"Maybe." Anne took a bite of her cookie. "Mom likes him a lot, I think. Grandma and Grandpa like him, too. Mom says they have good taste in men and this time she's going to listen to 'em."
"I like him, too. Do you?"
"Uh-huh." Anne nodded enthusiastically. "He came to our house for dinner last night and everybody laughed and we played games and stuff. He liked my pictures. It was fun." She looked at Octavia, who was moving across the room toward the cookie table. "Is Miss Brightwell gonna be your new mommy?"
"I think so," Carson said. Then he frowned, still a little troubled about some aspects of the situation. "Unless Dad screws up again."
Octavia spied the Willis brothers shortly before the end of the event.
She was about to bid them a pleasant good evening and thank them for attending the show when she suddenly remembered the mysterious key she had found in the back room closet.
"Torrance? Walter? Have you got time for a quick question?"
"Thinking of doing a little remodeling in here?" Walter surveyed the gallery with a speculative expression. "A new paint job wouldn't hurt. We can give you a good price on a few cans of taupe."
"I'm not planning on doing any painting for a while. This is more of a hardware issue. I found a key in the closet. It doesn't fit either of the doors. You two did the security and locks here and I thought I'd see if you recognized it. If not, I'll toss it."
They followed her into the back room and looked around with interest while she took the key off the closet hook.
"Sure is cluttered in here," Torrance said. "We could build you some shelving or maybe some racks for stacking all these paintings."
"That's not a bad idea," she said. "I'll think about it." She held out the key.
Walter took it from her and gave it a quick, cursory glance. "No problem. Reckon we know what this goes to, don't we, Torrance?"
"Sure do," Torrance said. "Leastways, it's the same brand we used for that job. I remember we ordered it in special after the problems with that little rash of break-ins we had a couple years back." He looked at Octavia. "Turned out to be some kids fooling around. Summer people, you know. Sean Valentine took care of the situation, but a few folks around here got nervous and asked us to upgrade their locks and such."
"Won't be hard to check and see if this key fits where we think it does," Walter said.
Chapter 23
Octavia parked in the drive in front of the old, two-story house, turned off the ignition, and got out of the car. It was six-thirty in the morning, but fog veiled the early light and cast a damp pall on the entire town.
Or maybe it was just her mood, she thought as she went up the steps and crossed the front porch. She had not slept much last night.
She banged the brass knocker on the front door. When there was no response, she banged it a second time.
Eventually the door opened a crack.
"What on earth are you doing here at this hour of the morning?" Edith Seaton demanded.
"I think you know why I'm here," Octavia said gently. "I came to get the Upsall."
Edith stared at her through the narrow opening for a long moment. Without warning her face suddenly crumpled. In the space of five or six seconds she seemed to age at least a decade.
"Yes." She stood back and held the door open. "Yes, I suppose you'd better take it."
Octavia stepped into the shadowy foyer.
Edith turned, not speaking, and led the way toward the living room. She wore a long, faded dressing gown and slippers.
Octavia took a quick look around as she followed Edith. The house was decorated with what appeared to be leftovers from Edith's shop. There was a display of carnival glass in a case that stood against one wall. Small porcelain figures were arranged on the end tables. The furniture was heavy and old-fashioned.
Edith sat down very stiffly in a rose-patterned rocking chair. Octavia went to stand at the window that overlooked the garden.
"How did you figure it out?" Edith asked in a resigned voice.
"I came across a key in my back room. Last night I asked the Willis brothers if they recognized it. They said they had installed a special lock in the door of your shop. We checked. The key fit. Last night I got a phone call from Noreen Perkins. Sean Valentine had tracked her down to ask her about a missing painting and she was worried that I might think she'd had something to do with the theft."
"And you asked her about the key, I suppose," Edith said dully. "She no doubt told you that several months ago we exchanged keys and that she also gave me the security code to the gallery."
"Yes. She said that both of you had occasionally gotten accidentally locked out. She had trouble remembering the security code for the alarm system so she made sure you had it in case she ever needed it."
"We thought it would be a convenience for both of us."
Edith said. "But after she left, I forgot all about having the code and a key in my desk. Just never gave it another thought."
"Until the day you and everyone else in town discovered that Claudia Banner was my great-aunt."
"I couldn't believe it." Color rushed back into Edith's face. Her gnarled, spotted hands knotted into fists. "It was as if her ghost had come back to haunt me. Worse yet, it was happening all over again, just like it happened all those years ago. But this time it was my grandson she, I mean you, seduced."
"I did not seduce Jeremy."
"All that talk about putting his pictures on display in your gallery. Encouraging him to do more paintings for you. It was seduction, all right, and well you know it."
"It was business, not seduction."
"You went out to dinner with him several times, too."
"We are friends, Mrs. Seaton. But not lovers."
"Only because something better came along," Edith shot back hoarsely. "You dropped my Jeremy like a hot potato when Nick Harte started to date you. Don't deny it."
"I do deny it. Every single word. You're putting your own spin on this, Edith, but I think deep down you know that it isn't the truth."
"You caused trouble between Jeremy and Nick the same way Claudia Banner did with Mitchell Madison and Sullivan Harte."
"So you took the painting the night of the storm and tried to destroy my good name in a noble attempt to defend Jeremy from my wiles?" Octavia shook her head. "I'm not buying that, Edith."
Edith sat in rigid, stubborn silence.
"Do you know what I think?" Octavia sat down in the chair across from the older woman. "I think you used Jeremy as an excuse to take revenge for something that Claudia Banner did to you all those years ago. She is beyond your reach and maybe you told yourself you had put it all behind you. But when you realized that I was her niece, the old anger came rushing back, didn't it?"
Edith flinched. "She got away with it. But then, Claudia Banner got away with everything. She never paid for the trouble and pain she caused."
"Tell me what my great-aunt did to you, Edith."
"She seduced my husband." Edith surged up out of her chair. "And then she used him."
Octavia was on her feet now. "How did she use him?"
"Phil was the accountant for Harte-Sullivan. She got him to doctor the company books while she carried out her scam. That was the reason Mitchell and Sullivan never saw the bankruptcy coming until it was too late."
Octavia drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I see."
"It was as if she was some sort of sorceress," Edith whispered. "She put my Phil under a spell for a time. The poor fool never realized how she'd manipulated him until he woke up one morning and discovered that she had vanished. He actually thought that she would contact him after the heat died down. He really believed that she loved him and wanted him to run off with her. It was months before he finally understood that he'd been used."