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in the end, it’s all about fa on the wall Two trees, standing close to each other, their trunks al were obviously drawn by a child, slightly shaky and basic, but the colors, the vibrant greens and rich browns, drew the eye The sunlit crowns of the trees alo outside to breathe in the air and runit in my office and smile every time I looked at it

I took it off the wall A plain black fraet in any craft or art supply store Gently I pried it open and pulled the fra on the mat, no piece of translucent rice paper hidden between theitself I plucked the heavy piece of watercolor paper out and held the painting up so the light shone through it

Paint and paper fibers Even if I reached into left field for some improbable spy solution to this mystery, an invisible ink still left traces A pen would’ve left scratches on the smooth dense paper A brush would’ve left patterns as it soaked into the texture Watercolor paint ca with the ink, not torequired a lot of water Soaking the paper with the hiddenwas exactly what it pretended to be

I knocked on the fra for hollow spots Only solid wood answered

"What are you looking for?" Melosa asked

"I’ll knohen I see it"

"I’ll go see if I can findon the floor and tried the next one A picture of the house, two adults and two children, and a ghostly outline of a dog Was the dog dead? Was Kyle wishing for a puppy? I took the painting off the wall, just as the dark-haired ht in four more They moved on upstairs, while Melosa and I took the next frame apart

Half an hour later all twenty-four paintings lay on the floor I had gone through every inch of paper and ith a fine-toothed co

The disappoints ticked all the right boxes, ranking right there with hollow books as a cliché hiding place: ht they were being really clever and enjoyed knowing that their valuables were hidden in plain sight It was just the kind of thing I would’ve expected Olivia Charles to do She fras

"Do you want to look anywhere else?" Delun asked

"Not tonight" I’d coive it another go "Let’s go home"

The escort faithfully followedlot in front of the warehouse, then they veered toward Rogan’s HQ I parked the car, got out, and walked around the warehouse It was easier than punching the code in and going through all the doors inside

I turned the corner A twisted wreck that led in the street Someone had taken a car frame, crushed and twisted it, like a piece of aluminum foil, and then tossed it onto the street Odd

Ahead the co yellow electric light onto the street and another dented wreckage This one looked like soiant pressed the car into a ball and decided to practice soccer tricks with it

I sped up

The motor pool was mostly empty So an open space in the center Smaller chunks of metal, wrenched and twisted, littered the concrete floor Grandainst Romeo He was Grandma Frida’s pet project He’d started out his life as an M551 Sheridan, a light arh s However, Grandma Frida had made modifications, and ever since Ro with hian looe screens, studying the footage of Garen On the left, Bern sat in a chair a few feet away fro had straddled a chair backwards on the right and leaned over the back of it, his chin on his forear on her lap As I approached, she picked at it with a crochet hook and unraveled another tangled roo blankets lay on the floor, next to a half-finished bowl of popcorn My sisters must’ve been in attendance

I paused by Grand your date and the walls started buckling I needed so to do"

"And the girls?"

"They went to bed While you were having your adventures, we’ve been running tornado drills all day They’re sick to death of running across the street into the baseet an earful to in ?"