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Chapter Thirty-two

Still reeling fro, whose real na, I found myself at the Wharton Museu caht as well keep working, right? And with Aaron still working the case in Buena Park, I thought it was best to tackle soht drink blood And I ht be one hell of a freaky chick, but I still needed to feed my kids and pay my bills

Still in my van, I removed my secret stash of foundation make-up, which I often applied heavily to my face and the back of my hands I may not show up in mirrors or on surveillance video - weird as hell, I know - but thedoors and breaking fingers, well, I wasn&039;t sure how much of my make-up was still in place

I had already been introduced to the head night security guard, whose nauy who seeets, and oozed a smooth confidence The way he carried hiht he looked a little e Clooney and a lot less like Chris Farley

Then again, I always did think Chris Farley was a cutie

We were in Eddie&039;s office, which was just inside the main doors of the museum His office looked a little like Mission Control, minus all the nerds in white short-sleeved, button-down dress shirts There were tenlive feeds froh some exterior cameras and some back-room cameras All in all, there were over twenty cahout the small museum

Eddie leaned back in his swivel chair, a chair that looked abused and ready to give out I was sitting in a e closet behind him The cold metal was almost as cold as my own flesh

Eddie, to his credit, rarely took his eyes off thenext to a keyboard The keyboard had old coffee stains on it I wondered howhis coffees

"Would you ht the crystal sculpture was stolen?" I asked

He shrugged defensively "Like any other night"

I waited Eddie stared at the

I said, "So nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Nothing other than our back-roo"

"Did the theft take place in the back roo at nored the re?"

"Twenty-one minutes"

"Did you catch this immediately?"

He shook his head "Both pictures were frozen in place How they did it, we have no clue But the ie looked fine, until I noticed the ti until you noticed that?"

"Thirty, fortyto be stolen"

"Yes"

"Could have happened to anyone," I said

He squinted atof an asshole as he was, and finally decided that I wasn&039;t He relaxed a little "I guess so, yes"

"Where in the back rooes on the screen "There The shipping and receiving room We had just received the collection from the artist himself"

"And does the artist know of the theft?"

"Not yet, as far as I&039;m aware"

"When is the exhibit set to debut?"

"One week"

"And the ca else stolen?"

"Just the crystal egg"

I knew the museum had insurance to cover such a loss, but there was no insurance to cover one&039;s reputation From what I understood, the theft would be a black eye that the uards, does anyone else work the night shift?"

"No, although sometimes the docents and museum staff put in late hours, especially when a new exhibit is about to open"

"Were any of the ht the sculpture was stolen?"

"Yes, but they had left hours before"

"How ht shift?"

"We have four working after hours Ten when the ht"

"Why&039;s that?"

Now Eddie looked pissed "No clue Thad never showed"

"What&039;s Thad&039;s full naht in question?"

"No"

"Has he ever not shown up before?"

"Never"

"So you would call this unusual behavior?"

"Extremely"

"May I have a list of the naht?"

Eddie nodded once and slowly eased forward He tapped a few keys at his keyboard, so his coffee over in the process This time He wrote down four naal paper He handed me the paper His name was on the list