Page 46 of The Art of Vanishing

Jean

The next night, Mark swore up and down to Jamie that he would continue his search for the thieves who took the journal, but that he was there to let her know he wouldn’t be in the museum as often, returning maybe the week following.

“This is how it normally goes,” he said to Jamie.

They were back in our gallery; in an unexpected turn of events, it was Jamie now in the janitorial uniform.

“Cases don’t get neatly closed right before another conveniently opens.

I wish it was like that, then maybe I could schedule a vacation or something too.

” Mark laughed. “I’m sorry, it’s a little distracting to talk to you while you’re doing that. ”

Jamie dunked the mop back into the soapy bucket. “We haven’t yet found a replacement for Claire. I’m just pinch-hitting right now.”

“It’ll be hard,” Mark said, “I’m sure, to rebuild that trust.”

“Yeah,” Jamie admitted, “maybe a bit of this is also a desire for pure control.”

“Whatever works for you,” Mark replied. “As they say all too frequently nowadays, these are certainly unprecedented times.”

“So, what happens now?” Jamie asked.

“We go back to the bureau office and we run down any leads we have. We looked into Claire and didn’t turn up much, besides some suspicious activity around her ex, but nothing concrete.

We’ll keep our eye on her but I have a gut feeling she wasn’t involved.

Something about it just doesn’t seem right to me; she seemed to love it here too much.

But what do I know. There is that often referenced stat that eighty percent of these heists are possible because they’ve got someone on the inside. ”

“Claire doesn’t seem like the one to me either,” Jamie agreed.

“While we’re chasing down other leads, it’s possible you might hear from the thieves yourself, that they might contact the museum to demand ransom.

I can’t figure out why the journal was all they took if they were already inside the museum, but maybe they’d hoped the museum would go to great lengths to get it back.

It’s also possible these thieves are like a lot of other art criminals—that they’re what we call ‘one and done,’ and we’ll never hear from them again.

But we’ll try our best to chase down every angle. ”

“Well, despite the circumstances, it’s been a pleasure to work with you.” Jamie offered her hand and peeled down her face covering, just for a moment. Mark did the same.

“Likewise. I’ll be in touch.” After a brief shake, Mark re-covered his face and headed out of the room. Jamie looked around for company, confirmed there was none, and slipped her mask into her pocket. Then, it was back to work.

My sister and brother determined the drama was over for the time being, and that Jamie was not watching them. They stood up to go about their nightly activities. Across the gallery, I watched all my peers do the same. Soon, it was just me and Jamie.

As I watched her clean, I was reminded of Claire in her earliest days of employment—not a shred of sense about what she was doing but a lot of enthusiasm. I could tell how much she cared for this place; her efforts were attentive, though a bit chaotic.

Seeing Jamie in this uniform, I was reminded of the collector.

Decades ago, when he was still alive, he too would camouflage in a borrowed uniform to slip between the crowds unnoticed.

He said he loved to hear what unfiltered things people would dare to say if they didn’t know who exactly could hear them.

But I think he also did it because he loved to care for the museum, to wipe away the grime of the visitors, to keep us safe.