by Diane Noble
She pulled up a chair beside him and adjusted her glasses. At first she saw nothing unusual, just the dimly lit images of the paintings, one at a time as the three cameras took turns transmitting their images.
Then Kate gasped as a figure moved into place in front of The Enchanted Garden. “There he is,” she said. “It’s James, just like you said.”
“There are others,” Nehemiah said a moment later. “The exterminators are there again.”
“I’m going to call Livvy,” she said and headed for the phone.
She called, but there was no answer. She tried again and still no answer. Surely their phones weren’t turned off. Or had someone turned them off on purpose?
James?
She blinked. Would he do that, anticipating that they might be called?
She tried Livvy’s cell. No answer there either. Though that wasn’t too unusual. If she had it on Manner mode, and it was in another room, charging, it made sense that she wouldn’t hear it.
It was the fact that Livvy didn’t hear the landline that made no sense. It had to be a mistake.
“I’m going to the museum,” she said.
“It’s after midnight,” Nehemiah said.
She thought he was going to stop her, but instead, he said, “I’ll go with you.” He gave her a high five and grinned. “Let’s go see what kind of trouble a minister’s wife and a crippled old retired preacher can get into.” He grabbed his crutches. “Let me get into my sweats, and I’ll be good to go.”
“Same here,” Kate said. “Give me a minute to put on my jeans and leave a note for Paul.”
Ten minutes later, she was backing out of the garage, Nehemiah at her side. She drove slowly into town and, a short time later, pulled up to the curb a few houses down from the museum.
“That’s odd,” she said after a minute. “I see only one vehicle. The exterminat—” she gasped. “That could be the same pickup, Nehemiah. The one that tried to force us off the road. They just took off the giant dead bug.” She suspected she’d been right on the nose with her earlier speculation.
“Do you have a camera?” he asked.
“Only on my phone.”
“That’ll do. Let’s go see if we can find some dents and scratches.” He struggled to get out of the car. She had to smile as she handed him his crutches. He’d donned his sweats, but his mussed hair made him look as if he’d just rolled out of bed.
She held him steady as he hobbled toward the pickup. Seeing evidence of the highway encounter, she pulled out her phone, knelt down, and snapped several photos of the damage on the right side of the vehicle. “Black and white paint don’t mix well,” she whispered.
“But they sure stand out in photos,” Nehemiah said. “Snap one with the license plate.”
She had just flipped her phone closed when they heard voices approaching from the side of the house. She helped Nehemiah hobble back to her car and sit down on the curb behind it. She squatted down next to him as she heard voices coming closer.
“I thought I heard something...or someone,” one of the voices said. “Spread out and take a look.”
“I see a car...way down the block,” said another. “I don’t remember it being here when we arrived.”
“Check it out,” the first voice demanded. “Hurry. We need to get out of here.”
Kate caught her breath and exchanged glances with Nehemiah. They were about to be discovered. She slumped against the side of the car, wondering how dangerous these exterminators were. What would they do to them once they were discovered? She worried more about Nehemiah than she did herself.
The padding sound of athletic shoes moved closer. One of the exterminators was running toward them. The padding stopped, then moved slowly around the car, perhaps looking in the windows, before continuing.
Then a voice, almost a whisper, said from the front of the car. “Don’t move, don’t indicate you’ve heard me. Don’t stand up and look. Just know I’ve got everything under control, and I’m doing my best to do the right thing.”
Kate let out her pent-up breath. Behind her, Nehemiah did the same.
It was James Jenner.
He walked around them, never looking down to acknowledge their presence, and then stopped midway as if checking the interior. “Tell my parents I know what I’m doing,” he murmured. “Okay?”
He trotted back toward the truck.
“Everything’s okay down there,” Kate heard him say. “I didn’t see a thing. Nobody’s here.”
A few minutes later, the sound of the pickup starting carried toward them, doors closed quietly, and it rumbled down the street in the opposite direction.
When they were sure it was gone, Kate helped Nehemiah stand.
“Whoa,” he said, grinning, “I always had faith in that boy. After all, I’ve known him since he was knee high to a mosquito.”
Kate swallowed hard. “It sounds like he’s on the right side,” she said, hoping and praying it was true. But just because he didn’t give them up didn’t mean he was without guilt in whatever the exterminators had planned.
“Which, if it’s true, means he’s in greater danger than we thought,” she said as she helped Nehemiah climb back into the car.
Chapter Twenty-One
Kate slept until almost seven the next morning, and she woke a little woozy from the night’s activities. Paul had left a note by a thermos coffee carafe, letting Kate know that he’d seen her note and purposely let her sleep in. He said he was going for a run and then had a little more sermon prep to do at the office. He’d see her at lunchtime.
She gratefully poured a cup of still-fresh coffee, then almost fell into her rocker from fatigue, but took strength from reading Psalm 100.
Then she prayed for those she loved—her family and friends—and for those who had no one who loved them enough to pray for them. She also thanked God for the special gift of seeing James’ good side the night before.
As she prayed for the needs of Faith Briar, she thanked God for the heritage Nehemiah Jacobs and the little church had given Copper Mill, and especially for Nehemiah’s life and the influence he’d had on Paul since he was a teenager.
She got up from her devotions and smiled. Very few cobwebs were left, her woozy fatigue was fading fast, and she felt like singing.
Her first order of business was to call Livvy and let her know what had happened with James.
Livvy picked up on the first ring.
Kate gave her the details of what she and Nehemiah had seen on the Webcam, then later what James had done when circling the Honda on the orders of the exterminators. She repeated word for word what James had whispered.
For a moment there was only silence, then Livvy said, “Can you hold for a moment?”
“Sure.”
“I want Danny to hear this too.”
Kate heard Livvy talking quietly with her husband, then a few minutes later, he picked up an extension.
“It sounds like you’ve got some good news,” Danny said.
Kate repeated again what James had said as he circled the car, emphasizing that he tried very hard to conceal their presence, and that meant he was trying to do the right thing, no matter what he’d gotten himself into. She didn’t say anything about her worries about his safety.
Livvy and Danny thanked her for calling, then Danny said, “Now things are making a bit more sense. I tried to talk James into simply quitting his job, but he wouldn’t have any part of it.”
“I’m still concerned about the attitude change,” Livvy said. “What would cause that if he’s trying to do the right thing? Why can’t he tell us what he’s doing?”
Kate sighed, again thinking of her own experience raising teenagers. “Maybe he’s afraid of something happening to you if you jumped in to protect him,” she said.
“Do you think he might be in that kind of danger?” Danny asked.
“I’m not sure,” Kate said honestly. “All I know is that the deeper I get into the goings-on at the muse
um, the more convinced I am that they’re all hiding the real reason they’re here, the real reason for Davis Carr’s philanthropic loan of the valuable paintings. And whatever it is might be valuable enough to them all to make sure no one else finds out about it.”
“Therein lies the danger,” Livvy said.
“That’s it in a nutshell.” Kate paused. “By the way, I tried to call last night, but neither of your phones rang through.”
“They were fine this morning,” Livvy said. “Though the cell was charging and on Manner mode.”
“And the other phone...” Danny’s voice drifted off as if he was trying to remember. “Actually, the other phone was off the hook this morning.” The worry in his voice seemed more pronounced. “And I distinctly remember putting it back in the cradle after a late call last night.”
All three fell silent for a moment, then Livvy said, “I wonder if James was worried someone might call us. He knows that we’ve noticed his sneaking out at night, and maybe he wanted to make sure the call didn’t get through.”
“Well, at least this time it worked out for the best,” Kate said, thinking of the teenager’s words and actions that had protected her and Nehemiah the night before.
Her next call was to Skip to let him know she thought she’d located the pickup and had photos that she would drop by later. Skip didn’t pick up, so she left the message on voice mail.
AS KATE RINSED HER JUICE GLASS and small plate, then later as she showered and dressed, the song Nehemiah had sung following his sermon again came to mind. She would forever associate it with him and knew that likely everyone who’d heard his beautiful, booming baritone that Sunday would too.
Still humming “How Great Thou Art,” she hurried into the garage and rummaged around for a few more tools, grabbed her handbag, and headed for the Honda. She wanted to be the first to enter the museum the moment it opened.
She bit back her irritation when she spotted the exterminator’s white pickup truck parked down the street. The giant dead bug was back in place, feet up, over the cab. She just hoped it was a real fumigation project at a different residence.
After greeting Eli, Kate raced upstairs to the bathroom, let herself in, and locked the door. This time she focused on the tile floor. It was made with turn-of-the-century gray and maroon, small octagonal tiles. A Persian rug with the same colors covered the floor. A good place to start. She rolled up the rug, then knelt to take a closer look at the tiles.
She tapped a few with her knuckles, but they sounded solid. A few more. Same result. She frowned. This seemed like such a logical place for hiding something. Then she spotted an uneven tile underneath the small claw-foot princess tub.
She reached as far as she could to touch the tile. It loosened in her hand, but at the angle she was kneeling, she couldn’t pull it up. She tried again, this time from the end of the tub. She felt several tiles move as if they hadn’t been laid properly. They were old, probably original, she surmised. So it made sense that they might have loosened over the decades.
She sat back and rummaged around in her handbag for a pair of pliers. The last thing she wanted to do was break a tile, but she had to see if it would indeed pull up—and if, in fact, there was a hiding place underneath.
She had just pulled up the first tile, when a rapping sound at the door startled her...again. With a sigh, she put the tile back in place and dropped the pliers in her purse. She flushed the toilet for the sound effect, then opened the door.
Mr. Compressor-Operator-Exterminator, wearing what was obviously his second-favorite outfit, a tie-dyed T-shirt and jeans, stood outside.
“Sorry,” she said with a smile. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting long.”
“Not at all.” He brushed past her, and too late she remembered the rolled-up Persian rug. She’d forgotten to place it flat on the floor where she’d found it.
As Kate came down the stairs, she stopped in front of Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May. Remembering what she’d noticed in the digital prints, she moved closer and examined the painting carefully. The aging of the oil seemed appropriate, the colors just faded enough for a century-old masterpiece, yet it still fit awkwardly in its ornate gold frame.
She zeroed in on the maiden’s bare foot and held her magnifying glass to the toes.
Ah yes. The toes. Especially their length.
She dropped the penlight and magnifying glass into her handbag, grabbed her cell phone, and as soon as she exited the museum, dialed her own home number. She prayed that Nehemiah was up and would answer.
On the fourth ring, he picked up. “Hanlon residence,” he said politely.
“Nehemiah, I’m at the museum.”
“I should have gone with you. I’m sorry I slept in—”
“Not to worry,” she said, smiling. “I’ve discovered something important.”
“Having to do with what we saw last night?”
“That part’s still a maybe.” She paused and then said, “But there’s something else I’m almost sure of.”
“What’s that?”
“I think the paintings are forgeries.”
Nehemiah was waiting for her in front of the parsonage, holding the printouts of the paintings in a folder under one arm and trying to balance himself on the crutches. Judging from his wobbles, he wasn’t having an easy time of it. She pulled to the curb and hurried from the car to help him. He handed her the copies, and then settled into the passenger’s side, as she put the folder in the back seat.
Kate told Nehemiah what she’d found as they drove to the museum. When the museum came into view, she pulled the car into a parking space a few houses down on the museum side, and turned off the engine. Disappointment washed over her: The exterminators had returned...in full force. Four trucks were now parked in front of the Victorian. Yellow Caution tape had cordoned off the entrance, and a uniformed exterminator was tacking up a sign.
Kate and Nehemiah exchanged glances, then looked back to the entrance. Even from her vantage point, Kate could see the large lettering: VICTORIAN MUSEUM CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
Nehemiah drew in a breath, then let it out slowly. “Somebody doesn’t want us in that museum.”
Kate nodded, intent on phoning Livvy to find out what she knew about it. But there was no answer.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sunday morning, Kate spotted Livvy in the church parking lot and hurried to catch up with her. They walked toward the entrance together.
Kate lowered her voice. “Did you hear that the museum’s being tented?”
“Tented?” Livvy sounded confused.
“You know, the way exterminators do for termites.”
Livvy’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s pretty extreme.”
“I tried to call to see if you knew anything about it, but couldn’t reach you.”
“I was ‘out of pocket’ all day,” Livvy said apologetically. “I won’t go into detail—your story is much more compelling than mine. Tell me more.”
Kate told her about seeing the closed sign the day before. “I stopped by the museum yesterday morning, took a close look at the paintings, and thought I’d found proof that they’re forgeries. A few minutes later, I went home to pick up the prints of the originals so Nehemiah and I could make an accurate comparison. We’d just driven up to the museum when the exterminators were putting up the sign.”
Livvy seemed to be processing the information, and then she said, “Were the Webcams on when you were checking out the paintings?”
Kate nodded. “I’m sure I was in full view.”
“Quite a coincidence,” Livvy said.
“I thought so,” Kate agreed.
“I didn’t know it was being tented, but I do know that the board members were called yesterday,” Livvy said. “I heard from someone at Safe Keeping, letting me know that there was evidence of a rat infestation.”
“Which I’m assuming isn’t true.” Kate shivered anyway, thinking of rats everywhere.
Livvy g
rinned and opened the front door of the church to let Kate go in ahead of her. “And so that tells us you’re really onto something,” she said once they were inside. “Something big.”
“There are still missing pieces to the puzzle,” Kate reminded her as they entered the sanctuary. “Let’s pray we can find them.”
ON MONDAY, Kate drove by the museum on her way to the Mercantile. The large tent was still in place, and the exterminators’ trucks were parked in the street. Hoses were attached to some sort of loud generator and crossed the lawn into what appeared to be an airtight opening. Though the trucks were in place, none of the exterminators themselves were in sight.
Kate guessed pure air was being pumped through the hoses, and the men were inside searching the place from stem to stern. From what she’d observed, they seemed to be focusing on the walls rather than the floors. But again, maybe they’d just walked the few blocks to the diner for coffee. Even still, she wasn’t about to take a chance and crawl under the tent to find out for sure. She sighed. One more day lost. At least she’d have some time to catch up on the housework and maybe cook a fried-chicken dinner for Paul and Nehemiah. She smiled, imagining Paul’s reaction when he walked in the door and smelled the chicken. Heading to the Mercantile, Kate resolved to pursue the mystery again the next day—no matter what.
ON TUESDAY MORNING, Livvy called from her library office. “Kate, I just heard from Safe Keeping. The museum’s reopening today at the usual time.”
Kate almost clapped her hands, she was so thrilled. “I wonder if the exterminators found what they were looking for.”
Livvy laughed. “You mean the rats?”
Although Livvy couldn’t see her, Kate shook her head. “Nope. I mean whatever it is they don’t want me to discover.”
Concern laced Livvy’s voice. “Just be careful, Kate.”
“I promise, I will.”
At ten o’clock, Kate pulled up in front of the museum, Nehemiah at her side. She helped him from the car, then went around to the trunk to get the folder of prints. She was well aware as they walked toward the museum that the folder was too large to conceal. After her run-ins with the exterminators, and with the security cameras trained on her activities in front of the paintings—which had prompted the tenting—once she opened the folder there would be no doubt that they would watch her every move.