The Paris Caper by Nina Bruhns

than what he steals—jewels.”
    “Which means we have to
dig deeper.”
    Jean-Marc nodded, folding
his hands over his stomach. “Exactly. His early thefts might tell us where he
lives. Criminals work in patterns, within a comfort zone. But this guy has
already moved beyond that now. He’s a seasoned veteran. His pattern looks
random and he’s comfortable all over France. If we can find out where and how
he got started, we might learn something useful. Something that could lead us
in the right direction.”
    Pierre’s brows rose.
“You’re talking about profiling a thief ?”
    “Why not? Hell, nothing
else is working.”
    “You predicted his last
target.”
    “Yeah, but that was a
gimme. A flashy princess dripping with diamonds is too obvious to miss. Next
time it won’t be so easy, trust me.”
    “Even the best criminals
eventually make mistakes,” Pierre offered.
    “But how long will we
have to wait for that to happen? We don’t have that kind of time.”
    “So, what are you
suggesting?”
    He dropped his feet back
on the floor and leaned forward. “Start with what we know and work backwards.
We need to get inside his head. Find out what makes him tick. That’s the only
way we’re going to catch him.”
    Pierre shot him a glance.
“I think that FBI seminar you took last year in the States has you brainwashed.
Besides, you already think far too much like a perp. It’ll only get you in
trouble with Belfort again.”
    Jean-Marc gave a half
smile. “Perhaps.”
    After a short pause,
Pierre said, “You know, Marc, you have nothing to prove. Everyone has forgotten
about that incident.”
    His smile faded. “Belfort
hasn’t,” he drawled. “And neither have I. But this has nothing to do with
that.”
    A lie . His wanting
to solve this case had everything to do with screwing up on that other
one five years ago. He’d been made a fool of, the object of pity and jokes
throughout the whole division.
    This thief was his ticket
to redemption. One way or another.
    Pierre sighed. “ Bon .
Please just don’t start obsessing. Treat this like any other case.”
    “I’m not obsessing. I’m
determined,” Jean-Marc said. “There’s a difference.”
    Or so he told himself.
    His friend regarded him,
then sighed. “ D’accord . So, where do we start? Putain , there have
to be thousands, tens of thousands, of petty thefts every year. How do
we know what to look for?”
    Jean-Marc got up and
started to pace behind his desk. “We’ll need to map his patterns of behavior.
Tendencies such as time of day he prefers to work, days of the month, venues,
anything else that stands out as statistically significant. When we add that to
what we’ve already established about what he steals, we should be able to
follow him back in time, concentrating on the unsolved cases that match.”
    “It won’t be easy,”
Pierre said, stroking his chin. “This guy does his research. His jobs are
obviously carefully targeted, as opposed to crimes of opportunity.”
    “At least now they are.
Which is good. Totally random would be much harder to follow backwards.”
    “I suppose.”
    “The other thing I
noticed is, the value of the jewelry has been steadily rising. I’d like to know
why. Is his confidence rising, or is it his need that’s rising for some
reason?”
    “Drugs, maybe?”
    Jean-Marc stopped pacing
and shook his head. “No. He’s far too organized and contained for an addict.
Which is why I think we have a real shot at figuring this out. Something is driving him. When we find that, we’ll have the bastard.”
    Pierre rose as well,
flipping the chair back around. “In that case, we’d better get to it.”
    Jean-Marc grabbed a short
stack of files off his desk. “First stop, the archives. To order up all the
unsolved robbery cases from all over the country for the past five years.”
    Pierre choked on a laugh.
“Jesus, that’s going to make us popular.”
    Jean-Marc snickered.
“Hope you’re not still trying