The Two Live Crew (s2: ep7) Part 1
McRory's Place – Bar under the Leverage Headquarters / Nate's Apartment
Ada sat next an elderly brother and sister duo, the Mercers, with Sophie and Nate sat opposite them in one of the booths in the bar.
"How can we help?" Nate asked.
"My sister and I began the Reclamation Project 40 years ago. We recover art looted from Nazi-occupied countries - during the Shoah. - There's one piece in particular that we have been trying to recover for some time," The brother said as he opened a magazine and flicked to the page he wanted.
"Ada here contracted us about a way that you can get the painting back," His Sister explained.
"I have worked with the project for many years and the piece is currently here in Boston," Ada explained. "But legally they cannot get it back. They have tried."
"It's a Gustav Klimt," The brother said as he handed over the small picture to Ada who laid it down on the table to show Sophie and Nate. It was a beautiful example of a Klimt. The skill of the artist showed though the black and white picture.
"I love the symbolists," Sophie sighed as she looked at the picture a small smile on her face.
"It belonged to my father. He smuggled it out, just before the painting made it out of Europe. He did not," The brother said. Ada sadly smiled it the siblings. "Mr. Ford, I have searched my entire life for that painting."
"Now, we know it is here, in Boston." The Sister said. "Thanks to Ada."
"Oh, well, if it's on display, then you can make a claim with the museum - if you think you have provenance," Sophie started to explain. Ada passed the magazine over to Nate.
"It's on display," The Brother said.
"But not in a museum," Ada and Nate said at the same time.
"Mr. North bought the painting on the black market knowing full well its history," The Brother explained.
"He's got it hanging up in his office," Sophie said in sad shock. Ada, Nate and Sophie were all saddened by this knowledge.
"Yeah." Nate whispered.
"We have tried every legal avenue, but he even bribed a judge to dismiss the case," The Sister said. Ada sighed and closed her eyes.
"North owns the largest software company in this state. He has unlimited money and twice as many lawyers," Nate explained to the table.
"Can you help us?" The Brother pleaded. Ada turned to watch her new teammates. Nate tapped at his mug of coffee she saw a slight upturn of his lip.
"It's what we do," Sophie said smiled. Nate looked at her and nodded. The meeting was over.
Parking lot outside the Offices of Montgraft & Associates
The team were in Hardison's van ready to enter the offices to get the clients painting. Parker was annoyed that they were going to in her words "cheat". Hardison opened his costume box and handed Eliot two police-logoed wool hats. Ada zipped up a Police jacket when Eliot walked over and placed one of the hats on her head. He could see that she was nervous. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. She reached up and pecked him on the lips with a quick kiss.
"Ok guys," Nate said and walked off.
"Gum?" Ada held a stick of gum to Eliot who took it.
"Is my breath that bad?" Eliot joked as he placed the gum into his mouth.
"No," Ada said as she popped a piece into her mouth and started to chew. Parker grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the office building. Ada turned her head towards Eliot and Hardison who were laughing at Parker and her. The office was your standard building in Boston built of glass and steel.
The team rushed through the lobby flashing their police badges, waved through by security, and marched towards the elevators. The lift opened at the right floor and the office that they were 'raiding'. The young receptionist stood up when she saw the Police logo in panic. Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Ada walked past her.
"Montgraft & Associates. One moment." She called out to them in panic. "Can I help you?"
"Talk to the Boss," Harrison replied, pointing at Sophie and Nate, who had followed them out.
Eliot kicked open the door to the room next to the bad guy's office.
"I still think we could steal it," Parker whined.
Ada took out a measuring tape and marked the wall the space around the large framed painting in pencil. Eliot took out of one of the bags a saw and started to cut through the wall following the lines that Ada had drawn. Both tried to ignore Parker and Hardison's arguing. Ada watched Eliot's work. When he finished, she passed him some of the suction cups and he placed them on the wall.
"Right," he lifted the cups, the drywall plasterboard came away neatly, and he pulled it into the room. "The Klimt is ours."
Instead of the beauty of the Austrian symbolist, Klimt was a bad reproduction of 'Dogs playing Poker'.
"We got a problem," Hardison said to warn Nate and Sophie. Ada, Parker and Eliot stayed silent.
"What?" Nate asked.
"At least we got a painting," Hardison said as the team regrouped downstairs in a corridor.
"Maybe they won't notice the difference," Parker reasoned.
"Dogs Playing Poker Parker is very different from a great piece by the master Klimt," Ada said very annoyed that the painting appeared to her been stolen right in front of them. "A man like that would never have Dogs Playing Poker in his office. I think it's someone playing a joke on us. Or another crew."
"Dogs Playing Poker? Seriously?" Sophie shook her head.
McRory's Place – Bar under the Leverage Headquarters / Nate's Apartment
Back at the bar, the team sat around one of the round tables with drinks minus Sophie who had nipped home to sort out a delivery to her apartment. And Nate who was on the phone with the Mercers.
"Maybe he saw the magazine photo and spooked," Parker said. Ada thought about it, but something was not adding up.
"The man bought Holocaust art on the black market and hung it for display in his office," Ada said. "He's not going to really think there is an issue."
" You think he cares if anybody knows he's got it?" Hardison continued Ada's thought.
"Just admit it. We got beat. Somebody beat us to the punch," Eliot said.
"So, I just got off the phone with our clients. Told them we couldn't recover their dead father's painting. Wanna explain why?" Nate asked as he walked from the back room of the bar. "Where's Sophie?"
"I'm on it," Eliot said and tried again to contract Sophie. Who was not picking up.
"She popped home to sort something out," Ada reported to Nate as he sat down at the round table.
"Nazis," Parker said.
"What do you mean?" Ada asked Parker.
"Maybe they want the stuff back that they stole. You know, secret Nazis," she shrugged.
"I mean I could see it," Ada could see it. "But it's unlikely. Why would they steal something that they sold to him?"
"It's going to voicemail. I'm gonna try comms," Eliot tried again. "Sophie? So? Hey, Nate wants to know why I say that's a pretty good reason," He stood up.
"What is it?" Ada asked.
"Ada, I need you to stay here," She started to interrupt him. "I need you to stay here," he kissed her on the lips and the team went to Sophie's house while Ada was left alone at the bar. She sighed and decided to get herself a drink. And listened to the interaction at Sophie's Apartment before heading back up to Nate's apartment.
A random Graveyard in Boston
Ada hated to wear all-black outfits it meant someone had died. She stood with Nate, Parker and Hardison at the back of the tent listening to Eliot who was talking at the podium next to the coffin. Sophie lay still in the white coffin. Ada tried to listen to what Eliot said but she could not help feeling that there were eyes on the team. Eliot finished and walked away from the coffin to the back with Nate and Ada and replaced by Parker at the podium. Parker's speech was very different from Eliot's. Eliot took Ada's hand and kissed her on the cheek.
"Katherine and I have known each other forever," Parker started emotionlessly. "Almost two years.
Yeah, I know that probably doesn't sound like a lot to you, but it is to me. I never really had many friends. Which is why losing her is so hard," She stopped and looked at Sophie in the casket. "It's so creepy. I mean, she's really dead. I was just talking to her and now she's just lying there."
"Parker!" Hardison rushed over to her and placed his arms around her to pull her away from the casket.
"She's just lying there. Can you hear me?" Parker asked. Sophie tried to not move.
"Parker. Par Parker," he moved up to the podium his arms around Parker. He pulled her close. Ada smiled when she saw this. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, y'all. What she really means is it's just, uh, Katherine was like family. And sometimes friends are all the family that you have," he looked down at Parker and nodded. "So, you good? Come on, just let Just keep goin' here," they walked away from the podium. "Got all hysterical and emotional."
"See any suspects?" Nate asked Eliot.
"No one jumps out at me," Eliot whispered back. Ada shook her head.
"Me neither," Nate said.
"Why is she so sure they're gonna show up?" Ada asked.
"When you go through the trouble of killing someone the likes of a Sophie Devereaux, you make sure they're dead," Nate explained.
Back at Nate's apartment
The team regrouped after the funeral at Nate's apartment. Everyone still wore their funeral attire.
"What are you doin'?" Eliot asked Hardison. Hardison worked on his laptop and had up on the screen some CCTV footage from the entrance of Sophie's apartment building.
"Security camera footage from Sophie's apartment. Tryin' to see who delivered the bomb, but with nothing for reference, facial recognition can't narrow it down," He said. No one had yet jumped out at him. He and Eliot moved over to the screens and sat down.
"No need. I know exactly who's to blame. Marcus Starke. Brilliant grifter. Even better forger," Sophie stopped and turned to Parker who stared at Sophie and poked her. "Stop it,"
"It's like you're haunting us," Parker said as she poked Sophie again.
"Parker, I'm not really dead. I'm not dead," Sophie pushed away Parker's hand from her face.
"OK," Parker moved away from Sophie. Ada poked Parker in the arm and they both laughed.
"We used to work together. We did the Copenhagen job in '97, the Berlin Polytech job in '98 and Nate, remember, remember that great run in Moscow?" Sophie explained to the team. A large lopsided grin on her face. Ada had read about two jobs and the run that she now knew Sophie had done on in Moscow around the same time. The scams were legendary.
"That great run? I chased you for three months," Nate was shocked and annoyed at this information.
"Well, uh, technically you chased us. Sorry," Sophie thought back with a slight smile on her face.
"Are you sayin' that you saw other teams before us?" Hardison joked.
"No," Parker said. "Really just another Nate before Nate."
"Let me ask you a question. What bugs you more? Is it the fact that he was with Sophie first or that he outsmarted you?" Eliot joked as he lounged on the sofa his arm around Ada and beer in hand.
"Moving on," Nate pushed on.
"Um, Starke doesn't keep a permanent crew. He specializes in whiz mobs. He puts a team together, they slam into a town for one high-profile job and then they scatter." Sophie explained. "But usually, they do one they do one smaller job first just to work out the kinks in the team."
"Like our clients' painting, for example?" Nate said.
"Wrong place, wrong time," Ada guessed.
"Starke must have seen me and now that I'm one of the good guys, decided to get rid of me because... Why? Because, because I know his scams. Because I know his favourite scam," Sophie smiled. "The Mona Lisa variant."
'The Mona Lisa Con is one of my favourites. On 21st August 1911, the Mona Lisa painting was taken from the Louvre Museum in Paris. It was a simple in-and-out job. One person could have done it. At the time, it was not as beloved as it is today. It is said that a con artist named Eduardo de Valfierno hired a team including an insider to steal the painting. He had a forager to make him five replicas and sold them around the world to collectors who believed that they had brought the original. The original Lisa was then offered to the Italians by 'the inside man' who thought he was 'returning it to his homeland'. The painting was returned two years later. However, it may be a hoax. The insider, a member of Louvre staff, called Vincenzo Peruggia, walked out of the museum with the Mona Lisa under his coat but there was no evidence of anyone else being involved in the robbery. And he was the only one ever arrested for the crime," Ada finished; she looked around at the rest of the team who were quiet. "I studied the crime in university. The case was written up by a journalist Karl Decker in 1932 after Peruggia had passed away and he may be the creator for the story," she continued. "And the inventor of 'The Mona Lisa Con'."
"Hardison, pull up all the auctions in Boston in the next two days. Starke never stays in a city more than two days," Sophie asked Hardison who pulled up the current artworks for sale.
"Wait a minute, not museums?" Asked Eliot.
"Mm-mm," Sophie shook her head.
"No, no. Starke likes to use auctions to figure out who wants the painting. He picks who he's gonna sell the fakes to.," Nate explained.
"That bit was actually my part of the scam. I made that up. It's good, isn't it?" Sophie was very proud of her role in the evolution of the con.
"Mm-hmm," Nate nodded.
"That's still a lot of paintings," said Eliot.
"Well, it has to be high-profile," Nate said as Hardison clicked through the paintings.
"It's the Van Gogh," Ada said pointing to an image of the Von Gogh "Café Terrace at Night. Or Café, le soir. It's the highest profile painting on the board and it's one of the easiest to fake too. Worth between $10 and 50 million in auction around $10 million private buyer. I have a friend who would paint them using common house paint and sell copies. Of course, I would never do that I would always try to use materials that the artist would have used..." she then went suddenly quiet.
"And how do you know this?" Hardison asked.
"I may have or may not have already faked and sold that painting once or twice myself a couple of years ago," she said. The team looked at her in a new light. "What? I study art crime and have practised it once or twice. And Von Gogh did not sign this one," Eliot pulled her closer to him.
"My girlfriend is a criminal," he joked into her ear. She playfully pushed him away.
"He has a soft spot for Van Gogh," Sophie agreed with Ada.
"OK, so we just call the cops. We have them show up," said Hardison.
"No. Starke goes down for this, there's no guarantee we can get that painting back for the Mercers. He even smells the police, and he's gonna run and we'll get nowhere near it," Sophie pointed out to the team.
"He did try to kill you," Nate tried to reason with her.
"We risk our lives all the time," Sophie shrugged her shoulders. "No, we need to barter. We need something to trade for the Mercers' painting."
"Such as?" Hardison asked quietly knowing what she was going to say.
"That. That's what he's come for. That's what he wants," Sophie placed her tea down on the table and stood up in front of the screens with Nate.
"We just gotta get there first," Nate said to end the briefing.
Auction House viewing gallery
Outside Hardison and Sophie sat in 'Lucille' the van. While inside Parker was dressed as wait staff, Eliot was on lookout and Nate and Ada were gallery-viewing guests.
Ada was dressed in a simple black knee-length skater dress and a cream short cardigan. She wore a pair of glasses and a ginger shoulder-length wavy wig that had thick bangs. She had to bite her lip to stop from giggling out loud when she stood in front of one of the many paintings that were on sale. Nate walked up close to her, noticed this, and asked the younger woman.
"What?"
"I have looked at every painting in this gallery and at least four are fakes or poor restorations," she said quietly. "Look at this one," she pointed to the painting in front of them. It was a small oil painting of a female figure. "It looks right, but the paint is still wet. They have not even baked it properly." Nate looked closer to the painting at was meant to be over a hundred years old. "See the cracks have not set correctly if I were to touch it, I would get paint on me. It was painted recently," Nate nodded in agreement.
"How is it that you know so much about forgery?" He asked wondering why she would know these things.
"I was asked to join Interpol before the grape was found," she said a little sadly, as she pointed to her head. "I was going to join the international art crimes department," She smiled. "I am also a fan of practising the techniques," And she walked off to the middle of the room. Nate followed her it was time to start.
"OK, Parker, talk to me," Nate said.
"Present!" Parker said. She was dressed as a member of the waiting staff and held a napkin and tray.
"How we doin'? What's going on security-wise with this place, huh?" Nate asked.
"Well, The usual countermeasures. Nothing we can't handle," She replied as she walked through the room with a single glass of champagne on her tray.
"Actually, I'm more of a Jack man myself, but when in Rome. Thank you, sweetheart," Eliot took a glass off the tray offered by a young female server.
"Eliot," Ada looked over at her boyfriend who winked at her way.
"I miss Sophie," Parker sadly said.
"She is the one who loves is dress up stuff," Eliot said.
"I am not dead," Sophie explained again loudly through the comms from the van. "I am right here, Parker."
"I love to dress up it's like acting," Ada chuckled. "This is fun."
"Thank you?" Sophie said from the van.
"OK, guys, I got the auction house manager in sight," Nate whispered as he pretended to read the auction brochure. "Uh, now if you take his wallet and badge, it should be a cakewalk."
"Eliot, check out the back corridor. I think I see an access point," Hardison instructed Eliot.
Everyone got into position for Parker to take the left from the Auction Manager. Eliot went to the back corridor, Nate and Ada covered the room watching and Parker moved towards the auction manager. Parker pulled off the left brilliantly as normal. The mark did not feel a thing but as she walked off another waiter bumped into her. He had removed the tray straight out of her hand. Ada watched this go down. Parker looked over at her. They both shrugged. The thief pocked the wallet and phone and winked at Parker. She was angry. No one stole from her.
"Nate, I think we have company," Ada whispered to Nate as she nodded up at Eliot. Eliot just stood there and then over to a beautiful woman in a stylish black dress. They appeared to be squaring up.
"Hardison, what do you mean? Who's? Who's?" Nate said into his earpiece.
"Nathan Ford," Skarke said to Nate as he sauntered over to the pair. "I cannot believe I didn't recognize you at the funeral. Of course, I was blinded by grief.
"Guilty conscience?" Nate uttered. Ada slightly smiled but stayed quiet.
"Call 'em off," Skarke demanded.
"Not gonna happen," Nate replied.
"You best clear out," Ada heard Eliot say through the comms.
"You know, word is on the street that you run the nastiest crew this side of the Atlantic," Skarke said as Ada noticed him sizing up Nate.
"Uh What?" Nate asked.
"Come on, everybody knows. You robbed a bank, and you framed a judge," Starke said. Nate tried to not smile. Ada watched the two men. "You rigged a jury to steal a million-dollar settlement," Starke continued. "I hear that you even conned the Irish mob out of a couple of million dollars just this year. Mm! Now, that's style," Starke was impressed.
"One way of looking at it," Nate was proud of the work that he and the team had done but he knew not to give this away.
"Tell him the truth, we're blown," Came Sophie's panicked voice. "You cannot tell him about our clients or about us helping people. He's gonna use that against us."
"If you know about us, then you would know to get out of my city," Nate looked Starke up and down.
"It's still your city, Nate," Either man was going to back down. "I'm, I'm just gonna take her out for one night of cheap fun. I'll get her back to you in the morning."
Ada looked over at the Auction Manager he was muttering to himself as he patted down his suit.
"Nate, I think we should go," Ada said in a slightly American accent. Sophie had taught her how to do she nodded over at the Auction Manager.
"Folks, uh, we're gonna close a little early today," The Auction Manager started to push the guests out of the gallery space. "We appreciate you attending the gallery and if you could please head toward the exits at this time, I'd appreciate it. Thank you very much," Ada then heard him say to another member of staff. "I want the security detail tripled tonight. Call the police. I want a patrol car to drive by every ten minutes. Are these motion sensors ready?" He questioned.
"We haven't tested them," The security guard said.
"Turn 'em on. I want everything in lockdown," Was it time for plan b or was it plan c?
"Your people blew it," Starke marched out. Nate grabbed Ada and followed the crowd out of the gallery.
"My people never make mistakes," Nate said as he walked.
"What about Sophie?" Starke had just messed up.
"Is that a warning?" Nate paused and said menace in his voice.
"Take it how you want," Starke simply replied.
They reached Eliot in the back corridor. "Let's go," Nate placed a hand on Eliot's shoulder. Eliot smiled at Ada and pulled in close to him as they left the building.
End of part 1