Veron Erstadt blanched as he saw emerging through the gloom Sandy Dryden walking towards him in a very determined manner, brandishing a pistol and mouthing obscenities. Where is my f***king Vermeer he shouted, this time i am going to kill you!
The room through which he now walked was quite extraordinary. It resembled a church nave, long and narrow, with high Norman arch windows, punctuating the gloom and from wall to ceiling along its whole length, lined with paintings and drawings, some unmounted and stuck on the wall with sticking tape, some on wooden boards, others on canvas, framed and un-framed, large and small - but everyone was a Vermeer or so it would appear!
Veron was in fact the absolute master of counterfeit Vermeers and had been so for going on 40 years. He was now "retired" after several spells in jail over the years, let down not by his art which was exemplary, but by dealers and agents even dodgier than him and now in his sixties, he had become a celebrity expert on the artist with dealers, owners and even the police seeking his advice.
What no one knew except for him and Sandy, was that for years, Veron had used Sandy to steal Vermeers from Museums and private collections and substituted them with his copies and these now resided on his wall, or had been sold on to other collectors. What Veron did not know was that also over the years Sandy had become an expert in his own right, with an equal talent for forgery, which included forging Veron's own tell-tales and hiding real Vermeers in front of his face by including some of Veron's art in them.
There came a point when both Sandy and Veron no longer really knew what was real and what was not, but they still thought they did.
This was why Sandy was now bearing down on Veron so theateningly! Veron had commissioned Sandy to steal a particular large Vermeer from a shady Mafia collector in Italy and substitute one of Veron's copies as he already had a buyer lined up for an astounding sum, which would mean real retirement was possible. This time Sandy, knowing this was a really big deal and possible the last one, had demanded this time to be paid with a real Vermeer albeit a small and relatively slight work of the master.
The deal done Sandy had taken it home and lo and behold - it was a fake, a damn good one perfect in the eyes of literally anyone else but not to Sandy. Is there no honour amongst thieves?!! he shouted holding the painting in one hand and a Walther PPK in the other and bore down on Vernon.
Now over to you!!
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