Chapter 10: The Locked Room

The side door of the stone house was open at midnight, as promised.

Scott came in behind me.

"I told you to come alone," Philippa said from the dark hall.

She wore a quilted robe and her cane, and her silver hair stood up on one side.

"He drove," I said. "He'll wait wherever you want."

Philippa studied her grandson in the weak light.

"He may come," she said. "He's family, and I think he already knows."

"I know something," Scott said. "I don't know what."

"Then we'll find out together."

She led us down the hall to the tall oak doors.

She took a brass key from the pocket of her robe and put it in the lock.

Her hand shook so badly that I almost reached for it.

The doors swung open on a long room lined with books.

At the far end stood nine shapes under white sheets, each one taller than a man.

I stopped three steps inside the room.

I knew the size of those shapes.

I knew it in my shoulders.

"Five years ago I bought a series of paintings," Philippa said. "A private sale. I paid three million one hundred thousand dollars."

"The Lanterns," I said.

"You know the title."

"Everyone does. They've never been shown."

"Rupert Crane arranged it. He said the artist could not bear to see them in public. He said she was a recluse."

She pulled the first sheet away.

Light from the lamps fell on the canvas.

It was a night city, in dark blues and violets, a wet street under a brick wall.

Keep reading free with an account. Start The CEO's Wife is A Badass from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.