Chapter 8

During the flight, Jonathan and Stephen sat at the same table he and Jennifer had eaten dinner just a few days before. Jonathan worked on catching Stephen up on the details as he knew them. With Stephen's history as an art dealer, Jonathan figured he would be a tremendous help in untangling the mess that Warren Keller and Stanley Friesen discovered.

"Warren Keller is one of our restoration experts on staff. Actually," Jonathan began sidetracking himself, "As a matter of fact, Warren is an artist in his own right. Maybe we will have time for you to look at his work, too, while we are here." He took a drink of his coffee and came back to his original point, "Anyway, Warren began looking at some invoices and noticed some small discrepancies. He took those to Stanley, one of our financial experts, and the two of them started digging."

"Is it all in the finances?" Stephen asked, still trying to pinpoint his role in helping Jonathan.

"Well, it looks like someone might be purchasing some forgery or inferior quality replicas. I'm counting on you to be able to help me in that department."

He was also counting on the time alone with Stephen helping to build respect and maybe even trust between the two men. After all, they both loved the same woman, though for very different reasons. They both wanted to protect her from any harm. Jonathan just needed to prove to Stephen that he was not going to bring her harm, ever.

"I do have one other reason for bringing you to California, Stephen," Jonathan confided. "One, I have not discussed it with Jennifer yet."

"An alternative motive?" Stephen questioned him.

"Maybe more ulterior." Stephen raised his eyebrows at Jonathan but didn't say anything. Jonathan continued, "For sure, I want your help on this art fiasco. However, I also want to purchase a house for Jennifer and me to move into when we come back from our honeymoon. I want to give it to her as a wedding gift. And I figure you would know what she would like, and would be able to help me with some of the more detailed aspects of weeding out what will not work for her."

Stephen contemplated his suggestion. The idea of knowing where his little girl would be living once she married Jonathan did have some appeal to it. And the humbleness of this man was all at once, shocking and refreshing. For the owner of such a large company, Jonathan was not afraid to get help from those who may know a little better than he did. Of all the men Stephen had worked with over his many years, this one had the least ego he'd ever seen. Himself included, truth be told. "I would be honored to help you."

"Excellent." Jonathan looked at his watch. "We land in about an hour. With the time change, that will make it 12:30 LA time. We will send Max to the condo with our bags, and we will go directly to the office to talk with Stanley. We can grab lunch on the way. The sooner we can get this mess straightened out, the sooner we can get back to those two gorgeous redheads."

"That sounds like a magnificent plan, Jonathan."

***

After making their way through three different shops and trying on about a dozen dresses, Jennifer and Suzanne stopped for a quick lunch before going into their final stop of the day.

After they ordered, Jennifer pulled out a small calendar she kept in her purse. "Let's look at August and September dates, shall we?" She grinned at her mother.

"Oui, chéri. What do you have open?"

"I am pretty much free right now, since all my freelance work is assigned as needed, and no one knows that far in advance if they will need me." She flipped through the dates. "Do you know of anything on your or Pa's calendar right now?"

"Oui, Papa is supposed to be in Cairo for the first three weeks of August."

"That takes off the 7th, 14th, and 21st. Plus, we will scratch September 11, as that's too close to your birthday."

"Oh, Jenny, don't let me mess up a date you want to use."

"What? I don't want to be in the middle of dress rehearsal and decorating on your birthday, Momma."

"C'est bon, chéri. I would survive, Jenny."

"I know." She smiled and patted her mother's hand. "I just want to celebrate you without worrying if the flowers are going to be delivered on time." She looked back at the calendar, making notes, "So that leaves us with either August 28, September 4, 18 or 25. That sounds like a good list to be able to give to Jonathan, don't you think?"

"Oui, that sounds like a great start."

***

Warren and Stanley met Jonathan and Stephen in Jonathan's office. When they walked in, they were a little overwhelmed by all the stacks of paperwork everywhere they looked.

"What do we have here?" Jonathan asked.

"Well, Mr. Hart, over here, we have the purchase orders for the tools needed for both the conservation and restoration of the art." He headed across the room, "And here we have the list of actual prices from the companies we purchase those tools from."

"How far back did you have to go?"

"Well, as you know, Mr. Hart, that division has only been open for the last five years."

"And?"

"And I went back all five years." Stanley headed towards another stack, "And these here are all the pieces we have worked on, plus who owns them."

"So, give me the short version," Jonathan requested.

"The short version," Warren stepped into the conversation, "is that over the last five years, someone has been simultaneously padding the amount companies charge us and overcharging our customers."

"And the fake works?"

"Ah, that seems to be a newer venture, only going back the last couple years. It seems people have come looking for specific, hard to find pieces, and being sold replicas at 1.5 times the price listed in our accounts receivable."

"How much are we talking?"

"About five million."

***

After lunch, Jennifer and Suzanne decided to head back to the Jaguar and work their way out of the city. They wanted to be back at the house by dinner. It was as they were walking back to the car they saw the little shop.

"How did we miss this one, Momma?"

"I think the hunger impaired our vision, chérie."

"You may be right," she laughed.

A little bell rang out as they opened the door, signaling their arrival to anyone listening. There were fewer dresses in this shop than previous ones they had meandered. However, they were also more unique and chic than the typical off the rack selection they found.

The mannequin in the back right of the store caught her eye. It was wearing an elegant white silk long sleeve floor length dress with an empire waistline, a high lace neckline that flowed to the shoulders giving a nude illusion through floral lace appliqués, which was embellished the upper bodice. The train extended several feet in the back.

"C'est parfait, Jenny." Her mother's gaze had followed her own. "You simply must try it on."

"You think so, Momma?"

"Oui!"

From behind them, a voice asked, "May I help you?"

***

Jonathan and Stephen were sitting in his living room; papers strung all over the coffee table and floor. They had put aside the art issues for the evening and were looking at several properties around Los Angeles. Max had taken Freeway out for his bedtime walk. Jonathan glanced at the clock on the wall.

"Shoot. It's 8. That means it's 10 in Maryland. I need to call Jennifer. Excuse me, Stephen. I'll be right back."

"Tell her hello from me. And tell my wife I'll call her in the morning."

"Will do," Jonathan called as he bounded up the stairs. He walked into his bedroom and shut the door behind him. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he pulled out his wallet. Before they left the house that morning, Jennifer wrote down some numbers he would need on a notecard, including her New York apartment and her parents' home. He pulled it out from his wallet. Just seeing her handwriting and the little double heart she drew on it made him smile, and catching the faint scent of her fragrance lingering on the card made his chest tighten ever so slightly.

As the phone began to ring, he kicked his shoes off beside the bed, and turned around, bringing his feet onto the bed and laying back.

"Hello? Chez Edwards." Suzanne's unmistakable voice greeted him.

"Hello, Suzanne. This is Jonathan Hart. Is your beautiful daughter available to come to the phone?"

"Oui, Jonathan! So good to hear from you! Let me get her for you."

"Merci!" Once again, Suzanne giggled at his very American attempt at her language.

"I have it, Momma, merci. Hello, Jonathan?"

"Hi, gorgeous. I miss you."

She smiled, "I miss you, too. How are things going?"

"We have a bunch of evidence and have narrowed our suspect pool to three. I think I have things to a point I can almost take them to my buddy at the police department tomorrow. Your father and I want to run down just a couple of loose ends first."

"That's fantastic. Does that mean you will head back tomorrow?"

"It will probably be a couple more days. I don't think I can take being away from you longer than that. We will wrap it up as fast as we can."

"I'm so glad. Hey, do you have your calendar handy?"

"I was just sitting here, thinking about you and rubbing oil on my rock hard…"

"Jonathan…"

"Abs…"

"Honestly," she tried to sound indignant, but her giggle gave her away. "You could just say no."

"Where's the fun in that?" He loved to hear her laugh, though he would much rather see that beautiful smile in person.

"I need you to look at some dates for me. I have four that might work."

"What are they?" He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the dates as she read them to him. Then he circled September 25 as he told her, "Off the top of my head, I'm going to guess the 25th will work the best. The next question is location…"

"Location?"

"Seems to me, we have people in New York, Maryland, and Los Angeles to consider."

"Actually, probably more like world wide. Since we are going to be living in LA, I'm going to suggest we find a location there."

"Lady, I like your style. LA on the 25th. Sounds like a date to me."

"Oh, Jonathan, I'm so very thrilled."

"I might know a great church. I will call them in the morning."

***

The next morning the two men met Warren at his office. As Jonathan and Warren were discussing several things, Stephen meandered around, studying the art. Most of them were in various stages of restoration. In one corner, he found some pieces he could not tell who the artist was. It was unique and fresh without being overstated or tacky. "Are these pieces done by a recent artist?"

"Oh, he's pretty new, for sure," Jonathan answered.

"He's got a fantastic style. Has he had many shows?"

"No. As I said, he's pretty new."

"Who is he? Can I talk to him?"

"Sure. You can talk to him as much as you like. As a matter of fact, you've been with him all morning." Jonathan nodded his head toward Warren, who waved his hand at Stephen.

"My boy, I have a couple of galleries I want to set you up in. Do you have enough pieces completed to do a show?"