Chapter 33
Iturn around to look back at Uncle Tony and Takashi sitting in the back seat of the car. Uncle Tony holds Takashi’s hand.
“I’m so sorry,” I say.
“Should I head across town at Sixty-Sixth Street? Or do you still want to go to your sister’s?” William asks.
“Let’s still try the photos,” I say. “I can’t see Edmund destroying it. He’s a collector, and he needs the money. It doesn’t make sense to destroy that one. He would have destroyed mine first.”
Uncle Tony nods. “Yes, I don’t think he would have destroyed it. He just wants us to think that.”
William drives past Sixty-Sixth Street.
We all enter Annabelle’s apartment.
“So what’s the deal? Why are you back? And Tony and Takashi?” Annabelle asks. “Did they arrest Edmund?”
“We want to look at the photos that Edmund gave you after Uncle Tony’s party.” I hurry toward her office.
“I love them,” she says. “You saw them in my office. Edmund helped me hang them.”
“Does he know your office is locked now?” William asks.
“He did ask me why I had locked the door, and I thought that was odd because I didn’t remember telling him that I had locked the door. And then he asked how I knew that David wouldn’t figure out where I hid the key, since he knows me so well,” Annabelle says. “And he kept saying that he bet he could figure it out. It was weird.”
She unlocks the door, and we all crowd into her office.
I take the photo of the two of them as kids hanging out in the tree house off its hook and place it on the desk. It doesn’t have the paper backing of a professionally framed work. It has only the little, metal sliding pieces. I unlock it and remove the whiteboard back. And there it is.
The Kimimoto.
Its bright colors pop out like a happy hello, like confetti bursting out of a popper.
Uncle Tony cries. I squeeze my eyes together. I can’t cry now.
“We found it.” He sinks into Annabelle’s office chair. Takashi hugs him.
“The police checked there that Sunday they interviewed me, and nothing was there. Was he trying to frame me?” Annabelle asks. “Why would he put it there?”
“I think he didn’t want it at his place in case his apartment was searched. He probably thought he could always access it at your house. Plus, he wanted to reference our childhood together somehow,” I say. “Maybe it was a test for you? Did he want to see if you would check behind the painting for a note?”
“We’re a little old for that,” Annabelle says dryly.
We text Officer Johnson that we found the Kimimoto.
My phone rings. It’s Jade. “I called the Vertex Art Exhibit, and you’re back in. Especially given all the publicity. People will line up to see a stolen painting.”
I shriek and hug William.