“Okay, now let’s think about the initials CK. Franklin said that these initials didn’t fit to anybody in Elizabeth’s circle of friends, family or acquaintances. If Elizabeth was painted while she herself was sitting in front of the canvas, maybe I was right before. The person who painted the miniature was her art teacher. I know the names of only two: Eric Fischer and Christina Radcliff. Eric’s obviously not the right person, the initials are wrong…unless he did it on purpose so nobody would suspect him being in love. But then again, I doubt that Elizabeth, with her high standing in society and moral integrity, would accept or keep anything from a man who assaulted her. I wonder what exactly went on between them. It would be so freaky if he tried to rape her and he is also related to my Eric…I mean that bastard Eric I used to know…”

“Now, Christina Radcliff…she has one matching initial. Maybe she got married and a person who was collecting the information neglected to mention it. Didn’t the story indicate that she disappeared with her family right after the murder took place and nobody knew where they went? Hmmm, but Christina is a woman…did they even have gay people back then? It’s all so confusing. Funny though, CK are my initials. Of course, only my parents used to call me Christina, everyone else just call me Tina. I didn’t paint that miniature…even if I was that talented, I would stop painting because I wouldn’t be able to keep my hands off the original, and so we would find better use of our time than to sit all day and paint,” Tina laughed out loud and sighed, “I’m so gay…even just thinking about her turns me on. I’m so pathetic.”

Tina sighed again and turned the miniature over, “Okay, back to the mystery…the inscription, ‘My heart will find yours…just be ready for me.’ What the hell does it mean? What did you want to say by that, CK, whoever you were? Ok, there’s a detail in the inscription that I haven’t noticed before. Word will certainly indicates future tense if I remember my grammar correctly. So, what future are we talking about? And also I wonder when the inscription was made? Right when the portrait was painted or later?”

Tina called Franklin again and asked his opinion about the inscription. Professor wasn’t surprised at her question, “I actually thought of that too because it was normal to paint portraits and add inscriptions at a later time, so we studied the inscription under the microscope. I’m not going to bother you with a detailed description of the layers of the oak base, preparations and paints, but it seems that initials CK and the inscription were put there by the same hand but done at the different times…meaning that the inscription was inserted at a later time than the initials or at least later than the portrait was actually painted.”

“How much later?” Tina asked, thinking that the chain of questions without answers will never end.

“I’m not sure if we can determine that but, based on the quality of the paint and the type of paint used, it was pretty much around the same time but maybe several months later. However, it’s not definite and nobody could tell you more because there’s not enough material and information provided to work with,” Franklin answered and after apologizing for not helping much, they ended the conversation.

Tina’s anxiety was reaching the boiling point but she was determined to finish her investigation. “It probably doesn’t even matter when the inscription was made. More important is who made it and why. And, if we have Katie Porter’s great-great-whatever daughter Kit Porter living now, maybe Elizabeth had an off-spring. I know, I know…she died unmarried and in high society it wasn’t just a normal practice to sleep around, but what if Eric really did rape her and she got pregnant? The family was embarrassed and sent her away to have a child somewhere else, and then her child would have grown up, had his or her kid and so forth, and voila…we have Elizabeth Porter’s great-great-someone living and breathing right now. Maybe I should start with the recent events first and go backwards. Some kind of retrograde analysis…taking a certain point in time and then reconstructing events in reverse. So I will begin with present and work backwards towards the past…I think it’s time to call Ms. Kit Porter.”

TBC…