Oh, there was a speculation that one of the Nelson's own guards might have stolen the painting, a quick check of gallery personnel finding a missing guard named George Hobson. There was even a theory that a terrorist had kidnapped both the painting and the guard.

Anyone knowing of the whereabouts of Mr. Hobson -- thought to be in his seventies -- was urged to call the police hot line. (No picture yet available).

What it all came down to was that somebody had cut the Monet out of its frame and stolen the painting.

On the other hand, if there were puzzle pieces the police were not revealing -- as was often the case -- Z had a way of finding out. He could call Teddy Newbold.

He hated to do that. Ted's rat-faced captain -- an incompetent named Scherer -- didn't like Bob Zapolska; didn't want Ted having anything to do with Z. An attitude problem on the part of Captain Scherer that could be traced to that time Z had turned up evidence that the Betterton woman (who Scherer had taken noisy credit for arresting) wasn't a drug dealer, after all, spoiling the bust that was to be Captain Scherer's ticket to Clay County politics. Too bad.

This was one time, though, when Z was going to put in a call to Ted; take advantage of their high school friendship.

At the same time, he had to be careful not to get Teddy in trouble -- which wasn't easy. To be fair, it wasn't so much that Ted was dumb. He'd managed to finish a year of college before he became a cop. It was just that, when trouble came knocking, it generally paid a call on Ted.

In and out of high school, Z had been Ted's "fixer." Even the yardage Ted piled up as a running back was due to the blocking of Z and Andy Smith, the two of them pounding holes in the line a lovesick moose could amble through.

One way to look at it was that Z was still making "holes" for Ted by calling in tips Teddy could use. In return, Teddy was good for that odd bit of information that police departments turned up.