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although I was having a harder time letting nothing show on my face. “So, the Escher is what?”
    “Escher made woodcuts that were used to make illustrations for the book, as well as illuminated letters.”
    I nodded. I’d always enjoyed the richness of those.
    Niall kept going. “ The Terrible Adventures of Scholastica was only printed in Dutch, in a limited edition of 300. There were nineteen or so woodcuts of Escher’s for the book. He made at least one woodcut that was never used in the book. The letter A. That was what was stolen from my collection.”
    “Just that. A print of the letter A?” Being a professional, I didn’t point out that it sounded like Sesame Street might be responsible for the crime.
    “Not a print,” Niall corrected me. “The actual woodcut block Escher made. It is so rare there is not even a print available of the letter. It is a one-of-a-kind artifact.”
    “Even so, to be insured for a million…” I said, stopping only because I suspected Niall wouldn’t like being told that I couldn’t see how his precious artwork could possibly be worth the money.
    “There is more that is not public about the woodcut block.” Niall paused. “I have examined it many times. There are mystical symbols carved into it, so densely that it is hard to read them. There are those who say the woodcut is…magical.”
    I had a special laugh for those moments when people brought up the idea of magic. One that said oh, but we don’t believe in nonsense like that, do we as clearly as possible. I deployed it then and Niall looked at me carefully.
     “I have one of just 300 original copies of De vreeselijke avonturen van Scholastica . I was intrigued enough by the story to set about trying to obtain the illustrations in other forms. I found that I could purchase prints from the book. But not of the letter A, you see?”
    “That’s why you had to have the wood carving. It’s one of a kind.”
    “Yes. I prize one-of-a-kind things.” He shot another smile my way. “I trust you will be discreet with your report to the insurers? All of this…”
    “I am very discreet,” I assured him. “Trust me, my insurers aren’t interested in anything beyond whether I recover a stolen object.”
    Niall let out a sigh. “That’s good.”
    “Has anyone ever shown interest in the Escher woodcut block? Collectors?”
    “Almost no one. It’s so obscure that I doubt most people would even understand its value.”
     He had a point there. “Who knows the history?”
    “My staff knows bits and pieces. Perhaps there are scholars who might know of the strange hidden symbols, or the rarity value of the block.”
    “Who framed it?” I asked, casting around for possible connections to the art world. A framer would often research a piece when he or she worked on it.
    “I did it myself.”
    So much for that. I closed my eyes for a minute. A vague memory of art history came to me. “Who was Escher’s mentor?”
    “Why?”
    “Sometimes, the best way to find something stolen is to find the reason it was stolen. Indulge me, Niall.”
    “Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita was his graphic arts teacher and also was a woodcut artist of many beautiful prints,” Niall said. “He died with his wife and son, in Auschwitz.”
    I swallowed, trying to imagine the horror of that and knowing that I couldn’t.
    “If Samuel had the block—perhaps as a gift or memento from Escher—that would explain why no prints were ever made from it,” I said.
    “What an interesting idea. The provenance is…well, difficult with that piece,” Niall admitted. “Could my woodcut block have been stolen Nazi booty?”
    “It’s just a theory.”
    “One that provides us with a possible reason for someone to try to steal it back,” Niall said.
    I shrugged. “Possibly. Or it could be nothing to do with that. It could just be that someone wanted it, or that they found out what it might be worth. I’d like to believe that it was something