A Magnificent Crime by Kim Foster Read Free Book Online Page A

immigrant, he knew. Which was why, he was sure, he didn’t get the job replastering the ceiling. Italians trusted other Italians the most.
    And—to be fair—they would have been quite right not trusting him.
    Ethan crept along the corridor, confident in his ability to evade the few security cameras. This was just too much fun. And too easy. It’s not that he wasn’t afraid of being caught—he was. Ethan just happened to be willing to do things most people wouldn’t, in spite of the fear.
    Anyway, if he wasn’t doing this, what else would he do? Return to being a schoolteacher?
    Not in a million years.
    Ethan hadn’t always been a thief. In fact, while he was growing up in LA, his friends had once considered him to be the last existing good guy. They would always razz him, saying, “Nice guys finish last, Jones.”
    He hadn’t believed that. Until everything came crumbling down.
    Ethan had majored in art history in college. Not because of any particular career aspiration, but just because he enjoyed it. He was moderately overweight in those days and didn’t spend time or money or effort on a good haircut or great clothes.
    The only thing Ethan had going for him was his fiancée. He was engaged to his high school sweetheart, a pretty thing, sweet and supportive. He was lucky to have her, and he knew it.
    When he graduated with an art history degree, he found he was qualified to do . . . well, jack shit.
    He started taking work as a substitute art teacher, making next to nothing, eating baked beans on toast every night because he couldn’t afford better.
    It was frustrating. He wanted much more out of life. He wanted more for his wife-to-be and the family they hoped for. He’d always had the feeling he was destined for something bigger. He just didn’t know what.
    All around him, men who were willing to sell out, fight dirty, look out for number one—they were all getting ahead. His best friend, for example, was a master of industry. He made tons of money as a stockbroker and lived a glamorous life. And Ethan couldn’t help being envious of that. He was only human.
    He’d been teaching for a year when everything changed.
    It happened in an instant. It was the moment he walked in on his best friend—yes, the master of industry—with his fiancée.
    Things got worse from there, though. After the shouting and the pleading and the gnashing, they decided they might as well inform Ethan that they were, in fact, in love.
    And just like that, his sweetheart left him. Ba-da-boom, nice guy loses. Looks like everyone did have it right, after all.
    Life got pretty ugly after that for Ethan. Depression affected his work performance, and he soon lost his position as a substitute teacher. He had to move to a crummier apartment because he couldn’t afford the rent. But after a while, after he was on a first-name basis with rock bottom, that was when he discovered his own particular talent.
    It was all because of a painting.
    There was a painting—a little neo-Expressionist work by a twenthieth-century artist named Colby Wallace—that he wanted back from his fiancée. They’d bought it when they first moved in together. Ethan had saved up for a year beforehand. He knew she’d never appreciated it, but that hadn’t stopped her from taking it with her when she moved into Ethan’s former best friend’s massive house.
    Ethan had tried to be nice about it. He’d asked politely. And she’d refused to give it to him. She’d just kept on blathering about how much dickhead liked it—possibly Ethan’s term, not hers—and how well it matched the decor in their library.
    Something snapped inside Ethan. And there was only one thing for him to do. He broke into his former best friend’s house and stole the painting back.
    But the most interesting aspect of that deed was that Ethan pulled it off with very little