With the lights of the city of Warsaw piercing the darkness outside, Jill took another sip from her wine glass and prepared to continue her story.
As she opened her mouth to speak Joe laid his hand on her knee.
'Hold on a second, honey', he said. 'Just so I'm clear; Gideon got a tip off about an artifact that we should be interested in which has appeared in Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a known location for laundering art pieces. They're either legitimized by acquiring fake papers and sold as supposed actual art works or sold on the black market. Right?' he asked.
She nodded. 'Yes, exactly' she agreed.
'And the piece that Gideon is looking into is from Paris', Joe added.
'Well, it was only in storage in Paris, it was originally in the British Museum in London. It was there up to the past year, maybe eighteen months', she explained, 'before it was moved to Paris and then onward so that's all we have to go with. It's even more than looking for a needle in a haystack because we don't know if we're looking in the correct museum in Paris. It could have been moved to any of the museums there, or anywhere in France and then just transported from Paris, so that means it's one of potentially hundreds of thousands of artifacts, probably actually millions', she said.
'Or it could have been in a private collection', she said slowly, the prospect popping into her head just now. 'Anyway', she continued before she became overwhelmed at the prospect, 'I contacted Shawn. I explained what Gideon had told me ...'
'Did you use Gideon's name?' Joe asked.
She smiled, ran her fingers along his arm, shaking her head. 'No. You told me to be circumspect with Shawn and I am being, I promise', she said.
He managed a small grin. 'Good work'.
'I told Shawn that he needed to look through the paperwork, delivery notes, store records, whatever he could find. He was looking for something that had once come in from the British Museum and then had been moved after about eighteen months. I gave him the details that I had', she said with a shrug, 'which really is not much for him to go on but it's the best I could do. I told him not to speak to anyone else about this and we would check in again. I was planning to get in touch anyway this evening and then ... he called and said that Louis had collapsed', she finished.
She paused for a moment, thinking about what had befallen Louis.
She raised her blue eyes to Joe, they were troubled.
'But now I'm wondering if he mentioned it to Louis', she made herself continue. 'Is that why they were in the stores together?' she wondered aloud.
Joe reached across and gently kissed her, giving her a moment to collect her emotions. She hugged him tightly. 'Don't beat yourself up, honey. None of this is down to you', he said, running his hand gently along her back. 'Anyway, the two events may not be connected', he said quietly.
He was seeking to comfort her, not have her go too far ahead without any proof, but in his gut he felt there was a connection.
But what kind of connection? he asked himself. Louis had a sudden onset of a natural illness. Right?
The rational part of his brian replied to his own question.
Do you really believe that?
'There's something else you should know', she said, dragging him from his thoughts. Her words were muffled against his shirt. She sat up again but stayed close. She maneuvered her body to settle against him, propping her arm on his shoulder.
He watched her intently, astonished at the amount of information she had for him.
'I eventually got to Kigali. Even though my plans were somewhat delayed', she said, a whisper of a smile crossing her lips.
