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“But the wrong place happened to be in Hong Kong,” Derekas he conte tiion where murders are rare That’s one too ht”

“Last night?”

Derek told Rich about the burglary, and about the tidbit C-6 had picked up on Xiao Long’s wiretap

“Interesting” Rich ingested that thoughtfully “Burbank neverup the subject, and ask hio back in there He’s probably just shell-shocked And, other than the nationality of the cri tying Burbank and his investroup to the murder”

“His group sold the s”

“Yes, but the paper trail tells us they sold Cai Wen the original, not the fake That eliminates motive And Cai Wen wasn’t exactly squeaky clean We’re still investigating hiamut—from trustworthy to questionable Any of the questionables could have been involved There’s also a gap in the provenance No sales records for the painting fro resurfaced five years later in the private gallery of a Dutch collector”

“Did you question the collector?”

“He died of natural causes a few years ago, and his heirs recently sub showed up in their current catalog at the sa That’s where we came in”

“So whoever killed Cai Wen stole the painting and sold it to an anonymous source”

“Where it could have changed hands any nu its way to the Netherlands”

“Talk about complicated” Derek whistled, and rubbed the back of his neck

“Welcoht-lipped smile “For what it’s worth, I’ve spent the last hour interviewing Burbank, and I’d be really surprised if he’s involved with organized cri hi he shouldn’t have But I tell you what I’ll find a way to drop in your Dai Lo’s name, just to see if Burbank reacts If there’s a connection, I’ll spot it And I’ll stop by your desk afterward to fill you in”

“That works”

Rich had just turned to go back into the interviewing rooent from the Major Theft Squad strode over “Rich Sorry to interrupt, but you’ve got an urgent phone call fr

om Interpol The Museo de Arte Moderno in Bilbao was just hit The story is already breaking on Fox News and CNN”