Read Online The Case of the Artful Crime by Carolyn Keene - Free Book Online

thrown to the floor. One wall had been badly vandalized with swirling black lines of spray paint. Two uniformed officers were busy making note of the damage.
    â€œHere’s what I do know,” Nancy said, turning to Shawn. She recounted all the night’s events, from the mice in the kitchen to the empty black sedan at the car wash.
    â€œHow did you get into the restaurant?” Shawn asked.
    Nancy admitted her ruse.
    â€œYou could have suffocated in that walk-in refrigerator, you know,” Shawn scolded. “Not to mention that you were in here with some knife-wielding lunatic. I told you to go home, remember?”
    â€œI’m all right. I was only trying to solve this case,” Nancy defended herself. “At least now we have a few clues.”
    Shawn smiled wanly. “Okay. You win. I’m glad you’re all right. Now, what clues do we have?”
    â€œWell, I’m almost positive that the guy who let the mice loose is Jack,” she told him.
    Shawn raised his eyebrows. “I can’t believe that.”
    â€œSorry. But it sure looked like him,” Nancy said gently. “Either you have two vandals working separately, or Jack is working with the other guy. But I don’t think he is. Jack would have told the other guy I was here. Besides, the second guy would have heard the commotion in the kitchen if he’d been here with Jack. He didn’t, though, which means he came in while I was upstairs in the office.”
    â€œBut why would either one of them do this to me?” Shawn asked.
    â€œShawn,” Nancy said, “were you honest with me when you said Jack had no reason to be angry?”
    â€œYes,” Shawn insisted. “I made him an offer for the restaurant, and he accepted it. I even gave him a job. Why should he be angry?”
    â€œI don’t know,” Nancy admitted. “Well, at least we have a good chance of finding the slasher. Thepolice can run a registration check on the license plate number.”
    â€œDon’t tell the police about Jack yet, all right?” Shawn urged her. “I don’t want to say anything until we’re sure. He goes back so far with my family.”
    Nancy hesitated, then said, “Okay.”
    Nancy told the police about the vandal and how she’d tailed him to the car wash. Immediately, one of the officers, a tall, young, blond man, went to the phone to call his precinct for a check on the car.
    â€œThis has been a long day,” Shawn said, stifling a yawn. “Want some coffee?”
    â€œDo you have hot chocolate?” Nancy asked.
    â€œOf course. This is a restaurant, remember?” Shawn said with a smile. “I’ll be right back.”
    While he was gone, Nancy studied the paintings that the police had laid out on the tables. Five of them had been slashed on a crisp diagonal. But the sixth one—a large oil landscape of a lake surrounded by woods—had been attacked with particular vengeance. Entire pieces of the painting had been gouged out.
    Curious, Nancy knelt down on the floor next to the wall that had held the paintings. One at a time, she retrieved the small pieces of canvas that had fluttered to the floor. She continued to collect them until she had a small handful of pieces.
    Slowly and precisely, Nancy fit the pieces into the tattered framework of the painting as though they were bits of a jigsaw puzzle.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” Shawn asked, placing a steaming mug on the table beside her.
    â€œThis painting took a particular beating,” Nancy answered without looking up from her work. “I wanted to see if I recognized the location.” Finally, she looked up and took a sip of her hot chocolate. “Thanks,” she said to Shawn. “Did you check your refrigerator? The door has been open for a while, I’m afraid. Sorry. I was about to close it when I spotted the second intruder.”
    â€œThe food hasn’t spoiled yet,