Chapter 16 – The Setup
The museum Director said, “You want to hold a press conference and serve champagne at it? Here, in the middle of the gallery?” Tommy nodded while the Curator smiled. This was going to be good. “Why?”
“I have a hunch about the painting, and this is what I need to do to see if there’s anything there or not. See if it’s got legs.”
“What’s this hunch? You know who did it?"
“I can’t tell you right now. It’s just a hunch, so I don’t want to put it out there to you yet. I need some time to play with it and I need you to set up this press thing. After it I’ll know more.”
“Why champagne? Normally that’s not part of a press conference; at least not here in Charleston.”
“Because it’s not a normal press conference. It’s not about informing the public about something through the media. It’s about something else.”
“What? What else? What’s going on here? I’m the Director, I need to know.”
Tommy didn’t blink at this. He’d just spent a month joisting with the French Surete and the Board of Trustees of the Louvre and investigators from Lloyds of London; he could handle this executive. “I’ll be able to tell you more after we do this. Don’t worry about the expense, send the bill to us. I just need you to do the coordination. It’s gotta be soon. How about tomorrow? Tomorrow at 5pm, when the museum closes.”
The Director looked at the Curator, back at Tommy, then back at the Curator. He didn’t say anything, just waved his arm and left. The Curator said, “I think that means go ahead. I can do this. What do you want me to say is the purpose of the press conference? What is the purpose?”
“The purpose is for me to meet Gwen June, here. It’s gotta be here. What you say to the media is that we’ve solved the case of the stolen painting, but we need the help of the public in getting it back and finding the perpetrator.”
“That’s not exactly true, is it? Have you solved the case?”
“Yes.”
“You have?”
“Yes.”
“And.”
“And now I have to prove it and get the painting back and put the criminal in prison.”
“And that person is Gwen June?”
“And her husband, presumably, because, if the Westlake books really are about them, he was part of those capers. And any friends of theirs. She couldn’t carry the painting out of here by herself, so she had to have accomplices.”
“You really think it was her? Them?”
“I do.”
“You really want to put a beautiful woman in the slammer?”
“That’s my job. Don’t you want your painting back?”
“Yes, of course. It’s just, well....”
“Well, what?”
“You saw her. In the cafe. I’ve seen her a couple times, at gigs around town. She’s....”
“I know.”
The Curator was seriously conflicted. He was supposed to want the painting back, but at what cost to the town? The loss of her to the community....jail....orange jump suit....no jewelry....jesus. “So at the press conference we say, what?”
“Me. Don’t worry, I’ll do the talking. Just get the release out to the media and set up the place with the wine. And make it good champagne, ok. She’ll know good from bad, and I don’t want to get off on the wrong foot with her. Real glasses, too, not plastic.”
“You gonna date her or arrest her?”
Tommy smiled, and the Curator could see his mind drift away for a minute. When it returned, Tommy said, “We’re going to play a little. Then, when the evidence lines up, I’m going to drop the hammer on her.”
The Curator remembered the stories and how things happened in the Westlake books, and thought, ‘When the prey becomes the hunter, when the hunter becomes the prey.’
Gwenny June's Tommy Crown Affair Page 16