Shades of Murder (The Mac Faraday Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF Page A

with the word PERSONAL printed in capital letters underneath her name.
    “What does the letter say?” Archie came back in from the kitchen. With the scissors, she broke through the plastic cord wrapped around the box.
    Mac was still reading the first letter. “It’s a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo. This guy, Archibald Poole, died. He had left this to Robin Spencer. In the event of her death preceding his, it was to be passed on to her next of kin. Since that’s me, I get it.”
    Archie stopped snipping. “Archibald Poole?”
    Gnarly stopped sniffing.
    “Did you know him?” He was breaking through the seal of the white envelope addressed to Robin.
    “Creepy old man. One of those eccentric rich guys. He didn’t make it all on the up and up. I think Robin remained friends with him because he was good material for her books. He lived in a big mansion up on top of a mountain in southern West Virginia.”
    Mac was only half paying attention. “He left Robin a painting.”
    With one end unsealed, Archie peered inside the box to see that the contents were wrapped in brown paper and padding.
    Sitting on the top step leading down into the dining room, Mac read the letter out loud:
    Dearest Robin,
If you are reading this, then I’m dead and you are now observing my gift to you. So, what do you leave to the girl who has everything? When that girl is Robin Spencer, it’s a mystery.
You will find that I have left you an Ilysa Ramsay painting. That alone makes it worth a fortune. But, ah, my dear Robin, this is not just any Ilysa Ramsay painting. It is her lost painting.
You will recall that Ilysa Ramsay was brutally murdered on your own Deep Creek Lake in the early hours of Labor Day in 2004. At the same time, her last painting was stolen from her studio where her dead body was discovered. She had unveiled what she had declared to be her masterpiece to her family and friends the same evening that she was murdered.
    Grasping the frame wrapped in packaging, Archie tugged at the painting to pull it out of the box while Mac continued reading:
Everyone in the art world has been searching for Ilysa Ramsay’s last work of art. With only a handful of people having seen it; and no photographs taken of it before its theft; its value is priceless.
As my good luck would have it, a month after her murder, my guy called me. He had been contacted by a fence representing someone claiming to have the painting and wanting to unload it. Being familiar with Ilysa Ramsay’s work, I was able to authenticate it. Also, I had seen reports from witnesses who had described it as a self-portrait of Ilysa.
As I write this letter, Ilysa’s murder has yet to be solved. Nor do I know who had stolen the painting. It was sold to me by a third party.
And so, my dear lovely Robin, I leave this task to you. Here is the painting that the art world has been searching for, for years, and a mystery of who stole it, along with who killed its lovely artist. Enjoy, as I know you will!
My Love,Archibald Poole
    Her yellow suit droopy, Archie slapped her hat down on the dining room table, and ripped through the padding to reveal the painting of a red-haired woman lying across a lounge with a red and green clover pattern. She was dressed in an emerald gown with a ruby red choker stretched across her throat. Ruby red jewels spilled down her throat toward the bodice.
    Gnarly sat on the floor at Mac’s feet to gaze at the painting.
    They studied the image together.
    “Just what I always wanted,” Mac said. “A stolen priceless painting with a dead body attached to it.”
    Chapter Two
    “Where is it?” Deputy Police Chief Art Bogart almost shoved Mac out of the way in his rush through the front door to see the painting. Spying it in the dining room, he sprinted across the granite floors.
    It took less than ten minutes for Spencer’s deputy chief of police to arrive after Mac had called the station to ask about the cold case of Ilysa Ramsay on Deep Creek Lake.
    Police