“We came over here the day Tania ran to us, begging for food. And we found the place deserted and this cupboard broken open,” said Arden.
“Huhm-um,” Reilly grunted, peering into the small compartment with its shattered door.
“These paint brushes,” Sim said, showing him one, “were never left by Mr. Dimitri to harden up like this. They were scattered about when we first came over.”
“That so?” the chief asked. “I wouldn’t know about that. I’m no painter.”
“There’s something else that’s very odd,” Arden stated. “Dimitri Uzlov had in his possession a very valuable gold box. Besides ourselves, we don’t know just how many people knew about it, but we think the woman Olga did. Anyway, it’s gone, too.”
Reilly raised his eyebrows. The case was beginning to be interesting. What he had imagined to be the silly idea of excitable “summer folks” seemed now to have something to it after all.
“Did this artist have many visitors?” he asked.
“Two that we know about,” replied Terry.
“The woman Olga, and a man who rowed over here in our boat a few nights ago. He came back toward morning,” said Sim.
“The woman came first and asked the way over here. Terry rowed her over. Dimitri and she seemed to be very angry about something. We rowed her back again, and she took Melissa Clayton for a ride in her car, a green sport roadster,” supplied Arden.