"It's not so much my son that's the problem. It's my ex-husband. Elliot had a part-time job at the auction house doing maintenance, and apparently, he leveraged that to figure out how to bypass their security. He took the statue as a job for some very scary guys."
Hawk's head popped up. "How scary? Names?"
"Leary," I answered.
"Boston Learys?" Hawk's eyes narrowed on me. I didn't like that he seemed to know who they were. I wasn't ready for the Learys to have a national reputation for badness. Not when they were after my kid.
I nodded. "Yes. Boston Learys. Do you know them?"
"Know of them." His eyes went to Tenn, then Griffen. He gave a short shake of his head that I took as a very bad sign.
"So, Elliot has the bust?" Hope asked.
"I wish," I said, rolling my eyes. "If Elliot had it, he would have given it to the Learys already. He's a dumbass, but he's way too scared of the Learys to double-cross them. And if he was stupid enough to still be holding on to the bust, I would have solved this whole problem and called the police."
"You'd call the police on your ex-husband?" Griffen asked, one dark eyebrow raised.
His speculative look startled a laugh out of me. "Absolutely. He had the boys overnight when he took that damn bust! He couldn't wait one night to commit a felony?" I shook my head. "If I'd had any idea what was going on, I would have had his ass in a cell."
"But Elliot doesn't have the bust anymore, does he?" Tenn was already a step ahead.
"No. Someone broke into his place—while my boys were there—and stole it. Then, Elliot shows up at my house in the middle of the night, trying to drop off the boys so he can run from the Learys until he finds the bust. I managed to get my hands on August, but Thatcher refused to leave his dad. Thatcher said Elliott was going to get in more trouble if he didn't watch out for him. Elliott got tired of arguing, took Thatcher, and they disappeared."
I slumped back into Tenn's arm, relief washing through me. Not total relief. I wouldn't be there until I had my kid back so I could ground him for eternity. But just telling the truth dropped a weight from my heart. I hadn't truly realized how much I hated lying to Tenn.
I met his eyes, to find them soft. "You must be scared shitless," he whispered.
"Pretty much," I whispered back.
"Why would the Learys be after a low-value item like the statue?" Hawk asked.
"I don't know." I shrugged, the gesture not coming close to illustrating my frustration at being unable to answer that one question. "I've been racking my brain to figure out why anyone would go to so much trouble over that specific piece. And the thing is, Elliott only took that one piece. To give you an idea, the top-selling item in that auction went for over half a million dollars and the bulk of the catalog was worth more than the bust of Vitellius. Elliott literally walked past hundreds of thousands of dollars in art to take an ugly little bust that isn't worth that much, either historically or monetarily. Which means the Learys were very clear that they didn't want him getting sticky fingers while he was in there. They must have scared him because Elliot has crappy impulse control."
"Exactly the kind of person who'd add a few things to the take while he was inside," Griffen commented.
I nodded. "So, the fact that he went to all the trouble of getting in there and just took the bust of Vitellius means something. The security was pretty good. Not the best on the market because they like to pinch pennies, but still, not easy to bypass. Which means Elliott went to considerable time and effort to get in and then only took that one thing."
"And that sculpture originally belonged to our father?" Royal asked from the computer screen. "Do you have a picture?"
I flipped through my phone and pulled up the picture I'd downloaded from the website after Elliott and Thatcher had taken off. I'd studied that picture for hours, trying to figure out what was so special about the piece. Was it possible the Sawyers would know?
"Send that to me," Griffen said.
I found him in the list of contacts that popped up on my phone screen and dropped him the picture. A few seconds later, he had it up on the monitor, split-screen with Royal.
We all stared at the bust of Emperor Vitellius with its rock crystal carving, dull in contrast to the bright brass medallions on the white marble base. Royal interrupted the silence. "Do we know how long Dad had that thing?"
Griffen shook his head. "Harvey might be able to dig up the records." He turned to me. "Any chance you'd know if that was the first item our father sent to that auction house?"