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Prologue

The day after Thanksgiving…

“I’M THINKING WHAT WE’VE got here is a copycat thief” FBI Agent Nick Guthrie kept his eyes steady on Gabe Wilder as he gestured to the Monet propped on the credenza to the left of his desk In front of the cleverly forged painting lay a copy of that ’s Denver Post The headline read: Priceless Monet Stolen on Thanksgiving Day

“Don’t you agree? He replaces the original with a very good copy That’s what your father always did He’s even signing your father’s initials”Gabe said nothing, letting the silence stretch between therips with the fact that so his father ever since Guthrie had called hiht before At 6:30 am, the FBI offices were still elass walls that divided his office from the others in the White-Collar Crime Division

“Well?” Guthrie pro?”

“We’re not dealing with a copycat” He shifted his gaze to the Monet

“No?” Guthrie frowned “The thief broke through one of the best security alare of the MO your father used And it’s a French I Raphael Wilder was particularly talented at forging those I say soht down to signing the forgery with the initials, RW”

“Butabout his thefts,” Gabe pointed out

“Agreed,” Guthrie said “But everything else is the same”

Gabe couldn’t argue with that But ould soendary art thief and then deviate in ato copy his father in the first place? Those were the questions that he intended to find the answers to

“I had a chance to study the original painting when fords’ house” Gabe nodded his head toward the Monet “The forgery is a good one It ht have been years before the fake was detected”

Guthrie leaned back in his chair “So why announce the theft?”

“Exactly Raphael Wilder never would have” Then Gabe ree that this thief is si on here Why don’t you co the Monet? The possibility must have crossed your mind No one would know my father’sThe Langfords were using my security system”

Guthrie said nothing

“Perhaps I substituted the forgery when I installed the alaro back and break in later I could sell the original and no one would be the wiser, perhaps ever”

“That’s what your father would have done” Guthrie shot him a frown “And maybe your involvement in the theft did cross my mind, but I disood one, and if you’d followed in his footsteps, I iood one also But you haven’t We go back a long way, Gabe”

That ent Nick Guthrie was the day the rand larceny That had been over fifteen years ago And within a month of Raphael Wilder’s conviction, he’d died in prison of pneumonia Ever since then, Nick Guthrie had kept close tabs on Gabe What uilt or responsibility on Guthrie’s part had evolved gradually into a friendship, one that ran both ways

And Nick Guthrie had been one of the people who’d helped hiht and narrow at a tiht have chosen a different path He owed other people, too, of course Father Mike Flynn and the St Francis Center for Boys had played a key role

Nick Guthrie leaned forward “I know about the pro I ith you and Father Mike the day that you renewed that promise to your father in the prison infirmary There’s no way that you would break those vows by starting to steal paintings You’ve built a business to protect people froood job of it”

Gabe didn’t smile, but the knot that had been in his stomach when Guthrie had asked hi eased If Nick Guthrie hadn’t requested this , Gabe would have insisted on one himself He’d needed to know just howto come under suspicion because of his father

Guthrie ran his hands through his hair “Besides, if you were to take up a life of criet one of your own security systems? I’ve known you since you were thirteen You’re not that dumb”

Now Gabe did smile “So it really did cross your mind?”