Out of the Picture

by Tracy Gardner

  “I saw you leave,” Maggie said.

  Savanna nodded, exasperated. “Yes, that’s right. I left a little before nine. Anyone else?”

  “It’s not like I’m just sitting and watching out my window. I don’t keep tabs on my neighbors.”

  “Of course not,” Savanna agreed, biting her lip.

  “But that young man came by, the one who’s helping her with the paintings. And then I saw her grandson’s car early this morning, around seven.”

  “Wait, what man? You mean Felix Thiebold—her art dealer? He’s probably in his fifties or so. He was here last night?”

  “No, the young one. He’s thin, maybe in his twenties. His hair is too long. You know, I’ve seen him carrying paintings out.”

  “Ryan?” Felix’s assistant had been here last night?

  “I don’t know his name. I told you, I don’t camp out and spy on everything.”

  “And then you saw which grandson today? Was it Jack?”

  “Yes, the school librarian. Jack.”

  That explained his phone on the counter. And now Savanna had a panicky feeling that the Minkov was gone.

  She’d reached her car. She had to get to school. Her first class arrived at nine. She opened the car door and got in, starting the engine and apologizing to Maggie for rushing off to work. It was disconcerting how much that woman knew about everyone and everything. Savanna waited a minute, then another, tapping her foot impatiently as she watched Maggie cross the wide Carson front lawn toward her own house.

  It was 8:48.

  When Maggie was nearly at her easement, Savanna hopped out, shutting the door quietly, and sprinted back up onto the porch. She zipped through the house, making a big circle through all the rooms and taking a super-fast inventory of Caroline’s paintings. Both Minkovs were there, as well as the others; the Monet and Matisse were fine too. Darn it, she wished she’d dug her hard-sided portrait case out of her storage bins this morning. She’d take the questionable Minkov with her if she could, but there was no way she was carting around a potential million-dollar painting in the back seat of her car, to mingle with dog fur and Nolan’s Cheerios.

  She did discover that Caroline was down to one Rothman in her office. There’d been three to begin with; Felix had sold the large one over the mantel earlier this week, Savanna recalled. Now the one closest to the desk was gone—that had to be what Ryan had taken. Savanna groaned inwardly. She wanted time to check out all the remaining work in Caroline’s house.

  She locked the door again as she left, a futile measure, and called Harlan on the way to school. “Dad! I have a favor to ask. Could you please go over and change the lock codes on all the doors at Caroline’s? I can explain later, but can you go do it right now, pretty please?”

  Harlan’s laughing voice came through the phone line. “Can I at least grab a cup of coffee first?”

  “No!” Savanna slammed on the brakes; she’d almost run a red light. It was 8:59. “Dad, I’m sorry I don’t have time to explain, but it’s so important, please. Please just go do it now. I would’ve done it but I don’t know how. Caroline isn’t there, she’s at the hospital. I’ll call you on my lunch break, I promise.”

  “Got it. I’m on my way,” he assured her, and Savanna heard his car start on the other end of the line.

  “Thank you, Dad.” She dropped the phone into her pocket and raced into the school. She’d never been late before. She walked past the office, head down, ignoring the secretary’s stare. Well, she’d been spotted. Now Mr. Clay would know. Nothing she could do about it.

  She set Jack’s phone on her desk and set about passing out the supplies to her third graders for today’s project. Savanna stood at the front of the room, looking over the students and finally settling on Paige, a quiet, serious girl in the third row. “Class, I have to go next door to the library for two minutes. I’ll be right back, but while I’m gone, Paige will be in charge. Is that clear?” Paige looked surprised but pleased.

  Reaching for Jack’s phone, as she wanted to let him know right away about Caroline, Savanna was startled when it rang. She paused, hand in the air above it. The screen was lit up with the words call from Private. The call ended and the phone dinged, signaling a new voicemail message.

  Savanna grabbed the phone and winked at Paige. “Thank you. I’ll be back in a sec. If there’s any problem, come get me next door, okay?”

  Just outside her classroom door, the phone jangled like a bell: a text message notification popped up on the screen. The phone displayed the first line of the message, as hers did, even with the lock screen on. Savanna had never cared enough to go through the settings and change them to hide everything on the lock screen. Apparently, Jack hadn’t either.

  Without even meaning to, Savanna read the text.

  We lose everything if you don’t get the money. It’s the only way to—

  Savanna stared at the screen. What on earth was this about?

  Entering the library to find Jack in his usual spot behind the counter at a computer, Savanna set his phone on the counter, and he looked up in surprise.

  “Thanks! Where did you find it?”

  “At your grandmother’s this morning,” Savanna said, watching him.

  He picked up the phone and came around the counter. “Thank you so much. I couldn’t remember when I’d had it last.”

  “Maggie Lyle said you stopped by this morning.” Savanna wanted to see how he answered her. Did he know Caroline was ill?

  “Yes.” He looked at Savanna curiously. “I did. I had to drop off those treats for Princess and Duke. Grandmother said they devoured the Steak Sticks from Fancy Tails, so I picked up a larger bag. What was Maggie doing there so early?”

  “She stopped by as I was leaving.”

  Jack shrugged. “Well, at least it’s nice Grandmother never has a chance to get lonely.” He smiled. “Oh! You have class, don’t you? I’ll let you get back. Thanks so much for my phone.”

  She felt a little pang of guilt. If he had any inkling that something was wrong with Caroline, he sure was hiding it well. “Jack, your grandmother was taken to the hospital this morning. I tried to call you and found your phone on the counter. Lauren wanted you to know she was on her way to Anderson Memorial.”

  Jack stared at her. “No. Oh, my… What happened?”

  “I’m not sure. I stopped by to get something I forgot last night and found her not feeling well. You should call Lauren. Or maybe you should go the hospital? I’m sure Mr. Clay will understand.”

  He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, shaking his head. “I can’t believe the year she’s had. Did she seem… How bad is it? Do you think I should be there?”

  Savanna’s eyes widened. She certainly didn’t want that kind of decision on her shoulders. “That’s up to you. I’m not sure how serious it is.”

  He reached over the counter and grabbed his jacket. “I think I should go. I’ll stop in the office and let them know I’m gone the rest of the day.”

  “I hope she’s okay, Jack.” Savanna watched him head down the hall, her worry for Caroline sitting in her stomach like a stone.

  She found her third graders still in their seats, working on their projects. She stopped at Paige’s desk and deposited a blue plastic token in front of the girl to use at the school store; it was a little shop the school ran in the lunchroom on Wednesdays. “Thank you, honey. Nice job.”

  The lunch bell finally rang, and Savanna bolted out the front doors of the school. Her mind was working overtime and she couldn’t shut it off; she needed the walk to Fancy Tails to clear her head.

  When Savanna got there, Syd greeted her from behind the treat display case. “Hey!”

  “Would you mind picking up Caroline’s poodles a day early?” Savanna had thought about them all morning. She knew they were fine, but they must be worried about Caroline.r />
  “Hello to you, too.” Sydney smiled.

  “I’m sorry. It’s already been quite a day. Did you hear what happened? Have you talked to Dad?”

  Sydney motioned Savanna over behind the display case with her, pointing through the window into the grooming area. Sydney’s assistant had one little white poodle on the steel table, in the middle of a trim. The other one was already washed and primped, wearing a new red bandana and curled up on a purple fleece dog bed in one of the holding pens.

  She impulsively hugged her sister. “You. Are. Awesome. Thank you so much. They look happy. Well, that one, not so much.” She giggled at the one being trimmed. She couldn’t tell Princess from Duke unless they were side by side, but the one on the table looked anxious to get the haircut over with, prancing impatiently on its front paws.

  “Dad called me from Caroline’s. I ran by and got them this morning. I figure we can just keep them through the weekend. I’m sure that’ll help Lauren so she won’t have to leave them there alone. Oh, and we already called her with the new lock code.”

  “That’s a great idea. Fonzie will love it. Did Lauren say how Caroline was? Do they know anything yet?”

  “Not really,” Sydney replied. “She said she’s in the Cardiac ICU. See now, aren’t you glad your Dr. Gallager is her doctor?”

  “He’s not ‘my’ anything, Syd. Stop it.”

  Sydney shrugged, returning her attention to restocking the display case. “Sheesh. I meant ‘your’ as in your friend. But I see where your head is at.”

  Savanna gave Sydney’s long red braid a yank. “Whatever. I’m going to grab a sandwich from the deli before my break is over. Do you want anything?”

  “Yes! A chicken fajita wrap—two of them. One’s for Willow.” Sydney pointed through the window at her assistant.

  After work, after twenty minutes in Sydney’s basement rummaging through boxes she still hadn’t unpacked from Chicago and another twenty minutes at Caroline’s house, Savanna stood in the lobby of Skylar’s law office holding a large, brown leather case in each hand.

  Skylar’s receptionist pressed a button on the office phone on her desk. “Your sister is here. She says it’s urgent and she must speak with you right now.”

  “Send her in,” Skylar’s voice came over the speaker.

  Savanna set the cases on Skylar’s long conference table and opened them, carefully folding back the layer of polyethylene sheeting to reveal the paintings she’d taken from the Carson house.

  “Wow,” Skylar breathed. She turned and stared at Savanna.

  “It’s okay,” Savanna said. “She said I could take the Minkov to Lansing to authenticate it. I know it’s a forgery, just from what I saw yesterday with my Firefly. At least, I’m almost positive it is.”

  Skylar nodded. “Syd filled me in. And Caroline said you could take both these pieces from her house?”

  Savanna bit her bottom lip. “Well. She said I could take the Minkov.”

  Skylar groaned, pulling the white sheeting back over the Rothman, the only remaining painting from Caroline’s office. “I really didn’t need to know you took both.” She raised an eyebrow at Savanna. “I didn’t see anything.”

  “Ah, yes, okay. Got it. So, I took the Minkov and I’m taking it to Lansing first thing tomorrow. I already talked to their authenticator. He knows I’m coming and they said I can use their equipment.”

  “What are you thinking? I’m trying to see how this could be related to why Caroline keeps landing in the hospital.”

  “I’ve thought a lot about that. If she has forgeries in her house, someone knew about them. Either Everett, or their art dealer Felix, or Ryan, Felix’s assistant. Or maybe all of them. Ryan came and picked up the counterpart piece to that one”—Savanna pointed at the now-covered painting—“last night. Caroline’s gallerist is helping her thin the collection and they’re slowly finding buyers. I couldn’t leave the other Rothman at her house. It’s my best chance at finding out if the first two Rothmans were genuine.”

  “Okay, I can see why you needed to do this. But what can I do? We never looked over the certificate copies.” She moved to her desk.

  “We need those. I do want to sit down and go through all of them. Just like I want a chance to look at each of the pieces still hanging in Caroline’s house using my Firefly. But I brought the paintings here, because your office has a security system, right? Alarms, cameras, all of that?”

  “Yes. All of the branches do. It’s protocol from corporate in Lansing.”

  “Can we please lock these in for the night? They can’t stay in my car, and honestly, I won’t sleep if I have to keep one and a half million dollars’ worth of art in the house overnight. At least here, they’ll be safe, and I won’t worry. I can meet you here first thing Saturday morning to get them.”

  Skylar took a deep breath, looking at Savanna. “Of course. I understand. I hope you’re wrong about the paintings. That’s a ton of money.”

  “I don’t think I’m wrong.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Savanna stood at the coffee kiosk in the lobby of Anderson Memorial, waiting. She’d told Skylar she was stopping off at the hospital this morning to see Caroline before meeting her at the law office, and Skylar said she’d join her. Savanna had gotten two large coffees, black for Skylar and a caramel mocha for herself. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, her cute black ankle boots already pinching her feet. When would she learn? But they complemented her outfit today which, she told herself, was so she’d look professional when meeting with her occasional colleague Britt at the Lansing Museum of Fine Art.

  “Mine?” Sydney tapped Savanna on the shoulder and took the frothy, whipped-cream-topped coffee out of her hand, taking a sip. “Thanks!”

  “Hey! I didn’t know you were coming.” She turned to the barista and ordered a duplicate of the one her sister had just stolen.

  “I want to see Caroline, too. I’m taking Skylar’s car from here and going to babysit Nolan. Travis has a meeting later. Skylar wants to come with you to Lansing.”

  “Cool.” Savanna checked her phone. She’d texted Aidan a few minutes ago, hoping he might be on site at the hospital. She was so worried about Caroline.

  Skylar arrived, giving them each a hug. She looked with disgust at the whipped-cream-topped confection the barista set on the counter but picked it up anyway.

  “Mine?” She looked doubtfully at Savanna.

  “No.” Savanna laughed and traded her.

  Savanna spotted Aidan across the lobby, coming down the wide staircase. He wore the doctor uniform well: a long white lab coat over blue scrubs today. He crossed the shiny linoleum, smiling and greeting each of them. “I take it you came to see Caroline?”

  “We were hoping to,” Savanna replied.

  “They only allow immediate family in the CICU,” he said. “I’m so sorry. But,” he added, reading their disappointment, “I can tell you she’s doing much better. We’ll probably move her to the stepdown unit by tonight as long as she remains stable.”

  “Do you know what happened? Was it something with her heart? Was it what you’d been checking her for with the monitor?” Savanna took the role of spokesperson, standing between her sisters.

  “Not exactly,” Aidan said. “Why don’t we sit? I wanted to talk to you about something,” he said to Savanna.

  Savanna glanced at her sisters as they followed Aidan to a small round table by the wall of windows that made up the front of the building. Something was up; she knew it. Her stomach turned over as she wondered if Caroline was once again here in the hospital because someone was trying to hurt her. She never should have assumed the woman was safe, even temporarily.

  Aidan leaned forward, arms resting on the table, keeping his voice low. “I ran a few extra labs yesterday when she came in. It looks like an overdose of digitalis—a cardiac m
edication.”

  “What? But how? Caroline knows what she’s on. She’s sharp. She’d never take something you didn’t prescribe her.”

  “She is on digitalis,” Aidan explained. “But her blood level was through the roof. It triggered a dangerous arrhythmia, which we’re getting under control. Digitalis toxicity can cause a host of symptoms—nausea, poor appetite, fatigue…eventually death, if the level is high enough. Did you happen to notice anything when you saw her Thursday? Was she acting normal?”

  Savanna was quiet, thinking. She remembered cleaning up Caroline’s half-eaten dinner plate to put it in the dishwasher. And then, yesterday morning, that empty pill cup alongside a barely eaten breakfast. “She wasn’t eating—at least, not very well. Her appetite had dropped off. And Friday morning, it looked like she’d gone back to bed after having breakfast and taking her pills. Caroline doesn’t nap.”

  “Digitalis, her form of it anyway, is a tiny yellow pill. It’s smaller than a pencil eraser. As the dose increases, the pill gets slightly bigger, but not much.” Aidan lowered his voice even further, and all three sisters leaned in to hear him. “I’m thinking somebody switched out her pill for a much-higher dose. She’d probably have never noticed.”

  “Oh my God,” Savanna breathed.

  “I’m calling Jordan.” Skylar fumed, bright-red color high on her cheekbones, her brow furrowed in anger. “This has gone too far. Caroline could have died. We’ll find out who did this.”

  Sydney shook her head, looking as if she might cry. “Caroline has tried so hard to stay healthy. She does everything she’s supposed to do. You bet we’ll find out who did it.”

  Savanna grabbed Aidan’s arm. “Her pill box. It’s been sitting out in plain sight since her fall. Her family moved her bedroom into the parlor. Anyone could have tampered with it!”

  Aidan’s eyes lit up, suddenly struck with a lightbulb moment. “Aspirin,” he murmured, pulling his work tablet from his lab coat pocket. “I think I have her on a baby aspirin. Let me check.”