Above the Fold by Corrina Lawson

Author:Corrina Lawson [Lawson, Corrina]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781648983887
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Grayson walked toward Amanda’s office at the Museum of Historic Arts, dreading this encounter.

One unfortunate side effect of Patricia’s story was that Eleanor knew her father defused the bomb with only seconds left. His daughter was proud of him but also terrified by the close call, so he’d spent as much time as possible with her.

But his ex-wife had taken his being solicitous as a sign they might get back together. Alarming and confusing at the same time.

Amanda had left her office door open. Grayson walked inside only to find the room empty. Her Wang computer was still on, and she had correspondence on her desk. Perhaps she’d been called to another part of the museum unexpectedly. He’d wait.

A new Matisse print hung on the wall behind her desk, cradled in a beautiful frame of natural wood.

He turned at the low murmur of voices filtering through the closed connecting door to Windergaard’s office. He walked to the door as the voices grew louder and angrier. He recognized Windergaard’s nasal tone first, then Dante Sidney’s deeper voice.

Amanda cut Sidney off. “Yelling at each other isn’t going to help. We all need to calm down.”

“I’m not changing anything because of new so-called threats, and you shouldn’t either,” Windergaard said.

Grayson put his ear to the door.

“You have no idea how ruthless these people can be, Windergaard,” Sidney said. “I want to shut the exhibit down and take what’s left of my paintings.”

Sidney had sounded content and confident when having dinner with Patricia last week. Something had changed.

“You have a contract with the museum for nine months,” Windergaard said. “You cannot remove those paintings until then.”

“Who will stop me? You?”

“I’ll get a court injunction and then law enforcement will stop you,” Windergaard said.

“Max, for God’s sake, we can work this out without going that far,” Amanda said.

“I’m not shutting down, and I’m not letting you shut my exhibit down,” Windergaard said.

“Dante, think about this,” Amanda said. “You’ve put in so much time and effort with this exhibit. You were as excited as everyone else when it finally opened. Do you want to give that up?”

“If the paintings aren’t safe, yes,” Sidney said. “You haven’t convinced me they are.”

“We have a much-improved security arrangement now,” Amanda said. “I trust Edmund to keep things safe.”

Thank you, Amanda.

“And you think that your ex-husband’s arrangements will make a difference?”

Sidney said “ex-husband” with a sneer.

“We have a new backup system for our alarm and additional cameras in that storage closet and the opening to the cavern below,” Amanda said, her voice cold. “Edmund’s going to give you a tour just as soon as your schedule frees up, Max. Clearly, we may need to reevaluate the security in light of these new threats, but we need experts for that, don’t we? Or we could just keep arguing about it amongst ourselves.”

She’d defended him nicely. He owed her.

“The paintings are mine,” Sidney said.

“Not until this is over,” Windergaard said. “That was our deal. Sealed in writing.”

What did Windergaard have to do with turning over ownership to Sidney?

A chair squeaked as someone sat down.

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