Casebook 3: War with Russia - 3.7[index]

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Professor Pelonique Marltot, the Alsatian forensic historian – a personal friend of his, and the authority in Paris.

She arrived the very same day and began her operations quickly and methodically – a keen, intelligent woman with pinched features as if from years of close study. For three days, she peered and compared and analysed before eventually confirming the truth. The paintings found in Benoir Noet's apartment were genuine. She supervised the replacement of the original paintings with the same attention to detail and removed the forgeries to her laboratory to continue her analysis of this most outrageous of art thefts.

What baffled us all was not the method, but the scale of the theft. To have removed one painting in this way was possible, if unlikely; what was needed was a knowledge of the alarm systems, an excellent forger and a little planning. We watched on the security tapes how Noet had deftly sliced the painting from its frame and replaced it with his perfectly proportioned impostor while the guard had been distracted by a party of tourists. For all we knew, they were part of the gang. But to succeed thirty times by the same method - it defied belief.

But I was soon to be reminded of the unlimited ingenuity and reach of the Sweetheart Club. Even in my triumph, I feared their riposte. It came swiftly and with force.