He hung back while the two officers climb out of their cars and patrolled the area. He was used to becoming a part of the scenery. He could literally stand in front of someone and go unnoticed. This used to bug the hell out of him in high school when he wanted someone to notice him but now he revels in the fact that being almost invisible is a rush. He waits until the police officers go back to their car before he starts making his getaway. He makes sure the painting is securely rolled and sealed into the special container he had made for this occasion. He needed to get that painting to complete a promise he made a long time ago.

It had taken him almost 2 years to finally locate and plan this job but as always, he had succeeded just in time. He didn’t think Heidi would have lived another year. He quickly made his way to the car he had left hidden in plain sight and calmly drove off into the night. He had bypassed the elaborate alarm the owners had insisted the museum install and now he wondered how long before the alarm sounded letting everyone know that “The Girl in Red” had been stolen – while under police surveillance!
w34;xxxxxxw34;

AIC Adams was livid!
“IT.WAS.STOLEN.FROM.RIGHT.UNDER.OUR.DAMN.NOSES!” Everyone looked around trying not to wilt under their boss’ glare. Blaine had been sound asleep when he had received a call from his boss telling him to be at the office ASAP!

“I can’t believe you guys didn’t see anything suspicious,” he continued his rant for a few minutes. Blaine just kept going over everything that had happened last night. He was positive he had seen movement in the shadows but the police officers that had patrolled the area did not see anything or anyone at all. Maybe it had just been a figment of his imagination or a result of listening to Wes’ love woes. Either way, he was in charge of this case and the thief or thieves had just handed his head on a silver platter over to his boss. Not good.

“We were not inside the premises. The museum directors did not want people to notice that the FBI and local law enforcement agencies were hovering. They were satisfied with their own security specialists and had us set up camp outside. When we left this morning we got the all clear from their own people! THEY didn’t even now the painting had been stolen.”

AIC Adams just inhaled sharply, “I know – I know – while the insurance company is royally pissed off at the museum – the museum is taking responsibility for their lack of cooperation and the fact that their own security gave you the all clear this morning is so embarrassing that they aren’t going to try and throw us under the bus.”

“When did they finally realize the painting was missing?” asked Blaine.

Adams burst out laughing, “It seems that the perps took a picture of the painting and blew it up to poster size and when they took the original they super-glued the poster to the frame. It fit perfectly and the security guards are not art majors so they saw a painting there and didn’t know the difference. All hell broke loose once the curator came in and happened to pass by the painting and noticed the poster right away. Can you imagine how pissed off the museum directors were?”

“You are fucking kidding me – they glued a poster of the picture to the frame?” David asked. “The size of those cajones are amazing!”

“That does take some balls!” agreed Wesley.

Blaine couldn’t stop laughing at how irreverent these thieves were. They all headed to the museum to talk to the curator and to see they actual print that had been glued to the frame. All of them made sure their laughter stopped before they even drove up to the parking lot. No one wanted to see the FBI laughing their asses off at the site of a 40 million dollar heist. That would certainly not inspire the confidence the masses that depended on law enforcement throughout the world needed to see. They were led to the curator’s office and were shown the frame. Sure enough the print was an exact copy of the painting. It was actually a very good copy of the painting. It fit in the frame perfectly and the edges had been tacked on to the back of the frame with superglue. All in all – they couldn’t really tell it was a fake unless they were experts so they stopped making fun of the museum’s security team. All of them, except Blaine would have probably not caught on to the fact that the painting was a print.

“These people are experts,” commented the curator. “The Muller family demanded that a glass partition be installed in front of the painting with access limited to very few people including myself. The directors and the Muller family also had access to the painting. The security was based on fingerprint recognition and in order to open the glass partition one had to press the thumb and index fingers to the key pad. How did they manage to open it without setting off the alarm?”

Law enforcement had already checked for unknown fingerprints on the alarm pad and had found none. They were also trying to figure out where the print had been processed to see if that would give them any useful information. The curator handed Blaine a printout of all the times the glass partition had been opened and by whom. Everyone on the list had the authority to be near the painting.

“What about the surveillance cameras,” asked Bob. “I would like to get those to look at them. Since we don’t know at what time the painting was stolen I will have to start at the time the museum closed last night.”

“We already have those ready for you,” said the curator. “As soon as the theft was noticed we locked down the museum and called you and NYPD. Since the thief has probably been long gone I made sure no one tampered or touched any of the surveillance cameras. I wanted them left alone so that your team would have the first look. I wanted the FBI and NYPD to in the museum but the directors would not allow it. Hindsight is truly 20/20, isn’t it? Please don’t hesitate to ask me for anything you might need. I don’t think the directors will try to get in your way any longer,” he said as he handed Bob the keys to the camera room.

“Let’s get the tapes and take them back to the office. My equipment there is the best,” said Bob.

Blaine agreed and after talking to the Detective in charge and making sure the tapes were logged in correctly as evidence they headed back to the office. He told Bob to call him if he found anything interesting. He went to his office to type up a report of the theft and before too long he was engrossed in the report double checking his work. He needed everything to go smoothly in order to catch these people. He needed to prove himself not only to himself and the bureau but to his father. His father was constantly making snide comments about Blaine’s career choices and even snarkier comments about his lifestyle choices. His phone rang startling him, “Anderson.”

“Got something you might want to see,” said Bob. “We got a visual on the perp.”

Blaine flew out of his office and ran down the hall to Bob’s domain. He almost ran over the mail cart in his hurry. Wes and David saw him flying past their office and ran after him. Either there had been a break in the case or Daniel Radcliff had been spotted nearby. They figured it was the case and followed him.

“What did you find Bob,” gasped Blaine as he tried to control his breathing. He had run full tilt and hoped they finally had a lead.

“Check this out,” said Bob as he rewound the tape and pressed play. Everyone sat down and looked at the screen. The camera was pointing directly at the painting. The lighting was dim but you could still see the dark figure moving in and standing right in front of the glass partition. The figure was dressed in black and was wearing a ski mask. They couldn’t tell if the figure was male or female. The only thing they could tell was that the figure was tall and slim. The thief had the glass partition opened in under a minute. You could see him pull out the poster from a case strapped to his back. The moved closer to the painting and you could see him cut gently around the frame. The figure slowly rolled the painting and stuck it in the case. The print was unrolled and you could plainly see the thief moving the glue over the back of the frame before the print was put in place. The partition was closed and the thief slowly turned around faced the camera and gave a jaunty little salute before disappearing into the night.

“Did I forget to mention the size of this guy’s cajones,” quipped Wesley.

“How do we know it is a guy?” asked David.

“I didn’t see breasts,” answered Wesley. “And I was looking for them.”

“Jesus – Wes do you ever not think about sex?” asked Blaine.

“I was trying to ascertain whether or not the perpetrator of this burglary was indeed male or female,” said Wesley in perfect FBI lingo. “I have made a tentative decision that indeed the perp is not female. We are looking for a male, race unknown, about 5”10, slim and extremely cocky since he knew we were filming him.”
Blaine just narrowed his eyes and glared at Wes while David & Bob were trying unsuccessfully to stop laughing. “I actually agree with your observation Wes.”

“Don’t forget he has an oversized scrotum,” hooted David. Blaine wondered how the hell he got stuck with these two. These two had managed to make his life hell – first at Dalton, college and now at the FBI. He just couldn’t shake them. Of course he knew they would willingly lay down their lives for him so regardless he was stuck with them.

“Ok, Bob – print out a couple of the stills from the film. David - contact the profilers and have someone give us a profile. Email them a copy of the dossier. I’m going to call Adams to let him know what we’ve found. Wes - contact the detective that was on the case this morning and give him the information and a copy of the tape. Let’s meet up in my office in one hour to finalize the daily reports,” said Blaine as he headed back to his office. He was all psyched and ready to figure out this perp. He couldn’t believe that jaunty little salute. The guy knew how to make an exit – that’s for sure.

Two hours later he sighed and tried to work the kinks out of his neck. They were done for the day. Unless they caught a break the ball was in the perps court.

“How about we go grab some drinks at the new karaoke bar?” he asked his crew. They all agreed to meet up at Blaine’s apartment as soon as they went home to shower and change.