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Chapter 25: Nikola and Eddie Visit the Gallery

Nikola jumped when Eddie knocked on the apartment door. Although they had mapped it out in detail over the last two days, Nikola still couldn't believe that they were actually planning to search Martha's office.

"I don't know if we should do this. It's really out of our league, and if we get caught..." Nikola said as soon as she let Eddie in.

"Don't worry Nikola, we won't get caught. Besides, think of the excitement..."

"That's not enough to justify the risk. I know we've been discussing it for a while, but I'm really beginning to have second thoughts."

"Nikola, you're forgetting that we have a murder to investigate here. And if we don't do it, no one will. Marty was one of us. We can't just let his murder go uninvestigated and unpunished."

"He may not have been murdered! I seem to remember you're being very skeptical about the whole thing. And it's a tremendous risk to take, Eddie. If you get caught you'll definitely be thrown out of the gallery, and you could even have a police record as well. You'll be the one taking the big risks. Are you sure you want to?"

"I'm positive. After all, risk is what life's all about, isn't it? Besides, I didn't hear you talking about risk when you were volunteering to interrogate Alan."

"That was different."

"He could've been a crazed lunatic."

"But he wasn't."

"After what you said, I'm not so sure."

"That is still different. I wasn't doing anything illegal."

"Shut up and stop worrying, Nikola. I'm determined to do this."

"As you wish."

"All right. Let's get going."

"Just promise me one thing. You're not to stay in that office one second longer than five minutes. Understood?"

"Whatever you say."

Nikola rolled her eyes at Eddie's nonchalance, followed her out, and locked the apartment door behind them.
Nikola and Eddie arrived at the gallery at twenty minutes past ten o'clock. Eddie waited outside while Nikola entered. It was empty except for Cynthia, who was sitting at her desk.

Nikola went directly over to her and said, "Hi Cynthia. Is Martha around?"

"No, Martha's not in this morning. Is it anything I can help you with?"

"I hope so. Martha wanted me to review my painting prices, and I lost my copy of the list. I know that Martha has a copy too. Can you get into her office?"

"Sure. Follow me." Cynthia pulled a set of keys out of the top drawer of her desk and walked towards the back. Nikola followed close behind, catching Eddie in the corner of her eye, about to enter the gallery. They had to go through two doors to get to Martha's office. The first led out of the gallery and into a large storage room for paintings and general supplies. It was kept unlocked. The door to Martha's office was off the supply room, and was locked.

Cynthia unlocked and opened the office door and walked to the back, where Martha's desk stood. The front of the office contained a series of file cabinets on either side, with a number of smaller canvases leaning against the walls and the sides of the cabinets. The office was long and narrow, just slightly wider than Martha's desk, with a passageway between the cabinets leading to the desk in back. Although there were many corners, none of the spaces between them were big enough for a person to hide. The only way Eddie could succeed was with quick movement and a lot of luck. Nikola hoped that Eddie could do it.

Cynthia glanced over the pile of papers on Martha's desk and asked, "What was it you were looking for again?"

"My price list," Nikola replied.

"Here it is, I see it," Cynthia said as she lifted a sheaf of papers from the desk. "I'll go make a copy."

Nikola rejoiced to herself as Cynthia left the room: this could be the break they needed. The copier stood just outside the office door. Nikola placed herself between Cynthia and the office, blocking her view inside. Although Cynthia was still uncomfortably close physically, it would probably be Eddie's only chance to sneak in. Nikola gestured to Eddie behind her back, and moments later she felt a brush of cloth as she passed. When Cynthia finished the copies, she and Nikola went back into the office. Nikola glanced around nervously, but she couldn't see any evidence of her friend.

Basically, there were only two places Eddie could hide: under the desk or behind the door. When Cynthia walked back around the desk to replace the original price list, Nikola hoped that Eddie was behind the door. Cynthia replaced the document without incident and Nikola followed her out of the office. As Cynthia closed the door behind them, Nikola glanced at her watch and began counting down the five minutes. She noted with pleasure that the door to Martha's office locked automatically. If Eddie got out in time, she could lock the door behind herself. Nikola's stomach turned as an image flashed through her mind of what would happen if Eddie didn't get out in time.

"There was something else I wanted to ask you about."

"Go on."

"A few of the track lights seem a bit off. I was wondering if there was any way I could get them adjusted."

"Well, Charlie comes in every few days or so. If you point them out to me, I can let him know next time he comes in."

"That would be very nice of you. Thank you."

Cynthia walked to the reception desk, put the keys back and then joined Nikola, who had wandered towards the front of the gallery, examining the lighting on every painting. On the whole, their placement was almost optimal, much to Nikola's dismay. The gaps in lighting she had noticed before seemed almost negligible now. She knew that she would have a hard time to find fault with them, especially enough to fill five minutes.

"What was the problem?" Cynthia asked.

"This was one of the ones that I was worried about," Nikola replied, pointing to a painting whose light was ever so slightly off center, "but it doesn't look as bad right now. What do you think?" Nikola asked, hoping to start some kind of conversation.

"It looks fine to me," Cynthia replied, hardly looking at the painting.

"I don't know. The light is a little skewed to the right, and the lower left corner of the painting is rather dark," Nikola said slowly as she took a few steps back to get a better view of the piece. "Yes, I definitely see a problem. The colors in that dark corner are not showing up well at all. Everything looks rather brownish, you can't tell the blues from the green. I think that light should be properly centered. Or better yet, would be to have two lights on that painting. The width almost warrants two lights."

"I can get Charlie to center it, but I don't think he's going to want to completely re-work the whole lighting scheme at this stage of the exhibition. After all, it's almost over. You should have pointed this out when they were first hung," Cynthia replied in an exasperated tone.

"I just noticed it recently, if I had seen it at the hanging, I obviously would have pointed it out then." Nikola tried to return the exasperated tone. She was determined to keep the exchange going for at least five minutes, even if she had to play the prima donna artist.

"Fine, I'll mention it to him. But I can tell you now, that he's not going to put up a second light." Cynthia started walking back towards her desk.

"Wait," Nikola cried. "We're not finished yet."

"What do you mean? There are other lights that you don't like also?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact there are. I am trying to get some important clients in here next week, and this display has to be perfect. The exhibition isn't over yet, and we are here to sell these paintings. Don't forget that."

"Fine. Whatever you say. I'll get a pad and make a list of your complaints." Nikola thought she could see Cynthia rolling her eyes as she spoke.

While Cynthia went to her desk, Nikola glanced at her watch. Over four minutes had passed since they she had left Eddie in the office. So far, so good.

Cynthia returned with her pad and pen and stood next to Nikola, awaiting instructions. Nikola walked over to the only other painting whose light was even slightly off center and pointed it out. She went through the same motions of examining the painting, pointing out dark corners, and viewing the painting from numerous angles. By the time she finished describing her problems with that painting, six minutes had elapsed since she left Eddie in Martha's office, and still she saw no sign of Eddie. Nikola's worry increased. She didn't know how to continue to distract Cynthia's attention. In a desperate move, she walked over to another particularly wide painting and said, "The sides of this are also very dark, especially the lower corners. Are you sure I can't get Charlie to put two lights on this painting? This painting really should have two lights."

"Like I said, this is really late in the exhibition to start rearranging all the lights. I'll mention it to him if you want and I'll give him the list, but this is a lot of extra work this late in the game. You'll probably have to okay all of it with Martha. Oh, speaking of Martha, here she is." Cynthia looked up towards the door.

Nikola spun around to face the door and, much to her horror, Martha walked in. Nikola practically gaped at Martha, frantically trying to figure out what to do next. From the look on Martha's face, it was obvious that she was not in a good mood, which would make matters that much more difficult.

"Cynthia!" Martha called as she entered, "Bring me my messages and the morning mail in my office. The meeting this morning was canceled. We'll have to re-schedule."

Martha proceeded to march directly back to her office. Nikola knew she couldn't let her go there, so she took two running steps towards her and said, "Martha, I'm so glad to see you. I have a few questions about the Morse Chester sale and some of the other sales you mentioned. Plus, I hooked up with a potential client that I would really like to talk to you about."

"Not now, Nikola. I have a lot on my mind at the moment. I'll call you later this afternoon."

"But this can't wait, Martha. I have to get back to this client. I'm trying to arrange a meeting, and I..."

"All right then, come back in half an hour!" Martha replied sternly as she continued her march towards the back of the gallery.

Nikola could think of nothing else to say and no other way to hold her back, short of grabbing her arm. She just watched with dread as Martha walked towards the back of the gallery. Every click of Martha's heels caused Nikola's heart to skip a beat. She cursed Eddie under her breath for not sticking to the five minute marker. She was sure she would be caught, and tried to prepare explanations and excuses for Eddie's presence in Martha's office. As Martha clicked ever closer to the half wall that divided the gallery, Nikola's mind raced and time seemed to stand still. She watched Martha's figure recede slowly, until she rounded the wall and disappeared from view.

"Oh, hi Eddie, I didn't know you were here," Nikola heard in Martha's voice. 

Martha's tone was friendly, and the statement came before the sound of the back door opening and closing. Obviously, Eddie had made it out in time. Nikola's body relaxed as she let out the breath she didn't even know she had been holding, with a sigh.

"So what else did you want here?" Cynthia asked Nikola in a sharp tone.

"Oh, it was about this painting," Nikola said, regaining her composure, "but now that I look at it again, it doesn't look so bad. Just ask Charlie if he can move those two lights. That'll be fine."

"Okay, whatever you say."

Eddie appeared from behind the half wall, and casually smiled at Nikola. "Do you want to get some coffee?" she asked Nikola.

Nikola looked at her, slightly annoyed but relieved. "Sure," she said, "Let's go."

Nikola and Eddie left the gallery quietly, walked down the block and around a corner, before they started talking in earnest. 

"Eddie, what were you doing in there? We agreed on five minutes, and it was over six minutes when Martha walked into the gallery, and you hadn't come out yet. I was panicking."

"I couldn't find anything. I really wanted to find something. I didn't want this whole trip to all go to waste."

"But we had a five minute limit! If you couldn't find anything in that time you should have just given up."

"I didn't want to give up. We need some evidence on these people. We have to find out what happened to Marty."

"Well maybe there was nothing to find in her office. All we have to go by is Marty's journal and he could have easily misinterpreted what he saw between Martha and Alan."

"I don't think that's very likely."

"At any rate, thank God we got through that. If you had been out in five minutes, you would've been out long before Martha arrived."

"And I would have missed your brilliant struggle, " Eddie said with a chuckle. "Everything worked out fine, anyway. We have nothing to worry about."

"So what did you find in there?"

"The usual junk. Paperwork for the paintings in the gallery, gallery sales records, letters, all of them gallery business. I couldn't get inside her desk because that was locked. One of the file cabinets was also locked. The other file cabinet wasn't, so I briefly glanced at the contents and it all looked like legitimate gallery business stuff."

"She locks her desk, inside a locked office?"

"Yeah, she's pretty paranoid, isn't she? You'd think she must be hiding something."

"It would seem so, wouldn't it?"

"We'll have to keep looking then, until we find out what it is."

"We have another clue we haven't pursued - the postmark on that note. It may not lead to anything, but it's a lot easier to investigate than Martha's office." The last thing Nikola wanted was a repeat of the scene they had just enacted.

"I guess. But we'd probably need a car to get there."

"Greg has a car."

"Do you think he'd take you?"

"I could always ask."

"What would you do when you got there?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I guess I'd check the local phone books to see if she was listed, look around, maybe ask some questions. I don't know. But something tells me I should check it out. I'm seeing Greg tonight for dinner. I'll ask him then."

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