Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
Dan lifted the heavy door knocker and brought it down with a dull clang. His heart pounded; his skin tingled. He was dimly aware of Gary behind him.
Mrs. Cain opened the door, glaring at him. “I shall be reporting this to your superiors.”
“You do that,” Dan murmured, brushing past her and hurrying to the staircase. He climbed it two steps at a time, not bothering to knock at the office door before he barged inside.
Senator Cain was seated at his desk. “What is the meaning of this?” He stared over Dan’s shoulder. “Detective Mitchell?”
Before Gary could utter a word, Dan blurted out, “It’s time to solve this puzzle, Senator.”
“What are you talking about? What puzzle?”
“I was about to ask the same thing.” Mrs. Cain seemed a little breathless, as though she’d run up the stairs.
“Senator, if we might have a word with you—alone.” Dan stared at him.
The senator gave his wife an apologetic glance. “Della, give us a minute, please?”
“But this is—”
“Della.”
She glared at him but said nothing as she withdrew, closing the door behind her.
Senator Cain turned to Dan. “Okay. What’s this puzzle you’re talking about?”
Dan made an effort to breathe evenly. “Have you ever seen a Chinese puzzle box? You know the kind of box I’m talking about, right?
The pretty veneered ones where you have to work out in what order to slide the panels to reveal a hidden drawer.
” He smiled. “Only it wasn’t a drawer in your case—it was a door. ”
Senator Cain stared at him, his brow furrowed. “You’re not making any sense.”
“You know how to open a puzzle box? You need to look for the join in the veneers. It isn’t always obvious, but once you do, the whole puzzle opens up.
” He met the senator’s stare. “Everything you’ve told us…
. You fed us a packet of disinformation.
Just enough truth that we couldn’t see what lay beneath. ”
“But you know what lies beneath,” Senator Cain protested. “You know about the affair. I told you everything.”
Dan shook his head. “Not everything. Yes, I believe you loved Cheryl. But there’s still something hidden from view, something you don’t want us to know.” He walked over to the doors that led to the art room. He touched one of them. “This is what it’s all about.”
Senator Cain blinked. “My art collection? But… you just looked at it again.”
Dan stared at him. “I’m not referring to your collection, Senator.” He touched the door again. “I’m talking about this door.”
“If this is the result of one of your… visions, Mr. Porter, then I’m sorry to tell you, it’s led you astray. And I fail to see what bearing a door has on Cheryl’s death.”
“All the same, we’re going to hear him out,” Gary announced. “Unlike you, Senator, I have faith in Dan’s visions.”
Dan fired him a grateful glance before giving the senator his attention.
“I couldn’t understand why someone would have such beautiful doors created—doors you could open to reveal that wonderful collection—and then put furniture in front of them.”
The senator frowned. “The pair are ten feet across. That takes up a lot of room. And the furniture has to go somewhere.”
Dan held up a finger. “There you go again. Disinformation. A grain of truth intended to placate us.” He slid the right-hand door open with a fingertip, then peered into the art room.
“No furniture in front of them in here.” Dan walked back to the senator’s desk, slipping his hand into his bag.
He held up the folder. “Do you know what this is? It’s the join in the veneer.
The first clue how to open this puzzle box you’ve created.
” He opened the folder and withdrew a clear plastic sheet filled with strips of negatives.
“I knew the answer was somewhere in Cheryl’s files.
I kept turning it over and over in my mind, trying to find it, but I couldn’t see it—until just now.
” He glanced at Gary. “Lori gave us the answer when she told us what Cheryl said the day she disappeared. ‘It’s been in plain sight all the time.’” Dan held up the sheet. “And she was right.”
“What are those?” Senator Cain’s voice was quiet.
Dan walked over to the antique desk lamp and tilted its green shade.
“These are negatives of the photos Cheryl took when she was doing her prep work for the Caravaggio. The ones she wasn’t going to use for reference, she crossed through with a Sharpie.
” He held them up to the light. “You’re in here too. ”
The senator frowned. “I am?” Then he nodded, his brow smoothing. “I remember. She turned and said, ‘Smile.’”
Dan pointed to the negative. “There you are. And then there’s this one.” He indicated another negative.
The senator peered at it. “What is it supposed to be? It doesn’t look like anything.”
Dan pointed to another. “See there? That’s the line I was telling you about, the one she drew through all the photos she wasn’t going to print. Now let’s go back to our mystery negative. Can you see? She started to draw a line through it, then stopped.”
“She obviously changed her mind,” Senator Cain said with a shrug.
“But why did she change it? And more importantly, what made her draw a question mark on the sheet under this one?”
The senator gave him a look of exasperation. “But what is it a photo of?”
“I’ll show you.” Dan pulled a photo from the folder and placed it on the desk.
Gary leaned in to get a better look. “That looks like the archway between the office and the art room. See? That’s your desk and chair in the background.” He frowned. “It was taken at an odd angle, though, from inside the art room.”
“Ah.” Senator Cain’s eyes gleamed. “I remember now. She’d just taken the one of me. She lowered the camera and then clicked the shutter by accident.”
“That doesn’t explain why she started to cross it out and then changed her mind.
Or why she wrote the question mark. And why print it?
” Dan tapped the folder. “And suddenly the puzzle box starts to open.” He removed another photo and placed it in front of the senator, who stared at it with a frown. “Don’t you recognize it?”
“Why should I?”
“Because it’s a photo of your floor. This is a blowup of part of this one.” He placed the previous photo beside it.
“But that still doesn’t explain why she printed the photo in the first place,” Gary remonstrated.
Dan smiled. “I think I know why.” He picked up the sheet of negatives once more, and pointed to one. “I don’t know if you can see it from there, but there’s a faint white line across part of the threshold.” He tapped the blowup. “It’s clearer here.”
“A lens anomaly?” the senator suggested.
Gary shook his head. “If that were the case, it would be on every photo.”
Senator Cain made an impatient noise at the back of his throat. “I fail to understand why you’ve done a blowup of a photo that was taken by accident.”
Dan’s eyes twinkled. “Oh, but we didn’t blow it up—she did. This is Cheryl’s photo.”
The senator bent over to peer at it. “I know what this is. Al—James—installed the doors shortly after the floor had been waxed. The bottom rollers on the door left a mark on the floor.”
Dan went over to the right-hand door and crouched, examining the floor. “But these are pocket doors. That means they’re top hung.”
“Then something must have gotten caught or trapped under it,” Senator Cain persisted.
Dan stood. He slid the left-hand door open and walked into the art room.
Gary and the senator followed him. Dan peered at the floor.
“No marks.” Then he reached out and placed his hand on the protruding edge of the door.
“And why is this door so much heavier than its counterpart? I can open that one with a fingertip.”
Gary stared at him. “You know why, don’t you?”
Dan nodded. He inclined his head toward the left-hand door. “This? This is the final panel. That means it’s time to reveal the secret it’s been hiding.”
He didn’t miss the senator’s sharp intake of breath. “Mr. Porter….”
Dan ignored him. He drew the door back to the center until it reached the doorstop set into the arch. He peered up at it.
“Don’t.”
Dan stretched up and pressed the catch, which disappeared into the doorframe with a click clack….
“No!”
Dan turned to look at him. “You know I’m not going to stop. Not now.” He touched the door again, and a shiver trickled through him, the same shiver as before, only more intense.
“What do you sense?” Gary asked.
Dan stroked the smooth wood surface. “Strong, positive emotions. Exhilaration, joy….” He grabbed the door edge and dragged it over toward the other side, and another panel slid into view.
Shock thrummed through him. He’d suspected, but he hadn’t been prepared for the reality of his discovery.
Dan took several steps back, until he was almost at the opposite wall, to fully take in the panel attached to the doorframe.
Secured to it was a painting, maybe sixty inches high and fifty across.
It depicted a stormy scene at sea, a dark, dramatic painting.
It took Dan’s breath away.
Gary expelled a breath. “That’s beautiful. Why would you want to hide it away?”
Dan didn’t wait to hear the senator’s response.
“Because it’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee, by Rembrandt.
It was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in March 1990, one of thirteen works of art stolen in one night.
The FBI valued the stolen works at hundreds of millions of dollars.
None of them have ever been recovered, and there’s a reward of ten million dollars for information leading to their recovery. ”
“How do you know all this?” Gary demanded.
“What do you think I was googling on the way back here? Lori gave me the idea.” He glanced at the senator. “Care to explain what you’re doing with it?”
Senator Cain swallowed. “It’s a copy. Cheryl painted it.”
Dan approached the canvas with reverence, then touched it lightly. “No, it isn’t a copy.” Another glance. “Want to try that again?”
The senator swallowed. “It was… loaned to me.”
Gary gaped at him. “By whom? The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum? I sincerely doubt that.”
Dan took another step back and almost stumbled over the marble hearth in front of the fireplace. He put his hand out to stop his fall—and froze.
Senator Cain stood in front of the painting. “So that’s how she knew. She never told me. Six months after she disappeared, I changed the rollers on the picture panel.”
Dan sighed. “It’s too late, Senator.”
The senator became so still. “What do you mean?”
“There are no sliding panels left. It’s time to reveal what else you’ve been hiding.” He locked gazes with him.
Senator Cain’s breathing hitched. “You know, don’t you?”
“Know what?” Gary looked from the senator to Dan with a bewildered expression.
Dan said nothing, waiting.
Senator Cain shuddered out a breath. “That I killed her.”