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“Or a perfect forgery,” Joe said

“What are you suggesting?” Than Rang blurted out

“Nothing,” Joe said “But tell ?”

“Of course not”

“Then you bought it from the men or women who did,” Joe pointed out “By their very nature, that makes them criminals Surely you didn’t take it on face value when you handed them their payment”

The Korean bristled at the reh to buy a fake”

“There must be some way to tell for sure,” Acosta said

“Bring the lights up tothat can’t be faked is what’s called craquelure As the painting ages, the oils dry out and the paint cracks Based on the age of the work and the type of paint used, specific patterns will appear It’s soerprint”

With the lights up, Joe exa From what he’d been told, French craquelure tended to fors tended to crack in squares or little rectangular blocks, which hy the Mona Lisa looked the way it did up close

To Joe’s chagrin, neither pattern appeared on the Manet There were vertical cracks, and a few horizontal ones, but nothing that looked like what he’d been taught to expect He pulled out a ive himself a second look, and to buy himself some time But theat a fake

While Joe played art expert, Kurt tailed the er he followed her, thein a deliberate pattern Out froarden at a ti back to her date

“She’s looking for so,” he said to himself

He ed to overhear part of her conversation The man called her “Calista” So now he had a name, even if it was an alias

She shook her head at so are nowhere to be seen They et in position”

The man nodded “Very well,” he said “Let’s be quick” Kurt turned his back and eased in between two Korean business his head as if he agreed with so said The businessmen looked at him oddly, then went back to their conversation