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"Do you have a photo of the painting that was stolen?"Isabella asked.
"That I can help you with."Elio opened a drawer and looked through some papers, pulling out a brochure that listed several paintings with details about the artist and the price of the painting.He turned to one of the last pages and handed it to Isabella."This is it."
"Can we take this with us?"she asked.
"Sí.I don't need it anymore."
"Grazie," she said.
As a group of customers entered the gallery, Elio moved away to help them, and they left the gallery.
Isabella paused on the sidewalk to look at the brochure."Leoni's painting has a similarly narrow point of view, Nick.It's a picture of stones, weathered by water or wind.The background around the stones is blurry, out of focus.It feels very much like the ones by Tomas and Lucinda."She handed him the flyer."Tomas's painting was a bird in a tree, the branches of which faded into a blur of colors."Her brows drew together as she thought."And Lucinda's painting was of steps that went to nowhere and the edges were blurred.That's kind of weird, don't you think?"
"Frankly, I think most art is strange."
"But don't you see that each painting is featuring a specific thing?"
"That's true," he muttered as he handed her the brochure.
"I wonder if they go together in some way.If there's a reason you need all the paintings to see the full picture."
His pulse sped up at her words."You might be on to something."
"It has been known to happen," she said, a smug smile on her lips.
As she put the brochure in her bag, he pulled out his phone and flipped to the photos he'd gotten from his grandmother."Here's Frederico's painting.It's a little different, just shapes and geometric tiles, but the edges are blurred, which matches the others."
She looked at the picture on his phone."It feels very much the same, but I don't know what the shapes represent.However, I still think I'm on to something."
"I think so, too, but how many more paintings are there?"he asked.
"At least one—the gift from Tomas to the mysteriousJ.IfJwas Juliette Sabatini, then she either had the painting and her descendant has it now, or theJis someone else."
He went over that scenario in his mind."If we agree Catherine is Juliette's daughter, then I don't think she had the fifth painting, because after the museum robbery, there was a break-in at our house.That wouldn't have happened if all the paintings were together.There has to be at least one that is missing.And maybe you're right.Jcould be someone else."
"I think if we could put all the paintings together, we'd be able to see the full picture, and then we'd know what is going on."
"That's true.But?—"
"No buts, Nick.It's too early to rip my brilliant theory apart.At least let me have a minute of satisfaction."
He smiled."I was just going to say that if the paintings form some sort of picture, that's great, but why would anyone need to steal the actual canvas if they could just take a picture and put it together, the way we're doing?"
"Damn.That's a good question."
"There has to be something else about the paintings."
"Something on the back of the canvas," she suggested."That you can't see unless you physically have it in your hands."
"Or, as Sam suggested, the paintings could be covering another canvas, maybe a priceless original or a counterfeit."
"Okay.You might be on to something now, too."
"Thank you.I'm still giving you credit for tying them together.We're just not all the way there.But there might be someone who can help us get there."
Isabella let out a long sigh."Yes.It's time to see my mother."
ChapterTwenty-Four
