Wild Tomb: A Coastal Caribbean Adventure by Tripp Ellis

Author:Tripp Ellis [Ellis, Tripp]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tripp Ellis
Published: 2024-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

30

Marcel hesitated for a moment. Then curiosity got the best of him. “Friends of Pascal’s, you say?”

I nodded.

“Please, come in. It seems we have much to talk about."

He stepped aside and motioned us into the foyer.

One thing about criminals… they love to brag about their accomplishments.

Marcel closed the door behind us, latched the deadbolt, escorted us into the living room, and offered us a seat on the sofa.

We obliged.

"Would you care for a drink?"

"Sure," JD said.

He moved to a wet bar and asked for our poison.

"We'll have what you're having,” Jack said.

Marcel grabbed a bottle of whiskey, poured a few glasses, then dealt them out. He lifted his glass to toast. "To La Chute!"

We echoed the sentiment, clinked glasses, and took a sip of the fine whiskey.

Marcel sat in a chair across from us and looked eager to tell a story he hadn't told anyone in decades. A mischievous grin tugged his face. "So, you are aware that the painting hanging in the museum was a forgery?"

"They have another one hanging at this moment."

He grinned. "Of course they do. Would you admit that your security is flawed? That you lost one of the most priceless paintings in the world? Would you risk losing tourist dollars? Of course not!"

"You took the original painting in 1974," I said.

A sly grin curled his lips. "Do you have the forgery with you?" He asked, looking at the case that I had set on the floor.

"Would you like to take a look?"

He smiled. "Indeed. It's been many years."

I handed the case to him. He flipped the latches and lifted the lid. Marcel took out the painting and examined it carefully. He snorted. "This is a nice painting. But it's not my work."

"You mean the painting that was returned to the museum in ’74 was a forgery—one of yours? And that forgery was stolen again, and that theft was never reported?"

He shrugged. “I replaced La Chute with a forgery. It took them months to notice the painting wasn’t real. When they did, they freaked out and notified the authorities. Then the press got wind of it, and the museum came under a lot of pressure. People’s jobs were on the line. They looked like fools. To save face, they concocted a story about recovering the painting. And people have been lining up to look at my forgery for decades. At least that’s what I thought until you showed me this.”

“So, your forgery was stolen and replaced with another?”

“It’s possible.”

"Where's the original?"

His grin returned. "Initially, I had come into contact with a buyer for the painting. He offered quite a nice sum at the time. Back in those days, security was rather lax. We didn't have all the modern technology that exists now. It was simpler back then. There weren't as many staff members. No cameras. No GPS tracking. I was able to swap the paintings and sneak it out with relative ease."

Marcel had been hanging onto the story for decades, unable to tell it. Most of his friends and colleagues were dead.

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