Page 43

TWENTY-SIX

O kay, I get it, but what other choice do I have?

If there’s nowhere else Party can go while I figure out a more suitable place for her, then she has to stay here until I do—and it’s incumbent on me to make the apartment as comfortable for her as possible.

Humidifier. Dehumidifier. Air purifier. Closed shades.

Guard. But for this to work, it must appear as if the painting is long gone, when, in reality, she hasn’t left the premises.

I’ll just buy a smaller one, wrap it in an overabundance of paper, and it’ll be good to go.

I scan through online sellers and decide to skip the frame.

Instead, I order more paper. And expedited delivery.

Then I review temperature-controlled storage facilities to send it to.

As before, I’m taken aback by the prices, but then it occurs to me that I don’t need temperature control for a blank canvas.

I’ll arrange for the transfer to be secret, alerting only Alyce, the building manager.

Afterward, she and I will make an announcement to the press that Party has been moved to an undisclosed location for its safety, and that will be that.

Surprise, surprise—Wyatt freaks out when I tell him. “You’re going to go through all these machinations just so you can keep that damn painting in your apartment?” he demands.

“I told you before that the large museums need too much time before they’ll take it, and the small ones don’t have the money to insure it.

” We’re walking down the Southwest Corridor from the T station after seeing a play in the Theater District.

During the day, the massive banks of snow have started to melt, but at night they freeze into dirty icy boulders along the edges of the walkway.

“And storage units don’t have the right conditions. ”

“But your apartment does?”

“I checked it out and know what has to be done to protect it. All of which I can do.”

“Tell me you’re not serious.”

“It’s only temporary. Until I figure out a better way.”

“What if there’s a slipup? I’m your lawyer, and it’s my job to keep you from doing anything that might negatively impact your case.”

“There aren’t going to be any slipups. It’s simple, straightforward, and exactly what you said I’d be doing in your statement.”

“My statement was about Party on the Seine , not some blank canvas.”

“No one’s going to know it’s blank. It’ll be wrapped and look like the real thing.”

We hurry into his warm house. He drops his coat on a kitchen chair and runs his hand through his hair. “This is a bad idea. Really bad.”

“I don’t agree.”

“Listen to me, Tam,” he says, unbuttoning my coat and sliding it off my shoulders.

“Someone’s going to find out. It always happens, especially when there’s media involved.

And then all hell will break out. Thieves could come calling, and do you really want all those reporters hounding you again?

Plus we have no idea what Damien’s move might be if he finds out you deceived him again—but based on his past actions, it’s not going to be anything good. ”

I look up at him and shrug.

He shakes his head and pulls me to him. “Tamara, Tamara, Tamara, what am I going to do with you?”

THE THREE-BY-FOUR-FOOT CANV AS arrives, along with enough brown paper to wrap a car.

I’ve paid two months up front for a storage unit only a few miles away, on E Street, and hired an art carrier to bring the fake there.

I’ve also discussed the details of the transport with Alyce, who’s more than happy to make an official announcement that Party is no longer in the building.

Obviously, I don’t need to do anything with the canvas other than packaging it to make it look bigger, but seeing it there, resting against a kitchen cabinet, all white and empty, I have the urge to fill it.

If Wyatt’s worst-case scenario ever did come to pass, wouldn’t it be better if it were a replica of the painting?

Easier to fool people if it looks like what it’s supposed to be? Completely wacko, I know.

Nevertheless, I go to the art store and buy some pastels and an easel.

I haven’t used pastels since high school, but they’re much easier to work with than oils, and no one’s going to believe a pencil drawing is a masterpiece.

Not that anyone is going to believe anything I paint is a masterpiece—and not that anyone is going to see it.

But that’s not my real intention, just an implausible excuse to do what I want to do.

I slap some peanut butter on a banana, gobble it down, and set up in the living room across from Party .

Pastels are far superior to the pencils, the colors deep and rich, easier to nuance with the sides of the stick as well as the sharper ends, and then using a finger to push the paint in ways and directions a pencil never could.

Soon, my hands and arms are streaked with blue, red, and yellow.

Probably my face too. Working on a large canvas, rather than my drawing pad, and packing it with the full range of Party is so much more gratifying than those timid little sketches I’ve been making.

I drop into it, am in it, driven by exuberance, one with Berthe and her world.

It’s well after midnight when I return to my own world.

I press my hand to my throbbing lower back, stretch my tight hamstrings, and stare at the canvas.

I can’t quite believe what I’m seeing. It’s no Manet, that’s for sure, totally rough and unfinished—but I have a sense that it isn’t half bad.

Well, it is bad, but still it’s so much better than any of my earlier efforts that I wonder if I actually did inherit some of those artsy genes.

Who knew? My high school art teachers, I guess.

TWO NIGHTS LATER, the fake is out of the building, and in the morning, Alyce calls a few reporters and tells them Party has been moved to another location and will not be returning to Tremont245.

There’s a small mention of the transport online in The Boston Globe , rendering the story dead.

But before I can start making a protective nest for Party , I, of course, receive an email from Damien.

From: Damien Manet, Director of the édouard Manet Foundation

To: Tamara Rubin

Cc: Wyatt Butler, Beacon, Exeter & Associates

Re: Party on the Seine

Date: 24 January

It has come to my attention that you have once again moved Party on the Seine without informing the édouard Manet Foundation.

It has been made clear to you that the Foundation is responsible for maintaining a database containing the whereabouts of the entirety of édouard Manet’s oeuvre.

We are incensed that you have not given us the address where Party on the Seine now resides, and must have this information immediately.

As you well know, Party on the Seine was due to the Louvre Museum on 1 January, three weeks past. It is imperative that the painting arrive in France to be prepared for presentation at the édouard Manet retrospective in August, and therefore a hearing on this matter is to be held on 31 January in civil court at the Tribunal de Paris.

On that date, a judge will determine if, given the overwhelming evidence that Party on the Seine does not belong to you, the Foundation has the authority to remove it from your custody in order to share this lost masterwork with a worldwide audience of art lovers.

It is not mandatory that your attorney attend, although it is allowed.

If you are unable to send a representative, you and your attorney will be informed of the outcome via email.

If you find these requirements too onerous or beyond your capabilities, $20 million US is available to settle the suit.