He shakes his head. “No photos. No copies of any kind.”
“Why?”
“Rarity is the rarest commodity.”
“How long have you had this one?”
Wingate looks down at the canvas, then at me from the corner of his eye. “Not long.”
“How long will you have it?”
“It ships tomorrow. I have a standing bid from Takagi on anything by this artist. One point five million pounds. But I have other plans for this one.”
He takes hold of the metal frame and motions for me to brace the crate while he pushes the painting back inside. To keep him talking, I help.
“For a series of about eight paintings,” Wingate says, “he could have been one of the Nabis. But he changed again. The women became more and more real, their bodies less alive, their surroundings more so. Now he paints like one of the old masters. His technique is unbelievable.”
“Do you really not know if they’re alive or dead?”
“Give me a break,” he grunts, straining to apply adequate force without damaging the frame. “They’re models. If some horny Japanese wants to think they’re dead and pay millions for them, that’s great. I’m not complaining.”
“Do you really believe that?”
He doesn’t look at me. “What I believe doesn’t matter. What matters is what I know for sure, which is nothing.”
If Wingate doesn’t know the women are real, he’s about to find out. As he straightens up and wipes his brow, I turn squarely to him and take off my sunglasses.
“What do you think now?”
His facial muscles hardly move, but he’s freaked, all right. There’s a lot more white showing in his eyes now. “I think maybe you’re running some kind of scam on me.”
“Why?”
“Because I sold a picture of you. You’re one of them. One of the Sleeping Women.”
He must not have heard about what happened in Hong Kong. Could the curator there have been afraid to risk losing his exhibit?
“No,” I say softly. “That was my sister.”
“But the face… it was the same.”
“We’re twins. Identical twins.”
He shakes his head in amazement.
“You understand now?”
“I think you know more than I do about all this. Is your sister okay?”
I can’t tell if he’s sincere or not. “I don’t know. But if I had to guess, I’d say no. She disappeared thirteen months ago. When did you sell the painting of her?”
“Maybe a year ago.”
“To a Japanese industrialist?”
“Sure. Takagi. He outbid everybody.”
“There were other bidders for that particular painting?”
“Sure. Always. But I’m not about to give you their names.”
“Look, I want you to understand something. I don’t give a damn about the police or the law. All I care about is my sister. Anything you know that can help me find her, I’ll pay for.”
“I don’t know anything. Your sister’s been gone a year, and you think she’s still alive?”
“No. I think she’s dead. I think all the women in these paintings are dead. And so do you. But I can’t move on with my life until I
Wingate looks at the crate. “Hey, I can sympathize. But I can’t help you, okay? I really don’t know anything.”
“How is that possible? You’re the exclusive dealer for this artist.”
“Sure. But I’ve never met the guy.”
“But you know he’s a man?”
“I’m not positive, to tell you the truth. I’ve never seen him. Everything goes through the mail. Notes left in the gallery, money in train station lockers, like that.”
“I don’t see a woman painting these pictures. Do you?”
Wingate cocks one eyebrow. “I’ve met some pretty strange women in this town. I could tell you some stories, man. You wouldn’t believe what I’ve seen.”
“You get the paintings through the mail?”
“Sometimes. Other times they’re left downstairs, in the gallery. It’s like spy novels – what do they call that? A blind drop?”
“What legitimate reason could there be for that kind of arrangement?”
“Well, I thought it might be the Helga syndrome.”
“The what?”
“The Helga syndrome. You know Andrew Wyeth, surely?”
“Of course.”
“While everyone thought all he could do was rural American realism, Wyeth was secretly painting this woman from a neighboring farm. In the nude. Helga. Wyeth kept the paintings secret, and they were only revealed years later. The first Sleeping Woman I got was simply left here. It wasn’t one of the early ones. It was from his Nabi period. As soon as I saw it, I recognized the talent. I thought it might be by an established artist, one who didn’t want it known that he was experimenting in that way. Not until it was successful, at least.”
“How do you pay him? You can’t leave millions in train station lockers. Do you wire the money to a bank account somewhere?”
A languid expression comes over Wingate’s features. “Look, I sympathize with you. But I don’t see how this part of my business is your business, okay? If what you say is true, the police will be asking me all this soon enough. Maybe you’d better talk to them. And I better talk to my lawyer.”
“Forget I asked that, okay? I’m not trying to hurt you. All I care about is my sister. All these women disappeared from New Orleans. Not one has been found, alive or dead. Now suddenly I discover these paintings in Hong Kong. Everyone assumes the women are dead. But what if they’re not? I
He shrugs. “Like I said, we’ll just have to wait for the police to sort it out.”
A buzz of alarm begins in the back of my brain. Christopher Wingate does not look like a man who would welcome the attention of police. Yet he is stalling me by claiming he wants to wait until they become involved. It’s time to get out of here.
“Who knows about all this?” he asks suddenly. “Who else have you told?”
I’m wishing my hand was in my pocket, wrapped around the Mace can, but he’s watching me closely, and the hammer is within his reach. “A few people.”
“Such as?”
“The FBI.”
Wingate bites his bottom lip like a man weighing options. Then a half-smile appears. “Is that supposed to scare me?”
He picks up the claw hammer, and I jump back. He laughs at my skittishness, then grabs a handful of nails, puts a few in his mouth, and begins hammering the side panel back onto the crate, like a man taking maximum precautions to protect his treasure.
“Every cloud has a silver lining, right?” The nails between his lips make him answer out of one side of his mouth. “The FBI starts investigating these paintings in a murder case, they become worldwide news. Like the guy in Spain who murdered women and posed them like Salvador Dali paintings. That means money, lady.”
“You
“It’s not illegal, is it? Yes, I’m going to make a
