ENG

6. The missing file

Detective Smith cannot work out why Emily and Natalie have called her. There seems to be a problem with the painting in front of them, but, so far, they haven’t been able to tell her what.

Natalie: I think it’s best if we tell you how we realised something was up.

Laura: Okay.

Natalie: Over the last few weeks, lots of new paintings have arrived at the museum. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the works come with a small sign, a data sheet, which explains who the artist is, when the work was painted, and so on.

Laura: Yes, of course.

Natalie: Well, today all of the files arrived for the new paintings. However, when we had finished putting them out, we noticed that this painting didn’t have a file. We thought there was a mistake, but that’s not the case. The file wasn’t printed as this painting isn’t part of our collection.

Laura: What do you mean?

Emily: This isn’t our painting; we didn’t buy it, nobody donated it… It simply turned up here.