Seeing Elena's tangled expression, Luke rubbed her head and said, "Just follow your arrangements. I'm skipping work today anyway."
Elena laughed happily and nudged his chest with her head before moving her hand away and talking to Margaret.
The call ended and she gave an address.
Luke got into the car with her with a strange look on his face, and they arrived in front of a building more than ten minutes later.
Taking the elevator up to the 32nd floor, Luke looked at a familiar sign and felt nothing in his heart. He even felt like laughing.
"Despair" Monroe Peterson Exhibition.
The tall blonde Margaret was standing next to the sign, wearing a simple and elegant white dress.
Seeing Luke and Elena, a bright smile appeared on her pretty face, as pure as that of a hundred-pound child.
Well, this guy's mind is simpler than most American middle school students.
The two women smiled and kissed each other on the cheek, and Luke also benefited from Elena's kindness and received the same treatment.
Smiling at Luke apologetically, Elena was pulled away by Margaret.
A certain simple young widow was already talking incessantly about which paintings in the exhibition were worth seeing, and a string of professional terms popped up.
Luke smiled and gestured to Elena, who turned her head to look at him, that she could do whatever she wanted, and he could do the same.
The petite girl was pulled by the tall Margaret into the deep part of the exhibition hall where the major works were displayed.
Luke had no interest in the paintings here.
If it was some kind of classical realism… well, he was actually too lazy to understand and didn’t know the difference between these schools.
Even the term "abstract expressionism" to which Munro's works belong was learned from the cover of the exhibition's brochure.
He simply walked to the French window, looked out at the New York City, and planned to be alone.
The sound of high heels approached from afar, and stopped not far behind him. A young female voice rang out: "Detective Coulson?"
Luke turned his head, a formal smile on his face: "Hello, Ms. Soderberg."
The person who greeted her was Lindsay.
She held out her hand with a genuine smile. “Just call me Lindsay. And thank you for helping me and Monroe.”
Luke shook her hand and said, "Please call me Luke. Besides, that's just my job."
Lindsay let go of her hand and gestured, “Can I talk to you alone?”
Luke looked over there and saw Margaret and Elena standing in front of a painting in the distance, whispering to each other, looking very absorbed in the painting.
Lindsay also looked over there and smiled, "Margaret and I are friends. She just said that a companion was here. I didn't expect it to be you."
Luke chuckled: "I didn't expect you were still here."
Lindsay sighed, "So I wanted to talk to you."
Luke raised an eyebrow but said nothing, only nodded, and the two of them walked towards the rest area in the corner.
After sitting down, Lindsay asked the staff to bring two cups of coffee. She took a sip, adjusted her mood, and then said, "Although I just said it, I still want to thank you again. Luke, thank you for everything you have done for me and Monroe."
This time, Luke didn't say anything polite. He just nodded slightly and acted like he was listening attentively.
When you give someone a gift, you must ask for something in return.
Lindsay specifically brought him here to talk, so it seemed like she wasn't here just to express her gratitude.
Lindsay didn't hesitate and went straight to the point, telling the whole story of the dispute between her family and Monroe.
After listening for a moment, Luke looked a little strange.
He was almost a human lie detector, and he confirmed that Lindsay's words were basically true, and she did not lie about the key things.
If he didn't have this ability, he might have regarded this as a Rashomon.
Now he could only speculate that this was just a typical case of miscommunication within the family.
Lindsay and Monroe are not in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, she just admires Monroe's work.
The young girl was not as sophisticated as her father Jeffrey, and on a whim, she changed from "chasing paintings" to "pushing people", becoming an investor in Monroe, or a speculator.
She invested her own money to promote Monroe's works and increase his popularity, largely because she wanted to get a generous return from Monroe, rather than because of love.
In fact, once Munro's exhibited paintings are sold, 50% of the proceeds will belong to her.
Moreover, in this process, Monroe, the author, only has the right to make suggestions but not the right to make decisions.
It is Lindsay who decides to whom his works are sold and for how much.
Such a contract is not difficult for Monroe to accept.
Munro is a quintessential artist.
He doesn't care about money at all. What he needs now is recognition from others.
Perhaps after gaining widespread recognition, he no longer needs recognition from others.
Without Lindsay's help in investment and promotion, he would not be able to show his works to the world, and no matter how many paintings he had, it would be meaningless.
If Lindsay wasn't so immature and truly admired his work, Monroe would still sign a 9:1 contract without even looking at it.
This is just a typical way of collaboration between the second generation of wealthy people and artists.
If Monroe becomes very successful in the future, this incident can be passed down as a good story.
But after some of Aurora's "enemy" ladies mocked her behind her back, things went out of control and headed in the wrong direction.
After investigating Monroe's resume, Aurora advised her daughter to give up her plan to hype Monroe, but she already suspected that there was something wrong between her daughter and Monroe.
At over thirty, Monroe was too young for a painter, and being young meant that his remaining life might be long.
As we all know, a painter's works become more valuable after his death.
This plan sounds like a losing proposition.
Lindsay, who had performed well since childhood and became calm, rational and intelligent when she grew up, suddenly began to use her private money to support a painter, and said that she just liked his work. Of course, Aurora didn't believe it.
This wrong beginning led to even more wrong developments, and then turned into a war within the family.
It wasn't until Luke showed up that the two parties were pulled out of their deadlock.
Is this result amazing? Not at all.
He just used some basic pheromone manipulation and did a little experiment with his ability, which made the two people remember each other's good points whenever they quarreled.
Solve problems and improve experimental capabilities, kill two birds with one stone.
The mother and daughter, who had been extremely emotional, no longer had endless quarrels. They quickly reached a consensus and each took a step back.
As long as Lindsay doesn't have the same "brain twitch" as before, this will just be a minor episode in her growth.
Today, she came to arrange the finishing work and put an end to this matter.
When Lindsay heard Luke's name from Margaret just now, she was moved and took the initiative to come forward to say hello.
She didn't know why, but when no one mentioned Luke before, she rarely thought of this calm young detective.
But when she heard his name, she immediately wanted to come over to see him and say thank you.
As soon as she started talking to him, she couldn't help but reveal all the secrets in her heart that she couldn't tell her friends and relatives.