"I know. But Nyla here has a little problem, and I'm hoping we can help her fix that."
AJ's brow furrowed. "What's the problem?"
That was what I loved about my sister. It didn't matter what it was, or what was going on with her, or anything like that. If she heard someone was having a problem, she wanted to help fix it.
"Why don't we take this inside?"
AJ and Margaux guided us through their main quarters. Their residence was connected to the museum, just at the back of the grounds. It wasn't overly large, but they loved it and had been fixing up the nursery since Margaux found out she was pregnant. I couldn't help but notice as we walked through their house that there were about a million of pictures of myself and AJ in various stages of growing up on display. Nyla noticed too, and every now and again, she would pause at a picture and laugh. There was one where I was bare-assed, running after my sister and wailing. Our nanny had gotten that photo.
AJ liked to joke that it didn't matter what was going on, I would always follow her, even if I was bare-assed.
When we hit the living room, Margaux went to get everyone drinks, and AJ took Nyla's hand. "So, Agent Kincade, what can I do for you?"
Nyla wasted no time. "Well, I'm on the trail of some thieves. Some art, but mostly jewels. The incident you had at the museum a few years ago resembles their MO. The thieves managed to replace and pawn off forgeries in a visiting exhibit. I'd like to take a look at your collection, and maybe you can fill me in on the process of authenticating your pieces and how you detected the fraudulent reproductions. I'd love to talk to someone who's an expert on how one would even go about doing something like this."
AJ's brows popped and she turned her attention to me. "My God, East Hale, you’ve finally brought home a woman that I could fall in love with."
Nyla
"Thank you so much for taking the time out to speak with me. I know you must be very busy."
A.J. waved her hand. "Oh, come on when my little brother asks for a favor, of course I have to comply."
I slid my gaze over to East. Somehow picturing him as someone's little brother was difficult. "Yes well, he must have been very annoying as a child."
The dark-haired woman laughed. "Oh, absolutely."
I settled my attention back on her. "Can you tell me about the forgery incident that occurred here?"
"Yeah. I mean it was quite odd."
"Anything you can remember from that time could be extremely useful."
A.J. rubbed at her nose. "Okay. Well, there were several pieces that had come in as part of the Tillson collection, mostly jewelry, but also two art pieces. The jewelry were these ornate, intricate brooches and necklaces, a couple of tiaras. All total, the value was about fifteen million."
I jotted notes down on my tablet. "And how did you recognize that the items weren’t genuine?"
A.J sighed. "That's the thing. I didn't notice. We had hired an assistant curator to help us with the collection, and he’d been on staff for several months. We had authenticators on staff and security, obviously. But somehow the items were replaced before the exhibit opened."
"And you didn't suspect anything?"
AJ shook her head, her dark locks shifting over her shoulders. "No. We didn't notice. They'd already been authenticated and placed in our secure vault. There was no reason to think as we prepared for the collection to be shown that anything had been switched. There were no security flags."
I nodded as I took more notes. “Okay. So how did you figure it out?"
She chuffed softly. "Believe it or not, it was one of the paintings. the last one. It was discovered completely by accident because I was being a klutz. We had just gotten the painting back from the authenticators. I had just opened it up and pulled it out of its crate. We all had on our gloves and everything we needed. Security was on hand overseeing everything, and I tripped.”
“Did you drop it?”
She shook her head. "I reached for the edge of the table and tried to avoid scratching the painting. But my finger caught onto the very corner edge."
“Oh shit.”
“Oh shit is right. I thought I‘d brought ruin to the museum until I pulled back my gloved hand and noticed the paint had rubbed off."
"Paint? But you said the piece had already been authenticated and then it came straight to you."
"That’s right, but I think the switch was made either at the authenticators or in transit."
"And you figured out who was doing it?"
She nodded. “The assistant curator. He'd attended one of the best art schools in the world. Loved art and was a painter himself. But yeah, even East‘s extensive background check couldn't find a thing on him. It was like he was a ghost. Sure, on paper, he’d had a real life. School, great parents, the perfect life. But his other life, the real one, there was no record of him. It's as if his background was manufactured just for this purpose."
"Okay, so between the authenticators and the museum, a switch was made?"
AJ nodded. "Seems that way. The authenticators certified authenticity upon handoff. When we debriefed with them, they said the painting was an authentic Thomas Ackerman, valued at about two million."
"How long between the authentication and your unboxing?"
"Probably about eight hours. That's when we noticed it. So everyone who could have come in contact with the collection and would've possibly been able to make a switch was called in by the police."
"Yeah. I remember the case. It wasn't mine. But I remember hearing about it. So, the assistant curator was part of some group of thieves?"
AJ nodded. "Yeah, the Wilsons. They're responsible for millions of dollars of artwork and jewelry going missing all over Europe. They'd never done anything this sophisticated before though. This required careful
