Clay Richardson is a well-known artist who owns his own gallery. Quint Hawk, a police detective, makes contact with Clay when he sees a portrait Clay has painted in the window of the gallery -- a portrait of a homeless young man who was murdered just days before. Unfortunately, Clay has no idea who the subject was. Several months later, Quint contacts Clay to again ask about one of Clay's paintings. The subject has been murdered, as has a third man in another of his paintings. The reclusive artist and the handsome detective are drawn to each other as they try to determine what is happening and why. They come up with a plan to catch the killer -- a plan that could end up in their deaths before they can decide if there is more to their feelings than a couple of very good nights in Clay's bed.

The Element Case

“Yeah. I’ll stop by the gallery and have a talk with Mrs. Dane, the manager. She might be more aware of something like that than Richardson is. My impression of him is that his main focus is his work, to the exclusion of anything else in his world.”


“And yet he managed to have a boyfriend.”


“Who he said was bad for him. He might have thought that because he began to resent losing time from his painting to spend it with Nelson.”


Harber nodded. “Here’s a thought. You said Richardson goes to clubs to find subjects for his paintings. Have you considered the possibility someone there might have taken an interest in him?”


Quint chuckled. “Lots of luck if they did. The first time I met Richardson was at a club. Some kid was interested in what he was doing. Richardson shot him down then tried the same thing with me before I let him know why I was there. This man is the definition of unsociable unless he’s forced to be.”


Chapter 9