The Raven (The Florentine #1)(33)

Mercury was blond.

She sat back in her chair, staring at the computer screen.

On one level, her discovery was unremarkable. Artists in general, and Botticelli in particular, made changes to their paintings as they worked. Other changes to the original design of Primavera had been noted by the restoration team in their reports. But Raven couldn’t recall anyone mentioning the changes made to Mercury’s hair.

Curious, she scrolled through some of the written documents the restoration team had prepared. It took her some time to do so, but her investigation corroborated her suspicion. No one seemed to have noticed the change in Mercury’s hair and this was very, very surprising given the fact that the change was obvious on a close inspection of the radiographs.

Lost in thought, Raven opened a digital copy of the finished painting and enlarged it, focusing on Mercury’s head and shoulders. Then she switched to the radiograph.

She tried to imagine what Mercury would have looked like withshorter blond hair.

Discoveries such as this one could help an art historian make her career. But before she wrote a paper announcing her discovery to the world, she had to study the reports more carefully. And she had to be sure no one had written on this subject before.

Peering over her shoulder to be sure she wasn’t being watched, Raven surreptitiously removed a flash drive from her backpack and quickly copied the relevant images. She could barely contain her excitement, her leg jiggling back and forth.

She’d just transferred the flash drive to the zippered pocket of her backpack when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Are you okay?” A voice addressed her in English.

She jumped in her chair and let out a loud expletive.

“Shhh!” the archivist hissed from her desk, which was across the room. She glared at Raven over the rims of her glasses.

Raven nodded meekly before looking up into the guilty eyes of her friend Patrick.

He mouthed a quick “Sorry.”

“What are you doing?” she whispered, quickly closing the files that she’d opened on the computer.

“I came to ask you the same question.” He nodded at the computer screen.

Raven glanced at the archivist, then at her friend.

“It may be nothing.”

Patrick’s gaze moved to the archivist as well before he spoke. “Gina wants you to come over to have dinner with us tonight.”

Raven looked over at their mutual friend, Gina, who was working on the other side of the room. She waved.

“So it’s official? You’re an ‘us’?”

Patrick grinned. “Yeah.”

“I’m happy for you. I’d love to have dinner with you both, but I have to pick up a few things after work.”

“That’s all right. Do you have your Vespa?”

“It’s waiting for me at the shop.”

“I’ll take you to pick it up after work and we can meet at Gina’s later. Okay?”

“Thanks.” Raven smiled.

Patrick picked up a piece of paper and scribbled a few words. He left the paper next to her computer before returning to his desk.

Raven glanced at his writing.

You forgot about the cameras.

“Shit!” she muttered.

She crumpled the paper and shoved it into her backpack.

She looked around the room, trying not to appear obvious as she located the security cameras in the four corners.

She’d been so excited about her potential discovery, she’d forgotten about them. Now the gallery had footage of her downloading files to a personal storage device without permission. It was a serious offense. And, given her recent circumstances, she doubted Dottor Vitali would be lenient.

She looked over at Patrick, who shook his head. He seemed just as worried as she.

He picked up his cell phone and began typing.

A few seconds later her phone chimed with a text.

What r u doing?

Raven quickly answered him.

Forgot about the cameras.

She could hear Patrick’s huff of disapproval from across the room.

Raven turned to look at the archivist, but she seemed preoccupied by her own work.

Raven’s phone chimed again.

You need to be more careful.

She couldn’t disagree. She was about to type a suitably contrite response when the telephone on the archivist’s desk rang.

As if in slow motion, she turned around.

The archivist was nodding and agreeing to something. When she finished her short conversation, she waved Raven over.

Raven walked to her desk, slowly.

“Dottor Vitali wishes to see you in his office. Now.” The archivist’s tone was brisk. “Make note of where you left off in your project and log out of your computer.”

I am in so much trouble.

Raven ground her teeth as she returned to her desk. With a few short mouse clicks, she logged out of her computer. She took a clean piece of paper and listed what she’d accomplished that morning.

She picked up her knapsack and handed the paper to the archivist.

“Raven, wait,” Patrick called to her.

He walked her to the door.

“Hand me the flash drive,” he whispered, holding his hand out.

“What?”

“So they can see us.” His eyes flickered to the side, where one of the cameras was positioned in full view of the door.