Amish Undercover (6 page)

Chapter 11.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged:

and with what measure ye mete,

it shall be measured to you again.

Matthew 7:2

“Pretty good,” Bailey said when he looked at the finished painting weeks later.

“What do you mean, pretty good? It’ll have to be better than that if you want to fool anyone.”

Bailey slapped Marvin on the back. “Good job. It’ll pass, I hope for both our sakes.”

“What do you mean? I’ve co-operated. I’m free now aren’t I?”

Bailey looked at Marvin’s paint covered clothes and then looked up at a large streak of blue across his cheek. “You’ve got a large streak of paint across your face. No, you’re not free to go just yet. Not ‘til all this is over.”

Marvin picked up a rag and rubbed his face with a corner of it that was not filled with paint. “I have to stay here?”

Bailey nodded. “I told you that in the beginning. You’re in my custody until all this is done.”

“How long will that take?”

Bailey sat down at the table in the corner of the room. “We’re on the home stretch – a month on the outside.”

Marvin proceeded to scratch some paint off his hands. “Well, I’m going to order another pizza.”

“Maureen’s cooking not good enough?”

“Maureen’s cooking is great, but I love pizza.” Marvin patted his stomach, which had sizably increased in a short amount of time.

“Peters will order it for you. Remember, you’re allowed no contact with anyone whatsoever for any reason or our arrangement will be over. Got it?”

Marvin nodded. “Okay, got it. I haven’t contacted anyone at all, so get me a television or something. There’s nothin’ to do here?”

Bailey saw one of Wil’s old Bibles on the table next to him. “Here read this.” He threw it to Marvin.

Marvin caught the Bible and placed it on the table. “Very funny. I don’t like reading anyway.”

Bailey snorted. “Now run through with me again, to refresh my mind, what sort of tests they normally do on paintings.”

Marvin frowned at Bailey. “You said you were going to have the paperwork falsified.”

“I am, I just want to look like I know what I’m talking about when I take the painting in. Talk me through it.” Bailey leaned back.

“The basic technique has always been black light to detect irregularities and it can also detect if a paintings been painted over. Newly added signatures can fluoresce differently to the rest of a painting, but these days we’re using non-fluorescing paints so things like that won’t be detected. Then a lot of artists use varnish over the top of the finished painting to give it a look of age. They, the testers I’m talking about, can also take a scrape of paint from the edge and analyze it to see if the ingredients in the paint are consistent with that used by the original artist – age, location and preferred paints of the artist in question.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, my painting has to dry.”

Bailey’s eyes fell on the painting. “That’s one thing I forgot. How long will that take?”

“Three weeks to dry completely, maybe more.”

Bailey looked across to Marvin. “What about touch dry?”

Marvin grimaced. “Maybe a week. If you keep a fan on it that might speed it up a bit.”

“I guess I really need is photos of it for the press and the auction house to have the knowledge that it’s being entered into the auction.”

Marvin smirked. “I was right then; it’s bait.”

“Yes, you were right. Since you won’t be leaving here, I can tell you I’m trying to catch Richard Starks out.”

Marvin’s eyebrows rose. “Are you?”

“Yes, do you know him?”

“Can’t say whether I do, or I don’t,” Marvin said.

Bailey gave a laugh. “That’s exactly what I expected you to say.”

“I already told ya. I’m not going to end up with a knife in me back. So, anyways, why did I have to paint Chez Tontoni? You didn’t need me to paint it at all, you could’ve just pretended you had the painting and put it in the auction, you’ve plenty of photos of it.”

“Then you wouldn’t have got out on jail,” Bailey said with a laugh in his voice. “No, I hear what you’re saying, but it’s better this way. We’ve got someone else with some valuable paintings and he’s putting them all in the auction and this one’s going under his name. Well, were having his name suppressed, which is often the case with private collectors. We need to have some credibility.”

Marvin laughed.

“What do you find so amusing?” Bailey asked.

“We’re in the same line of business you and I. We both fool people into believing something that’s not true.”

As much as Bailey did not like to hear Marvin’s words, he had been thinking along the very same lines for some time. What he was doing was not far from what Marvin and his criminal organization had done. The difference was that Bailey did it to catch people who were doing the very same thing; he was not doing it to line his pockets. At the end of the day, Bailey had to wonder if deceiving people, even if they were criminals, was the right thing to do in the sight of God.

“You talk too much, Marvin.” Bailey walked out of the house, carefully carrying the painting by balancing the outer edges against his palms. After he placed the painting in a large box in the trunk of his car, he drove it to the gallery where an expert was waiting to issue false papers of authenticity on the request of the FBI.

Straight after Bailey had the authenticity papers of the fake Chez Tortoni in his hands, he needed to see Silvie. Silvie always made him feel better.

Silvie came to her front door. Bailey wrapped his arms around her and they stepped into the house together. “It’s getting close, Silvie. I hope our plan works and if it doesn’t, I’ll be happy that I’ve given it my best shot. It makes me feel part of a team that your friends and my aunties are all helping.”

“
Jah
, I can’t wait until you join the community. It’s better than I could have ever hoped for. At first, I didn’t even want to let myself believe it.”

“I’ve spoken to the bishop and he said that I’ll be welcome when I’m ready. He wants me to stay with a
familye
for six months before I get baptized. After I get baptized then we can announce our marriage, or our wedding, I should say.”

“I can’t wait. Do you know which
familye
you’ll be staying with?”

Bailey shook his head. “I have no idea, but I can’t stay with Wil and Emma. Wil offered for me to stay with them, but they’re newly weds, so I don’t want to intrude on them when they’re getting to know each other.” Bailey held Silvie’s hand and walked her over to the couch and sat down. “It’ll be strange living with a family when I’ve lived by myself for so long. And what would I do here, in the community, for work?”

“Are you having second thoughts?” Silvie bit her lip.

Bailey laughed. “No, I’m not having second thoughts. It’s just that I’ve been so busy that I haven’t even had time to think of what I might do when I’m here in the community. I know I have to leave my career behind me. I just don’t know what else I can do.”

“I’m sure that there are many things you’d be good at.”

Bailey looked into Silvie’s beautiful face, pleased that she believed in him. “It doesn’t matter, as long as we’re together, then I will be a happy man. It’s not been easy being away from you. Everyday I wake up and I’m conscious that you’re far from me. As I’m driving to work, I think of how much I miss you. As I close my eyes to sleep, I long for the day when I can hold you in my arms.” Bailey looked away from Silvie as he recalled his nightly routine. He would lie on his bed, close his eyes and think of Silvie, and just as he was half way between asleep and awake something sinister would jolt him and he would wake. Silvie’s voice jolted him away from his thoughts.

“It’s been just as hard for me.”

“It’s not long now.” Bailey pulled Silvie in toward himself, hoping that she would never be affected by the darkness that affected him.

Chapter 12.

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,

forgiving one another,

even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiv
e
n you.

Ephesians 4:32

For the past three weeks, as Emma had been working for Mr. Starks, she was certain that he did not suspect her of being anything other than a maid.

“I’m looking at an email from an auction and they have the Chez Tortoni for sale. Would you like to tell me what’s going on?”

She listened as hard as she could, but since he was in the adjacent room, Mr. Starks’ voice was muffled. She knew that Bailey would have the conversation recorded anyway. Starks had taken the bait and it was clear from his reaction that he had something to do with the stolen ‘Chez Tortoni.’ Emma hurried back to clean the silverware as Mr. Brighton, the butler, had ordered.

Emma did not see Mr. Starks for the rest of the day and at six o’clock she left the house. As always, she had the taxi leave her in town just in case someone was following her. Then she would wait a while, walk a little further uptown and Bailey would come for her in his car and take her home.

“Well, what happened? Did you hear his conversation? I heard him calling someone but I couldn’t hear what was said.” Emma’s words came out tumbling over one another in her excitement.

“He’s furious that the painting has surfaced and as we thought, he thinks his might be a fake. He didn’t want to talk over the phone too much, so he’s having them come to his place tomorrow.”

Emma raised her eyebrows and a twinge of apprehension sent a tremble through her body. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing. Just be there and those listening devices that you installed weeks ago are finally going to come in handy.”

“I wouldn’t know where they might talk. They could even have a secret room or something. I don’t even know where the man who looks after the car stays – I only see him driving the cars away.”

“Relax, Emma. As a backup, we’ve got software installed on his cell phone so if that’s in-range when they’re talking, I’ll be recording everything they say – he doesn’t have to be speaking on it. His cell phone will act like one of the recording devices.”

* * *

It was at eleven o’clock the next day that Emma heard the intercom of the front gate sound. The butler buzzed the car through. Emma heard the buzzer, but being in the next room she could not hear clearly who the people said they were. She heard no names, only a man’s voice and that was all.

Emma was in one of the formal dining rooms and she watched as the car drove up to the front door. She kept dusting as she saw the men get out of the car. It was not her job to answer the door. Mr. Brighton had mentioned it on more than one occasion that it was the butler’s job to answer the door. Emma daren’t go against what the butler told her.

Once the two men reached the front door, they were ushered by Mr. Brighton, into the elevator. Where they went from there, Emma had no idea. There could be another floor or another section to the mansion that Emma had never seen. There was no more that she could do except hope that Bailey could somehow hear their conversation. Emma was sure that none of the listening devices she had planted would be anywhere near where the three men would be having a conversation.

All Emma would be able to tell Bailey was that there were two solidly built men, both with dark hair. Emma snapped a picture of their car with her camera. She walked up the stairs to a room at the end of the corridor where she could take a better picture of the car’s license plate. Once Emma had taken the photo she hurried back down the stairs so Mr. Brighton would never know that she had moved from the dining room where she was supposed to be polishing the antique furniture.

It was moments after Emma got back into the dining room and resumed her polishing that the butler poked his head around the door. “How are you going in here?”

“Fine. It’s fun polishing this beautiful furniture.” Emma hoped that’s what a true maid would say.

“I’ve got a food order arriving shortly. I’ll need you to unpack it. I’ll call you when it arrives.”

“Okay.” Emma nodded and wondered if it would be more steak, potatoes and beans.

It was an hour and a half later that Emma heard the two men leave. They appeared to be in a hurry, and as soon as they left, Emma heard the low hum of Mr. Starks’ car. She wondered where he could be going, but she could not ask. She’d already asked too many questions.

Emma knew that the butler did not trust her. Maybe it was too dangerous for her to come back there tomorrow.

When finishing time came around, Emma was pleased that she made it out of there alive. She followed her usual routine of having the taxi drop her into town. She walked up the street and phoned Bailey from the public phone to come and pick her up. “Did you hear their conversation?” Emma asked Bailey before she said hello.

“Yes, I got all of it. He accused them of giving him a forgery and asked them to explain themselves. They said they stole the one in the gallery and that’s all they knew.”

“Is that enough for you to arrest someone?” Emma hoped it was, because she was about to tell Bailey she did not want to go back there the next day.

“We pulled the two men over as they left Mr. Starks’ house and took them in for questioning.”

“What, the two men who were there today?”

Bailey nodded. “Detective Crowley interviewed them and told them that Richard Starks had given him their names and had said that they were the ones who had committed that robbery in 1990.”

“Mr. Starks didn’t, did he?”

“No, he didn’t, but the important thing is that those two men think that Mr. Starks gave their names to the police. They admitted to everything and said that Starks was the one who had organized the whole thing. Now we’re organizing a warrant for Starks’ arrest. I have to get back there straight after I take you home.”

Emma bit her fingernails all the way home. She wondered if she should have been a part of it all. Something seemed wrong. Maybe she should have listened to Wil and not gotten involved. Bailey was going to join the Amish anyway to be with Silvie so what did it matter if the paintings were found or not? “So, I don’t have to go back there tomorrow?”

Bailey glanced over at her. “No, Emma. Your help was invaluable.”

Emma wondered whether Bailey could live a quiet Amish life away from all the excitement of his current life. Then she remembered how happy Bailey and Silvie always looked when they were together.