Ch 21
The next day, after her art history class at Harvard, she texted Jake to meet her in Littauer Library where she wanted to research the missing works some more. There had to be something they were missing. Amy gathered a dozen books and sat at a long oak table near a small reading light. She opened her laptop and logged into the Harvard library card catalog. She was mid-way through her first search when she heard her name.
"Amy? Amy Cahill?" a tentative voice said from behind her. She turned, it was Trevor Jorgensen from the Gardner Museum. "I thought that was you!" His gigantic smile spread across his face.
Amy returned the smile, "Hi Trevor, what are you doing here?"
"I practically live at this library. My final thesis is about the Grand Masters of the Golden Age." Trevor said proudly.
"I guess I didn't realize you were still in school." Amy said amusedly.
"I'm graduating at semester, hopefully, I was supposed to be done in May, but I just couldn't get it done in time." Trevor shrugged. "What are you researching, maybe I can help."
"Yes please," Amy said genuinely. She needed all the help she could get. "I'm trying to search HOLLIS for anything on The Concert. I'd like to try and figure out why it was stolen."
"If you can figure that out, then you deserve a Congressional Medal of Honor." Trevor said ruefully. "People have been trying to find motive for 22 years."
They're not Cahills, Amy thought. They don't have the entire Cahill network behind them.
"Here's what I've found so far," Amy said spinning her laptop toward Trevor. He leaned in closer to Amy and began to scan the screen. He slowly moved the touch pad to move down the list.
"Wait!" Amy said, her heart pumping suddenly and her ears ringing. She had just spotted a name: Antonio Marcellius. It was a scholarly article written by him about The Concert; use of light and tone from 1974. "Click on that one," she said pointing.
The article opened up. It appeared to be part of a senior thesis from then art student, Antonio Marcellius. The article was dull but well written highlighting the way light played across the piece from Vermeer. Amy and Trevor's heads were nearly touching as they read.
"Trevor, do a search for Antonio Marcellius."
Trevor's fingers flew across Amy's keyboard.
At that same moment, a familiar voice said, "Ames?"
Amy jerked away from the screen, and Trevor. She looked to her left and saw Jake walking toward them with a quizzical expression on his face. As he drew nearer, his expression changed briefly to one of jealousy, then to hardened 'hottie' as he fixed his features for competition. Jake closed the final few feet in two strides, "hello baby," and before she could stand, he had swept her hair to the left, leaned down and kissed her neck. His right his hand on her shoulder.
Her face grew hot and she gave a quick glance to Trevor. Cut it out Jake, she mentally messaged him. Jake was standing directly behind her, he was staring at Trevor unsmiling, looking like the Greek statue he so resembled.
Amy glanced back at Trevor, about to open her mouth to introduce them. Trevor's hands were slack on the keyboard and he was staring open-mouthed up at Jake, clearly putting the pieces together and feeling embarrassed.
Jake beat her to the introductions, "Hi, I'm Jake Rosenbloom, Amy's boyfriend, and you are?" Jake had put extra emphasis on 'boyfriend'. Trevor swallowed hard.
"Uh, I'm Trevor. Trevor Jorgensen." He said lamely, clearly feeling threatened by Jake.
Amy stood, putting a little distance between the two. She turned to face Jake, hiding her face from view of Trevor. She gave Jake a scorching look that said BACK OFF, WILL YOU?
"Trevor's a graduate student here helping me research The Concert, Jake. He's ." These last two words she said with great emphasis between clenched teeth. Jake simply gave a shrug as if to say, I don't care. I'm not letting him flirt with you.
Amy gave him one last warning look and sat back down. Jake sat on her left, but pushed his chair right next to hers, so they were thigh to thigh. As added insurance, Jake put his right hand on Amy's thigh a little higher up than he should.
She pursed her lips and gave him her best death glare and removed his hand.
Trevor was speechless during this exchange but quickly recovered. "Um, we were just getting ready to search HOLLIS for this man," he said, pointing at the screen.
Jake leaned in to see the name; recognition dawning on his features.
Trevor hit 'enter'.
Only a few hits came up, the most recent from 1982. All of them were scholarly articles about The Concert and all of them appeared as doctoral research.
"This, Antonio Marcellius, is there an author folio on him?" Amy said hopefully.
"Let me look. I've never heard of him, but that doesn't mean anything." Trevor added with a smile at Amy which quickly faded when he saw Jake's scowl.
"Thanks for your help Trevor," Amy said with a small smile back.
"I think there is something here," Trevor said slowly, reading to himself, "Hmmm, there is an Orcid ID listed here. Maybe we can look him up using that."
"Orcid ID?" Amy asked
Jake spoke, "It stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID. It is a way for scholars to be properly credited for their research. It solves any problem that might arise from a common name among researchers. It's a 16-digit code assigned specifically to the individual so no matter if there are 12 people in the world with your exact name, your Orcid ID is unique and solves any name ambiguity that might exist. That way researchers are credited for their work properly. The numerical code acts as a universal language; numbers are numbers." he offered.
Both Amy and Trevor looked at him.
He continued, "each researcher around the world is given a specific number based on Chaldean Numerology. For example, the numerical value of the word collegiate is 8."
Trevor must have matched Amy look of puzzlement because Jake continued. "So, anything at the college level has to start with 8. Each nation is given the next digit so country of origin can be established. The United States has the number 1. The final four digits have something to do with the type of research he or she does. Blocks of numbers are reserved for medical, literary, scientific, education, you name it. You can learn a lot about a person just by looking at their Orchid ID number."
"I didn't know any of that." Amy said with awe.
Jake gave a small smile, "I've been writing my dad's Orchid ID on the bottom of every artifact my father has collected since I was in grade school."
"This code is 0000.0008.1978.8121" Trevor said. "I'm not familiar with this one. Let me Google it quick."
"It's OK, you don't need to, I know that code; 1978," Jake offered. "It's the University of Rome."
Dawning comprehension lit Amy's face. "Of course, you'd know that one." She said with a smile.
Trevor looked between Amy and Jake; all of a sudden, the room felt very small.
"Well, it looks like you can take it from here," Trevor said to Jake as he rose to leave.
Amy made to stop him, but he was quick and had already backed away several paces.
"See you later Amy, maybe we'll run into each other again." He gave her a small smile as he turned and walked away.
Amy turned to Jake, "Jealous much?" she said with wide eyes and a tight mouth.
"What? I walk in to the library where you said you'd be and I see you sitting cheek to cheek with some grad student. What would you have done?"
"Given you the benefit of the doubt!" Amy said scathingly. "Jake, Trevor knows a lot about Vermeer, he was helping me!"
"Yeah, he was helping alright, he was helping himself." Jake said with a scoff.
Amy was disgusted. She slammed down the lid on the laptop and made to leave. She bumped her backpack against the stack of books on the table, sending them skittering across the table with a loud thump. Every eye in the vicinity turned to look at them. Jake had stood up too when Amy made to leave. Both of their faces turned red and they quickly made to scoop up the books when one book caught Amy's eye, Dutch Masters with forward by Antonio Marcellius. Both Jake and Amy stopped. The both quickly sat back down and made to read the forward.
Most of it was about the works of Vermeer and his contemporaries, but the final paragraph shed some light on Marcellius.
Amy read aloud:
I have devoted my life to studying the Dutch masters. Their work is often overlooked in the time they lived, but we have an opportunity to bring their work to light. I look forward to many more years studying and enlightening the world on these masters.
Author's note: This work is a culmination of all of his research. He splits his time between his homes in the Netherlands and New York City.
"That's it?" She cried.
"What's the copyright date?" Jake asked flipping to the very front of the book, "1989." He said answering his own question. "Ames, this guy had some connection to the University of Rome. I could call around if they have any more information on this Antonio guy."
Amy and Jake stood, Jake already had his cell phone in his hand, flipping through his contacts in Rome. "That would be great Jake. We need to find as much on him as we can. I think we need to go back through your mom's things to see if we have any notes. Maybe we can get Cara to dig around and find an address in the IRS records." Amy suggested.