numbers have to mean something.We just have to figure out what."
She handed him back the tool."I wish this traffic would speed up," she said with a groan as they came to another complete stop."I'm afraid the school will be closed when we get there."
"Well, we'll soon find out."
Unfortunately, soon was almost an hour later.It was after seven when they finally arrived.The school was dark, with not a single car in the parking lot next to it.
"It's closed," she said with intense disappointment."What should we do?I hate the idea of waiting until tomorrow."
"Let's see if there's an open door," Nick replied.
"That seems unlikely."
"You never know.But wait one second.I want to park further away.No reason to announce that anyone is here."
He moved the car a block away, and then they walked back to the school.She had the now deconstructed piece of wood with the numbers on it in one hand with the canvas rolled up in the other, just in case they needed them for some reason.
They walked around the back of the school and paused in the courtyard.Even in the twilight, she could see the castle on the hill in the distance, the tree by the rock wall and the river.What she didn't see were stairs or patterned tiles.Maybe those were inside the school.But just being here and seeing the same scenes that had been painted by five idealistic artists over fifty years ago strengthened her conviction that they were in the right place.
Nick walked around the interior perimeter of the school, checking doors and windows.
"There are no cameras and no obvious alarm system," he said when he returned to her."After what Victoria said about their crumbling infrastructure and financial issues, I'm guessing security is the least of their concerns."He took out the tool kit she'd returned to him and headed toward the back door.
"We're just going to break in?"she asked, feeling a little breathless at the thought.
"Yes."He paused, giving her a sharp look."Unless you're not up for it?We can wait until tomorrow."
"We'd have to go through Louisa and Victoria then, and we don't know if we can trust them.We're here.Let's do this."
