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

He glanced at the clock on the wall, saw it was close to five, and decided to stop for now and maybe fix supper. As he began cleaning up, his cordless phone rang. He snagged it from the stand, hoping that it was Quint calling. He figured it had to be, unless it was Amanda. They were the only two he thought wouldcall his home phone, since they both knew he turned off his cell when he was working. He pressed the Talk button while collecting his brushes, tucked the phone between his ear and shoulder, and said, “Clay here.”


When the caller didn’t reply, he reiterated, “This is Clay.”


Again there was silence before whoever was on the other end hung up. He quickly checked the Caller ID, only to see that it said Anonymous


“Very weird,” he grumbled, setting it back in the stand. “Probably a wrong number and they didn’t want to admit it. Dolt.”


Less than ten minutes later the phone rang again. This time he checked the ID first and smiled when he saw the call was from Quint.


Chapter 19