Double Exposure. Lenora Worth

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СКАЧАТЬ hide the fashionably thin woman’s hard angles. “Are you all right?”

       “I’m fine.”

       “Don’t worry about the mess.” Madeline waved a hand in the air as if the destruction was of no consequence to her. “The police have just given me the go-ahead to clean up. I’m phoning staff members to come in this afternoon. We’ll have this place righted in no time and open the show on schedule.”

       “I appreciate your hard work, Madeline,” Jennie said, but Madeline was already turning toward Ethan.

       “And you, Ethan?” She pointed at his arm. “That looks like a nasty injury.”

       “It’s nothing. We’re both fine.” His reassuring tone gave Jennie hope that he had everything under control.

       “I trust you’re still on board with the protection details we discussed earlier.” Madeline raised a thin eyebrow.

       “Yes,” Ethan answered, but he didn’t look enthusiastic about it.

       “You don’t sound very convincing.”

       “Like I told you before, I don’t have to personally see to Jennie’s detail. Everyone at the firm is capable of handling it.”

       Madeline patted his good arm, diamond rings glinting in the spotlight. “I dearly love all of your brothers and sisters, Ethan, but none of them have the extensive background you have, now do they?”

       “They may not have as many years in the law-enforcement game, but they’re pros.”

       “You know me, Ethan. I hire only the best, and as I’ve told you repeatedly, you’re the best.” Her lips tipped in a slight smile. “You’re not planning on disappointing me, are you?”

       “No,” he said, reluctance still in his tone.

       Jennie wasn’t surprised at Madeline’s stance. Jennie had encountered similar stubbornness while planning this show with Madeline. When the woman made up her mind about something, there was no point in arguing. She always got her way.

       “Fine, then if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to work.” She made a sharp pivot on spiked heels and headed for the back of the gallery.

       Jennie saw Ethan fist his hands. He clearly didn’t want to be with her. The sooner they got to the bottom of all of this, the sooner he would be on his way.

       Sucking in a reedy breath, she squatted down to pick through tattered photos, searching for anything left intact.

       “I don’t know how anyone could do this,” she said to Ethan as he hovered over her like a solicitous parent. “Without the money from the fundraiser, many of the children we help could die.”

       “Then we need to make sure that doesn’t happen.” He sounded so confident and sure. “And we’ll start by figuring out who did this.”

      “This?” She gestured at the devastation surrounding her. “This makes no sense. How do we even begin to figure it out?”

       “We take things one step at a time.” His voice remained calm and even.

       How could he be so levelheaded when chaos surrounded them? When they were back together after all these years?

       “You mentioned seeing your attacker through your camera,” he went on. “Did you take any pictures of him?”

       “Several.”

       “Good. We can run them through facial-recognition software to see if he’s in the database. If he is, we’ll have his ID in less than an hour.”

       “I hate that people like this guy are willing to destroy things intended to do so much good.” She stood, putting distance between her and the picture scraps.

       “This isn’t about destruction, Jen. It’s about stopping the show.” He paused and watched her as if waiting for his comment to settle in.

       “What I don’t get is why. I mean, why trash this place and why try to take my camera?”

       “I doubt this guy followed you all that way simply to steal your camera.”

       “So why’d he try it, then?”

       “I think he’s after a memory card and he thought it would be in the bag.”

       She looked at him, eyebrow raised, and waited for an explanation.

       “Look,” he said. “A crime like this one is often financially motivated, but no one stands to make money if the show doesn’t open. So we have to look at other motives.”

       “Such as?”

       “My first thought was someone was out for revenge, and I’m still not ruling that out. Our team is already investigating gallery and charity staff, looking for anyone who might have a grudge against Photos of Hope or the gallery itself.”

       He paused and moved closer. “But now that this guy tried to steal your camera bag, we have to consider what the break-in and attempted theft have in common. Maybe we need to expand our investigation to include the pictures themselves.”

       “What could my pictures have to do with this?”

       “If you accidentally caught someone doing something they don’t want displayed in public, that person would try to stop you from showing the pictures. And that would mean destroying not only the pictures, but preventing you from producing more copies.”

       “That could be true of someone with a personal grudge, too.”

       “Agreed, and that’s why we’ll continue to look at all avenues. But if we start by reviewing the pictures, we can quickly see if my theory holds any weight, and if not, we can rule it out.”

       “There’s just one problem. I only use a digital format for the newspaper. I use film for all other work.” She gestured at the jumble of frames and torn photos at her feet. “You’re looking at the only copies of these pictures. All I have are the negatives.”

       “So how long will it take to reprint them?”

       “I’ll be lucky to finish before the show.”

       “And there’s no way to speed that up?”

       “No, but I could have the negatives drum scanned to create digital copies. Scanning would only take a few hours and you could view the pictures on a computer while I work on reprints for the show.”

       “Good. Good.” A burst of enthusiasm lit his eyes. “But first we’ll email the photo of your attacker to Cole. He’ll have someone at the marshal’s office run it.” She remembered reading his brother Cole had once worked as a U.S. Marshal in fugitive investigations.

       “We can upload the pictures on my computer. It’s in the break area.” Ethan put his hand on her back and gently urged her to move.

       Heat radiated through his fingers and a small gasp of surprise slipped out of her. Reacting to him every time he СКАЧАТЬ