Chapter 4

"Oww!"
Richard's hand flew up to cover his cheek. He rubbed slightly to alleviate the pain.
Once he was past the initial shock he looked at her, eyes wide.
Her anger had returned and she was looking defiantly at him, arms folded across her chest.
"Does this mean I'm fired?" he asked carefully.

"You wish" she scoffed and turned away from him, looking out the window.
"Is that what you were trying to achieve? Bad luck, you still have a debt to pay or had you forgotten about that already?"

"No of course not."
He shook his head, his hand still covering his cheek. She couldn't see it, her eyes were still fixed on the New York skyline.
"But Caroline, am I missing something here? I mean….why would you say that after what just happened? Why did you slap me?"

She turned around again, her arms dropping to her sides.
"Ugh, please, Richard. We both know you only kissed me because I just admitted my feelings for you and you were looking for an easy way to settle the argument."

He shook his head vigorously.
"That is not true. How can you even think that? Caroline, I'm not going to apologize for kissing you, if that's what you're getting at."

She looked a little taken aback by this statement.
"You're not?"

"No, of course not! Why would I? I meant it! And besides, you kissed me back."

"No I didn't" she lied poorly, the red spots on her cheeks turning a deeper shade of crimson.

"Yes you did. Look Caroline, we can argue about this all day but we both know what happened."

"Okay then, so what if I did? You're expecting me to believe you were sincere?"

"Yes, I was. How can you even doubt that?"

He scrunched up his forehead in disbelief.
"Caroline, I think you're amazing, I've thought so since the moment I first saw you. I would never lie about something like that."

She eyed him warily.
"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you, Richard. You conned me once already, who's to say this isn't some sort of trick as well?"

"Oh for God's sake!" he exclaimed, "All I did was swap the stupid price tags, can't you get over that already?!"

Caroline stared at him as though he'd just told her he'd joined the circus. She rubbed her eyes.
"What are you talking about? You sold the same painting to several people and then took off with it…..right?" she added hesitantly.

Richard's expression was now a perfect reflection of Caroline's. Both were utterly confused, their foreheads scrunched up. Both mouths were slightly open for they were unable to decide whether to fire another load of questions or wait for the other person to clarify.
Richard eventually spoke.
"Hold on a sec, you're saying you never had my painting??"

"Well duh!" Caroline retorted.
"Why else would I accuse you of conning me? Why else are you working here?!"

"Well because I changed the price tags, not because I took it. In fact, I've been wondering why I didn't see it here. I figured you didn't display it because you were still mad. But I didn't take it. Why would I? I just felt that it was worth a lot more than Ms. Greenwood wanted to sell it for."

"Hold on" Caroline interjected, the new information only just sinking in. She held up a hand to stop him.
"So…you changed the price tags??"

"Yes!" he exclaimed, his voice balancing on the edge of annoyance and relief.
"I conned you, remember? Unfortunately, an original Karinsky isn't worth that much yet."

Caroline looked up and caught his stare, neither of them able to gauge what the other was thinking.
"But that's not what I was talking about all this time" she explained.
"I was angry because I thought you'd left with the money and the painting!"

"B-but I never took the painting" he explained superfluously.
"So….if you don't have it and I don't, then where is it?"

"Hey, what's up, working hard?" Annie greeted cheerfully as she burst into the apartment. She headed straight for the partner desk, grabbing an apple from the fruit bowl on the counter on her way there. She didn't notice what was going on until she flopped down in Richard's seat and found the two still staring at each other in shock.
"Hello?" she said with her mouth full, chewing on her apple, "Earth to Caroline and Richard?"

The two looked up at the same time.
"You'll never guess what we just discovered Annie."
Caroline slowly sat back down in her chair, Richard still seemed too shocked to move.

"What?" Annie asked nonchalantly, taking another bite from her apple.

"Richard didn't take the painting. He never conned me. Well, not the way I thought anyway. He just changed the price tags."

Now it was Annie's turn to look confused. She pulled a face.

"Yes, I swapped the price tags" Richard explained exasperatedly, "Didn't you notice the John Chang next to it was remarkably cheap?"
He sat down on a barstool.
"It was my first exhibition okay? I didn't expect much of it but when I noticed that quite a few people took an interest in my painting, I decided to swap the price tags just to see if someone would pay that much for one of my paintings."

"Well, not just 'someone'" Annie remarked.
"A whole lot of people were apparently willing to pay that much. God knows why."

"'A lot of people'?" Richard repeated, his head hurting from all the thinking.
"This is getting more confusing by the minute, could one of you please put me out of my misery and tell me where the heck my painting is??"

"I don't know where your painting is Richard, but I am beginning to believe that we've both been conned" Caroline said thoughtfully, staring out the window.
"See, you changed the price tags, causing me to pay –well quite a lot- more, so you made a big profit. But when I went to pick up the painting, it wasn't there and there were lots of other people who had bought the same painting. That's what I was angry about, I thought you'd taken off with the money and the painting."

"Aha," Annie nodded, acting like a true Columbo, "So that can only mean one thing. That gallery owner took off with the painting and those other people's money. She conned you both."
She gave the idea some thought before adding, "Wow, she's good."

"That rat!" Richard exclaimed angrily, balling his hands into fists.
"She was acting all excited about my first sale and paid me for it, wishing me luck with my career. But in the meantime, she conned lots of other people and used my painting as bait!"

Annie shrugged.
"Well, you could be flattered, at least it's good bait."

"Annie…" Caroline warned, placing a hand on Richard's shoulder in sympathy.
"So that's why the insurance only covered a small part of the costs, they estimated the painting's original value."

Richard sighed.
"Yeah, I'm afraid so. Look Caroline, I'm really sorry for all the money you lost over this…"

Caroline gave a dismissive hand-wave.
"That's okay, Richard. I know you are. But she's the real con artist here, we have to get her back for what she did to you."

Richard wasn't impressed.
"Come on, Caroline. What are you going to do? Make fun of her in your comic strip? I have a better idea, I'm going down there."
He strode over to the door.

Caroline walked after him and placed a hand on his arm to stop him.
"Richard, I think you should stay here, you're way too upset now. You wouldn't want to do something stupid, right?"

"That's exactly what I'm planning on doing!" he exclaimed angrily. He shrugged her hand off his shoulder and slammed the door on his way out.

---------------------

"Do you think we should call the gallery?" Caroline asked hesitantly. She spun her chair around to look at Annie who was on the couch, leafing through a magazine.

Annie looked up and glanced at her watch. She furrowed her brows.
"He hasn't been gone that long yet. He'll be back any second."
She directed her attention back to the magazine and leaned back against armrest of the couch.

"Right" Caroline nodded, unconvinced.
She reluctantly turned back to her desk and tried to focus on the panel in front of her. All she could think about though was Richard. She didn't understand why it was taking so long. Annoyance changed to worry and she noticed that she cared more than she wanted to admit. What if he'd done something stupid? What if Ms. Greenwood turned out to be more of a criminal than they'd given her credit for?
She once more drew her attention back to the panel. If she focused on drawing it would at least keep her from going crazy with worry.
She released her nervousness by tapping her pencil on the desk, in search of inspiration.

Annie threw down the magazine in exasperation.
"Oh, for God's sake, call the gallery then if it makes you feel better!"

She brought the phone over to her friend and thrust it in her hand.
Caroline avoided her friend's eyes. She was probably just being silly but she'd feel so much better if she knew what was going on. She dialed the number for the gallery.

"Greenwood Gallery" said a man on the other end of the line.

"Yes, hello, this is Caroline Duffy, I'd like to speak to Ms. Greenwood please?"

"Oh, you just missed her" replied the voice.

"But I'm her assistant, can I help you maybe?"

"Well, I was just wondering if Richard Karinsky is still there?"

"No, he left with Ms. Greenwood, like I said, you just missed them."

Caroline's throat tightened as she processed this new information. She gulped.
"Well, um…do you know where they were going?"

"No, I'm not sure. I did hear them say something about a painting, simplicity something, I can't remember."

"'Ambiguous Simplicity'??"

"Yeah, yeah that's it. Anything else I can help you with? Hello?…..Hello, Miss?"
The assistant's voice slowly faded and Caroline's arm dropped from her ear to her lap as she stared ahead, her eyes fixed on nothing in particular.

"What did they say? Caroline?"
Annie tried to get her attention but Caroline still seemed in utter shock and wasn't responding. The assistant was still calling from the phone in Caroline's lap and Annie took it from her and abruptly hung up.

Annie studied her friend who looked as though she'd seen a ghost. She slowly directed her attention back to Annie.
"He's gone…"

TBC