Ripped From the Pages (23 page)

“I’m not discounting it completely. Garrity could very well have stolen the Renoir.
And since we have nothing concrete to go on so far, any thoughts or theories are welcome.”

I pushed myself off the couch and found my purse. Pulling out a little notepad and
pen, I began to jot down names.

“What have you got there?” he asked after swallowing another sip of tea.

I grinned. “A suspect list. So far we’ve got Elizabeth Trent and Noland Garrity. Any
or all of the Frenchmen, but especially Henri. And I’d love to add Darlene and Shawn,
but I have a feeling they’re long gone. But I’m adding Josh Atherton because he asks
too many questions and he’s probably going to go out with Annie. So of course, we
need to investigate him.”

“Of course,” he said, smiling.

“Darlene and Shawn are the perfect suspects,” I said sentimentally. “Alias Smith and
Jones. Even their name sounds criminal.”

“And they’re quite friendly,” Derek remarked. “They could
easily have struck up an acquaintance with Trudy and finagled an invitation into her
home.”

“Wow, that’s true.”

“But they’re so easily recognized with all that bright red hair,” he said. “They’d
be taking a big chance showing their faces in Dharma again.”

“It could be worth it to them.”

Derek’s mouth twisted into a frown. “And they did have all those lock-picking tools.
Although, truth be told, they couldn’t have broken into the caves with those tools.
Gabriel would’ve been after them in a heartbeat.”

“But somebody got into the caves, right? Maybe they snuck in while the door was open.
Could one of the winery workers have gone in there and left the door open for a minute
or two?”

“Anything’s possible,” Derek said. “But Robson announced that the caves were off-limits,
so I can’t imagine anyone in Dharma going against his edict. Although it’s conceivable
that an employee would have to go in there for some legitimate reason. Even if they
were locked and secured.”

Something occurred to me. “My brothers probably have the security codes to the doors.”

“And it’s quite possible that they’ve gone inside once or twice in the last week or
so.”

“And if some felonious critter has been watching the doors, he could sneak in behind
them.”

Derek smiled at my words, but he quickly sobered. “That might indeed be the way Garrity
obtained entry.”

“Sneaky bastard,” I muttered, and stared at my list of names. “Does Gabriel’s security
system make a note each time the doors are opened and closed?”

“Yes, of course,” he said, contemplating the possibilities. “And
the closed-circuit cameras record everything. It all shows up on an elaborate printout.”

“Can we get a look at it? I’d like to create a timeline for all these suspects and
add the security information to it.”

“Excellent idea, darling.” He pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll set up a meeting with
Gabriel first thing tomorrow morning.”

Bright and early Thursday morning I followed my doctor’s advice and took the last
of my bandages off. I was giddy with relief that I could finally take a real shower
and wash my hair. By the time we left for our meeting with Gabriel at eight o’clock
at his house, I felt as fluffed and fresh as a pretty flower.

Derek drove for a full mile up a winding road high in the hills above Dharma. When
he came to a stop, I was mystified. I hadn’t even known this place existed until that
moment. I’d grown up in Dharma and was familiar with most of the town’s nooks and
crannies and hideaways, but I’d never realized there was a beautiful home tucked away
at the tip-top crest of Dragon Valley Road.

As I gazed down one side of Gabriel’s steep mountain, the view was of green terraced
vineyards with grapevines that seemed to spread out forever. On the other side of
the hill, I could see the ocean in the far distance as the marine layer was beginning
to break up.

His home was a modified log cabin, similar to Austin and Robin’s alpine home, only
bigger. There was a pool in back with a good-sized patio deck, and along the side
of the house were three large satellite dishes. These were the really big ones, the
kind found at television studios and around airports.

What in the world? Maybe Gabriel really loved television, but this was ridiculous.
Then I remembered how he talked about his drones and wondered if there was a connection
between the drones and these dishes.

“Brooklyn,” Derek said, “are you coming?”

“Yes, but did you see those dishes? They’re huge.”

“Gabriel does a lot of communicating by satellite.”

“Oh.” I didn’t even know what that meant.

Gabriel met us at the door, looking impossibly sexy in a black T-shirt and stonewashed
jeans. “Hey, babe,” he said, giving me a hug. He smelled delicious and made me wonder
how a simple citrus-and-spicy scent could be so dangerous.

Derek smiled indulgently, secure in the knowledge that I considered him even more
dangerously handsome than our dashing friend. He shook Gabriel’s hand. “Thanks for
meeting us on short notice.”

“No problem,” Gabriel said, and led the way down a wide hallway and into a small conference
room next door to his office. On the wall was a giant map of the world with lots of
little pins stuck in certain spots. There was also a map of the oceans and the sky.
I was afraid to ask what all those little pins signified.

A full coffee service along with an inviting basket of croissants and scones was laid
out on the credenza under the window. The view out the bay window was of the pool
and spa.

“Your home is beautiful,” I said. “I didn’t realize you’d moved to Dharma permanently.”

“It’s permanent for now,” he said, grinning as he glanced out the window. “I like
it here. And being at the top of the mountain has its advantages.”

“I’ll say. Your views are spectacular.” I could think of other advantages that probably
had something to do with those satellite dishes.

“Can I get you some coffee or tea?” he asked.

“I’d love some tea, but I can take care of it.”

“Okay. Help yourself to the goodies, too.”

“Thanks.” I took a blueberry scone and a cup of tea. Even though the coffee smelled
delicious, my system wasn’t quite ready for it yet.

Derek poured coffee for himself, and we sat at the conference table.

Gabriel handed us a thick printout of the security system log and pointed out that
he’d arranged it so that the top three pages listed the activity at the doors to the
storage cave. The hours were listed in military time. As soon as I solved that little
puzzle, I was able to read the information more comprehensively.

I pulled my desk calendar out of my satchel and opened it to the first week we’d moved
to Dharma. I angled it on the table so that both men could see it. Pointing to Monday
of that week, I said, “This was the day we excavated and discovered the first cave
and the body of Jean Pierre Renaud. The police investigators were in and out numerous
times, but you didn’t have your security up and running yet. Later that day, I found
the note in the book, and on Tuesday, Derek and I found the second cave. Wednesday
we spoke to Trudy and showed her the cave. That night, we all met with Robson at my
parents’ house, and he asked you to beef up security for the caves.”

“Right,” Gabriel said, “and the following morning, Thursday, my team was installing
new alarm systems on the cave doors.” He used a pencil to point to the first line
of data on his sheet. “This first log-in time corresponds to that moment. We were
testing the systems all day, so you can see a series of notations. They aren’t as
important as the times on the next page.”

“That’s the same morning I started my inventory list.”

Derek consulted his phone calendar. “And later that day, we had lunch with the Frenchmen.”

“That feels like such a long time ago,” I marveled, “but it’s barely been three and
a half weeks.”

“A lot has happened since then,” Derek said.

“I’ll say.”

We went through all of our calendars and tried to match up
our visits to the cave with the corresponding times on Gabriel’s security log.

“I’ve got seven entries logged that first weekend,” Gabriel said.

“We were in and out of the caves those first few days,” I recalled. “I was still doing
the inventory and you and Derek were setting up light trees to help illuminate everything.
And the police were there a couple more times, weren’t they?”

“Yes,” Derek said. “And Robson brought a few members of the commune board over to
see what we were up to. Everyone was quite excited.”

“I get that,” Gabriel said.

“It took me three days to complete the inventory, working a few hours each day.” I
went through my calendar and told Gabriel which days I was in the caves. He checked
off the corresponding log entries.

“If my notes are correct,” Derek said, staring at his phone screen, “that following
Tuesday, Robson called us over to request that we talk to the press. He had heard
from the town mayor back in France, and he’d already hired the art appraiser. Word
of the discovery had spread around the world.”

“Yeah, I’ve got that on my calendar, too,” Gabriel muttered.

“And Mom did a cleansing ritual the next day, Wednesday morning.”

“Can’t leave that out,” Gabriel said, smiling. “And it’s indicated right here on the
chart.”

“Now it gets tricky,” I said. “Because Wednesday afternoon, Derek went to see the
Frenchmen to set up a tour of the caves for them. And Trudy heard from Elizabeth for
the first time. It doesn’t have much to do with the caves, but I mention both incidents
because all of them are suspects as far as I’m concerned.”

“How did Elizabeth contact Trudy?” Gabriel asked.

“Elizabeth called her out of the blue,” I said. “She’s the granddaughter of an old
friend of Trudy’s. I guess that part’s true enough,
although we should probably double-check. Elizabeth told Trudy that she’d seen something
about the cave discovery in her local paper, and she asked Trudy if she wouldn’t mind
having a visitor for a week. Trudy was thrilled.”

“Sounds reasonable so far,” Gabriel said.

I glanced at Derek. “By the way, it was during that same visit with Trudy that she
gave me the letter that I wanted translated. I contacted my online group that night.”

“Busy day,” Derek said.

“And for the next three or four days, we were preparing for the photo exhibit. Robin
and I were in and out of the caves, taking pictures, while Mom was setting up volunteers
and such.”

“Can you pin down the number of times you and Robin were there?”

I thought about it. “Okay, twice on that Thursday, once on Friday for four hours,
and once on Saturday, but just for about a half hour.”

Gabriel checked off a number of items on his sheet. “Okay, got ’em. Except there’s
another entry on Saturday afternoon.”

“That was the tour I gave the French families,” Derek noted.

“When did Elizabeth arrive in town?” Gabriel asked.

“The following Wednesday.” I frowned, remembering something else. “Now that I think
about it, Trudy waited until Amelia was out of the room before she told us about Elizabeth’s
visit. I wonder if Amelia was suspicious of Elizabeth from the very start.”

“Interesting,” Gabriel murmured.

“On the other hand,” I said with a shrug, “Amelia never liked having anyone around,
so maybe Trudy just waited until she was out of earshot to save herself the aggravation
of an argument.”

“That’s the more likely scenario,” Derek admitted, having met Amelia himself.

“I guess so.” I checked my notes. “But wait. Before Elizabeth
arrived, the horrible Noland Garrity showed up. He came on Monday, two days before
the exhibit opened.”

“What day did you go to lunch with Elizabeth?” Derek asked.

“That was Thursday, the day after the exhibit opened.”

Gabriel leaned forward in his chair. “Were you able to learn anything about her?”

“She told me she lives in some dinky town in Wisconsin. No, sorry. It’s in Michigan.
She didn’t give me the name of the town, but it’s somewhere on the Upper Peninsula.
She was lamenting that there aren’t any good Mexican restaurants in the area. She’s
a navy brat. Spent some time in Sicily. None of this is helpful, is it?”

Derek chuckled. “It’s a start, love.”

“You’d be surprised what we can find out from that little bit of intel,” Gabriel said,
winking at me.

I was smiling back at him when I suddenly realized something and jumped from my chair.
“Oh my God,” I cried, pacing the floor. “Oh my God, I completely forgot to tell you
this part.” I stopped and pressed my palms against my forehead. “How could I have
forgotten?”

Derek stood and put his arms around me. “What part, love?” He clearly thought I needed
comforting, and maybe I did.

“I’m so sorry. I think this might be significant, but I have no idea why.” My head
was starting to spin from the exertion. Derek helped me back into the chair as though
I were an invalid.

“I feel so silly forgetting to tell you, but there’s been a lot going on.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Derek said, taking another moment to rub my back.

“Sorry to be such a drama queen,” I said, feeling even dumber for causing that little
scene, “and it’s probably not even important.”

“Tell us and we’ll help you figure out what it means,” Gabriel said.

“Okay. After we had lunch, I took Elizabeth over to the town hall to show her the
photograph exhibit. Her attention was immediately drawn to the alleged Renoir painting.
She forgot all about me and just stood there staring at that photograph. So I wandered
around for a while, ran into the odious Mr. Garrity and exchanged a few insults, and
after he left, I saw Robin. She was there to show off her photos to Austin and Jackson.”

“I’m with you so far,” Gabriel said.

“So I stopped to talk to those guys, and then Robin and Austin walked away to check
out the exhibit. Jackson stayed with me, and I invited him to dinner the next night
at Savannah’s restaurant. I wanted to introduce a bunch of people to Elizabeth because
Trudy’s hoping if she makes enough friends, maybe she’ll move here.”

“That’s the dinner I had to turn down,” Gabriel said. “Sorry about that.”

“I know you were busy,” I said, smiling. “We’ll do it again sometime.” I frowned.
“If Elizabeth doesn’t turn out to be a psychopathic killer.”

Derek pointed to the calendar. “That dinner was Friday night, so your conversation
with everyone at the exhibit would’ve been Thursday.”

“Right,” I said. “Same day as my lunch with Elizabeth. So there I am, talking to Jackson,
and he agrees to go to dinner with us, and suddenly I hear this big gasping sound
behind me. I turn and see Elizabeth, who looks like she’s seen a ghost. She can’t
breathe. And now I’m worried, so I turn back to Jackson for help. And he’s gone. Vanished.”

“Where’d he go?” Gabriel asked.

“I have no idea. It was like he vanished in a cloud of smoke.”

“What did Elizabeth say?”

I rolled my eyes. “She made up this story about how she thought she saw some woman
she used to know. I told her we
should go find the woman, but Elizabeth insisted that it wasn’t that woman, after
all. She got over it pretty quickly.”

“Sounds bogus,” Gabriel said.

“I thought so, too. And then Jackson didn’t show up for dinner the next night.”

“Yep, definitely bogus,” Gabriel said.

“I totally agree.”

“So you believe they knew each other,” Derek said.

“Doesn’t it sound that way to you?”

“Yes, it does,” he said. “I think we should have a talk with Jackson after we finish
up here.”

“Can you get me a photograph of Elizabeth?” Gabriel asked.

“I’ll take care of it,” Derek murmured as he typed a note into his calendar.

I’d watched
NCIS
enough times to know that Derek could submit Elizabeth’s photograph to a facial recognition
program and find out who she really was within minutes. Hopefully she wasn’t some
sort of criminal mastermind, but you never knew.

“Let’s get back to the caves,” Gabriel said. “Since last Thursday, the day of your
lunch with Elizabeth, and up until yesterday, I’ve got log entries once each day and
twice on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday.”

Derek checked his calendar and frowned. “I had time scheduled with Garrity every day
but Saturday.”

I sat back in my chair. “So Saturday there were two entries and neither of them were
yours?”

“That’s right. Along with one extra entry on Sunday and Tuesday.” He thought for a
moment. “No, Garrity and I only entered the caves once on those days.”

“What times? Do you remember?”

Derek told him the times he met Garrity and Gabriel checked off the applicable entries.
“So we’ve got a question mark for
Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning, and Tuesday morning.”