Harbor Nights by Rick Polad

Author:Rick Polad [Polad, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781939548115
Publisher: Calumet Editions
Published: 2014-05-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 29

According to Ben, he was now leading the good life without responsibilities or a committed relationship. But there were a few times I had convinced him to put on a suit. After a brief explanation about the Cletis situation, he said he’d take on Cletis as a client, listen to what he had to say, and give me an opinion about the guy’s exposure. I took him out for a few beers Friday night.

We got the required Cubs talk out of the way. As usual, they looked good on paper but not so good on the field. We switched to Cletis over the second round.

“Run the confused paintings by me again.” He tossed a handful of peanuts into his mouth. “I’m confused.” He smiled.

I made patterns in the sweat on the side of the bottle with my finger. “Understandable. Join the club. Kathleen had a favorite painting, Blue and Green. The gallery in Chicago had been trying to buy it, but she wouldn’t sell. The frame shop in Fish Creek acts as an intermediary between Kathleen and the Simmons Gallery in Chicago. They pick up…”

“Why didn’t she deal directly with the gallery?”

“I was going to ask her that, but…” I took a drink. “I did ask her brother. All he could say was that’s how her father did it.”

“And why did her father do it?”

I glared at him.

He looked amused. “You’re no fun to play with. So when her father died, they made the same deal with Kathleen?”

“Yup.”

“She inherited her father’s talent?”

“Hardly. I’ve been thinking about that. I’m thinking they didn’t care about the paintings, but about the process.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning both her father and Kathleen provided something someone needed. It was just an added benefit that her father’s work was good.”

“And what was it they needed?”

I shook my head and finished the second beer. “Don’t know. And the two people who might know are dead.”

Ben took a drink and swirled what was left in the bottom. “You’re hoping another person might be Cletis.”

“Yup. He says he was involved in something.”

“So what about the confusion?”

“The gallery made out a list of paintings they wanted. On that list was a painting called Green and Blue. The frame shop would get the paintings on the list, frame them, and ship them to Chicago. Cletis picked up thirteen paintings two Saturdays ago when Kathleen wasn’t there and grabbed a wrong painting, Blue and Green. But a Green and Blue was the one on the list. I asked Gunderson about it and he said he just figured the kid had made a mistake and was confused by the similar names. But both Green and Blue and Blue and Green were gone.”

“Did Gunderson check the paintings before they were shipped?”

“No. Cletis did all the framing. Gunderson had no reason to think the paintings were wrong.”

“Okay. So just an honest mistake.”

“Seems so. But Kathleen wanted her favorite painting back. Knowing Kathleen, she thought the gallery was trying to steal it from her. The employee at Simmons, Tony, says he saw her walking out with a painting on Wednesday.

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