Chapter 3 – The Investigator
The Director and Curator of the museum stood with the Mayor and the Chief of Police looking at the discolored rectangle of wall where the painting had hung since the new museum building was constructed in the 1970s. The Director said to the Mayor, “We gotta get it back.”
The Mayor looked at the Chief of Police and said, “We gotta get it back.”
The Chief looked at the wall and thought, ‘I don’t even know how they stole it, much less how I’m going to get it back.’ He said, “I’m on it boss, all day and all night.” He had a squad in the room taking photos and looking for fingerprints, but he knew tomorrow they’d be on a murder scene or something like that, and the Mayor would say to him then, “Gotta catch that guy, can’t have murderers wandering around the tourist district knocking off visitors,” and he’d say, “I’m on it boss, all day and all night.”
The Mayor said to the Director, “There, he’s on it,” and walked out.
The Chief looked at the Director and said, “Was it insured?”
“Of course. Everything in here is insured.”
“How much?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it is $2 million, something like that.”
The Chief said, “The insurance company’s not going to want to pay that without doing an investigation.”
“You just told the Mayor you’re doing an investigation.”
“We are. See these people? That’s the investigation. Tomorrow they’re going to be investigating a murder, or something like that. And the next day another crime. That’s the way it is here.”
The Director said, “Are you telling me you’re not going to do a full investigation, put a team on this until you catch the thief? Get back the City’s most important work of art?”
“Of course not. I just told my boss I’m on this case day and night.”
“Well?”
“Well, my boss has a short memory. He’s a politician. Tomorrow something else will catch his attention, and he’ll tell me to work on it, put the whole force on it, day and night. Then the next day....you see my point? You reading between the lines?”
The Director looked at the Chief for a moment, then at the rectangle on the wall, then at the police technicians who already were packing up, then back at the Chief, and said, “Got it.” An hour later he sat in his office and called the insurance company. He had a copy of the policy in front of him, and the person on the other end of the phone call sat with her copy of the policy in front of her. She said, “It’s covered for two and a half million. Anything over quarter of million, we don’t rely on the local police; we do our own investigation. Anything over a million gets bumped up to the highest priority category for our investigative unit. So, we’ll have somebody down there day after tomorrow. Let me see who’s available right now, hold on.” The Director heard the woman talk on another phone, heard her say, “Is he back from Paris yet?” Pause. “Ok, tell him not to unpack, he’s going out again right away. Charleston. Painting.” Pause. “I don’t care if his mother’s dying or his dog’s dying or if he has a dentist appointment or he doesn’t have any clean clothes. He’s going. That’s why we pay him the big percentage.”
She came back on his phone and said, “You there? Ok, we got the guy who's coming down, be there day after tomorrow. He’ll come to your office.”
“What’s his name?”
“Crown. Tommy Crown. You can tell your cops they can go chase murderers. Tommy’ll find the painting.”