The Bloodline She Burned novel · Chapter 24 of 24

Chapter 24: The Portrait

In March, Low Ladder had a new sign over the stairs, a burnt tree with one white leaf.

Roz stood on a ladder in the practice room with a hammer in her hand.

Her mother's paintings were stacked against the wall, eleven of them, out of the storage unit at last.

"Left," Gabriel said. "A little more left."

"You said that three times."

"I'm a coach. I repeat things."

She hung the first one, a small blue harbor with a yellow boat, and the whole wall changed.

Nina came out from behind the counter with a tray of coffees.

"The sponsors called," she said. "Three of them."

"One wants us in a jersey ad. I told him you'd rather eat the jersey."

"I would."

"I also told him your price."

"What was my price?"

"Triple." Nina grinned. "He said yes."

The paramedic, the cook and the flanker were at the back machines, arguing about a patch.

The flanker had dyed the streak in her hair gold.

Gabriel's sister came up the stairs in her pharmacy smock, on her lunch break.

She stopped in the doorway.

"Is that a real Alice Ellsworth?" she said.

"All eleven," Roz said.

"I thought they were in a museum."

"They were in a box. Now they're at work."

His sister laughed, and for the first time since Roz had met her she looked her age.

The news that morning had been short.

Camille had pleaded guilty to the false claims, the tampered locker and the staged fall.

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