”There is no one left of his family that knows anything about the painting.  It seems he only talked about the painting in the letters he sent to his mother.”

There was a momentary pause. She set down her glass on the desk, as she pondered.  ”Then I assume you have all the information from his mother?”

”Her letters?… yes, believe so… except for the one that Ms. Porter possesses.”  The voice gave a nervous pause before continuing.  ”In several of letters the painting is referenced.”

”And what is said?”

”He sold the painting to an acquaintance’s father, but there is no name mentioned in any of the letters.”

Kelly walked around the desk and sat down. ”Does he make any reference to the artist or a description of the painting?”

”No, and we are not sure of all that was in the letter that Paul Bonnet found.  Mr. Bonnet gave no information about what was in the letter he had obtained, even with efforts of persuasion.  He caught the COVID and now we have no access to him.  But we feel the letters we have provide enough to put together a picture of what happened.” The voice hesitated. ”Mr. Bonnet’s assistant was the one who provided us with the information that helped us find the other letters.  We were lucky, the letters were scattered amongst extended family. Old letters shoved in boxes with other things that had gathered years of dust in attics.” The voice let out a slow breath, ”We have surmised that the letter he found was the first where the painting was mentioned.”

”Do you think the information from the letters you possess have merit?”

”The information aligns too great to be a coincidence.” The voice paused, ”I also heard a story about a Russian that found a painting that he thought was from that time period. But he is dead now and anything he may have had or known about a lost painting is gone. I am not sure it is the same painting, and I don’t think it is worth pursuing at this time.”

Kelly gave an excited breath.  ”Excellent. It’s looking more and more like this painting really exists. I was afraid the professor was on a wild goose chase.”