“Oh,” I said. “Thank you.” I was completely surprised that Lucas had heard of me before. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit flattered, too. I looked at Bess and she was beaming at me. She was clearly pleased that Lucas was making such a good impression.

Bess, Lucas, and I continued talking a little more about Emily’s story and, eventually, about Lucas’s studies as well. I was trying to keep my guard up, but it appeared that Bess was right about Lucas. He did seem very nice.

Finally George announced that she’d found Beverly DeSantos’s interview. “Should I give you the highlights?” she asked.

I nodded enthusiastically. “Just keep your voice down,” I said.

George began skimming through the interview and gave the rest of us a summary. Mainly it said that Beverly didn’t enjoy growing up in the public eye. “According to the article,” said George, “Beverly said that she really didn’t like how many photographs of her as a child ended up being sold to complete strangers who just wanted to own an original DeSantos. Some of them even ended up in magazines, or published in other places. She did say that she wished she had been born into another family. The writer of the article wrote that Beverly looked sullen as she said this, bordering on angry.”

“I don’t know, Nancy,” said Bess. “That doesn’t sound very good.”

“Yeah,” said George. “If we’re looking for a motive, this could definitely be it.”

“Maybe,” I said. There was something about it that didn’t sit right with me, and I couldn’t help but think that there was certainly a difference between hating your grandfather and not wanting to be famous.

“What do you think, Lucas?” asked Bess, turning toward him.

“Oh,” said Lucas. He was shifting in his seat. “I’m not sure. I mean, I’m not a detective.”

“But you have to admit it’s not a positive portrayal,” said George.

“Well,” said Lucas. “Yes, I can admit that. And I do know that when it came out, it made a lot of DeSantos fans pretty mad. I’m not sure his strongest supporters ever got over it. Some of them can get pretty fanatical about this stuff.”

I thought about this for a moment. Lucas was making a good point. What if a DeSantos fan was doing all this to frame Beverly, to get back at her for her negative interview? It was certainly possible and seemed just as likely as Beverly herself being a suspect.

Regardless, I still didn’t have enough information. “I think we need to change direction,” I said. “There are other questions we can answer. Like, how are those missing people showing up in DeSantos’s photographs at all? And where are Grace and Jacob now?”

Lucas shook his head. He said, “I’ve been here since the exhibit opened. When Grace disappeared, no one saw her leave the museum. It was like she just vanished. And the same thing with Jacob. Not one person saw him leave the building.”