Casebook 3: War with Russia - 3.5[index]

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“It is a minor work,” the Curator said without looking at me. “He had the correct authority.”

Minor work was not the style of the Sweetheart Club. I knew that this was not the end. I made immediate arrangements to apprehend the student in question, Benoir Noet, at his apartment. But I was not hopeful. In the end, my expectations were exceeded.

*            *            *

Noet lived in a dirty high-rise in the Hompelmont arrondissement. Inside the flat we found no evidence of him, but what we did find astonished us all. There was 'War with Russia', cut from its frame, layed out across the kitchen table like a placemat. Filling the cramped apartment were no less than thirty canvases, rolled and stored in musty cardboard tubes. I knew that 'War with Russia' was genuine, so why not the rest?

I opened one of the tubes at random and inspected the contents. It was a primitive and unsettling nude study. If it had been accompanied by its pasteboard marker, I would have discovered its title to be 'L'Amour Sauvage'. A young constable ran into the room and began to speak quickly in French. He stopped and stared at the painting, and then back at me. A strange universal silence filled the air as I slowly folded the work back into its case and tucked it to one side.