6/18/06 -here is the missing chapter. I had to do some reworking on it because it is not the same as the original one. I must have accidentally deleted it or something.

Thanks.

It was a day like any other day. A call came in to the bureau about a murder and another art house robbery. It was at Wither's Auction and Appraisal house and the victim was Mr. Wither himself.

"It appears someone was robbing the place when Mr. Wither surprised him," Megan said to David.

David gestured to a small gold statue and said, "The ME thinks that the killer used this to hit the victim over the head.

Don joined the team at the crime scene. He said, "this looks like the same group that robbed the other art houses, but this is the first time they killed anyone."

Megan replied, "They trashed the place looking for something specific."

Don nodded and said, "We'll have to have Mr., Wither's assistant to check the inventory to see what items are missing and so we can match it against the items from the other robberies."

Megan shook her head at the needless violence. "I hope that the algorithm that Charlie is working on will provide us with some clue on the suspects, especially now that they're willing to kill for what they're looking for."

The team headed back to the office to continue the investigation and to give Charlie the newest information.

Charlie was sitting in the conference room working out an algorithm to help pinpoint where the next robbery would be and why the thieves were choosing those specific locations.

"Hey, buddy. As soon as Megan is finished with the report on the latest robbery she'll bring it in for you."

"Don, I don't know what to do. I should have had some answer for you already but the data is not making sense. And now someone got killed cause I couldn't make heads or tails of the answer."

"Charlie it's not your fault that the guy got killed. The suspects hadn't included any violence before this incident. There is no way you could've known so don't blame yourself. Just focus on the algorithm. You'll come up with the answer."

Colby stepped into the conference room. "Hey Don, Hey Charlie here's the list of stolen items that Mr. Wither's assistant provided us."

Don took the file from Colby, "Thanks Colby."

Colby continued talking, "The assistant made a pretty interesting statement that I think you should know. He said that he was surprised that the Monet that they had in the vault was not stolen. It's supposed to be up for auction in a few weeks. He said that the painting would go for at least a million on the black market."

Don rubbed his chin and said, "Really? That doesn't make sense. Did the assistant know anything about what was stolen?"

"No, he didn't. He's actually an intern and doesn't have the expertise to really say. But, he did hear Mr. Wither state that the paintings were cheap rubbish compare to the Monet."

Charlie looked Don and said, "I think I know what could help me understand the data."

Don looked at Charlie, "What's that

"I need to talk to Giada Conti. She may be able to shed some light on the background of the artwork."

"I don't know, Charlie. Why do you think she could help?"

"Well we wouldn't have to give her any sensitive data, just ask her to look at the list of stolen items and see if she can give some us some thoughts on what is so special about them. Besides, Giada is very high ranking in her field and I think we may benefit from her knowledge."

Don thought for a moment. "Okay Charlie, if you really think she could help we can go talk to her."

"Let me call her and see if she's in her office."

At Giada's office, her assistant rang her line to tell her that there was a phone call.

"Dr. Conti? I have a call from a Dr. Charles Eppes on line three for you

Giada's face lit up when she heard her friend's name. "Oh, yes, Paula put him through."

"Hey Charlie. How's it going? Still have heartburn from dinner last week?" She teased.

"Yeah I think I do. That is the last time I will ever try to out eat your brother."

"Charlie I'm really surprised that you didn't remember how much he can eat. Don't you remember the hotdog eating contest?"

Charlie laughed. "Oh yeah, I forgot all about that."

"So I'm very glad that you're calling me but I sense you're not calling to say hi. What's up?"

"Well, I hate to bother you, but I need to pick your brain. There's a case I'm working on for Don and it involves stolen artwork. I want to show you a list and see if you can give us some thoughts on the art.If it's all right that Don and I come down to your office."

"Yeah, sure Charlie. What time should I expect you? I'm free for the rest of the afternoon."

"We'll head down in half an hour or so."

"Okay great. I'm on the 36th floor Suite 5 in the Malone building. I'll let my assistant know to show you right in."

The two brothers stepped out of the conference room. Don stopped at Colby's desk and gave him a task. "Charlie and I are going downtown. While we're there, I want you and David to go talk to the other assistants and see if they had any high end items in their inventory that were not stolen.

"Megan, why don't you come with us? We're going to see a friend of Charlie's who may be able to shed some light on the stolen artwork."

Megan nodded her head. She grabbed her jacket and followed the Eppes' brothers to the parking lot.

The three of them stepped off the elevator at the 36th floor.

The receptionist's phone was ringing wildly. She smiled at them and put a call on hold.

"Welcome to Smith, Klein and Weston. How may I help you?"

"I'm Dr. Eppes. This is Agent Reeves and Agent Eppes. We have an appointment with Dr. Giada Conti."

"Yes, her assistant told me. Go right into suite five and Paula will help you."

The three of them walked down the hallway to suite five and pushed through two glass doors.

Sitting at a desk was an older woman with a take-no-prisoner air about her. She looked up from her work and said, "Hello, you must be the appointment that Dr. Conti told me to expect."

The assistant ushered them into a posh office where they saw Giada having a very animated conversation over the phone.

The saw her laugh from the other side of her desk, completely engrossed in her conversation. "I'm very proud of you. I can't wait to see the play that you're going to be in, Carla. Okay, you take care. I have an appointment right now. Tell your mother I'll call her later. Give your brother a kiss for me. No your brother doesn't have cooties. Bye."

Giada turned to see Charlie, Don and a woman she had never met before standing in her office. She smiled at them and said, "My niece. She's too much. Anyway, Hi Charlie. Hey Don." She gave Charlie a hug and nodded to Don.

Don smiled and said, "Hey Giada. It's nice to see you again. This is Agent Megan Reeves."

"Hello Agent Reeves."

"Please to meet you Dr. Conti. Please, call me Megan."

"Most certainly, if you call me Giada." She shook hands with the female agent.

"So you said you needed to pick my brain?

Charlie said, "As I said over the phone, I need to get some background information on some art work for a case that Don is investigating. I was hoping you would be able to help."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever I can do to help."

"You may have heard about the rash of robberies at local art houses. Megan said. "We were hoping you could tell us a little about the stolen art."

"The rumors have been out of control. Everyone is concerned if they will be hit next. Many places are increasing security and canceling scheduled auctions until things settle down."

Charlie saw the worried looks on his friend's faces and said, "That's part of why we're here. I'm collecting data that'll help me to calculate where they would go next."

"I'm at your disposal. Please have a seat and tell me what you want to know. Didn't you say you had a list that you wanted me to look at?"

Don took out the list for Giada.

She stepped back to her desk and read through the list.

Giada asked in a surprised voice, "Are you sure that this list is correct? Cause if it is, your suspects are either pretty stupid or they plan to start a movement in collecting second-rate impressionists."

Don looked at Giada. "It's funny you say that because Mr. Wither's intern made the same comment about the art."

"You know, the more I read this list, the more interesting it becomes. I'm 90 sure that all these painters were actually students of Monet."

She tapped the side of her head to think for a moment. "I can't help but be a little suspicious of why they would want those paintings." Gia mused to herself as she verbalized her thoughts out loud. "The questions I would be asking is why do these people want them? What are they going to do with them? I think I know your answer."

"What is it?" Don looked at Gia.

"Since the paintings were by students of Monet, they would have used the same kinds of paint and also the same techniques as he did. I think your art thieves are hoping to use them to make forgeries."

Don, Megan and Charlie looked at Giada surprised.

"How would they do that?" Charlie asked.

"The short answer is that forgers take the older work, scrape paint chips off of it and mix them into the new paint. Then they clean the older canvas and paint over it, using the same technique that artist would have used. There's a bit more to it than that but that's the gist of it. It's not a huge problem because there are only a handful of painters out there that could possibly recreate artwork by one of the great artists, but the artwork will be tested by laboratories for authenticity and the lab results will show that the paint was used from said era. Unfortunately, because the forgeries are often so good, many art dealers sign off that they're the real things. A few people have lost their reputation over scandals such as this. I hope that helps. I can give you a more detailed explanation from an article I wrote on forgery methods."

"That would be great. Does this help you with your algorithm, Charlie?"

Charlie hardly heard his brother because he was scribbling away in his notebook.

"Uh Charlie?"

"Hmm?"

"Does this information help you at all?"

Charlie nodded with much excitement. "Oh yeah, now the data makes a lot more sense. I just need to tweak one thing and I think you'll have a very short list of suspects that you can investigate."

Don cell phone rang. It was David. Don filled him in on the information that Giada gave them and told him to check with the police for any known forgers who may be in the area or that had just been paroled.

Megan was about to ask Giada another question she noticed that the art expert was watching Don with extreme intensity. Giada's eyes turned to Megan and she knew that the Agent had seen her watching Don. The women's eyes met. Giada's face flushed red with embarrassment. Megan smiled at the woman. Charlie, oblivious to this small exchange, kept scribbling in his notebook.

"Dr. Conti?"

"Giada, please."

Megan nodded. "You seem to know a lot about forgeries."

"You'd be surprised. I mean yes, I do. From the paper that I mentioned I wrote and I've been consulted on many high profile pieces. It has made me some friends in high places and enemies in low places." Giada thought about what she had and had not told Agent Reeves. She didn't think that the FBI needed to know that a few months before she had moved to LA, a group had approached her, alluding to her that they wanted to hire to help create forgeries. She had told her father about them and had promised he would have his agents check it out. Her father told his daughter that her name would be kept out of it so her rep wouldn't be tarnished. He called her about month ago to tell her that the group looked like it had left town and the case had gone cold. She wondered if it was the same group that was now in the LA area and thought maybe she should talk to her dad and see if he wanted to contact the agents out here with what intel they had.

Megan replied, "You mentioned that they are only a handful pf artist out there who would be able to repaint the art work can you give us any names?"

Gia looked hard at the female agent, "Uh yes. Let's see the only ones I know who could do it are reputable artists but they would never actually do it. I mean actually I hope they wouldn't."

Megan said, "Well maybe we should have their names anyway just to clear them."

"Umm, okay. Let's see there is Robert Cheswick. He is from NY. Um, Daniel Foster could probably do it and maybe Renee Brianne they I think are located in Paris." Giada watched Megan right the names down in her notebook. She thought for a moment and said, "And I guess you should add me. I could do it. Even though I think the technique of the other artists is better then mine."

Megan looked at the woman for a moment and nodded, "OK if that is all. Thanks."

She nodded back to Megan

Don finished his phone call. "Are you ready to head back to the office?" He asked both his companions.

"Yeah. I think I have a good lead for you," Charlie answered.

Don turned to Giada and said, "Thanks so much for meeting with us."

"No problem. Always happy to do my civic duty, Agent Eppes."

Don smiled and shook his head at her glib comment.

Charlie nodded to his friend. "Yes, thank you. Don't forget you and your brother are coming over on Saturday."

"Yup. I'll see you then. Again, it was a pleasure to meet you Megan. Don, good seeing you again. Please call me any time if you need more information. Before I forget here is the article on forgery techniques."

The two agents and Charlie made their goodbyes and headed out of the office.