The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin Read Free Book Online Page B

of art, Angus. No more forging, no more scheming. I make my own art now — plain old paintings with no magic involved.”
    Angus leaned over and flicked through the paintings stacked against the wall.
    “If this is the best you can do, I suggest you go back to forgery.” He shoved the paintings upright again. “These are garbage.”
    “Forgery is your game, not mine.”
    Angus shrugged. “Enough of this. I’ve given you a chance, but you haven’t got the guts to come with me,” he said. “But once I get into the painting, you’re to keep your mouth shut, OK? You never saw me here or knew where I was going. Got it?”
    “How are you going to stop me from inside the painting?” Lorimer sniggered.
    Angus smirked back. “I’ve put together a little package of information about you. An associate has been instructed to send it the minute you start causing trouble and it will go straight to your headmaster and the media. Then your teaching career will be finished. Nobody will hire a forger like you, however much you say you’ve sworn off it.”
    “I quit forgery almost as soon as you’d dragged me into it, and I destroyed all the paintings I did. You know that.”
    “
Almost
every painting, Lor. There were a couple that found their way out into the world. I forgot to tell you at the time.”
    “What!”
    “Yes, two paintings,” said Angus. “One is out there somewhere hanging on a nice museum wall. I was accused of forging the other, along with the rest I had done. But I protected you. I went to jail and never told anyone you had played a part. So you owe me.”
    The art teacher’s face sagged.
    “You understand your predicament?” said Angus.
    “I understand.” Lorimer flexed his hands in his lap. “If you manage to get into that painting — and I hope you don’t — the least you can do is look out for the kids and help them.”
    “If I run into them,” Angus replied. He sauntered into the hallway and pulled on his coat and hat. As he headed for the door he called triumphantly, “Thanks for breakfast.”
    Later that afternoon, a weary Lorimer Bell trudged into the corner shop on his way home from school. As he paid for his milk, the headline of the
Braeside Evening Sentinel
caught his eye. He bought a copy and read the article before he left the store:
    A NOTHER E NIGMA G RIPS B LACKHOPE T OWER
    In a startling development at Blackhope Tower, police have confirmed that an unidentified man vanished from the Mariner’s Chamber this morning. Three local children have already disappeared from the same room since Tuesday.
    The intruder was dressed in a dark overcoat, gloves, fedora-style hat, and a mask when he broke in through a ground-floor window and overpowered a guard at the door to the Mariner’s Chamber. He was last seen entering the windowless room. Police are analyzing security recordings to determine how the man was able to get past guards and vanish in the same way as the children had.
    Despite the huge public interest in Blackhope Tower since the children’s disappearances, Archie MacQueeg, director of this historic castle, has decided to close its doors until further notice. He says he hopes that the public will understand that chances cannot be taken with visitors’ safety.
    He got in — blast him!
Lorimer hurried home in the wintry dusk.
    Snow swirled outside the art teacher’s window. But Lorimer, crouching on his studio floor, surrounded by papers he had taken from an old box, did not notice the weather.
    He chuckled at some of the scraps and frowned at others, especially one faded leaflet, which read:
    During the 1580s, Sir Innes Blackhope swashbuckled his way across the high seas. Always relishing a challenge, he battled pirates and privateers and sparred with the Spaniards.
    He spent as little time as possible on land, and though he loved Blackhope Tower, he grew restless there. When he was bored, he often disappeared for days or weeks at a time, though he was never seen