The Monuments Men Murders (The Art of Murder 4)

He bent over the sink, splashed on more water, and the door to the restroom swung open and Sam strolled in.

“Hey, how goes it?” Jason said.

Proof of Sam’s preoccupation, he only then seemed to notice who the restroom’s other occupant was. “Fine. You?”

Jason grabbed a paper towel and mopped his face. “Fine.”

There must have been something in his voice because Sam said, “You okay?”

“Yep!”

Sam’s eyes narrowed. “You sure?”

“Yeah, of course.” There was nothing like people thinking you were acting oddly to make you start acting oddly. Jason winked. “Maybe a little sleep deprived.”

Sam nodded thoughtfully. “Okay. Well, I’ll talk to you this evening.”

“Yes. Looking forward to it.” Jason delivered a smile so brilliant, he nearly broke his face, and exited the bathroom.

J.J. had that cat-who-ate-the-canary look when Jason strode into their office.

He started to speak, but Jason cut him off. “Hey, I’ve been thinking. Why don’t we split up this afternoon? That way we can cover more ground quickly.”

J.J.’s smug smile faded. He gave an irritated sigh. “I knew it. I’m getting stuck going through the newspaper archives.”

“No. Not at all,” Jason said. “I’ll take the archives.”

J.J. rolled his eyes. “Oh. Right. Because you don’t trust me to go through the archives on my own.”

Would this be funny one day? Because right now…not.

Jason said with strained patience, “If you want to tackle the morgue—”

“Of course I don’t.”

“Exactly. So I’ll take the archives, and you can start laying the groundwork for getting that search warrant.”

“Which I’m going to do how?”

“Why don’t you start by hunting down everyone who worked with or for Thompson? I think it would help if we had a better picture of who this guy was. It would give us insight into whether he was someone who might have taken an accomplice or been chosen as someone else’s accomplice. It might tell us whether it was more likely he was working alone.”

J.J. nodded thoughtfully. “Before the war, he taught art at a local college. After the war, he opened a florist shop. Why the career change?”

“Right. Exactly,” Jason said. “We should find out more about his family. And of course, the main thing we want to know is did he ever talk about his collection with his employees, friends, lovers, enemies, neighbors, mailman…”

“Why would he?”

“Because that’s what collectors do.”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so. So, can you handle that?”

J.J. said, “I can handle that, West. Keep your hair on.”

“Great. Let’s synchronize our watches—” He snorted at J.J.’s expression. “Kidding. But keep me posted, okay?”

“Where are you going? The newspaper?”