Seeing Double

With Laina's assurance, Vincent took in a deep breath and spoke his mind, "I… observed and noticed two things. First, is the scent of paint that is coming from the painting."

"What about it?" Laina asked.

"If this painting was truly painted quite some time ago, there should not be a smell of paint still lingering on it," he replied. 

Margaret and Laina looked at one another. Vincent brought up a fair point. A painting would have been aired for a long period of time, yet this one still smelled of fresh paint. 

"Could they have touched it up recently? Which resulted in the paint smell?" Margaret hypothesized. 

Everyone turned their attention back to Vincent, waiting eagerly to hear his reply. He could feel the mounting pressure on him. Vincent backed away from all of them hunching his shoulders as he paused in thought. 

Seeing how uncomfortable he was. Laina moved forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.