Dr. Bernard Jansenz lived in the Belgium village of Waterloo where he owned a small, neat villa. Everyone, including his neighbors, the remaining few of his relatives, and the students in the college where he taught History subject, he seemed happy, and content about his life despite his loneliness.
The truth was that Bernard was not like that a few months ago. He was restless, confused, and absent-minded all time. Something was preoccupying him, but he was able, like very few other people, to hide his feelings behind a mask of quietness and reverence. It made uncovering what was going in his mind literally impossible.
Bernard was Bernard whether the football team she supported, Brussels F. C, won or lost; whether he was promoted or he was not; whether one of his relatives passed away or had a child.
The truth was that Bernard was a vivid example of a serial killer whom nobody would ever suspect. All people would say after they knew of the reality of what he did, ‘It’s impossible the gentle Bernard did that’.
Bernard, however, was not a serial killer. He had never been a criminal at all in his life. There was only one problem that troubled him and always preoccupied him—the Mona Lisa painting.
He just wanted to possess it, and to sit opposite to it in the antiques room in his villa waiting for it to speak up its secrets. Only then he would stop worrying and contemplating, and he would consider himself the emperor of the world.
This painting kept preoccupying him since he started collecting antique paintings some decades ago. He owned a lot of paintings; some of the which were precious, fraudulent people deceived him other paintings were precious, and he purchased others in exchange for a low price and discovered later they enjoyed considerable historical value.
Bernard was a realistic person by the end of the day. He was aware that it was impossible the Mona Lisa would change its location where it was kept safe and serene in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Therefore, he settled for reading every book and watch every video on the painting. The result was even Da Vinci would bow before the amount of information that Bernard knew.
This was the case before Bernard discovered out of chance during one of his searches that there was another painting in the world that bore the same name because of a similarity between them. Its name was the Moroccan Mona Lisa. It was painted by the famous Scottish painter James McBey.
Bernard’s life changed since then, but nobody noticed that of course. All his emotions were boiling like magma under what people think to be still ground.
In light of the principle, ‘What cannot be completely attained, should not be completely left’, Bernard took one of the most difficult and dangerous decisions in his life after he read all minute details on the Moroccan Mona Lisa.
And there he was sitting with Huda, the Tangierian girl, and telling her about his idea after he had drawn up his plan in his mind. He was unable to do that with the famous Mona Lisa, so nobody would ever expect that someone would carry out such an adventure to rob the Moroccan Mona Lisa.
Choosing Huda was not done haphazardly; he reviewed the CVs of all his current and previous students and only some of them were from Tangier where the Moroccan Mona Lisa was displayed in the American Museum. They were very few, and Huda was the best. He reviewed her CV and conducted a thorough research on her. He knew that she was an ambitious woman who had massive energy inside her awaiting to be set free, but lacking chances was suppressing her.
He remembered too that she was inquisitive. Some of these questions were related to her field of study, whereas others were nosy which revealed her desire to make fast, successful leaps instead of waiting all the massive number of students ahead of her.
Huda looked at the ceiling thinking…or actually fake it. He knew that she would agree. Her eyes revealed that she agreed the minute he mentioned the money, but she is being reluctant although willing to do it.
She asked for some time to think, and he agreed with a smile of confidence. She would call him in few hours or tomorrow at maximum to tell him that she considered it well and found it logical. He would say a lot of things about his confidence in her and her ingenuity. Ingenuity in doing what? He did not actually know, but he would continue complimenting her until she got bored. Then he would hang up and continue the necessary arrangements of his plan. And he got what he wanted.
He hired a gang for 150.000€ that was specialized in this kind of robberies. This operation took a lot of time because he was anxious; he was fearful of putting his head in the guillotine of such gangs which were infamous for blackmailing. He finally succeeded in finding remote acquaintance who introduced him to another person he said he fully trusted.
The later was the head of a gang of three—a Belgium and two polish. He told him that they were so professional that until then no one of them was captured excepts for one due to an individual mistake that had nothing to do with the group plan.
He explains for tem his plan. They will travel separately- two to Agadir and one to Marrakesh then they group in Tangier to carry out the operation. After they disguise themselves very well, they rob the painting using a sleeping an invisible, gas without shedding blood. Then they will have to keep it until he asks them to return it with them.
Meanwhile Huda will have arranged the travel of the security guard’s friend with a big bag that they should fit the size of the painting. That friend should definitely go to the museum or the hospital to check on his friend. Criminals, all criminals, return to the scene of his crime.
In light of the description of the painting he read, he knew a painter who was able to forge it perfectly. When the friend of the security guard arrives in Belgium, they will tuck the painting in his bag and inform the Interpol as if he has smuggled it.
The last part of the plan will be smuggling the real painting under the eyes of everybody. A lot of copies are to be made and sold in the streets as souvenirs which he himself has commissioned a person to print and advertise in Tangier.
To take more precautions, the frame of the painting that was made in Spain the seventeenth century will be dismantled to smuggle the paper painting only in addition to other copies as if they were souvenirs. The frame will be smuggled in pieces so that it will not draw the attention of anybody especially that the painting will have been restored to the museum.
Huda will finish her task once the friend of the guard arrives in Belgium.She will give them if she can a copy of the key of the apartment so that they will not have to break into it.
As such, he will have the real painting. They criminal will be caught, and the painting will be restored to the American Museum.
There will not be anything missing excepting being one happy family and singing ‘We are the World’.
Bernard sat down recalling all of that. He was surrounded with his painting and antiques contemplating that aberration he adored in blackness of the right eye of the Moroccan Mona Lisa. His plan worked out despite that it costed him more than 300.000€. It was not important as long as he achieved a significant part of his dream. He addressed the Moroccan Mona Lisa saying,