"Have some respect," I snapped.

Cooper came up the stairs. "No time, Captain. Have you found anything?"

I shook my head. "The study looks empty of fine artwork, but I did not rip out the paneling."

Cooper snapped his fingers at the second man on the stairs and pointed to the study door. The second man shouldered his sledgehammer and trudged up the stairs and into the study. A few seconds later came a thud and the splintering of wood.

"They could be anywhere," I said. "Rolled up and sewn under a chair or sofa, flattened between boards in the ceiling, inside a window seat, folded behind books-although I hope he did not fold any priceless masterpieces."

"If the paintings are in this house, sir, we'll find them," Cooper said.

I had no doubt he would. "They may not be in the house at all," I said. "Easton might not have risked bringing them here."

"That is true." Cooper's eyes glinted. "I thought of that, sir. That's why I sent a couple of men to look over your house."

I stared at him. " My house? What the devil for?"

"It's reasonable, sir. The house is empty, no one to bother it. You haven't been there in a donkey's age-it's been shut up since your dad's death. No one goes there, now."

Lady Breckenridge would be going there this afternoon. Not for several hours yet, but what if she grew impatient, or annoyed at Lady Southwick, and decided to make the journey early?

I put down the paperknife and headed down the stairs without a word to Cooper.

The man followed me. "I'll just go with you, sir."

He would whether I liked it or not. I gave him a grim nod. "Fine, but hurry."

An excited shout stopped me from charging out of the house. Cooper brushed past me on the way to the dining room, and found one of the pugilists pulling a rolled canvas from behind a few ripped-out boards of paneling.