She nodded and headed toward her truck.
Gabe answered the call. “Hi, Caleb.”
“You’re not going to believe what I’ve been reading.”
“You’re supposed to be working on your project.”
“I needed a break.”
“And your break involves something I’m not going to believe?” Gabe watched Natalie reverse down the driveway. He needed to stop thinking about her and write the next scene of his book.
“Are you listening to me?”
Gabe frowned. “Sorry. What did you say?”
“I was looking on the Internet and found an article about Natalie. She’s considered one of the most up-and-coming artists of the twenty-first century. She’s exhibited at galleries around the world and even had an exhibition at the Louvre.”
He opened his front door. Sherlock followed him inside. “Sounds impressive.”
Caleb sighed. “You already knew, didn’t you?”
“Natalie told me she was an artist. I looked at her website last night and it listed where she’d exhibited. Can you send me the link to the article you found?”
“I’ll email it now. There’s something else you need to know. Her last three paintings sold for more than fifty thousand dollars each.”
His eyes widened. “Are you sure?” He didn’t know much about art, but there couldn’t be many artists who sold their work for that much money.
“I’m positive. I contacted a friend who works at a gallery in Los Angeles. Natalie’s one of the most popular artists in America, but no one knows much about her.”
Gabe had already guessed that she valued her privacy as much as he did.
“Did you know two of her paintings were stolen?”
Gabe poured himself a cup of coffee. “I did.”
“There was a lot of hype about who was behind the burglary, but no one has been arrested.”
“What kind of hype?”
“I’ll send you another article. The Italian police are looking at a mafia connection to the burglary.”
The coffeepot banged against the kitchen counter. “What kind of articles were you reading?”
“I know,” Caleb said. “It sounds like something out of your novels, except it’s true. What if Natalie left Venice because she’s worried the burglars will come back? There were three paintings in her studio, but only two were stolen.”
Gabe looked through the kitchen window. Sapphire Bay had become a magnet for people on the run. “How do you know she’d finished three paintings?”
“The reporter said there were three.”
“You know what the media are like. They could have been lying.” Gabe had been placed in the center of more than one false story. And no matter what he said, most people believed what they read. “If Natalie’s life was in danger she wouldn’t come to Sapphire Bay.”
“Why not?”
“It’s too remote.”
Caleb snorted. “That’s why most of us are here. You might want to let her know about the articles. If I found them, someone else could, too.”
“I’ll talk to her when she gets back from town.”
