“Fear of getting caught selling it?”
Zander returned his focus to his phone’s screen.
He’d pushed the sleeves of his black henley up his forearms, so she could see the sinuous lines of the tattoos that ended at his wrists.
Just like she remembered their shared food, she remembered when and why he’d gotten each of the tattoos that now ran downhis arms in a complete tapestry. From the start, he’d known how he’d wanted them to interlock. But he’d gotten them slowly, one by one, over time, as he’d been able to afford them.
The slow pace at which he’d acquired them seemed almost quaint to her now that he’d earned so very much money for his book.
Her study of his forearms, wrists, and capable hands caused the magnetism that had overtaken her in the library to return. Hot and insistent.
She jerked her vision to his face. No help to be found there. A gust of air from the vent riffled his hair, and Britt had a disastrous urge to reach out and run her fingers through the strands.
For heaven’s sake!
For the next minute straight, she stared fixedly at her food.
Seattle Magazine, July 2015:
Thirty years have passed since the “Triple Play,” the most infamous art heist in Washington’s history.
In the early morning hours of July 5, 1985, three masked thieves broke into the Pascal Museum in Seattle and cut three masterworks by Renoir, Picasso, and Chagall from their frames.
No arrests were made in conjunction with the case, and the identities of the thieves are still unknown.
In time, both the Picasso and the Chagall were recovered and restored to the venerated walls of the Pascal. However, the Renoir is still missing, despite the efforts of local law enforcement and the FBI.
French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) paintedYoung Woman at Restin 1876 using oil on canvas. The piece depicts the upper body of a woman seated. Renoir captured his subject, Nina Lopez, a professional model, wearing a softly patterned pastel dress and sitting on a sofa. Her hands lay serenely in her lap. A pink flower adorns the light brown hair spilling down to her waist.The piece is rendered in the gentle oranges, reds, greens, and blues typical of Renoir’s work at the time.
The painting was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Claude Pascal, owners of a chain of French department stores, in 1931. Later, when World War II erupted, the couple booked passage to America for themselves and their extended family, with the intention of returning to France as soon as it was safe to regain occupation of their properties and possession of their belongings. Before they departed, they stored their art in numerous locations. Several pieces, includingYoung Woman at Rest, were placed in the Parisian vault of a friend.
In 1941, the Nazis discovered the vault and took ownership of all the art within. Of the approximately 650,000 art objects appropriated by the Nazis during World War II, 100,000 remain missing.
By the time World War II drew to an end, the Pascals had opted to settle permanently in Seattle and had opened the department store Beau, which has become a local institution.
For years Claude Pascal, his wife, Aline, and their son, Lucien, tirelessly sought to locateYoung Woman at Rest. In 1968, twenty-seven years after the painting was stolen, investigators pinpointed its whereabouts. A judge determined the Pascals to be the rightful owners of the masterpiece, andYoung Woman at Restwas subsequently returned to them.
“Our entire family gathered to celebrate its homecoming,” recounts current museum director Annette Pascal Spencer. “Young Woman at Restwas my grandmother’s favorite painting. Because of its history with the Nazis and our long search for it, the piece was extraordinarily special to every one of us. We were ecstatic to have it back.”
After the deaths of Claude and Aline, their son and granddaughter, Annette, chose to honor them by turning their mansion into a gallery. In 1979, the doors of the Pascal Museum opened to the public. And in 1985, via the Triple Play,Young Woman at Restwas stolen from the Pascal family for the second time.
“I was promoted to the role of museum director six months before the heist,” said Annette, now eighty-three. “Because of that, I’ve always felt somewhat responsible for the painting’s fate. I’llnever stop working and waiting and hoping for the painting’s recovery. Never. I’ll continue searching until the painting once again hangs on the walls of the Pascal where it belongs.”
The museum has long offered a reward for information leading to the retrieval ofYoung Woman at Rest. If you have any knowledge concerning the location of the painting, please contact the Seattle Police Department.
Chapter
six
Well ... yes. The robbery of those paintings did happen around the time that I met Frank,” Carolyn said to Zander the following Tuesday. “But you can’t think that Frank had anything to do with the Triple Play. Can you?”
“If you’d asked me a few weeks ago if I thought Frank could’ve had anything to do with an art theft, I’d have said no,” Zander answered. “But I wouldn’t have believed that he’d had a past life or a rap sheet, either.”
Zander had arrived at The Giftery, the gift shop on Main Street where Carolyn worked, to take her to lunch. Since she was the only employee present at the moment, they’d leave once her co-worker returned from break.
His aunt slowly emptied a new roll of quarters into the drawer of her cash register.Plink. Plink plink. Plink.
Carolyn had decided of her own volition to return to her job today. Eight days had passed since Frank’s funeral, and she’d told Zander last night that without Frank and without work, she didn’t have anything to do but float in a sea of grief. She wanted her familiar routine and interaction with her coworkers and customers.
