"Oh my word!" exclaimed Edna. She touched her hair, as if it would magically fix anything that was out of place. "You look like your picture."

Duh…

"Come in, come in," she said. "Harry, get out of the way. Let them in."

Harry was moving as fast as he could, which wasn't very fast at all. I felt for him. At this point, even if they knew nothing about the gallery, we had to visit. The delight in their faces upon meeting a real live mystery author was priceless.

They were rattling on to Sabrina about what great fans they were and that they had all of her books. They did, too. They brought them out for Sabrina to see, and she offered to sign them. You'd think they'd just won the lottery.

"My new one is coming out around Christmas," said Sabrina. "I'll get some copies earlier than that. If you give me your address, I will send you a signed one."

Edna screamed with joy, then got up and went into the bathroom. Could she have peed her pants in excitement?

Things eventually calmed down and Edna returned from the bathroom.

"How can we help you?" Harry finally said.

Sabrina turned it over to me. I had reappeared.

"We were wondering if you knew anything about an old gallery in town called the Simpson Gallery."

"That was my grandfather's place," said Harry.

We had found it!

"We're trying to locate a painting," I began, then told them the abbreviated version of my great-grandfather's story. "Do you know when the gallery closed?"

"Yeah, sometime right before the war. When he went to jail."

"What did he do?" I asked.

"What didn't he do? He was a real crook. You name it, he was involved in it. You say your great-grandfather was a friend of his? Was your great-grandfather a crook too?"

"Everything is pointing that way," I said. "Do you have any idea what might have happened to the paintings in the gallery?"

"Most of them went back to their owners. But there were about twenty or so that my daddy inherited. I guess they couldn't find who they belonged to."

The million-dollar question. "Do you know what happened to the twenty?"

"I most certainly do. They are somewhere in my basement."

Sabrina and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Could it be this easy?

"Well some of them anyway. I gave some away."

Of course it couldn't.

"I could go down and look, if you like."

"I know you're having trouble getting around," I said, "and I'm sure going down to your basement must be hard. We wouldn't ask it of you if it wasn't important."

"No, I'd be happy to," said Harry. "It'll probably take me a couple of days to get to it though."

My heart sank and I groaned inwardly—at least I hoped it was inwardly, because Sabrina shot me a glance. But Sabrina saved the day.

"Unfortunately, we have to leave town soon," she said, "but I have an idea, if you and Edna would agree to it. Would you be okay if Del and I went down and searched for it? You could tell us where to look."