Venus in Real Life

9. The hound and the chase

Back in Paris, the forensics team and the detective Horn were at the Sully wing in the Louvre finishing their work when an officer approached Matt, called him to the side, and whispered to him,

"Sir, there's a guy at the door who's asking to talk to you."

"Who is he?" Matt said distractedly.

"He didn't say, he just asked for you."

"Thank you, Remy, I'll be there in a minute."

He announced the working team that he'll head out and started walking towards the door.

The forensics were almost done with their part of the case, pretty much all he could get from the scene was bagged and labeled, and now they would try to match it to someone who had criminal records. It would make his job a little easier, although it'd not be soon. He still had more than three days of checking video footage ahead, but he didn't mind the task if it helped him in any way.

The pyramid entrance was the closest to where they were working on. It was closed for the public and journalists, and some officers were guarding it, so the person who was looking for him was not a civilian, that he knew.

"Who could it be?" He kept walking, wondering as he was closer to the door. The closer he got to the door, the better he saw the figure waiting for him. The stranger had muscular built as himself but was a couple of inches taller. His hair was dirty blond and short. He was looking towards the glass pyramid as he heard Matt's footsteps and turned. He was lightly tanned, serious, and with curious, dark blue eyes. His black suit and tie talked about his rank. Matt's first thought was that he was the kind of guy that didn't get his hands dirty. What was he doing there, nosing in his case?

"Trying to quit too?" As soon as he talked, his face changed to a friendly grin.

"What do you mean?" Matt said, slightly defensive. The stranger slightly frowned but kept his smile as he moved the object in his hand. It was a small electronic device, similar to a pen in shape and size, an e-cigarette. Matt had his own e-cigarette in his hand and didn't even remember when he took it out.

"Oh, this. Not really. I can't smoke real cigarettes outside anymore, so this has to do until I get home," Matt said, scratching the back of his neck. The stranger relaxed and walked towards him with his hand extended.

"I'm Victor van Roth."

He introduced himself as Matt shook his hand.

"And you must be the person I was told to look for. Matt Horn, am I right? I thought you'd be more apprehensive, I gotta say. It's good that I was wrong," he offered another smile. "I was invited to cooperate in your case as a consultant. Here," he gave him some credentials and notification to Matt, who mumbled while quickly reading. "Usually, detectives don't like me coming in and working on their cases, but you seem more relaxed than most of the ones I've seen."

In Matt's mind, though, it seemed like the case was escalated, and now a know-it-all i***t was coming to get his hands on his work. Nothing to do about it, he sighed. His papers said he was specialized in unusual cases and that at the time, he was working in another case in France, so the Commissioner took the opportunity and invited him.

"So you'll be consulting for us. I'm definitely interested in what your input will be." Matt was still unsure of how to take this guy's presence or how were those special abilities he had going to help on the case. Yet, some fresh perspective would not be as bad, and since he could do nothing to change it, he accepted it.

"Follow me, I'll bring you up to speed."

They started walking towards the statue's base, where the forensics team was finishing and clearing the area.

"What do you know about the case so far? Did they tell you anything?" Matt checked to see where to start.

"What I've heard in the news is what I was told when I got to the station."

"Unfortunately, we don't have much evidence about what happened here, the only thing we know is that the lights went off, and when they came back on, there was no statue. We're talking about one minute shutdown time, at most. Nobody heard or saw anything out of the ordinary, besides the fact that the two thousand pounds statue was gone. The base is solid, so there was no way it was taken from underneath. The guards that were in the surveillance room were interviewed on-site the day of the events and stated they didn't see anything either. I'm still calling them to the station for a formal statement. The only cameras recording are the ones at the entrance and exit points. Not one of the alarms was set off. We confirmed that they were working properly, at least after the events. The museum was full of visitors. The director estimates that day they had about fifteen thousand people coming in and out between nine in the morning to when the events took place. The only thing left was small scattered pieces of marble on the floor. Forensics has spent days taking fingerprints from all around, and that's about it," Matt said, crossing his arms on his chest.

Victor got closer to the curtain behind the stand.

"Can you show me where was the debris?"

"It started on top of the base and towards where you're standing right now. There was a larger amount as if the statue laid there for a little longer before it was moved. The director thinks the pieces on the floor might mean that the statue was broken in the process of whatever happened."

"Are your guys done over here? Would you mind me adding some reactive powder on the floor?"

"Yes, they're done, but they have been working here for a couple of days already. The floor probably has so many chemicals that whatever you add will almost surely react to theirs, instead of any leftover proof on the floor. If you still want to try, you can go ahead," Matt answered.

Victor took out a small glass bottle with a white matte powder, which looked very much like regular table salt, except for the light shine the other has, and this one didn't. He uncorked the small bottle and sparkled the floor with a thin layer of the powder where once was the scattered marble. He stood up and waited for a few seconds, then the white powder started to turn golden. Matt's face looked puzzled, while Victor's looked... concerned? While the seconds passed, the golden powder developed black spots, and then the color fixed. Victor took his phone out, shot a couple of pictures, and added some notes on a notepad on the same device, blocked it, and put it back in his pocket.

"You mentioned there was some footage. Would you mind if I helped to check it?"

"Definitely don't mind, there's plenty for all of us. I just hope you didn't have any plans for the next few days," Matt joked.

"Don't worry, I'll clear my agenda for this one." Victor's eyes stood fixed on the golden powder with black spots on the floor. Many other questions were forming in his mind. It was good that they sent him, he thought. He was working a different case, also in Paris, from which he took a couple of days off, thinking it would be enough to work on this one and go back. A very expensive artifact was stolen from a collector's vault, and he was helping on finding it. Still, this case, the missing statue, was definitely turning more interesting than he expected.

Victor was called "The Hound," a nickname that the police officers that had worked with him previously, murmured in the halls of their stations at coffee time. They might not understand what he mumbled when he was walking in circles around a place where a body was found, or where a robbery was committed. Even if his methods were unusual, his success rate in solving mysterious cases was gaining popularity. He was originally from The Netherlands but usually moved around Europe on that kind of special assignments. He was not going to take the case from Matt. He would point in the right direction and then leave to work on his other investigation. That also made Matt secretly happy, as well as secretly make a couple of phone calls to investigate who this guy really was. In less than thirty minutes, Matt too knew his nickname and thought to himself how much of a hound a guy like that one could be. Matt had been hardened by his time on the force, seeing crime scenes that were pure nightmare material. Victor, on the other hand, was one of two things. Either he was a cynic hidden by a warm smile, or he was pretty new and lucky. He seemed to be in his thirties, but younger than Matt, and some things still made the older one almost flinch how was that Victor had that relaxed attitude all the time? Only time could tell.

After finishing on the scene, Matt let the director know that the area was clear to be reopened to the public.

"Did you ask for the recorded footage for all of the exits?" Matt was taken abruptly out of his mind.

"Yes, why?"

"Because she came out through this door," Victor pointed to the door from which he came in not long before.

"Our theory points to an internal job. Probably the person, or people who took her, hid her, and then waited for everybody to leave the museum so they could move it."

"Nah," Victor said, moving his head negatively and looking through the door.

"How are you so sure?" Matt's eyebrow raised.

"I'll show you."

He took the bottle out of his pocket again and sprinkled more powder on the floor. He followed a line from where he first had done it and towards the door. He didn't go all the way, just enough for Matt to see what he meant. The powder started to show the same line of gold with black spots signaling a route. Matt saw the patches form, not a straight line, but as if following the movement of a person through space, and widely opened his eyes. This was the way to save him some work. Now he was happy with this guy, his new resourceful friend, The Hound.

"Can you trace all her movements with that? Her whole way out?"

"Sure," Victor said, pleased and kept walking while Matt called one of the forensic guys to take pictures of every inch of the floor in which there was the golden trace.

"Sir, there was no trace-" The words stopped in his mouth when he saw Victor playing around with his chalky powder that reacted to something he didn't know or could find with their usual tools.

"What the-"

"Pierre, my pictures. Follow him, and remember, every inch of the golden trace."

"Yes, sir." Pierre started taking pictures as he approached Victor. "Do you mind if I ask you what kind of chemical are you using?"

"Oh, this?" Victor said, not giving much importance to it, "Our lab back in The Netherlands makes it, they call it trace powder, but I honestly don't know what it contains, I just know how to read it," he lied.

Pictures were taken, and everything was wrapped up. They all headed back to the police station.

"I'll step out for a second, gotta clear my agenda for the next couple of days," Victor apologized and left the room, phone in hand.

The dialing sound only rang twice before the voice on the other side of the line came through. It was a deep, raspy, male voice to whom Victor was calling boss, and summarized the latest events.

"Hey boss, how is it going over there?" He always had that freshness when talking, usually didn't matter to whom he was talking to. The same tone that Matt thought could dub as cynism.

"Van Roth, what's the situation over there?" His direct boss in the Netherlands, Reinout Ros, had approved him to spend a couple of days away from his main case and expected him back on it soon. The Bosch artifact, an art item that was stolen not many days before Venus left the museum. It was a private collector's piece attributed to Hieronymous Bosch, which was said to be created in the last years of his life and kept it a secret. The object was lost once Bosch died in 1516. It was of utmost importance to find it as soon as possible. After a few days, the trace of the object went cold, and, as in many cases, now they had to wait for the robber to do something again so they could have another clue.

"The trace is golden boss, I think it will not be as easy to find it. I also found that the statue left the museum through the front door, and since there was no change in the shade of the powder, I would say it was moved out as soon as it disappeared from the base. And last, the trace, besides the golden, had black spots on it." Lead Operations Coordinator Ros was silent for a moment.

"I can tell you want more time on it. How much longer will you need?" He finally said.

"Tomorrow I'll start checking the security footage with the detective in charge of the case, and then see where we go. I would say two or three more days."

"Keep me posted. you can stay as long as you need, so far as you're still pending on your main case, and remember that if we get news about the thief, you'll have to leave immediately."

"Yes, sir."

Matt was on his way out when he heard part of the conversation. What was all that about the colors, and what was that chemical powder anyway? He was a little lost in his thoughts when Victor opened the door and found him standing there.

"Were you on your way out?" Victor said, suspecting of him.

"Yes, I was going for coffee. Want some?" Matt didn't drink coffee, but how else could he justify his eavesdropping?

"No, thanks. I don't do great on coffee."

Matt moved out of the office, towards a small kitchenette at the end of the floor. This guy was really peculiar, Matt thought over and over again. He seemed normal, except for his extremely relaxed, permanent state. Matt's instincts went crazy, telling him there was something Victor was not saying. What could he be hiding? Victor said on the phone that he needed just a couple of days more. Was he seeing the case so easy to solve? It all was unusual, even if Matt didn't dislike him as much anymore, he was determined to find what he was hiding.

The next day, at six in the morning, both Victor and Matt were at the office, checking the pictures Pierre, the forensics guy took the day before. They were arranging them in a corkboard when there was a knock.

"Sir, this package came for you.

" Remy, the officer that was guarding the door when Victor arrived at the Louvre, came to them with a small brown envelope, "The guy said it was the security videos."

"Excellent. Thank you, Remy."

Matt opened the envelope and found four USB drives. They were labeled with the name of the entrance and exit way the footage in each belonged to. They moved to the video room. Matt took the USB drives out of the package and sorted them in the desk that was in the front left corner of the room, opposite the door. Per the conclusions they made the day before, they would only need to check the footage from the Pyramid entrance on level -1 at the museum, the one right in front of the Sully exhibition room. Matt secretly hoped this assumption was true. Once they found any irregularity, they could scan the rest of the footage with a Biometric Artificial Intelligence, a system for face recognition on video. He chose the flash drive labeled "-1" and connected it to the forty-two inches TV screen on the wall.

"Did you bring the popcorn?" Victor said, sarcastic and smirking while taking a seat. Matt was growing on that sense of humor.

"I thought you were the one bringing it," he said with a small laugh seating as well, as the video started.

After a few hours of fast-forwarded video, and seeing nothing weird or suspicious, Victor noticed. He moved from almost lying on his chair to the edge of it and asked Matt to rewind a little.

"What is it?" Matt asked expectantly.

"Would you believe me if I tell you I don't remember seeing this girl come in?" Victor said, standing in front of the TV. He pointed to a girl with short, almost too revealing over the knee skirt and a jacket too big to be hers, black-bluish hair and green eyes. Victor had an excellent, almost eidetic memory, and he was pretty sure of what he said.

"Maybe she came from another door," Matt added.

"Maybe," Victor said after contemplating her in silence for a few seconds. A wide smile grew on his face as he turned back to Matt. "I have a hunch. Is it possible for you to ask the lab to do the facial scan with her image in the four drives?"

"Sure, I think it'd be fine, but it'd take a while."

"I'm quite sure there's something."

"Ok, I'll take them to the lab now."

Victor had a triumphant smile. He turned again towards the image of the girl. Focusing on her, Victor only saw a blur around her as her energy was concealed. He knew she was not a regular visitor, and since he found no other trace around, she was most likely who he was looking for. Now he needed to find a way for Matt to follow the trace without suspicions.

No, Victor was not a regular cop.