Framed!

Florian and Margaret spend all their spare time trying to discover who leaked the story, what the importance of the cleaning crew was, how the burglar knew about the security upgrade, and who else might have come into contact with Novak. They also want to know how Nevrescu knew that Florian would be at the soccer game. Margaret speculates that Nevrescu has access to the information in Florian’s Metro card. Margaret cannot accompany Florian home today as she has piano lessons, but she tells him not to take short cuts like the one behind the Safeway.

Florian states that the story has been brought to the events described in Chapter 1, where he is kidnapped behind the Safeway. Now, he is seated across from Nicolae Nevrescu. Nevrescu says that the FBI have it wrong; he claims that he is not involved in the art theft and tells Florian to convince them. Florian notices Nevrescu’s incongruous tattoo of a daisy with the numbers 24/7 under it. Everything suddenly make sense to him. He tells Nevrescu to let him go before the FBI comes crashing in. He reveals that his inhaler is a panic button and says that they need to talk about Nevrescu’s tattoo. The Romanian word for daisy is margareta, and 24/7 is the European-style date of a birthday near Margaret’s: July 24. Florian announces his realization that Nevrescu is Margaret’s father.

Nevrescu reveals that he was at the soccer game not to watch Florian but to watch his daughter play; it was Margaret, not Florian, that Nevrescu recognized at the embassy. Nevrescu says that he is a bad guy but Margaret is good, so for her own safety, she cannot ever be connected to him. Twelve years ago, when he was a student at Georgetown, he met her mother. His family wouldn’t accept an African American daughter-in-law. He had to take on the role he did to convince his family to leave Margaret and her mother alone. Florian says he will need help explaining to the FBI, and he also suddenly understands who stole Woman with a Parasol. He asks Nevrescu for help in getting Novak to come back to America. Nevrescu can also assert that Rivers wasn’t the man at the embassy. Suddenly, federal agents burst in, including Rivers, who hugs Florian. After things calm down, Nevrescu says that he had his man kidnap Florian so that he could explain the situation. Florian says they’ve solved the case, and when he points at Rivers and asks if Nevrescu has ever seen him before, particularly in the Romanian embassy, Nevrescu says no.

Florian tells Rivers about Margaret’s birth and about Nevrescu. Rivers agrees that Florian should keep this information a secret. Florian says that Rivers’s lesson about the limitations of TOAST helped him to figure out the theft because he realized that someone was leaving leading clues pointing to Nevrescu.

When Florian gets home, his mother won’t stop hugging him. Margaret comes over, and Rivers texts that the case is closed. They turn on the TV and see Oliver Hobbes on a talk show, complaining about the FBI and the National Gallery. They mute him as Florian explains. He says that Nevrescu had a relative playing in the soccer game and didn’t care about Florian at all. Nevrescu kidnapped Florian so that Florian would be able to explain Nevrescu’s innocence and figure out why clues kept pointing to him.

Florian deduced that if Nevrescu was innocent, the bids from the auctions were fake. That meant that the culprit is only one possible person: Hobbes. He was an insider who knew when the security would be upgraded, and he had been to ArtFest in Budapest with Novak. On the night the paintings were stolen, he was at the museum long before Florian even though he lives in the same area. This means that he was already close by. Now, Florian and Margaret watch the TV as Hobbes’ rant is interrupted by Rivers and FBI agents, who arrest him in the middle of the broadcast. Novak is arrested while coming back into the country and trades evidence in exchange for a reduced sentence. The plan was for Hobbes to keep Woman with a Parasol while the Czechs would keep the other three. Hobbes was the one dressed up as the custodian, but he was too slow to get out of the gallery, so he hid the painting in the locker that the museum had provided for his insurance company. The painting had been there the entire time. Rivers is seen as a hero, but the only interview he grants is with the Alice Deal Middle School student paper.

Florian Bates is a 12-year-old middle schooler who lives in Washington, DC; he is a fan of the DC Dynamo girls’ soccer team and helped to solve the biggest art theft in US history. But hardly anyone knows this. He is also sad that he cannot tell his best friend the answer to the question that matters most to her about her: the truth about her birth parents.

He and Margaret decide to take the shortcut around the back of Safeway because it is raining. There is a black van parked behind it, and they panic. The door opens and it’s Rivers asking why they haven’t learned their lesson. He then says that the Admiral sent him to ask for their help. Florian says, “Adventure is calling. Who are we to say no?” (291).