Take My Breath Away…

“You don’t think they’ll call the whole thing off.”

“No. Nicola has discovered some interesting information about the Cézanne.” He turned to her. “Why don’t you update your father?”

She met her father’s eyes. “I was right when I told you that Gabe was at the center of this. No, he’s not the thief. But he or his father or both probably are the motivating factor in why these thefts are taking place now.”

Gabe leaned back in his chair and listened to as neat and concise a report on a case as he’d ever heard. Starting with the young woman who’d approached his father nearly twenty-five years ago in Paris, she wove a narrative including the attempted theft of the Cézanne collection sixteen years ago and ending with the theft they were expecting to happen the following night.

They’d discussed how the dots might connect on their drive back from seeing his uncle, but hearing it told in chronological order helped Gabe to see it all more clearly.

When she finished, she opened her purse and placed the sketch of the young woman they thought to be Claire Forlani on her father’s desk; they added the printout of the driver’s license. Gabe brought up the photo of Dee Atherton that Jonah had sent him on his cell.

Guthrie studied them for a moment. “The resemblance is compelling.”

“I have my friend Jonah tracing the younger one. He’s looking for a birth certificate that somehow connects to the Italian Uncle Ben believes partnered with Dee Atherton in Venice. The dates would be right, and we might have a connection. At this point I have a young man I trust guarding Claire Forlani’s room at the hospital. He has orders to call me with updates on her condition and with any news about visitors. If she wakes up, we’ll pay her a visit. I haven’t informed the hospital of her identity. At this point, I’m not sharing anything I don’t have to with my employees or anyone else.”

Guthrie nodded. “I don’t want anyone in my office working on it, either.”

Guthrie included both of them in his glance. “So the two of you think that the Cézanne being auctioned tomorrow night may have been the object all along?”

“Stealing the Cézanne is part of the object,” Nicola said. “Framing Gabe for stealing it is also a goal.”

Guthrie shifted his gaze to Gabe. “They’re trying to get revenge because your father didn’t help this Dee Atherton-slash-Bedelia Bisset steal a painting from the Robineaus’ Cézanne collection, and as a result, she was killed while she was trying to do it with her partner. I can perhaps buy into that. But why didn’t they just get revenge on your father? Why are they trying to frame you for these new thefts?”

“Because Gabe was a major reason why his father wouldn’t help in that original robbery. Raphael Wilder came home to raise his son. He made a promise to Gabe’s mother that he was out of the business. They could believe Gabe shares in the blame for Dee Atherton’s death.”

Guthrie shifted his gaze to the photos again, tapping his fingers on the desk. “I still don’t understand why they didn’t just get revenge at the time—on your father.”

“Maybe they did,” Nicola said.

They both turned to look at her. “Maybe they got revenge on him by framing him for the theft of the Matisse.”

Guthrie frowned. “Raphael Wilder stole that painting.”

“He never confessed,” Nicola pointed out.

“The jails are filled with people who claim to be innocent.”

When he rose and strode to the window, Nicola followed. “If you step back and look at the whole picture, you have to admit it makes sense.”

He turned to face her. “Then why didn’t Raphael Wilder just tell me?”

There were several beats of silence while they thought about that. Gabe studied the two of them standing toe to toe, frowning at each other. They were very much alike. Finally, he said, “Maybe my father didn’t know who was framing him. If you think about it, the whole plan hinged on him not knowing. That way he had no way to defend himself.”

“Pretty perfect,” Nicola mused. “And cold. And that coldness is exactly what it would take to wait this long to get revenge on Gabe.”

Guthrie ran a hand through his hair. But he kept his eyes on Nicola. Gabe could tell his old friend still wasn’t buying it, not totally.

“Okay.” Nicola waved a hand. “Take my theory about the Matisse being a part of this off the table for now. Let’s just concentrate on what we know for sure. Dee Atherton comes to Raphael Wilder for help or advice on her upcoming job to rob the Denver Art Museum. He refuses to help, and she’s killed. Her partner gets away.”

“And he waits sixteen years to get revenge on Gabe?” Guthrie asked. “Why? And don’t just give me that stuff about revenge being a dish best served cold.”

For a moment, Nicola merely continued to frown, considering the question. Gabe waited for her to think it through and knew the instant she had it.

“Couple of reasons. Sixteen years ago, Gabe was just a kid. There’s more to take away, more to destroy now. And Dee Atherton’s partner was a forger. Dee was the one who could disable security systems.” She glanced from Gabe to her father. “Perhaps the thief discovered at some point that Claire Forlani had inherited Dee’s talents and then had to wait for her to grow up in order to fully take revenge. He may even have kept in contact with Claire over the years.”

“I’ll have Jonah check into that,” Gabe said.

“Dammit,” Guthrie said. “You’re beginning to make sense.” He turned to Gabe. “We need to find out who Dee Atherton’s partner was. I’ll call Interpol, see if I can find out anything through channels.”

Guthrie returned to his desk and sat down. Then he gestured Nicola back into her chair. “I’ve got something to report although it isn’t nearly as dramatic. A statue of St. Francis was one of the artifacts that the FBI confiscated from your mother’s art studio when we executed the original search warrant. It was signed out earlier this week a day after the article on the statue ran in the Sunday magazine section.”

“By whom?”

“The name on the sign-out sheet was Mary Thomas. The clerk described a woman who might be Mary and swears she presented Mary’s I.D. The signature was in Mary’s handwriting. I checked the sign-out sheet myself. She wasn’t in the office at the time.”

“Have you spoken with her about it?” Gabe asked.

“No. If she’s involved in this, I don’t want to give her any warning until we have proof. You’ve already rattled their cages.”

“And it isn’t proof. We already know that one member of the team is a good forger,” Nicola pointed out.

“Or Mary could have lent her I.D. to someone who was her height and weight,” Gabe said.

“But the fact that the statue was signed out just before the attempt on the St. Francis,” Nicola said, “supports my idea that framing Gabe is a big part of this.”

“It would also mean that there’s someone involved who would know or have access to a list of what was taken in that original search. That’s likely to be someone in my office,” Guthrie said. “If not Mary, then someone else.”

Gabe didn’t argue with him. Neither did Nicola.

Guthrie’s frown deepened. “I didn’t head up the investigation of the attempt at the Denver museum, but I do know that this Bedelia Bisset-slash-Dee Atherton’s partner got away clean. There wasn’t even a whiff of who he was. It was a couple of rookies who arrived first on the scene and neither one of them got the license plate of the van. I’ll access the files first thing in the morning. Discreetly.”

“There’s another wrinkle in this that we ought to tell you about,” Gabe said. “In addition to the strong possibility that this group might include someone working for you or me, Nicola thinks that they may have someone with access to Denver’s very elite social circle feeding them information.”

Guthrie thought for a moment. “It makes sense.” He rose then, paced to the window. “We’re making progress, but I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.

“Why not?” Nicola asked.

He turned back to face them. “If you’re right and revenge is a key element, and this elaborate plot was triggered by the death of Dee Atherton, aka Bedelia Bisset, then history is repeating itself in a way.”

“What do you mean?” Nicola asked.

“Sixteen years ago, a woman was shot and killed during a failed attempt to steal the Cézanne collection,” Nick Guthrie said. “Yesterday, you shot a young woman we believe is involved in planning and executing another attempt to steal one of those same Cézannes and she’s currently in an intensive care unit.”

Nicola swallowed hard. “If Claire Forlani doesn’t pull through, then she, too, will have been fatally injured in a failed robbery.”

“Exactly,” Guthrie said. “If she’s related to Dee Atherton and you’re right about the fact that the mastermind behind this is hell-bent on punishing Gabe, then stealing the Cézanne tomorrow night may take second place to revenge. Both of you may be in mortal danger.”