The Art of Murder

by Kevin Hopkins

  ‘So, you think he’s been selling these fake paintings?’

  ‘I assume so. I’ve heard of painters doing copies of famous paintings to practice and learn different styles, but he’s actually signing them with the other artists’ names. Unless he’s selling them, why sign them?’

  ‘Crazy. Wonder if Mark had any idea how deep this went? Wilson’s going to kick himself when he finds out.’

  ‘Yeah, no kidding. But it gets better. Or worse, I guess.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Well, Jeremy didn’t rent the studio out himself.’

  ‘Who did?’

  ‘Beverly.’

  ‘You’re kidding me. Well, if she thought Jeremy was Dante’s grandson, she might just have wanted to help him out.’

  ‘Let’s hope that’s all it is. Once Jeremy is fixed up at the hospital, I’m going to interview him. We’ll see what he has to say. Do me a favour and let the Captain know what’s going on. We’ll have to get all the paintings here packed up and catalogued, and I guess we’ll arrest Jeremy and bring him back to Ottawa with us.’

  ‘What are you going to charge him with? There’s no proof he sold any of the fake paintings.’

  ‘No, but for now we can get him on identity theft, and we’ll build from there. Can you try and get us a third seat on the flight home tomorrow? If we can’t, change my ticket over to Jeremy’s name and Kulcheski can bring him back.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do. I’ll get Grant to try and do some more digging into Jeremy’s past. I know he didn’t have much luck before, but maybe he missed something.’

  ‘Sounds good. Give me a call later and let me know about the flight.’

  ‘Will do. Later.’ Millar hung up his phone and put it back in his pocket

  ‘I guess that was Penner,’ Grant said before taking a bite of his pancakes. Syrup dripped on his chin. ‘How are they making out?’

  ‘Good. They made contact with Jeremy at his studio. They’re going to question him later. Seems like he’s been faking paintings by a couple of other artists.’

  ‘Really. So, you said you want me to do some more looking into him?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Millar said, sipping his coffee. Joe came around and filled their mugs. ‘Maybe you can find out something else about him. Don’t know what, or if it would even be helpful, but it’s something we can do from our end while we’re waiting.’

  ‘No problem,’ Grant said. ‘Did Penner say how Kulcheski was doing?’

  ‘No, she didn’t,’ Millar said. ‘Want me to call her back—see if you can talk to her?”

  ‘No. I’m just curious is all.’

  ‘Yeah, okay,’ Millar said, grinning. ‘Don’t worry, your girlfriend will be back before you know it.’

  ‘Funny.’

  ‘Eat up, Casanova. I have to see the Captain.’

  After Millar settled their bill, they started the slow drive to the precinct. It had snowed heavily overnight. The plows had been out but had only managed to push the snow to the sides of the already narrow streets.

  Before trying to arrange the flight for Jeremy, Millar decided to go and see if the Captain was in his office. Grant went to use the computer in Penner’s office.

  ‘Hey, Terry. Come in,’ the Captain said, hearing Millar knock on the door.

  ‘Morning, sir. Got a second?’

  ‘Sure, what’s up?’ the Captain asked.

  ‘Got a call this morning from Penner. They were able to track down Jeremy at his studio. Apparently, he took off running as soon as he saw them, but they managed to catch up with him when he fell.’

  ‘That’s good.’

  ‘Not for him—he may have broken his wrist. Anyway, when they searched his studio, he had a bunch of paintings that he had signed with other artists’ names. Looks like he’s been doing some counterfeiting.’

  ‘Really. This just keeps getting bigger. Once we have the names of the artists, I’ll get in touch with Superintendent Kane. Maybe they can cross-reference the names with any recent sales. I wonder how long he’s been doing this for?’

  ‘Possibly since he took on Gabe’s identity, but who knows. Could be longer,’ said Millar.

  ‘Well, it should be easy enough to track down auctions where the different artists have been sold. I’m sure once that’s done, the paintings can be authenticated somehow. I think they can date paintings by the paint or something, right?’

  ‘I think so. I know paints from hundreds of years ago have a different chemical make-up than modern paints, but I don’t know if they can tell if a painting was done today or fifty years ago. I guess that’s why there are experts out there.’

  ‘Beverly’s going to be crushed when she finds out about this. She invested a lot of time and energy in Gabe’s career—well, I guess Jeremy’s career.’

  ‘Speaking of Beverly, Penner found out that she was the one who had leased the studio space for him. Guess she really did want to see him succeed,’ Millar said.

  The Captain shook his head. ‘I’ll let her know what’s going on later. Are Penner and Kulcheski bringing Jeremy back here?’

  ‘Yes, sir. I need to try and get an extra seat on the flights for him. Otherwise one of them will stay behind and the other will escort him back.’

  ‘Alright. Let me know when they’ll be arriving. I’ll contact Superintendent Kane and let her know what’s going on. She may be able to get the RCMP in Labrador to conduct a thorough search of the studio space and inventory the contents—find out exactly how many forgeries we’re dealing with.’

  ‘Sounds good, sir,’ Millar said. There was a knock at the door.

  ‘Sorry to bother you, sir,’ said Grant, ‘but I think you should see this.’ He walked into the room holding a printed sheet of paper.

  ‘No problem. What’s up,’ the Captain asked.

  ‘Sir, I was doing another search on Jeremy Slice to see if I missed anything the first time around. I reread the article about when he won the provincial art prize for one of his paintings.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Well, sir. Look who one of the judges was,’ Grant said, handing the Captain the sheet of paper. ‘I’ve highlighted the name.’

  The Captain took the page and put on his reading glasses. He read it, put it down and looked at Grant, then at Millar. ‘Well, this changes things,’ he said, passing the page to Millar. ‘Get in touch with Penner. We need to find out what Jeremy has to say about this. I have some phone calls to make.’

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Just before noon Newfoundland time, Penner got a call from Millar.

  ‘So, I just got off the phone with the airline. I was able to get an extra seat on the flights. I explained the situation, and they said I could bump all three of you to a flight today, but it leaves in four hours. Will that give you enough time?’

  ‘Maybe,’ Penner said. ‘Kulcheski and I are at the RCMP detachment right now, just waiting. Jeremy should be delivered back here in the next little bit. They were just signing out of the hospital. Only problem I can see is if we charge him with identity theft and he asks for a lawyer—they might argue that he should stay in Labrador because that’s where the theft happened.’

  ‘Yeah, there’s a good possibility that could happen. So, you’ll have to try and convince him that coming back to Ottawa is in his best interest.’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  ‘Good. So, Grant found something pretty interesting. He took another look at the article he had found about Jeremy winning the provincial-wide art competition. Guess who one of the judges was.’

  ‘Was it Mark? And that’s how he caught on to who Jeremy really was?’

  ‘Good guess, but no,’ Millar said. ‘It was Beverly.’

  ‘Shut up,’ Penner said. ‘So, she knew who Jeremy really was? That’s crazy!’

  ‘We’re going to have to ask both Jeremy and her about that. I guess it’s possible she didn’t recognize him. It was a couple of years ago. I don’t know how much int
eraction the judges would have had with the contestants, but I assume they would have at least met the winner.’

  ‘Alright, I’ll see what I can find out. Oh, give me a sec,’ Penner said. ‘Oh, okay, thanks. Hey, Millar, Jeremy’s back. The RCMP officer just brought him to the interrogation room. I should go and see if we can get on the flight today. Send me the info and I’ll let you know.’

  ‘Good luck.’ Millar hung up.

  Penner grabbed her cup of coffee and walked to the interrogation room next to the office where she had been waiting. Kulcheski and Parker were standing outside of the room. She looked through the window and saw Jeremy sitting at a table. His left wrist was connected to a ring on the wall with a handcuff; his right arm was in a cast.

  ‘So, it’s broken?’ Penner said.

  ‘Minor fracture. Should heal up in a month or so,’ Parker said. ‘They had to give him a shot of insulin when we were there—his blood sugar levels were way out of wack.’

  ‘What? Insulin?’ Penner said.

  ‘Yeah. Apparently, he’s diabetic. Has been for some time. He said he hadn’t had a shot in a couple of days. He had run out of insulin and couldn’t afford to get any more,’ Parker said. ‘That was about the only thing he said. Not a very talkative guy.’

  ‘Well, let’s see if he wants to talk now,’ said Penner. ‘How do you want to do this? It’s your area here.’

  ‘If one of you want to do most of the questioning, I’m good with that,’ Parker said. ‘I’ll come in with you. There’s only really room for two of us, so one of you can watch and listen from out here.’

  ‘You go in, I’ll watch,’ Kulcheski said.

  ‘Sounds good,’ Penner said. She opened the door and walked into the small room, Parker following. They sat across from Jeremy, who wouldn’t look up from the table.

  ‘Mr. Slice, we meet again,’ Penner said.

  ‘I’ve got nothing to say,’ Jeremy said.

  ‘Oh no? Well, how about you just listen to me for a minute, and then you can decide if you want to talk,’ Penner said. ‘We know that at some point within the last year or two, you stole the identity of a dead child. One Gabriel Tootsie, or Gabe.’

  ‘I didn’t steal anyone’s identity. I didn’t know there really was anyone named Gabe, especially a dead kid.’

  ‘So, what? You just happened to claim to be the grandson of Dante Tootsie, and happened to use his dead grandson’s real name? How do you explain that? Quite a coincidence, don’t you think?’

  ‘I’m telling you. I had no idea.’

  ‘Okay. If you want to stick with that for now, that’s fine,’ Penner said. ‘Here’s what I think happened. A few years ago, you entered a painting in an art competition and ended up winning. You must have been pretty good.’

  ‘I am good.’

  ‘I’d agree with that. I liked your work enough to buy two pieces, remember,’ Penner said. ‘During the competition, you found out that one of the judges was Beverly Williams. You did some research on her and found out about her father, the big-time art collector. You read about how her father helped launch Dante Tootsie’s career and figured if you pretended to be his grandson, you could get her to help with your own career. I’m guessing you decided to move here so that you could make your scam seem more realistic. You got in touch with Beverly and told her how you were related to Dante and that you were trying to break into the art world.’

  Jeremy shook his head, still staring at the table. ‘You have no idea,’ he said.

  Penner continued. ‘You managed to convince Beverly to invest in you. You got her to rent out the studio, so you had somewhere to work. She helped you get a couple of shows where you sold some paintings, but you wanted more. You wanted to get the type of money that Dante, Twain and Cleeves were selling for. You wanted a big slice of the scene now, instead of putting in your time. So, you decided to paint new paintings by these artists and sell them to collectors, claiming they were previously unknown paintings. Pretty good scam. But I think it all started to fall apart when you got to Ottawa. I think Beverly flew you down to be at the gala. What better than having one of her father’s favourite artist’s relatives there to help promote the opening. But I think you were found out by her husband, Mark. He probably recognized you from when Beverly judged the art competition. Or maybe you’d been in one of the high school classes that he spoke to and he remembered your face. For whatever reason, he remembered you when he saw you again after flying into Ottawa. He knew you weren’t Gabe from Labrador, but that you were Jeremy from Ottawa. He confronted you about your scam and told you he was calling the RCMP. You couldn’t have that, so you decided to kill him.’

  ‘What?’ Jeremy finally looked up at Penner. ‘I didn’t kill him!’

  ‘I think you did. You had the motive. You had the opportunity. And, you had access to the murder weapon.’

  ‘What are you talking about? What murder weapon?’

  ‘Mark was injected with a lethal dose of insulin. Being diabetic, you had access to insulin, and you would know how much was too much.’

  ‘I’m telling you, I had nothing to do with his death. When I was in Ottawa, I lost my pouch that I kept my insulin and needles in. That’s why I needed to get a shot at the hospital today. I don’t have anymore, and I can’t get anymore until I get paid for the show the other day.’

  ‘You lost it? That’s pretty convenient, don’t you think?’ Penner said.

  ‘I’m telling you. I had nothing to do with his death. And I wasn’t trying to scam Beverly.’

  ‘Oh no? Then how do you explain all this then?’

  ‘Look. You help me with whatever I’m getting charged with, and I’ll tell you everything. But you’ve got to believe me when I say I had nothing to do with Mark’s death.’

  ‘Are you willing to come back to Ottawa and talk there?’ Penner asked.

  ‘Sure, whatever. Just promise you’ll help me out.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll do what I can, but you have to be completely honest with us. Deal?’

  ‘Deal.’

  ‘Alright. Can you get us to the airport, we have a flight to catch,’ Penner said to Parker.

  ***

  Parker drove Penner and Kulcheski back to their hotel so they could quickly pack their bags and check out. He then drove them back to the station where another officer had Jeremy waiting. His hands were cuffed in the front. The cast on his wrist was too big to be able to get the handcuff over, so they zip-tied his cast to one cuff and put the other over his left wrist. Typically they would have handcuffed the prisoner’s hands behind his back for transport, but it was going to be a long flight and he wasn’t going anywhere.

  They pulled up outside of the airport forty minutes before their flight was supposed to depart. ‘Thanks for all your help,’ Penner said, shaking Parker’s hand.

  ‘My pleasure. Glad we were able to get your guy,’ Parker said. ‘If you’re ever back in Labrador, let me know. I’ll show you some more of the sights.’

  ‘Will do. Do me a favour and let us know once you guys have gone through the studio. I’m curious to find out all the different artists he’s been copying,’ said Penner. ‘We should head in.’

  ‘Have a great flight. I’ll send you a list of all the paintings once we’re done. Might not be until tomorrow.’

  ‘Whenever you get it done,’ Penner said. ‘Thanks again.’

  Kulcheski held the door open for Penner and Jeremy. Inside, Penner took one of her sweaters and put it over Jeremy’s hands, covering the cuffs. People seemed to get nervous when they saw a prisoner boarding their flight.

  ‘Don’t do anything stupid, and you can just walk between us. Deal?’ Penner said. ‘I don’t think I need to keep a grip on you, do I?’

  ‘I’m not going to try and run. Don’t worry,’ Jeremy grumbled.

  ‘Good. Kulcheski, can you go and find the Air Canada representative? Millar should have sent you their name. Let them know we’re here.’

  ‘Will do,’ Kulcheski
said. She wandered off to the Air Canada counter. Millar had phoned ahead and explained that they were going to be transporting a prisoner, so the airline was ready for them. As soon as the plane was ready, they were going to be able to board before anyone else, so Jeremy was in place and strapped in without anyone seeing he was handcuffed.

  Five minutes later, Kulcheski came back. ‘I can bring our bags over and get them checked in. If you want, start making your way over to the security check. They’re going to call us when they’re ready. I’ll meet you over there when I’m done. There’s no lineup so it shouldn’t be long.’

  Penner walked Jeremy down through the large open area, heading towards the sign for security. They found a bench along one of the walls and sat down. They waited. Kulcheski met them a few minutes later and sat down.

  Before Kulcheski had a chance to get comfortable, an announcement came over the speakers in the airport. ‘Can Suzan Penner and Natasha Kul…Natasha Kulkeki…Can Sue Penner and party please make their way to the security gate. Thank you.’

  ‘I even told them how to pronounce my name,’ Kulcheski said, standing up. The trio walked to the security gate.

  ‘Detective Penner?’ the guard asked.

  ‘That’s correct.’ She gestured at Jeremy. ‘He’s wearing handcuffs, which I would prefer not taking off if we don’t need to.’

  ‘Um, sure. No problem,’ the guard said. ‘Are you able to kick off your shoes?’ she asked Jeremy. She looked and saw he was wearing boots that were laced and tied part way up his shins. ‘We’re going to need those taken off.’

  Kulcheski leaned down and untied Jeremy’s boots, sliding them off his feet. She was hit by a terrible stink. ‘You can put those back on him,’ she said to Penner after standing back up.

  ‘I’m going to use the wand on him,’ the guard said. ‘Can you keep your arms outstretched, please. I don’t want the metal in the cuffs to interfere with the wand.’

  Jeremy lifted his arms out in front as the guard moved the handheld metal detector across his back, down to his feet, repeating on his front.