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steady
pose there on the couch Peet could tell the man had already examined that
possibility. “Someone could have used his security pass, maybe,” Frederico began.
“But they would also need his entrance key, not to mention the pass codes to
the Aztec Room and the Effigy’s display case, all of which require different
passwords. Yet, all were breached by someone who knew every code. Someone could
have come across one of his codes, but not all of them.”
    “John
wouldn’t be that careless,” Peet agreed.
    “There’s
something else.”
    Peet
straightened, waiting for the curator to continue.
    “Two
of our security cameras caught John in the act.”
    Peet’s
stomach sank like a lead weight. Regrettably, he asked, “May I see the tapes?”
    “Of course.”
    Without
so much as uncrossing his legs, the curator removed a remote from a slot in the
wall cubby above his head. He did this without disturbing the assorted terra
cotta figurines displayed there. It was a well rehearsed motion and Peet
suddenly pictured Frederico spending hours on that couch, remote in hand,
watching who-knows-what on the forty-two inch TV hidden within the decorative
cabinet behind his desk. With a push of a button, the front panel opened and
the TV glowed to life. Another button, and the digital
machine spun images from a security camera onto the screen.
    “Camera
twelve is the closest to the Effigy display,” Frederico narrated. “You can see
John bypassing the code here and then…here you can plainly see him removing the
artifact.”
    Peet
watched the thief at work, recognizing immediately that the image was visually
hindered by the exhibit room’s dim after-hours lighting. But even if the
security lighting had been alerted by the intruder, the thief never gave the
camera a clear view of his face. Nevertheless, the thief’s body frame and
movements were all too familiar. Peet could recognize that shadowy figure
anywhere.
    It
had to be John.
    As
Peet watched John leave the Aztec Room, the screen cut away from camera twelve
and smoothly transitioned to another camera that had picked him up.
    “This
is camera three,” Frederico explained. “It sits just above the reception desk
at the main entrance. Granted, the view is more distant than the last camera,
but you can clearly see John leaving the museum with something bulky beneath
his arm. No doubt it has to be the Effigy.”
    The
video ended and Frederico turned off the TV. Peet was stumped. Surely there
must be some reasonable explanation.
    “What
about guards?” he asked. “Weren’t there any guards?”
    Frederico
nodded. “We have two night guards. One posted at the main entrance and the
other patrols the exhibits.”
    “Did
either of them see anything?”
    “John
timed his theft well, which raises my suspicions about his motives. He acted when
the front guard stepped away to use the restroom. The second guard was
patrolling the Maya Room at the time. But there is more.”
    Frederico
rose from the sofa and with a flick of his finger, motioned Peet to follow him.
Together, they stepped out of the office and swept around the main hall,
avoiding the visitors as they strolled from one display to another. Frederico
led the way through a glass door that opened to a tranquil outdoor patio
complete with bronze statues and decorative flowers centered around a gazing pool shaded by a large concrete canopy.
    Across
the patio, they re-entered the museum at the Aztec Room. They passed jade
figurines and terra cotta pottery and even crossed in front of the monolithic
Aztec sunstone, an artifact that, until six months ago, Peet had known very
little about.
    They
entered the Toltec exhibit where Frederico finally stopped. “Do you see
anything familiar, Dr. Peet?”
    Peet
quickly scanned the room. He didn’t notice it right away, not until a family of
Asian visitors stepped away from the central display. Peet recognized the
location from the security camera’s footage, but more