The Photographer's Return novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: The Collection

The brokerage website had a new page.

THE WARNER WHITMER COLLECTION.

Twelve photographs, each in a limited edition of twenty-five, printed on museum paper and signed by the artist.

Six thousand five hundred dollars each.

I scrolled down.

The pier at Tahoe City at dusk, the summer I was twenty-four.

A sailboat stuck in the ice in Carnelian Bay.

Fannette Island under a full moon.

Every frame from that last Tahoe summer.

Every frame from the twelfth binder.

And at the bottom, larger than the others, with a red banner across the corner that said EIGHT EDITIONS RESERVED, was Emerald Bay, First Light.

Signed in gold ink in the corner. Warner Whitmer.

Milo came out of the bathroom in his pajamas and looked over my shoulder.

"That's yours," he said.

"Yes."

"Why is it his name?"

"That's what I'm going to find out."

I called my lawyer at seven the next morning.

She was already at her desk.

"Twelve images," she said. "All on your registration. Is the negative binder still missing?"

"Since July."

"Good. I mean, terrible. But good."

She filed for an emergency injunction that afternoon.

On Saturday I walked Milo down University Avenue to get frozen yogurt.

The brokerage window had changed.

Where the listing photos usually went, there was one huge framed print on an easel, lit from above.

The green water. The red kayak. The first light coming down the granite.

A small brass plate on the frame said: Emerald Bay, First Light. Warner Whitmer.

A couple stood in front of it holding coffee.

"He's really talented," the woman said. "I had no idea."

Milo let go of my hand and walked right up to the glass.

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