The Art Thief's Guide To Freedom

5: Step Five: How To Keep A Lair

"The seven paintings were stolen in October in the biggest art heist to hit the Netherlands for more than a decade. Thieves broke in through a rear emergency exit of the gallery, grabbed the paintings off the wall and fled within two minutes. The works would have an estimated value of tens of millions of pounds if they were sold at auction. Thieves took Pablo Picasso's 1971 Harlequin Head; Claude Monet's 1901 Waterloo Bridge, London, and Charing Cross Bridge, London; Henri Matisse's 1919 Reading Girl in White and Yellow; Paul Gauguin's 1898 Girl in Front of Open Window; Meyer de Haan's Self-Portrait, of around 1890; and Lucian Freud's 2002 work Woman with Eyes Closed. Three Romanian suspects were arrested in January, but the paintings were not found."

~Associated Press, The Guardian, 17 July 2013

~**~~**~

Will slipped the key into the lock, waiting until the tumbler engaged before he turned the handle. The golden knob stuttered for a moment but then eased its way open.

Crossing the threshold, Will took a moment to glance back at his companion. She followed his every step, lingering behind him like a lost puppy dog. Her hands were clasped together in front of her, wringing the blood out of each other. A strand of ebony hair had escaped her ponytail to flutter into her face but Will doubted she noticed it.

She didn't look like a flight risk whatsoever. In fact, he doubted the ankle monitor had even been necessary. She was as obedient as they came.

To be honest, Will was a little disappointed.

He had spent months chasing the woman all across the known world. He had spent countless nights, given up holidays, and missed anniversaries pursuing her. Only to discover the image he had built up of her in his mind didn't fit the real-life version.

He had expected her to be flippant, entitled, and defiant.

It certainly fit her character to a T on paper. After all those high risk and reward heists she had committed. . .

Even at the trial, Will expected her to fly into a rage when the judge had banged the gavel and announced her sentence. But instead, she just sat there.

Tight-lipped.

A blank expression painted on her face.

That same expression was present as she stepped across the threshold. Her head slowly swiveled as she examined the apartment. He could only imagine what she was thinking.

Flipping on a light switch, Will placed his duffle bag on the floor and rose.

"I know it probably looks different." He shrugged a shoulder apologetically. He had tried to put everything back where it once was but the feat was impossible. "This was a last-minute situation. But since your apartment was already surveyed and secured, I figured you'd like this better than an FBI safe house."

He watched her walk slowly into the center of the living room and pause. There had once been an oriental rug lying over the hardwood floor but it had since been confiscated. The same went for the jade vases lining three of the four bookshelves.

Basically anything of value in the three-bedroom had been cataloged as evidence in Stravos vs The U.S. Government.

There had been many, many items retrieved.

Another reason the apartment seemed so sparse.

However, there were a few new items in the apartment. A motion detector, security cameras, and a monitoring station. There were also sensors embedded in the walls every few feet.