On the top floor, it was looking like after the apocalypse; whatever Crooked Smile had done – Raven fought not to stare at the toppled bucket and the paw prints on the boards for too long – he swore to himself not to ask more questions than it was healthy. And sometimes, even one could be too much. What had the P. I. seen when he was up here? The gallery had just celebrated or was going to celebrate its fifth anniversary in... less than four weeks.

"Oho!" Raven's eyes widened as he saw the easel and..."A rat?" He covered his mouth. "Just like him! I wonder what Rusty..."

"Awful, isn't it?" Raven stifled another fit of laughter. Rusty stepped out of the shadows. Raven would never find out how he managed to hide behind an easel. Okay, this time, he wasn't wearing a hat. Certainly, there was a trick. How could people grow so tall?

In his presence, Raven felt like a hamster facing a cobra. "Even for a comic... Here, look!" Rusty grabbed Raven's arm and pulled him lightly, yet strongly enough that he would have lost balance if Rusty had let him go.

And Raven saw. Though he couldn't tell why, something about the technique felt strikingly...

Rusty let go, and he straightened up. "Whatever. If you need me, I'm in the entrance hall." "What are you up to?"

"Excuse - "

"I'm getting that every artist has to learn keeping their stuff together, but going so far and messing a room up..."

Rusty wore his best fake pout. "Earth is a stage, and the more colorful the setting..."

"Buzz off!"

Rusty went.

So there was no way, Crooked Smile would be left unsupervised. Back to work. And the headtstrong drawer.

No sound was coming from the office; Raven checked it first before he walked across. No greenhorn. No Chihuahua. It appeared, peace had finally made its way to the gallery.

And even the lunch box had showed up miraculously; waiting visibly like a cherry on the top of a Black Forest gateau. How could Raven not be in a good mood?

On the one side, there was bad luck, on the other karma. And as much as Raven was worried about the first, he found the concept of the latter hard to grasp. But neither the one nor the other could deliver a satisfactory cause for that freaking lizard between the pancakes.

"Juan?!" How could he have forgotten about Rusty's nasty friend? One look into this animal's eyes and people would understand, some animals dream of world domination. Not that this exemplar had any resources to accomplish – if Coal Bone didn't lie about the portraits, he would be the only in Raven's circles who would consider Juan a model. Besides Rusty of course. Raven turned the lizard so that the direct eye – contact was broken. Frankly, Juan looked a tad better when seen in profile. "How can Rusty make a whole collection out of pics from- ?" The lizard was taking refuge in Raven's sleeve. "That's it! If I can make Crooked Smile and Cole Bone collaborate..."