Chapter 10

Before turning in for the night, Jonathan opened the package from Andrew Thomas' office. There was a letter from Andrew, the financial statement detailing all the things his investment to their project had helped them accomplish, and a copy of the magazine with Jennifer's article. He set aside the paperwork and flipped through the magazine.

It was a four-color run of Progressive Architecture Magazine, which specialized in architecture, design, and technology, not a cheap magazine to publish. He had to hand it to Andrew; the man knew how to work his contacts.

Once Jonathan found her article, he quickly became fully engrossed in her words, her story, her photos. She had sufficiently impressed him in her handling of the Kingsford Motors story when things settled down. With this piece, she impressed him all over again. Her words painted a story that drew him in emotionally and taught him intricacies he didn't know about his project. Her intelligence and propensity for the conservation of the natural animal habitats and help for indigenous people shone in her work.

When he finished the article, Jonathan thought if he had read this before he went to London, the avoiding of a reporter named Jennifer Edwards would never happen. He turned out the light and laid back on his bed. Images of Jennifer's smile burned in his mind. No, if he had known anything about Jennifer Edwards before London, he would have been pursuing her.

That pursuit would have been so worth the treasure he had now discovered.

The ringing of the phone brought him back to reality. "Jonathan Hart."

"Hi, Darling."

He smiled at the sound of her voice. "Jennifer. This is a pleasant surprise. I thought you would be asleep by now."

"I should be, but I couldn't sleep. I just wanted to hear your voice again."

"I miss you, too. I am hoping to get back to Maryland this weekend. It all depends on how fast we can wrap up this art problem."

"I hope so. I sure want to see you. And hold you. And kiss you."

"The sooner, the better," he agreed.

"This guy she has found is almost too good to be true, Suzanne." Stephen recounted for his wife the events of their day. "His employees love him. They are willing to do whatever he needs them to do, and he… he makes sure they are well taken care of."

"Trés impressionnant. I love to hear these things. It seems our Jenny has picked well, Stephen," Suzanne tried to reassure her husband. His heart was troubled, she could tell. She wanted to help him find his words and express his troubles.

"Yesterday, he searched for a wedding gift for Jennifer. He spent several hours. And when he found it, he bought it. He knew it as soon as he saw it. And I must say, he's right. It really is perfect."

Listening to him made her heart swell with pride. She knew Jennifer was correct in her choice. Call it a mother's intuition. "Je suis tellement excitée. It sounds to me like you are getting to know our Jonathan better already."

"I think I am. The man is strong and compassionate. He is steady and fun-loving. He is tenacious and tender. He seems to be a perfect fit for Jennifer. And as far as Jennifer is concerned, Jonathan lights up when he talks about her, let alone when he talks to her."

"C'est bon mon amour. Really it is an excellent thing," Suzanne confirmed. "Our Jenny is in love with him, and he is in love with our Jenny. Much like two young kids I knew so many years ago."

"Oh, Suzanne, this I know. She has done well, and yet my heart is heavy. Why is it I can be totally fine with her running all over the world doing her assignments but let her bring home one guy…"

"Chéri, you make it sound as though our Jenny has never dated before."

"No, I know she has dated. But those guys…" he hesitated before he spoke again. "I knew in my heart of hearts; those guys didn't mean anything to her. And they never lasted more than about six months. Jonathan is different. Better. Better for her. And I guess there is a part of me afraid of losing my little girl."

"Oh, mon amour, you are not losing a little girl. You are gaining the son we didn't have."

His frustration began to show, "And when she goes home, she will go home to him."

"It will be no different than when she goes home to New York now."

"No. It will be different," he said sadly. "Jenny will no longer turn to me for the things she needs."

"Oui. It is as is should be, Chéri."

Warren examined all of the paintings from the shipment the picture came in. There were two with the same small cut. Those two they took to Simon Campbell, Stephen's contact at the J. Paul Getty Museum, who also examined the paintings.

"I will need to run some tests to be sure; however, it appears to me these two are forgeries of lesser-known works to cover much more known pieces. I believe taking the canvas off the stretchers is necessary at this point. And we know that we will not be doing damage to actual works of art."

Jennifer was trying to put the finishing touches on an article for the Times. She had started working on it before they sent her to London to do the Hart/Kingsford Motors. With that article finished (actually her writing this time), she wanted to wrap this one up also so she could move on to the more significant project looming ahead: their wedding.

It would be here before she knew it. Really, four months to plan an entire wedding is not very long. She would confirm the location with Jonathan this evening, and start working on the invitations in the morning.

"Chéri?"

"Oui, Momma." Jennifer looked up from her papers to see her mother standing in the doorway.

"Fini?"

"Presque." She looked back at the pages and quickly flipped through them. "I have about five more paragraphs to edit. And then I will be fini."

"Oui. Would you like to take the horses out for a ride this afternoon? We could go after lunch."

"That would be fantastic, Momma."

With the covering canvas' removed, the four men stood looking at the paintings Simon had revealed. "I am impressed with you guys. It appears you have done what to date no one else has been able to do. You found the missing Renoir, A Girl with a Watering Can, and the missing Van Gogh's Self Portrait with Felt Hat."

"These paintings were stolen from the Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil Museum in Cairo two years ago. I was just on the phone with them last week." Stephen offered. "I'm actually heading over there in late July."

Jonathan looked at Stephen, "I knew you would come in handy," he quipped. Turning to Simon, he added, "They came to through a shipment from Italy. And now, we just need to figure out who all is involved." Jonathan picked up the phone and started dialing, looking back at Stephen, "I would like to talk to you… Hi, yes, Lieutenant Gillis, please."

As Jennifer mounted her horse, Sweet Sue, her mother was already sitting on Edwards Rider, or Rider as she called her. Suzanne asked her, "To the lake, chéri?"

"Oui, Momma. Sounds perfect."

"Race you." With that, Suzanne pulled the reins, clicked at Rider, and was off.

"Oh, I'll get you!" Jennifer hollered after her, and she and Sweet Sue set out after them. They raced the entire trip to the lake. Wind in her hair and a steady horse under her was a fantastic combination for clearing her head. Jennifer barely caught her mother as they arrived. "I forgot how fast you and Rider are!" she laughed, dismounting.

They let the horses get a drink, and sat near one of their favorite white oak trees, overlooking the water. Jennifer took a deep breath. The smell of pine trees in the air always made her feel like she was home. It was a comfort she sometimes longed for living in New York. She tried to imagine how living in LA would be different.

She had been there before. Once as a child of ten, when her father had business with a museum in the area. And again as a new journalist writing on a couple of resorts in the area for a travel magazine. That article was how she stumbled into meeting Andrew Thomas for the first time. The meeting had been a tremendous boost to her freelancing career.

Maybe California would be as good for her, personally, as it had been for her writing. The thought made her smile.

Suzanne watched her only child, relishing in the content grin Jennifer wore on her face. "That's a sweet smile, chérie. What are you thinking about?"

Jennifer laughed a nervous little giggle. "I was just thinking about how good that trip to California had been when I was starting my writing. Remember? Papa said he would allow me to pursue writing for a year to see if I could do anything with it."

"Oui, I remember. He can be a stubborn, faithless man. Only trust what he can see and hold."

Jennifer smiled again, "But he let me try. And that trip to California opened up a much larger world for my writing. It even made the book possible. And now…"

It was Suzanne's turn to smile, "And now a wedding. California seems to like you, chérie."

The guys worked with the police department to set up a sting by placing the cut canvas' over blank ones, and putting them back in the restoration room. Then they waited. Expectations were for involved parties to come back to the office and remove the paintings. Officers had the building under surveillance all night.

No one showed.

And his return to Jennifer was delayed longer.