The Case of the Stolen Art Work

by Karen Stillwagon

  “Jim and Fran are the people Dee Brown is house sitting for?” he asked.

  “Yes. She saw the man’s face as he was walking through the house. When she tried to leave, she tripped over something on the porch and made some noise. She ran for the trail along the bluff and tripped. She slid down and got caught on a root. She’s says he saw her, hanging there, and when they made eye contact, she lost her grip on the root. But I think this is why she wasn’t hurt, she didn’t slide down all at once. She didn’t see him look over the edge. She just stayed where she was and kept still.”

  “And you found her right after that.”

  “Yes, and when she pointed where she had fallen from, I didn’t see anyone up there. We had gone back the next day, to feed the cat. We looked around and found a matchbook from the Mill Casino.” Lorelei took another deep breath. “That was when I thought maybe it was a security guard from the casino, since Dee kept mentioning the uniform. So, I told Dee I would go to the casino and see if I could get some pictures, to see if she recognized anyone.”

  “And did she?” he asked, leaning forward, his interest peeked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m so sorry we’re late!” Ann’s voice broke through the conversation. “We stayed up way too late last night. I bet you’re hungry waiting for us!”

  Ann took the seat next to Michael while his dad sat next to Lorelei.

  “I’m so glad to see you again,” she said as she reached out her hand to Lorelei, which she grasped in both of hers. “And look at you, you are such a pretty little thing.” Her smiled beamed as she looked from Lorelei and then to Michael. “You sure made yourself a nice catch with this one.”

  “Mom, I told you, we are just friends.” It was Michael’s turn to blush.

  “I’m just glad we get to see you again before leaving town,” his dad cut it. He reached over to pat Lorelei’s hand. “And I am glad we get to see you both one more time.”

  The waitress came and took everyones order, and brought coffee and water for Ann and Mike.

  “Where are you heading next?” Michael asked.

  “Back to Arizona. I am so ready to go back home,” Ann said.

  The rest of the breakfast was spent listening to the travels Michael’s parents had been on since last he saw them. They asked when he would be coming for a visit, since he’d never been to their new home, and if we would bring Lorelei. He politely told them he would see if he could get some time off, but with it being a small town, there weren’t many who could cover for him in his absence.

  “I’ve got this,” Mike said as he took the check the waitress brought them. “The least I can do.”

  They left the restaurant and said their good-byes next to a small compact car. “You need help hooking this back up to the motorhome?” Michael asked as his dad got in the car.

  “No, I’ve got it down to a science now. You two go and enjoy the rest of your day.”

  Lorelei waved as they drove out of the parking lot.

  “You have a nice family,” she said as he walked her toward her car.

  “They are, in small doses. I’m surprised nothing was said about my brother.”

  “Why do you say that?” she asked as she stopped by her Sidekick, still smiling at her spontaneous purchase.

  “He’s a hot shot defense lawyer in Chicago, and they expected me to be more like him.” Michael turned to the car next to the Sidekick.

  “This one’s mine,” she said, unlocking the door.

  “Now why am I not surprised,” he laughed.

  “I bought it yesterday, when I bought the Chihuly.”

  “Back to that glass sculpture, and the casino Friday night. What were you doing there, exactly?”

  “As I said, taking pictures of the security guards. Can we have this conversation someplace else, and not in the parking lot of a restaurant?”

  “You mean like at the station?”

  “No, I would like to invite you over to Dee’s house. I already told her I was going to talk to you. The reason she didn’t let anyone know what she saw was because of that uniform. She didn’t know who she could trust. I convinced her she could trust you.”

  “Thank you,” he said, “and, yes, I would like to come and talk with her sometime today.”

  “Do you know when? So I can let her know?”

  “How about I call you when I am on my way?”

  “That will work.”

  They stood staring at each other for an awkward moment. Lorelei thought he was looking at her differently now. She waited one more moment before balancing on her tiptoes to give him a kiss, just to the side of his lips. She could feel the roughness of his stubble on her lips. He reached out to touch her arm, but she opened the door to the Sidekick, slipped in behind the wheel, and left.

  On the drive home she tried to figure out what had changed. He had kissed her cheek when she left the casino Friday night, and again when he greeted her at the restaurant this morning. But he kept his distance as he told her good-bye. Was he angry at her for keeping this from him? Or now that she was a witness he had to keep her at arm’s length. Her heart sank, just a little, at that last thought. She liked him, she liked his family, but one dinner and one breakfast do not make for a relationship. And she wasn’t looking for a relationship. She was happy on her own. She had Bindi. She hadn’t even asked Michael if he liked dogs.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  MICHAEL WAS ON the cell phone to his partner, Amy Holloway, as he made his way to the station. “I need to see you at the office,” he said when she picked up on the first ring.

  “I’m already here, following up on paperwork, which you forgot to do,” she said.

  “I have all day, just like you, and I think I have a lead for us with the burglaries that have been happening over the last few months.”

  “That is a job for the detectives on the case,” she said. He could hear her typing at her computer.

  “Yes, or it’s our foot in the door for that promotion,” he replied.

  “You’re really shooting for one of the next detective openings, aren’t you,” she said.

  “Aren’t you?” he inquired.

  “Touché!” she said before hanging up.

  At the station, Michael parked near the front doors and ran up the steps. He made his way into the station and to his desk. Amy Holloway was sitting at her own desk, next to his.

  “We need to go someplace private so we can talk.”

  Amy looked around the station and saw only one other officer working. “We can talk here, no one is going to listen in.”

  “I don’t want anyone to walk in while we are discussing it.” Michael sat on the edge of his desk, waiting for her replay.

  “We can go to the coffee shop down the block, but we will be overheard there, too.”

  “Humor me and let’s just use one of the empty offices.” He stood and started down the hall. Amy saved the file she was working on before closing down the program. She signed off her computer before following Michael down the hall.

  Once they were inside with the door shut, Michael went and sat at the table and Amy took the seat to opposite him.

  “What do you have that we need to keep so hush hush about?”

  “Remember the woman who had slipped down the cliff a few days ago?”

  Amy pulled her small notebook out and flipped through the pages. “Dee Brown.”

  “And the woman who found her?”

  “Lorelei Silence, what’s this about?”

  “I ran into her at the casino Friday.”

  “Brown or Silence?” Amy asked.

  “Lorelei, and my parents, who are in town this weekend, ended up inviting her to dinner with us.”

  “I’m not going to ask how that happened,” she said.

  “I’m not sure how it happened either, but it did. Dinner went well and my mom proceeded to invite her to breakfast this morning before they left town. My parents were running late so Lorelei and I had time to talk. It seems
that Ms. Brown is house sitting for some neighbors. She saw someone in the house. When she tried to get away, she made some noise that may have caught his attention. She tried to hurry, making her way through the trails by the cliff and ended up sliding down. According to Lorelei, the man in the house was in a uniform, which made Ms. Brown afraid to talk to us. And when she tripped and slid part way down the bluff, the man was standing over her before she fell the rest of the way, which explains the footprints we found. They came to the conclusion that it may have been a security guard from the Mill Casino because of a matchbook they found.”’

  “They found a matchbook?”

  “Yes, near the house.”

  Amy sat for a moment, elbows leaning on the table, taking all this in, her mind going back to her partner calling Lorelei casually by her first name. “They took it upon themselves to investigate? I don’t need to tell you that isn’t too smart.”

  “No, you don’t, but because of the uniform Ms. Brown saw, she was afraid it might be an inside job, a cop or something.”

  “I can understand that,” Amy said, leaning back in her chair.

  “Also, according to Lorelei,” Michael stood up and started pacing, “when they looked through the house they noticed some art work missing off the walls. But Ms. Brown didn’t see anything else missing.” He stopped pacing, came back to the table, and sat back down. “Do you know who Dale Chihuly is?”

  “No, is he the person they think robbed the place?”

  “No. He’s an artist with a glass museum up in Tacoma. Lorelei is from there so she is familiar with his work. She was shopping yesterday and found her way into the pawn shop in North Bend. She spotted one of Dale Chihuly’s pieces hidden behind some stuff on the back counter. She talked pawn shop owner into selling it to her, because she wasn’t from around here. She took it to show to Dee Brown, who recognized it as a piece from the house she’s been watching.

  “So Lorelei talked Dee into meeting me. But I think we need to make it official. I thought if you and I showed up, in uniform, to question them, it would help the investigation and get us on track for that promotion we are both looking for.”

  “What will that do to your budding relationship with Miss Lorelei?” Amy asked, as she rolled this thought over in her head.

  “I’m hoping that when she realizes that I have both her and Ms. Brown’s interest at heart, she will forgive me.” Micheal stood again and walked around the table as Amy watched him.

  “Is she that important to you?” Amy asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t want to jeopardize what I feel we may be building, but I also don’t want to lose this case. We’ve worked hard for this promotion.”

  “So let’s go talk to them, on the record. And while we do so, you can let Ms. Silence know what is going on. I will keep mum on that part. That is, if you want me to.”

  “I am not sure what to think. This is new territory for me.” Michael wanted answers but not at the cost of misleading the main witness.

  “Call her, let her know we will be there, to talk to them both, and to take the sculpture into evidence.” Amy stood, letting Michael know this conversation was finished.

  “I’ll call as we head out.” Michael ran his fingers through his short blonde hair.

  “And I will do my best to defuse the situation. We need to show up in uniform, to make it official. Let her know we are investigating all leads. She doesn’t need to know it’s not our case.”

  “I’ll head home and change. Can you pick me up?”

  “I can do that,” Amy said as she headed for the door. “As long as we keep this official, there shouldn’t be any problems. We were first officers on the scene, and Ms. Silence came to you, unsolicited, because she remembered you from the beach when Ms. Brown was found.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Michael walked over and open the door. He knew what he and his partner were doing was in the best interest of all parties involved, except maybe the detectives on the case.

  He left the station and headed home. Michael put on his uniform and checked himself in the mirror. His six foot two inch frame filled out the uniform nicely. His four days a week in the gym were paying off. And his running five miles a day was a bonus. As he waited for his partner to come pick him up, he called Lorelei.

  “It’s Michael, I will be over within the next hour, if that works for you and Ms. Brown?” he said, omitting he would be showing up in an official capacity, along with his partner.

  “That sounds good. Do you need directions to the house again?” she asked.

  “If you don’t mind,” he said.

  She gave directions, letting him know she would be in the house with Dee, and not in her apartment above the garage, waiting for him. Michael pushed the wave of guilt aside as he kept telling himself what he and his partner were doing was right. This was a police investigation into multiple burglaries, and it was the door to his promotion that he’d been working on for the last year.

  There was a honk outside his small house. He shifted the curtains by the front door and saw Amy sitting in their official cop car. The markings and lights on the top screamed Cop. One of the reasons he wanted to rise in the ranks to be a detective. His brother may be some hot shot attorney, but that was not the side of the law Michael wanted to be on. He wanted to protect and serve. He wanted to be one of the good guys who protected the innocent. He hated what his brother did.

  Jared Smith went to college at seventeen and excelled in his studies. When he became President of the Debate Team, he decided to become a lawyer. Both parents were proud. But Michael asked him what side of the law he would be practicing. Jared told him there was only one side to the law, making sure the guilty are convicted while the innocent go free.

  “A prosecutor?” Michael had asked, he was just starting his sophomore year of high school, while Jared was excelling in his junior year of college.

  “No way! I want to make sure the innocent have someone beside them when the police and prosecution come after them!” Jared Smith was one of the top defense attorneys in Chicago. And when Michael sees his brother’s name in print, he cringes. He subscribed to the Chicago Tribune after Jared became a defense attorney with his own office. It didn’t take long before Michael realized Jared was defending small time mobsters. And after a few years, Jared climbed the ranks and had some extremely well known clients who he has been able to keep out of jail. When Michael read those names he knew he was going to be a cop, and put away those type of criminals. Granted, Coos Bay/North Bend was a small area, with their combined population around 26,000 on a good day, but it was a start. Michael had stayed in his home town, where the brothers grew up.

  Unlike Jared, he would not forget his roots. He would do his best to arrest the guilty, and help the innocent. He’d been a cop for the last six years, and the last eight months, along with Amy, he’d been studying for his detective badge. Michael believed with this case he and Amy may get their detective shields after all. But is it worth the collateral damage of a young woman like Lorelei? Michael didn’t think he would have to hurt her to gain the other, if he played his cards right.

  He locked his door before making his way to their official cop car. Lorelei would see it coming from a mile away if she stood at the window and watched. He was hoping she wouldn’t. Michael also hoped she wouldn’t be upset that he showed up with his partner, in uniform, and proceeded with a formal interview.

  They parked in the driveway. Michael and Amy made their way to the gate, opened it, and knocked on the door. He heard dogs barking. After a few moments, Lorelei opened the door with a smile that disappeared when she saw Michael and his partner, in uniform.

  “Follow me,” she said, without any way of a greeting, and led them upstairs.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  LORELEI WALKED AHEAD of officers Michael Smith and Amy Holloway, who followed her up the stairs to Dee’’s living space.

  “Dee,” she called out, “the police are here.”

 
; They made their way to the living room where Dee was sitting at the dining room table, with a cup of tea in front of her. Lorelei gestured for them to sit.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

  “I’m good,” Michael said.

  “I wouldn’t mind a cup of tea,” Amy said as she pulled out the chair across from Dee. Lorelei went to make another cup. When she returned, she handed a cup to Officer Holloway and set a glass of water on the table next to Officer Smith. She sat down next to Dee, across from the cops, her back stiff, and wrapped her hands around her own cup.

  “After you left this morning, I went back to the station and talked to my partner, and we thought it best if we both came to talk to you,” Michael said, matter of factly.

  “It would have been nice if you had mentioned this on the phone,” Lorelei said coolly.

  “We are here now.” Michael adjusted himself in the chair.

  “Can you show us the glass sculpture?” Amy took over the conversation.

  Lorelei stood and went into the living room. She came back with a beautiful glass sculpture which she sat on the table between them.

  “What can you tell me about this?” Amy turned to Dee as she pulled out her notebook.

  “It’s a glass sculpture that my neighbor, Jim, had commissioned by the artist, Dale Chihuly, for his wife, Fran, for their wedding anniversary over thirty yeas ago. It was for their 15th wedding anniversary,” Dee rambled.

  “And how did you come by it?” Amy turned to Lorelei.

  “I bought it at a pawnshop yesterday,” Lorelei said.

  “Can you tell me what the pawnshop owner said?” Amy asked.

  “He was surprised I knew what it was. And when I told him I was from out of the area, he agreed to sell it to me,” Lorelei’s knuckles whitened as she gripped her tea, not looking at Michael. “He said he just got it in from some kid who had inherited but didn’t know what it was worth. After I told him I knew what it was , and that he paid pennies to the dollar, and that I wanted it. He sold it to me. I didn’t realize it was from the home that Dee was watching until I showed it to her.”