one.
"Le Musée d'Orsay is famous for holding eighty-six paintings by Claude Monet. As of October 23rd, that number became eighty-five. Monet's masterpiece, the Rouen Cathedral, vanished from the gallery on Thursday. The only trace that investigators have found is a single letter marked in red lipstick: É. This is the only clue as to who this criminal is and the only thing known is that they were carrying Dior Addict Lipstick in the shade of Red Catwalk-"
She switches off the television, rolling her eyes, because the shade of lipstick was actually Dior Addict Red Carpet. She faces the stolen canvas sitting in her apartment and congratulates herself.
The bells of Notre Dame have alerted her to the fact that is is nearing sundown and she needs to leave immediately. She passes by a small kiosk and, as she does so, grabs a couple of the magazines. She reads the headlines: 'Villain Steals National Treasure!', and 'Country Shocked by Art Thief!' What a let-down; she makes the front page of several of Paris' leading magazines, only for the headlines to be utter crap.
Tonight's heist will hopefully earn her some better headlines.
two.
He reads the wall in disbelief: 'The lipstick is actually Red Carpet.-É'. How is she doing this? The mysterious 'É' steals a Monet from Le Musée d'Orsay on Thursday, snatches Delacroix's Liberty Leading The People from the Louvre less than two days later and succeeds both times!
"Can you believe this?" The voice of the private detective, Charles Courfeyrac, echoes from across the corridor. "There are no traces whatsoever! How are we supposed to find this criminal?"
"I don't know, you're the private detective here. We'll figure something out, I'm sure." Except Attorney Luthien Enjolras is not sure. It's raining, everyone is grumpy, and the coffee is running low. Today is not a good day.
Even after twelve hours of speaking to security guards, checking CCTV cameras and searching police records for possible suspects, they investigation team has next to nothing. They cannot find anything that could possibly helpful in tracking down this 'É' because she is the perfect criminal. They're all convinced of it. The only discovery they make is a janitor knocked out in the supply closet but he can't remember anything thanks to his concussion. They're all just about ready to give up.
three.
It's disappointing that today's headlines are no better than yesterday's. Nevertheless, she's gaining notoriety as potentially the best in her line of 'work'. The Delacroix now occupies the space where the Monet was a couple of days ago and she grins proudly whenever she sees it. She's already back from tonight's mission and she places the Mona Lisa proudly beside her other prize.
She can just imagine the look of horror on the faces of the team assigned to her (oh yes, she's scoped them out already) as they behold tonight's lipstick message.
'They give hurricanes names for a reason. But you won't find out mine so easily. –É (P.S. I much prefer 'femme fatale' or 'criminal mastermind' because 'thief' is extremely petty. So, if you wouldn't mind passing this on to the press, I'd be very grateful.)'