Faking It - Crusie Jennifer (читать книги бесплатно полностью .txt) 📗

“I knew he would,” Clea said, coming closer. “He always gets what he wants.” She smiled down at Tilda, not unfriendly. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”

“Just for a day or so,” Tilda said, lifting her chin.

“No,” Clea said. “When he goes, he’s gone. But he left you the paintings, that’s like him. He’s a very generous man.” She looked regretful for a moment. “It’s such a shame he’s not rich.”

“He’s coming back,” Tilda said firmly. “Now what are you doing in my bedroom?”

“I’ve come for the paintings, of course,” Clea said.

“And I would give them to you because…?” Tilda said, amazed by her gall.

“Because if you give them to me, I won’t tell the world you’re Scarlet,” Clea said. “And those people you conned out of the paintings, they won’t find out who you are. And you won’t go to jail. And since you’re pretty much supporting your entire family, they won’t starve. I think it’s a good trade.”

She sounded perfectly friendly but there was ice in her eyes, and Tilda thought, She knows about Gwennie and Mason.

“You think these paintings are going to get Mason back?” she said, and Clea’s face twisted.

“I think it’s none of your damn business,” she snapped.

Tilda nodded, trying to buy time to think it through. “They need to be cleaned. And I have to get the cheap frame off the first one. Mason would spit on that frame. And…” She turned back to the last painting, the dancers she’d smeared with her brush and thrown at her father when he’d told her she was born to paint, not to love. “I have to finish this one. I’ll bring them to you tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow,” Clea said, clearly suspicious.

“The paint will be dry by tomorrow,” Tilda said. “I’ll bring them to the house.” She looked up at Clea. “You can trust me.”

“I can’t trust anybody,” Clea said. “But I guess I have to here. Tomorrow morning then.”

“Yes,” Tilda said, looking at the last Scarlet. “Tomorrow you can have them.”

DOWNSTAIRS, the afternoon passed with a respectable number of customers, and when the last one left the gallery at five, and Gwen had sent Mason home, she locked the front door and turned to Nadine. “Do we have a number for Thomas the Caterer? His stuff is still here. Oh, and can you take the garbage out?”

“Sure,” Nadine said, patting her on the back. “I don’t know about Thomas, but we have to take Steve out anyway so we can do the garbage then. Wasn’t he a good gallery dog today?”

Gwen looked down at Steve, who lay down on the floor and sighed. “I know,” she told the dog. “Hell of a life.”

“He loves it,” Nadine insisted and held the office door open. “Come on, puppy, let’s go take the trash out and pee on the Dumpster. You like that.”

Steve trotted out after her and so did Ethan, and Gwen shook her head at her granddaughter’s mastery of her life. Nothing bothered Nadine.

Except a minute later, Nadine was back, shaking. “Call 911,” she said, and Gwen froze. “There’s a dead body behind the Dumpster.”

“Davy,” Gwen said, her heart clutching.

“No,” Nadine said. “Thomas the Caterer.”

AN HOUR EARLIER, upstairs in her new studio, Tilda had finished cleaning the paintings and taking the frame off the first one. Now she set the last unfinished one up on her drawing table, tilted the light to see it better, and studied it. She was going to have to match her style to her old way of painting. No careful sketches or underpainting, just free strokes. It was the worst kind of painting to forge because any hesitation would be caught in the paint, scream out “I’m a fake,” and ruin the painting.

She didn’t want to ruin the painting.

Practice, she thought, I need to practice who I used to be. She tried a few sample strokes on newsprint, but it wasn’t the same, they looked stupid, clumsy. She wasn’t Scarlet anymore. She wasn’t sure who she was.

Davy knows who I am, she thought. But he was in Temptation. She was on her own, faking again, out in the cold.

I can do this, she thought and looked around the all-white room. I just need to remember. She picked up her largest chunk of charcoal and drew the outlines of leaves in big slashes on her walls, channeling Scarlet, keeping her arm free and fluid. When she had walls full of outlines, she started to paint in the colors, making them round and full and warm, leaves you wanted to touch. That was what Scarlet had done, she’d made paintings you wanted to move into. She’d been young and happy and in love and she’d painted it all into…

That was the key to the last painting, Tilda realized, in the middle of a leaf stroke. Scarlet had stopped because Andrew loved Eve and she couldn’t paint joy anymore. She’d stopped because she couldn’t love Andrew; maybe it was time to start because she loved Davy. Maybe it was time because she believed in the future again. Because Davy was coming back.

She looked at the jungle drawn on her walls.

And because she’d been born to paint like this.

She brought the last Scarlet into the light, and this time she saw exactly how to finish it, two dark-haired lovers with the moon behind them, reaching for each other, forever.

It was going to be the story of her life.

GWEN HAD dialed 911 and then run out to the parking lot. It really was Thomas the Caterer, stretched out behind the Dumpster, looking pale as death with blood on his head.

“Are you sure he’s dead?” Gwen said to Nadine. “Never mind. We’ll wait and we won’t touch the body and…” She stopped. “I have to go upstairs. Turn your back on him or something and don’t touch anything.”

“We’re not idiots,” Nadine said, still shaking.

“Just don’t look at him,” Gwen said and ran back inside and up to the second floor.

“Funniest thing,” she said, her voice trembling, when Ford answered his door. “Nadine just went to take out the trash and there was a body behind the Dumpster.”

“Anybody we know?” Ford said.

“That’s it?” Gwen said, her heart sinking. “You don’t sound surprised.”

“I’m surprised,” Ford said. “Anybody we know?”

“Thomas the Caterer,” Gwen said. “Except he wasn’t a caterer. He was with the FBI.”

That got him, she saw with satisfaction. It was only for a minute, a flicker in his eyes, but it was there.

“He catered for the FBI?” Ford said, deadpan.

“Oh, funny,” Gwen said. “The police are on their way. You might want to do better than mat.”

“You’re a little hostile today,” Ford said.

“Yeah. Finding a dead caterer behind my Dumpster will pretty much do that for me.” She folded her arms across her chest, took a deep breath, and said, “You don’t, by any chance, know how he got there, do you?”

“Haven’t a clue,” Ford said. “How’d he die?”

“There was a dent in his head,” Gwen said. “I’m guessing that was it.”

“Pretty much rules out natural causes and suicide, then.”

Gwen set her jaw. “Did you kill him?”

Ford looked at her, disappointment plain on his face. “You think that little of me?”

Gwen was taken aback. “Well-”

“Hell, Gwen, if I’d killed him, he wouldn’t be behind your Dumpster,” Ford said. “I’m not stupid”

“Oh,” Gwen said, appalled and relieved at the same time. “No, you’re not.”

“You could give me a little credit,” Ford said.

“Right.” Gwen took a step back. “I’m sorry.”

“Anyway, the only guy I want to kill is Mason,” Ford said. “He still walking around?”

“I think so,” Gwen said, not sure what to do with that.

“Too bad,” Ford said, stepping back. “Send up the cops when they get here.”

He closed the door before she could say anything.

“You know,” she yelled through the door, “I’m not feeling better about this.”

After a moment, when he hadn’t answered, she drew a deep breath and went downstairs to meet the police.