Gabriels Horn (13) by Alex Archer

Author:Alex Archer [Archer, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-01-12T07:00:00+00:00

Salome barely noticed. Her eyes locked on to the painting that sat inside a protective case. She took a small penlight from one of the many pockets in her Kevlar vest. She shone the beam directly on the painting.

The brooding figure of the angel glowed.

Carefully, Salome took a reagent from her pocket, applied it to a handkerchief and knelt to swab it on a corner of the painting. She waited patiently. For a moment nothing happened and her hope remained intact.

Then, slowly, paint lifted from the canvas.

She cursed as she took the reagent from her pocket and upended it across the painting. Applied in greater volume, the paint bubbled from the canvas in strips.

“What’s wrong?” Drake stood nearby in the midst of helping himself to the jewelry in the boxes on a shelf.

“It’s fake,” Salome snarled. “This isn’t the original painting.”

Drake finished adding the jewelry to his bag and glanced at the painting. “You’re sure?”

“Of course I’m sure.” Salome gazed at the painting in disgust. “It’s a very good copy, but it’s forged.”

“You said it was a copy,” Drake stated.

“It is.”

“Not merely guesswork on part of the forger?”

In an instant, Salome saw where Drake was heading with the question. “You think the forger painted this from the original painting?”

Drake shrugged. “You said yourself that no one had seen this painting in years.”

“Yes.”

“Then how did you know what it was supposed to look like?”

“From reports of people who have seen it.” Salome looked at the dripping mess of the painting oozing onto the floor.

“Whoever forged this knew what he or she was doing, love,” Drake declared. “Stands to reason that maybe the artist was working from good source material. Like, for instance, the original painting.”

“Find the painter, find the original,” Salome said.

“Perhaps we can trace the painting’s ownership back. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find him.”

“Someone could have hired the painter,” Salome argued.

“Once we find him, love, we can ask him. This isn’t the end of the world. Or a dead end.”

Salome turned away from the false painting. She sealed away her frustration and anger. All of this could still be sorted out.

The radio receiver in her ear buzzed. She thumbed it on and watched Drake reach up for his receiver at the same time. “Yes.”

“We have visitors,” a man said quietly.

“Who are they?”

“We haven’t identified them.”

“Where are they?”

“Front of the house.”

Salome crossed to the bedroom’s window. One of Drake’s men shut off the light inside the safe at his barked command.

She peered around the edge of the window at the estate grounds. A van sped up the road to the main house. They would arrive in seconds. She felt certain she knew who was inside. Roux had always been driven to succeed.

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