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Tainted Souls: A Shadow Creek Novel

Page 28

by J. C RIMELL


  “Love to.”

  She exhaled slowly as he walked away.

  Nev? If it's clear you need to find his office. Gabrielle's voice filtered through her earpiece and she began to move casually through the room, stopping to ask a waitress where the ladies' room was.

  With a quick glance over her shoulder, she made sure no one was following or watching her before she slipped out into the corridor. Climbing the stairs to the right brought her to the rest rooms. She turned right again and climbed another set of stairs leading to a wall of windows and a balcony, to the left was a door marked 'Bureau'.

  The door was locked. Great.

  She opened her small clutch and pulled out a pocket size lock-pick. A few raw curses later, and she was in.

  Chaput was clearly a neat freak, or he had OCD, if Vampires could have such a thing. Everything had a place, and everything was beautiful. He seemed to care for old, antique and vintage pieces. From the finely carved bookcases that she guessed dated back to the 1800's, to the heavy oak desk from around the same era.

  A large marble sculpture of naked lovers entwined was a centerpiece on the sideboard next to the leather sofa on the far wall. And a painting, which looked completely out of character with the rest of the room. She edged toward it, the style looked like... Picasso? Not that she knew anything about art. Nevada took out her cell and photographed the room before quickly moving on to the Apple Mac on the desk.

  Password protected…

  Guys, there's a painting on his wall, do any of you know it? She whispered into her mic and then sent the image from her cell.

  Holy shit! Gabrielle shrieked down her earpiece. It's the 'Pigeon Aux Petits Pois'.

  Excuse me?

  It's a famous painting by Picasso that was stolen… it's worth… close to thirty million. But that's a reproduction… right?

  Nevada shrugged. Hell if I know.

  I wonder… she tapped 'pigeonauxpetitspois' into the keyboard and smiled when the screen saver disappeared.

  Gottcha' baby.

  Slipping in the usb Snow had given to her, she opened 'finder' and started downloading all the files. Her finger tapped nervously on the desk.

  Jesus, there are helluva lot of files on here.

  While she waited, Nevada pulled open the desk drawers and had a careful look through the contents. Nothing interesting there.

  Chaput's just walked out into the foyer.

  Shit. It's only half way through… Come on… Come on…

  Nev, he's heading up the stairs. Get out of there, now.

  Nev? Nevada?

  “What are you doing up here?”

  His approach had been silent.

  Nevada froze to the spot when she heard the coolness of his voice behind her.

  “I needed space. I get a little claustrophobic,” she replied, but didn't turn around. Somehow she had the feeling he'd know she was lying if he saw her face.

  “I see.”

  Nevada felt his breath skim across her shoulder-blades making her swallow difficult against her dry throat. What was it about him that made her so nervous?

  She raised her eyes to look out over the darkened landscape that she imagined would be beautiful in the daytime and saw his reflection in the window.

  “Why not join me in my office? We can continue our conversation from earlier in there.”

  “Great idea.” She forced a smile.

  Shit. The door to his office was ajar.

  Nevada had no idea how she was going to bluff her way out of this one.

  To be continued...

 

 

 


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