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

the base of his neck. “Based on the pictures we have of him, that’s Victor Gruskonov.”
    Mac asked, “Who’s Victor Gruskonov?”
    “Ilysa’s business manager,” Bogie grumbled. “A person of interest.”
    Mac asked about another couple on the opposite side of grand piano from the assistant and vice president. Their drinks rested on top of the piano. They were looking over their shoulders at Ilysa. The woman’s black hair, styled in a bob, was mixed with silver strands cascading over her head like a spider web. The lips of her wide mouth were painted red to match the color on her long fingernails. Between the spider web covering her hair and her blood red lips and nails, she reminded Mac of a creature from a horror film
    “The woman is Nancy Kaplan,” Bogie said. “Peyton’s wife. The man is Neal Hathaway’s lawyer George Scales.”
    Mac wondered, “Why isn’t she with her husband? Ilysa has her on the other side of the piano with another man.”
    “Unfortunately,” David said, “the artist isn’t here to ask.”
    “Do you notice who’s missing?” Archie asked them.
    Bogie nodded his head. “Her husband. Neal Hathaway isn’t in this painting.”
    David said, “Interesting. She painted everyone in her life, but not her husband.”
    “Could it be a forgery?” Archie asked.
    Mac’s heart sank at the vision of an unexpected windfall flying out the window.
    “I doubt that,” Bogie said, “Archibald Poole knew art. As a matter of fact, I questioned him after the murder. The little bastard was known to collect stolen pieces of art for his own private collection. I had a good idea that whoever stole it would have sold it to him.” He waved the letters in his hands. “Damn it. I was right all along. He did have it.”
    Mac asked, “Could he have been connected to Ramsay’s murder?”
    “Poole wasn’t into murder.” David stood up and stepped back from the painting. “Ilysa Ramsay was married to Neal Hathaway. They lived lakeside on Pelican Court.”
    Mac asked, “The rocket scientist?”
    “They had only been married a couple years at the time of the murder,” David said. “She was making a name for herself in Europe when they met. Hathaway married her and brought her to the states and financed her career. He’s a big patron of the arts. He introduced her to all the right people. She was on her way to becoming famous here in the States. She had a huge showing at the Lourve in Paris for October, but she was killed four weeks before her showing.”
    “What about the painting?” Mac asked.
    David said, “Ilysa finished it the day before her murder.”
    Bogie explained, “She was superstitious. She was from Scotland and believed in all that superstitious stuff. She wouldn’t show her work to anyone until it was done. She refused to even talk about a work in progress. She had finished the painting on Saturday, and unveiled it to her friends and family after dinner on Sunday night.”
    David said, “She had a houseful of guests because of the Labor Day holiday.”
    “This painting was supposed to be her center piece at the showing,” Bogie said, “but when her husband found her body Monday morning, it was gone.”
    “Sounds like she was killed to double the value of the painting,” Archie said.
    Bogie’s mustache twitched. “Which is why the first one I wanted to question was Victor Gruskonov, Ramsay’s manager. Ilysa told Hathaway that she was quitting Gruskonov. She was heard arguing with him over the phone. He supposedly said he was coming out to talk to her. Then, she ends up dead.” His eyes narrowed to slits. He uttered a growl deep in his throat that caused Gnarly to lift his head from where he had been resting it on top of Archie’s feet. “Gruskonov was at the top of my list before and he still is.”
    “Problem is,” David told Mac, “Victor Gruskonov hasn’t been seen since before the murder.”
    Archie said, “That makes him look guilty to me.”
    “Me,