Ch 25
Amy and Jake jogged the entire distance across central park and found the limo sitting at 72nd and Central Park West with Ian and Cara inside. As Jake and Amy slid into the back seat, they couldn't help but notice the smirks on Ian and Cara's faces. Cara so close to bursting out in laughter that Amy knew what had happened; Dan hadn't turned off their communications at all and everyone had heard the entire stairwell incident live and in person.
"Welcome back love birds," Dan's voice came across all of their earpieces. "Atticus and I are busy sopping up our vomit in the comm center so you'll need to give us a minute." Ian and Cara started cracking up.
Jake just gave a massive sigh and hung his head, shaking it from side to side. Amy turned purple and tried to hide behind Jake's back.
"We saw the whole thing live from my laptop," Cara said after a second round of giggles gripped everyone but Jake and Amy.
"Yeah, and Atticus translated for everyone," Dan added
"Very smooth, Jake, I'm not sure even I could have done better," Ian said, appraising Jake and Amy in the back seat.
"Thanks Ian, that's the highest praise you give," Jake said raising a mock toast to Ian.
"All that and we didn't learn anything!" Amy said, slamming her fist into the seat. This woke everyone from their giggling.
"That's not true Ames," Jake said. "I think we got a clue at the very end."
They filled in the other teams about the two condos the searched and the massive amounts of art and instruments they found.
"Bellosguardo" Jake said. "It must be another of her homes."
"I'll Google it," Atticus said.
As they drove back to Attleboro in the limo, Atticus filled them in on the Santa Barbara ocean-front home of Hughette Clark.
"It says it was built in the 1930's after sustaining damage in a 1925 earthquake. It was state of the art for its day and Hughette paid a massive amount of money to have a 750-acre lake put in between the property and the ocean." Atticus reported.
"But, just like her condos, she hadn't been to the property in decades. The last reported visit was in 1952. She kept a staff on call 24/7 to be ready for her visit at any time, so the grounds were constantly maintained and the home was cleaned every other day. They were to be on 48-hour notice at any given time." Dan added
"The works may be there somewhere!" Amy said excitedly.
"I think we know the next destination now!" Atticus said, "Santa Barbara, here we come!"
"No, not yet," Amy said with brow furrowed. "Something isn't right. I feel like we're grasping at straws."
"I agree," Jake said, inclining his head toward Amy. "Those paintings may be in California, but they could just as easily be in St. Petersburg! We need some hard and fast proof before we go searching the globe on a wild goose chase. It's different this time, we're all back in school and, for Att and me at least, we have to answer to our dad this time."
"What?" Dan shouted, incredulous. "You're pulling the plug just when we have our first good lead?"
"Dan, this isn't a lead, it's not even a trail, it's a whiff, a puff of smoke," Amy said. "We have to have more to go on."
"But-" Dan started again, before Amy cut him off.
"No, I'll call Anne Hawley and see if she has any information on the Bellosguardo estate for us. We'll need everything we can get our hands on." Amy said firmly, "Meanwhile, we are going back to classes. All of us" eyeing Dan suspiciously. "Plus, the Cambridge headquarters will be done within the month and we'll have to move in."
Cara nodded, "I need to get over there and really get to work, then I need to update all of you on how things will work in the new and improved comm center."
Amy frowned, "There are still names we need to research and find out about. I have a suspicion that if we find Quigley O'Reilley, we'll find the art."
Amy spent the next two week making biweekly trips to Cambridge 40 miles away. She and Dan spent the rest of their days together studying in the library or in family room spread out, papers and books everywhere. It was nice being back with just her brother in their home. She knew these days like this in Attleboro were limited. Even after college, they wouldn't be moving back here, just the two of them. It was changing and they both knew it.
Jake and Atticus were back into a routine in Cambridge too. They went to classes every day, Monday, Wednesday and Friday their classes ended at 3:30 in the same building, so they walked home together. It was just like being back in Rome, only, everyone spoke English and they had their childhood home to retreat to instead of a dark and musty high-rise apartment that never felt welcoming.
The hunt for the artwork had come to a stall, which was fine with Atticus, truth be told, he wasn't all that keen on finding it anyway. Sure, he wanted it back in the museum, who wouldn't, but he was very content with the way things were now. He had his big brother, his dad and his best friend all within a short car ride. He and Jake spent their weekends in Attleboro with Dan and Amy. He loved going there. There was something really fun and relaxing about the four of them being together. They were like a family, he thought, I gained a brother and sister when we met the Cahills.
One November weekend, the four of them were spread out in the family room watching the latest spy suspense episode on Netflix. Dan in a fat arm chair, Atticus sprawled out on the carpet and Jake and Amy curled up like spoons on the couch.
A formal metallic computerized voice sounded, "incoming message from Gideon. Incoming message from Gideon."
Amy jumped up so quick she fell off the couch, Dan was on his feet too. That sound didn't happen for just any email, it was an urgent message waiting them in the comm center if nobody was manning it. She had programmed the house to alert her at once. The four of them dashed to the attic.
"Incoming message from Gideon, please attend at once," the voice repeated.
"Relay message, clearance Amy Cahill" Amy said loudly to the room as she and Dan swiftly moved around, turning on sleeping monitors.
There was a pause as the system verified her voice command, "clearance granted, Amy Cahill" the female voice said.
On the main monitor, Cara's face lit the screen. "Amy, I found something. It's not much, but you need to know about it."
"Where are you, Cara?" Amy asked
"I'm back in London with Ian. We decided to make this home base for the remainder of the year. I'm taking correspondence classes to finish up school." Amy nodded. "You look good, how's Ian?"
"Never mind that now, what I have to say is urgent." Cara said brusquely. "I found the name Quigley O'Reilly buried deep, I mean Mariana Trench, in a file today. This guy doesn't want to be found Amy."
"What sort of file was it?" Dan asked, leaning forward in his chair.
"That's just it, I was searching bank files for Ian. He wants to try and trace his father Vicram's finances back to their source. I had gotten as far back as records in the Turks and Caicos Islands when I saw this name. It was in a completely unrelated account, but the name caught my eye. "
Amy looked around the room at the boys. They all had looks of confusion on their faces.
Cara continued, "These off-shore banks have crazy tight online security so I couldn't stay too long or they'd know they had a mouse in their system. I don't think I tripped up their defenses, but I better not go back in for a while. I downloaded what I could get my hands on and I'll forward it to you now." As an added thought she said, "Amy, this guy spent a big chunk of change in the last month. I don't think that was coincidence."
"Thanks Cara, we owe you one," Amy said. "Tell Ian we all say hi."
A ping on a neighboring monitor indicated Cara had sent the file. Dan opened it and they all crowded around the screen which was instantly transformed by terabytes of numbers filling a spreadsheet.
"Uh, what am I looking at?" Jake voiced.
"This is the entire history of one Quigley O'Reilly courtesy of the off-shore bank account he owns." Atticus said smiling. Numbers weren't his love, but he understood them regardless. He glanced at Dan who had a knack for numbers. Dan's eyes were scanning the document as fast as it was loading and he had a fixed smile on his face. Dan was in the zone.
"Dan, what are you seeing?" Amy said, clearly just as confused as Jake.
"Um, give me a minute he said," lost in the data.
Atticus, who was about three steps ahead of Dan began to explain, "What we are looking at are the dates and transaction amounts of every dollar that has exchanged hands with Quigley O'Reilley for the last 25 years. That's why this file is so big. It's like a giant bank register. These off-shore accounts can't be tracked, or taxed, which is why they're so popular with criminals and the extremely wealthy the world over."
Dan had awoken from his math coma, and added, "we can trace what Quigley O'Reilly did on a specific date and the amount he paid. It's like a bread crumb trail. Since we have found nothing on this guy in any of our searches, and that's saying something, I suspect Quigley O'Reilly is a pseudonym. The trouble is, who is he in real life?"
"Are the files current? Is he still using this account?" Jake asked.
"Yes, they date to earlier this month." Dan said, "So that proves he's still alive."
"How can we find out who this guy is?" Amy said, frustrated.
"What about donors to the museum?" Jake offered. "They have deep pockets and usually are art collectors themselves."
Amy thought for a minute, "Maybe, but why would a donor to the Gardner steal from them? That doesn't make sense."
"Maybe not Gardner donors," Atticus suggested. "Maybe it was someone who wanted Vermeer in their private collection."
"How do we find that out?" Dan asked.
Amy quick took a seat at the next terminal and fired up the monitor. Her fingers flew over the keys as she typed in a search in the Cahill mainframe. The boys leaned to the right to see what she was doing.
"I don't know why I didn't think to do this before," Amy said, shaking her head. She hit search.
Vermeer's works began to appear as thumbnails on the screen. They all looked as Amy scrolled. They for the most part, were in museums scattered across The Netherlands, Germany and the United States. One or two were in private hands. Amy clicked on the private owners, they were owned by the same man who had dedicated a collection to the Dutch masters, Thomas Kaplan.
"What do we know about Kaplan?" Dan asked.
"Thomas Kaplan? Are you kidding?" Atticus said, looking up from the screen, "he's the most famous art collector living! He has thousands of masters, his favorite are the Dutch masters, specifically, Rembrandt. He has like, 40 or 50 of them."
"So maybe he's our thief!" Dan said excitedly.
"No so fast Dan, this man is made out of money, he doesn't need to steal anything. He could buy every last Rembrandt in the world and have lots left over. He's famous in the art collector world." Amy said, shaking her head.
"Well, maybe he wanted The Concert and he couldn't have it!" Dan replied.
"No Dan, it's not logical. He's not our thief, plus he's a major philanthropist and wildlife conservator. He would see a theft as a travesty." Amy said, shaking her head.
"What if you held a major grudge against someone like him who could buy whatever art he wanted and you weren't as successful but had expensive taste?" Jake offered.
All three of them turned to look at him. "What are you saying?" Amy asked.
"It's not going to be a philanthropist who steals art, it's going to be someone who wishes they were a philanthropist." Jake said with emphasis.
"Exactly. Someone who has a taste for fine art, but a McDonald's budget." Atticus added.
"Someone who has the knowledge but not the means." Amy added.
They all sat quietly, thinking for a minute. Suddenly, Dan whipped back to his screen and began to pull up a new search. His fingers flew this time as they all turned to watch. Finally, he hit 'search'.
"Bingo." Dan said with finality
They all leaned in to see what Dan had searched. A single search query popped up.
Antonio Marcellius to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy.