Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

corrected.
    He shrugged. “She was angry with you for some reason. Something to do with her ex-husband.
    Apparently she’s been trying to get back with him. He was at the party and he saw her talking innocently to Ned Farmer. She wasn’t making much sense. She claimed her ex-husband hated a rash on her face that Abbey was responsible for and talking to Farmer had somehow brought out the rash. I didn’t see a rash.”
    “Ned’s married,” Hannah said. “And she had to be flirting if the rash came out.”
    “I think she flirts aft a standard way of talking with men, Hannah,” Sarah said. “So Aleksandr went into the back room with Sylvia looking for something. What?”
    “Well, Sylvia saw her ex go into the back room. He didn’t come out so eventually she wanted to see what he was up to. She kept talking about it so it wasn’t all that hard to give her a little nudge. I thought I might get a few answers.”
    “He was looking for stolen paintings,” Joley volunteered. “We found them. At least we think they were stolen. We found four in a cupboard and took pictures of them. They should be in the photographs Jonas brought back.”
    “You have pictures?” Aleksandr asked.
    “Those photographs are of stolen art?” Jonas asked and turned back to the kitchen where he’d spread the snapshots over the kitchen table. The rest began to follow him.
    “Jonas!” Carol’s voice reprimanded from the kitchen. “You dropped cookie crumbs on them.”
    Sarah stopped Aleksandr before he could follow the others. “Once you felt Abigail’s pain, you stopped investigating the back room, didn’t you?”
    “Abbey or one of the others stirred up the dust in the room. Sylvia had a sneezing fit. I knew they were in there. Not them , the Drakes, at first. I just knew we weren’t alone and when the dust swirled around us and Sylvia began sneezing uncontrollably, I took the opportunity to get out, but I intended to go back in myself later to have a look around.”
    “Because you suspect Frank?”
    “I know he’s involved and also the man working for him, Chad Kingman. I wanted to find proof and if Abigail did manage to take pictures of stolen paintings and the pictures can lead us to the thieves, I’ve got them nailed. Frank will give it up. He isn’t a tough guy.”
    “Could Prakenskii have been deliberately keeping you from that back room?”
    That stopped him. Abigail had been listening and she turned fully around. “There was a fight. I know you saw the spots of blood. We could all feel the vibrations of violence. And we’re certain those paintings are real, they felt old, not that Frank couldn’t have acquired them legally.“
    “If Prakenskii had already left, and your aunt Carol told me he had, how would he have known I was in that room, or that I was going back to it?” Aleksandr asked.

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    “Sarah sometimes knows things.”
    “Not like that, though, Abbey,” Sarah told her. “It doesn’t work that way. I don’t think Prakenskii could have known without being present. He must have seen you going into the room and used Abbey to distract you from returning.”
    “We know he’s good at moving through a crowd without being seen,” Abbey said. “I want to know what happened to Mason Fredrickson. Do you think it was his blood and not Chad’s? If Sylvia saw him go in earlier, but none of us saw him, where did he go? Aunt Carol said she saw Prakenskii give Chad a beating, but Mason was nowhere around. Had he been there earlier, saw something he shouldn’t have and was hurt? Or could he be involved?”
    “There’s a door that exits out into the alley where the delivery trucks come,” Aleksandr said.
    “And Mason’s good friends with Chad. They went to school together,” Sarah added. “I’m more concerned that Prakenskii seems to be subtly influencing everyone.”
    The three entered the kitchen and Aleksandr reached past Abigail to snag the last of the cookies on the plate ahead of Jonas. “Prakenskii follows his own rules. I have no idea what his agenda is, but I can tell you, whatever he’s doing here isn’t exactly what Nikitin thinks it is.”
    “What is this?” Jonas picked up a photograph of a naked male statue and thrust it at Hannah. “I suppose this is your idea of a stolen painting.”
    She nodded, taking the photo from him and passing it on to her aunt. Carol laughed. “Joley, you took these,