these visions of opening a cabinet somewhere and having the snake fall out on her.
As she walked through, going to the west wing of the museum, she stopped by the museum store to welcome the owners and to check on their progress in getting ready to open. The proprietors, owners of a gift shop in town, were busy shelving merchandise.
They had a huge variety of items, including books, dinosaur replicas, museum kits and tee shirts, and several shelves of toys. She really loved the museum, but any joyful thoughts about it were always followed by sadness that Ariel wouldn’t be here to share it with her.
As she crossed the second lobby with the huge high ceiling that was off the dinosaur room and was the twin of the Pleistocene room, she spotted Korey sitting alone on a bench. She went past the twenty-five-foot-long
“Are you all right?” she asked.
“Fine.” He was smiling.
“I was looking for you. I got a lead on who may be involved in the lab break-in.”
“Mrs. Grayson,” he said.
“Yes. How did you know?”
“Deduction.”
“There seems to be a lot of that going around among my staff.”
He didn’t ask what she meant, but continued to stare at the wall, looking like the cat who had just found the source of all cream.
“Are you going to tell me?” she said.
“Yeah.” He turned toward her and grinned.
“You going to make me drag it out of you?”
“Just enjoying the moment. You remember when I was showing Mrs. Grayson the papers we found in the basement?”
“Are you telling me they turned out to be valuable?”
“They’re not particularly valuable, no. Well, some are, but what Mrs. Grayson feared was that they might have certain valuable information that she didn’t want to fall into our hands. And as it turned out, she was right. Fortunately, I locked them in the vault and either she or whoever she got to break in couldn’t find them.
“I believe it was Leonard Starns and his son. His son works for Grayson Real Estate.”
He nodded. “That makes sense. I’ve been calling people all day to make sure that I found what I think I did, and I also took the liberty of inviting an expert out to the museum-I’m flying her in from New York.”
“New York?” She almost gasped. It was not like Korey to do such a thing without asking her.
“I also know what this moving-the-museum thing is all about.”
“You do? You know why Mark Grayson wants to sell the museum?”
“I know why he wants to buy it. Those.” He nodded his head toward the wall murals. “It turns out they were painted by a relatively little-known artist named Robert Camden, who died at the turn of the century at the age of ninety-one. The tiny unicorns in his paintings were one of his trademarks. He may have been little known then, but like our friend here. .”-he pointed to the pteranodon above them-“the value of his paintings has soared. They’re now selling for several million dollars apiece.” He turned his head again to Diane. “And we have twelve of them.”
Diane stood and walked over to the painting-a huge brontosaurus, head held high on his long neck, walking and dragging his tail. Between his front feet, almost obscured by the dust he created with each step, was a small unicorn. The detail of the painting was remarkable. The brontosaurus’ hide was painted like the skin of an elephant, with all the lines and wrinkles and shades of gray. The distant mountains had such clarity and distinction that Diane thought she could probably find them somewhere if she tried.
Korey joined her standing by the painting.
“You’re not joking, are you?” she asked.
“Nope. I found the initial sketches of the paintings and a reference to the painter in the material we gathered from the basement, and, I don’t know, something just clicked in my head. Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out about him, you know, have an exhibit of the drawings and the man? I made some calls to friends in art conservation and they referred me to several other experts, who were all quite excited, let me tell you. A woman is coming down from the Metropolitan Museum of Art tomorrow to have a look at them.”
“It’s a good thing we built a railing to keep wandering hands off the walls,” said Diane.
Korey nodded. “I think we’ll have to do more. I was thinking a Plexiglas wall, so no one can get under the railings.”
“I can’t believe this,” said Diane. “When they were found, didn’t anyone investigate their origin?”
“From what I can find out, Milo asked someone from the art department at Bartrum University to come over and have a look. He declared them interesting.”
“But Signy Grayson recognized them.” Diane recalled the snatch of conversation she heard between Signy and her husband-“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even know about them.”
“Yes,” Korey said, “I think her husband was going to buy the museum building through one of his companies. I believe when you sell buildings, certain things always go with the building-like the walls and anything attached to them. At any rate, he’d have the contract written so he’d get the paintings for a fraction of their value. And if it was true about the golf course. .”
“You know about that rumor?”
“It’s hard to keep secrets in a place like this. Everyone’s been worried about their jobs.”
“I’m sorry about that. I never had any intention of selling the museum.”
“Some were afraid you’d be forced to.”
“It would take some serious errors or malfeasance on my part for them to be able to unseat me. They were trying. That’s what all those extra supply orders were about.”
“How far did they expect to get, ordering extra paper clips?”
“They also sent orders out for a duplicate set of these guys.” She pointed at the dinosaurs.
“That’d be a lot of money, but as soon as the Bickford called. .”
“Exactly. The person who did the ordering didn’t understand the process. He didn’t know they would have to call about details of the order.”
“This campaign doesn’t seem well thought-out on their part,” said Korey.
“I believe that’s because it was carried out by several people. The extra orders, I think, were done at the instigation of someone who worked with Grayson. I believe Grayson and his cronies were doing other things that might very well have had an impact.”
“Like what?”
Diane went back to the bench and sat down. She was silent for a long while. Now that she had shared Ariel with Frank and Andie, perhaps it was time to share her with other people. She told Korey a shortened version of her daughter and what happened to her-and the music.
“That was cruel and sadistic.”
“Yes, it was. And it had an effect. This past year I was a mess. I couldn’t even work. I think they wanted to send me back to that black place I just climbed out of.”
There was something else that had been bothering Diane. Something Melissa said: “I wish we’d just let whatever was going on happen to you.” She mentioned it to Korey, explaining only that Melissa was angry with her when she said it.
“That’s an odd thing to say. I wonder what she meant.”
“I don’t know.”
“How’s Frank?”
“He picked up an infection. They’re treating it. You haven’t been visited again by the police, have you?”
“No.”
Diane looked around at the murals. “I wonder how much money we’re talking about.”
“A lot. The last painting sold a year ago for 7.4 million in Paris.”
“So if Grayson could buy the museum, he could take the paintings out, do a little remodeling and resell the building to cover his cost and still come out with almost-what? — ninety million dollars? Not counting the property
