The Art Thief's Guide To Freedom

13: Step Thirteen: How To Accept Your Fate

"The FBI Washington Field Office's Art Crime Team returned a Ukrainian painting stolen by the Nazis during World War II to the Embassy of Ukraine. The painting, titled "Secret Departure of Ivan the Terrible Before the Oprichnina," by Mikhail N. Panin, was stolen from the Dnepropetrovsk Art Museum in Nazi-occupied Ukraine in 1941. The FBI was contacted when the painting was consigned to auction by the Tracy family in 2017. The Tracy family, unaware the painting was stolen, took care to preserve the painting, which they admired for decades in their home. After working with the FBI, the Potomack Auction Company, the Tracy family, and the Ukrainian Embassy, the painting was forfeited to the U.S Attorney's Office and has been returned to the Ukrainian Ambassador."

~Anonymous, FBI Washington, 9 September 2019

~**~~**~

Nico was confused.

In her career as an. . . art acquisitioner, she had been arrested more than once. Many times, actually. Of course, most of the charges (with the exception of the last) had been dropped.

It wasn't that she hadn't done such crimes, it was that it couldn't be proved. Without a doubt.

The one time the justice system worked in her favor.

But now, she was being arrested for a crime that she absolutely didn't commit.

Someone had already tried to kill her today and now she was being blamed for the crime. It was quite the twist to an already eventful day.

Still clutching the blanket around her shoulders, Nico felt herself shoot to her feet as a fit of anger overtook her.

"I did no such thing!" Her features crumpled into a rage as she confronted the Commander.

At her outburst, she saw the Commander falter in his stride. It was a barely noticeable pause but Nico picked up on it.

He was probably as surprised as she was that she confronted him.

But today was, after all, filled with surprises.

However, the small falter did not cause him much hesitation as he drew up alongside her. "Should I lay out the facts?" The Commander asked. He let one hand drop to brace against his hip.

The movement pulled his jacket back, revealing the butt of his gun. Nico wasn't sure if he had meant the gesture to be intimidating or her mind was just playing tricks on her but regardless, it was working.

He made her feel like one David in a room full of Goliaths.

Still, she drew herself and her eyebrows together and shook her head in confirmation.

Nodding slightly, his chin dipped towards the ground for only a second before he righted it. "Fine. Was it or was it not your suggestion to come to this particular shop? To see Theodore Smith." He waved a hand in the air behind him where the building had once stood.

For a second, Nico didn't focus on the question itself. It felt so wrong for Smithy to be referred to as Theodore. It didn't fit him in any way.

He always was and would be Smithy in her mind.

Jolting herself a little bit, Nico forced herself to answer the question. One she assumed wasn't rhetorical.

"Well, yes—" she started, only to be cut off.

"And did you or did you not ask Agent Patterson to let you enter the shop alone and unsupervised?"

"Yes, but Will—"