Chapter Four
Theora stared at Ian's police report onscreen.
Mother's deceased, father's in jail, she thought as she read. In and out of foster care, on and off the streets. At last report, he was sleeping on a couch in a friend's den.
Agnes Morgan is … or WAS … the only thing keeping him out of jail.
He's so much like ... I was ... it's scary.
I had Dick Best's money to fall back on. He doesn't.
"Must've b-been the l-l-life," said Max as he appeared on Theora's screen. "Every n-n-night, a-nn-another p-p-party."
"It gets old REAL fast," said Theora. "Another night, another party. Sooner or later, you cease having a reason to get up in the morning."
"Find anything?" Edison asked as he approached Theora's desk.
"Something's not adding up," said Theora. "There are a lot of missing pieces.
"Tom removed the Egg on the twelfth ..." Theora stopped mid-sentence, her jaw agape.
"Theora, what it is?" Edison asked, concerned. "Ground Control to Major Tom!"
"I just realized something," said Theora, coming out of her daze. "Tom removed the Egg from the safe on the twelfth. How could he have known the Egg was missing on the fourteenth without opening the safe?
"The camera is motion-activated. Opening the safe would've triggered the camera ... which means Tom stole the Egg on the twelfth!" Theora exclaimed.
"Stole it, filed a false police report on the fourteenth, and is now trying to pin the whole thing on Ian the Blank," Edison concluded. "He's been squawking like a parrot about Ian supposedly being the thief."
"We have the Who. Now, we need the WHY," said Theora.
"Money? Spite? The Morgans are going through a divorce," said Edison. "Tom's been making much ado about the Egg supposedly being worth three million credits."
"It might be an insurance value," said Theora as pressed a button on her keyboard. Bryce Lynch suddenly appeared on the viewphone.
"Yes?" Bryce asked.
"Bryce, it's Theora," said Theora. "Pull up the Morgans' financial records. See if the Egg is covered by insurance. I want to know who appraised it and if it's even genuine."
"Roger that. Bryce out," said Bryce as the viewphone disconnected.
"Fake appraisal?" Edison asked.
"Three million credits is an awful lot, even for a Faberge Egg," said Theora as she made a few keystrokes. Network 23's story archive appeared before her onscreen. "An Egg sold at Sotheby's in New York for three hundred thousand credits two years ago," she said as she read from the screen.
"Nowhere near three million," said Edison.