"Is Octavia okay, Dad?" Carson asked anxiously.
They reached the open door of Bright Visions at that moment. Nick halted at the sight of Octavia inside. The first thing he noticed was that she wasn't wearing one of her usual icy-pale fairy queen dresses today. Instead she was dressed in a short jumper in a bright shade of purple. The golden-yellow boatneck tee shirt she wore underneath the dress had sleeves that came to her elbows. There was a wide amber bracelet on her wrist and more amber at her wrists and throat.
When she moved one hand in a small gesture, he noticed that she had painted her nails with a vivid crimson polish that sparkled in the morning light. He looked down and saw her bare toes peeking out from under the red leather tops of a pair of sexy, backless slides. She'd painted her toenails, too. Must have gotten up early, he thought. But then, he'd rolled out of bed at the crack of dawn himself, unable to sleep after a nearly sleepless night.
Octavia looked at him. There was fire in her eyes.
"Yeah," Nick said softly to Carson. "Octavia's okay."
Sean Valentine looked up from the notes he was making on a pad. He gave Nick a brief, friendly nod. "Morning, Harte." His somber face lightened when he caught sight of Carson. "Hey, there, Carson. How are you doing today?"
"Hey, there, Chief Valentine. I'm fine," Carson declared with delight.
Kids always responded to Sean, Nick reflected. He was not certain why. Valentine was no Officer Friendly. He carried a lot of wear and tear on his face. It was true that Sean did project a calm, professional competence, but he always looked as if he expected bad news. Children seemed to look right past the grim stuff and see something else beneath the surface, something they liked and trusted.
Nick noticed that Octavia was also watching Sean greet Carson. There was a thoughtful, reflective look on her face as though she, too, saw something in Valentine that she liked and trusted.
When she switched her gaze to Nick, however, the approval disappeared instantly from her expression.
What he got was cool appraisal. She was looking at him the way she might examine a painting that did not quite measure up to her standards.
Oh, shit. Talk about worst-case scenarios. This was bad. Very, very bad.
"Hello, Nick," she said without inflection. But when she switched her attention to Carson, the warmth returned to her voice. "Good morning, Carson. I like that shirt."
Carson beamed. He glanced down at the dark-green dinosaur emblazoned on his sweatshirt. "Thanks. It's a velociraptor. Dad bought it for me."
"I see."
"A velociraptor can rip you to shreds in seconds," Carson said cheerfully.
Octavia nodded. "I'll bear that in mind."
Nick met Sean's eyes. "What's going on here?"
"Octavia says that the painting Old Man Thurgarton left to A.Z. and Nash and the Heralds has disappeared." Sean rubbed the back of his neck. "Kind of a mystery how it happened. Apparently it was locked up in the back room and the security alarm was set as usual."
Arizona loomed in the doorway. "Getting past a standard security system would be child's play for that gang up at the institute. No offense, Carson."
"Okay," Carson said, clearly not offended.
Sean heaved a deep sigh. "I don't think we can blame anyone at the institute, A.Z. I know you're convinced that those folks up there are bent on subverting the government and running the world from their secret headquarters here in Eclipse Bay, but there's just no good motive for them to steal a painting."
"You want motive?" Arizona stalked toward the counter. "I'll give you motive. They know me and the Heralds plan to use our share of the profits from the sale of that picture to help finance our investigations. The last thing that crowd wants is for us to be able to expand the scope of our operations. If that ain't motive, I don't know what is."
Virgil Nash came through the doorway and nodded politely at everyone. He turned to Octavia. "Was the Upsall the only painting that was stolen?"
"Yes," Octavia said. "It was far and away the single most valuable picture here. Whoever took it must have known what he was doing."
Nick studied the paintings hanging on the wall and then shook his head. "I don't think you can assume that."
They all stared at him.
"What do you mean?" Octavia demanded. "The average person would probably have been more attracted to some of the scenes of the bay. Or that one." She swept out a hand to indicate the painting hanging behind her. "The watercolor with the gulls. To the untrained eye the Upsall looks dark and rather depressing."
"Probably because it is dark and depressing," Nick said.
She gave him a superior smile. "Which only goes to show how much you know about art, but that is neither here nor there."
Sean raised his brows a little at her crisp tone, but he made no comment. Instead he looked at Nick with some curiosity. "What makes you say that whoever took the picture didn't have to be an art expert?"
"The rumor that Thurgarton had left a valuable painting behind and that Octavia was going to get a second opinion on it was all over town by yesterday afternoon," Nick said mildly. "It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that she had it stored in the back room, and it would have been easy to recognize. Everyone was talking about how ugly it was."
Octavia did not look pleased with that quick summary. She glared. "How do you explain the thief having a key and knowing the security code?"
Nick glanced at the door. "There are usually several duplicates of a key floating around. And when was the last time the code was changed?"
She drummed her crimson nails on the counter. "It hasn't been changed since I had the Willis brothers install the system when I first opened the gallery."
Virgil frowned. "You had an assistant working here for several months. She would have had the code and the key."
"Of course," Octavia said. "But I don't think we can pin this theft on Noreen. She left town with her artist boyfriend last month, remember?"
Sean looked thoughtful. "Does anyone know where Noreen and the boyfriend are now?"
Octavia shook her head. "She just phoned in her resignation and took off. But now that you mention it, there's, uh, something else."
They all looked at her.
She grimaced. "A few days ago I came across a piece of paper with the code written on it taped inside one of the counter drawers. Noreen had trouble remembering it."
"Which means a lot of people might have had access to that code," Sean said. "Including the artist boyfriend."
