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Chapter 3: Assignment

Tuesday afternoon, Giles’s glasses were on top of his head and he was squinting at the page when Buffy walked into his office. How a man who couldn’t see got to be head of the Art Crimes Division was beyond her. Of course, that wasn’t the only division he was in charge of. But still, really!

She didn’t have the patience for this today – she was upset and wanted answers. The file she was looking for, the file Willow had told her about, the file she dreaded reading, the file on William Thorndale, (a.k.a. Spike), was missing from her caseload. Giles was going to explain exactly what was going on. She’d had more than enough of the appearing and disappearing Thorndale. A computer glitch was one thing. Especially when she had been half drunk at the time. But surely, even if he was a Mafia czar or the best art thief in the world, he couldn’t have arranged for someone to sneak into the Agency and remove his file? Could he?

She was made to wait a few moments more until Giles deigned to notice her. She spent the time examining the arcane nature of his office decorations. Buffy wished she had the nerve to come into his office when he wasn’t in and take a good took at all of his stuff. Aside from the fact that it looked like a family of pack rats had taken up residence, the quantities of knickknacks filling up the office were fascinating. Judging from his office, and the gentle face he tended to show his employees, Buffy sometimes wondered just how he had risen to be head of a department. On the face of it, he seemed far too mild mannered for this type of work at all. Of course she had heard the rumors about Giles, the rumors that said that he hadn’t always been like this. Had in fact been quite the field agent himself in his younger days. But Buffy had immediately discounted them. In Buffy’s opinion, people didn’t change like that.

Nonplussed, Buffy didn’t know what to say when Giles actually admitted to taking the file right off. She wasn’t sure why it bothered her, but at least that mystery was solved.

His next words really ticked her off. “I don’t want you working on that case, Buffy. It’s been reassigned.”

Buffy was pissed. She was the resident expert on forgeries. Besides, she really wanted to get to the bottom of this particular case. Now that she’d met the guy, it was personal. If he had somehow been using her mother to hide his crimes, she wanted to know about it.

Buffy crossed her arms and tapped her foot, prepared to argue with her boss. It’s not like she had never argued with Giles before.

“Why? Just because I met the guy last weekend you think I can’t be trusted with the case? I know my job, Giles. If you don’t think that I do maybe you should just fire me.”

Glasses firmly on his face now, Giles finally looked at her. Flabbergasted might not have been too strong of a word for his expression. “You actually met him? I didn’t know that. Why wasn’t I informed?”

“He was at my mother’s commemorative showing. Apparently he was not only a good client, but he knew Joyce personally. I made a copy of her notes about him, because after what Willow told me, I knew you would want to see them. Joyce felt really bad when a painting she’d sold Spike later turned out to be a forgery. She thought it was her fault- that she should have investigated it more thoroughly. If it turns out that he’s been dong something, hiring forgers to make copies and then selling the fakes, or buying stolen works on the black market – well, I’d want to know about it. It’s a personal thing. I don’t like to think that my Mom was taken advantage of.”

If it was true, then Thorndale had really pulled one over on Joyce. From her journal it was apparent that her mom had really liked William. As time went on, it became obvious that she thought of William more as a friend than a client. Even though she never once referred to him as Spike in her notes, although she did acknowledging that the nickname existed.

Buffy had been shocked to read that Joyce had intended to invite William to Buffy’s college graduation. Joyce had had some idea that William might be able to help Buffy get her first job. As things had turned out Thorndale had been out of the country at the time, and so of course they hadn’t met.

Fleetingly Buffy wondered if things might have been different if they had met when her mother was still alive. Would she still be having this meeting with her employer about him? Would she still be willing to investigate him? Would she even have this job at all, or would she have settled for some boring desk job in his corporate office?

“I see. Well.” The glasses were off his face again, as if they had somehow gotten smudged in the last few minutes. “I’ll simply explain matters to Harmony, and have the case reassigned to you. Seems only natural, since you two already have a connection.
You do think that he’d be open to seeing you again, don’t you? I understand that Mr. Thorndale is a hard man to get to. People with money and power usually are, and a preliminary investigation seems to reveal that he’s more paranoid than most. It might be difficult to get another agent close to him.”

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Giles muttered to himself for a minute. “Yes, Ms. Summers. It makes perfect sense to me. Consider this your case. I’ll get the file back from Harmony later this afternoon. Remember that I expect you to make weekly reports of your progress. Daily should anything of note happen.”

Satisfied, Buffy turned to leave his office, but Giles’s voice called her back.

“One more thing, Ms. Summers. A word of caution. This is the first time you will be working undercover, as it were, although he already knows your real name and identity. Don’t get too close. Don’t let this man know too much about you. Right now he is only a suspect, but he’s a suspect for a reason. Where there’s smoke there’s fire, as the saying goes. Don’t get burned.”





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