Artnapping (5 page)

Beads of sweat were growing on his forehead. Even inside, he was wearing wrap around sunglasses.' POLICE brand shades,' noticed Christopher. A fear -of-flying passenger? Or was he an undercover cop? Unlikely. A cheap, open neck shirt, crumpled and very baggy pants. Gloria had warned the twins about flared trousers which could conceal drugs or birds strapped to the legs. Either he had very fat, calf muscles or he liked daggy shaped pants. He took a note- stuffed wallet from his back pocket and counted the notes slowly. That was a stupid thing to do while travelling. In between, Brut looked at his gold Rolex to check the time. Maybe he was nervous? Was it a copy watch? If not, it looked too expensive for the rest of him. Christopher checked the shoes. Expensive Nike joggers. They matched the watch but not the clothes.

Maybe a clue, but to what?

A tattoo peeped out from under his shirt sleeve.

Christopher stared at the I LOVE JULIE in a heart with an arrow which quivered on Brut's arm muscle. ‘What if you change your girlfriend?'

‘No problems. Only cost me sixty in Amsterdam last week and they last for ever,' Brut said proudly. ‘What a bargain. I'll get another tatt done if I drop her.'

Would he run out of body space or girlfriends first, wondered Christopher. Brut unzipped the small airline bag beside him. He unwrapped gold chains which still had price tags. A receipt floated onto the floor. Christopher picked it up and took a quick look. $2,345.000 . Looked as if he'd spent money recently. And that expensive watch was out of keeping with the cheap clothes. Suspicious Gloria would mark him for a baggage inspection. At last, Brut noticed him sketching. ‘Hey, who said you could draw me?

‘D'you mind?' asked Christopher, putting down his pen.

‘Yeah,' said Brut. ‘Hop it. No. I'll have that first.'

Brut seized the sketch pad, ripped out the page and tore it to bits. He dropped the pieces into the bin, one by one. ‘Wouldn't like to litter the airport,' he sneered.

‘Christopher would have given it to you, if you'd asked,' Amy stuck up for her brother. ‘Wouldn't you? Some people love my brother's sketches.'

Christopher didn't say anything. He was trying to work out why Brut was so upset about being drawn. It wasn't as if Interpol was making an Identikit sketch for the police. What did Brut have to be guilty about? There was an old newspaper on the seat. Samuel had left it behind. Amy glanced at it idly. She was a bit of a readaholic. She liked the chains of words which gave her ideas. Christopher liked cartoons, pictures or comics better. On the right hand side of the page was an ad. in a black border.

REWARD $50,000

A reward of $50,000 will be paid for any information DIRECTLY leading to the recovery of a rare Ming vase stolen from residential premises in X town on June 7th, worth approximately $1 million. Attempts through the authorities to date have been unsuccessful.

A rare coin was thought to be stolen at the same time.

Any decision to pay the reward will be strictly at the discretion of Mr Ng. Queries from any party prepared to consider providing assistance are requested to contact Mr Ng on telephone (03) 7865987 or write to P.o. Box 13, X town. Mr Ng.

That was the name which Tess had mentioned. The art collector. If he lived in Tokyo, why was he advertising in an Australian newspaper?

If he was that rich, perhaps he had several homes?

She showed Christopher who became quite excited. He'd just finished another sketch. ‘That's a lot of money. What about that photo of the Ming vase? D'you think Tess has anything to do with it?'

Both of them were a little suspicious of Tess. How could a poor art student afford to fly to Tokyo? Amy suspected that she was carrying something wrapped in her hand luggage. She seemed to know about Ming vases. And she talked to Samuel about selling her uncle's piece of artwork.

‘Coins show up on the scanner, don't they?' Amy nodded. ‘What about ordinary money on your pocket, or your bum-bag?'Before Christopher answered, Amy had worked it out for herself. They'd been through airport security hundreds of times. Mostly people carried notes or travellers cheques. Few were as stupid as Brut, showing a full wallet in public. Sometimes, loose coins would send off the alarm as they walked through the doorway and were ‘wanded down' by the security guards.

‘So if you were carrying a rare coin, where would you hide it?'

‘With other money, in your wallet or purse...or bum bag.'

Amy wasn't convinced. That seemed too simple. Then she remembered how

Tess had flipped a coin before she told the story. It would be easy to pass off a rare coin as an ordinary one, especially in a bum-bag.

‘What about the Ming vase? Where would you hide that?' asked Christopher.

‘Wrapped up in your hand luggage?' suggested Amy. But most of Tess's luggage had fallen out, in the plane. Even her red knickers.

And there was no reason to think that the coin or the Ming vase would be on this plane. It could be hidden anywhere by the thief. Perhaps the twins were suffering from ‘mysteritus' again and imagining mysteries where they didn't exist.

‘Let's have a chat to Red Cloak and see if we can look at the photo of the vase again. There might be a clue in the background of the photo.' said Christopher.

‘And there's the security guards. They might know something,' suggested Amy. Anything was better than sitting around waiting for a plane.

Chapter 7

‘D'you still have the Ming vase photo?' asked Christopher.

‘And have you ever heard of Mr Ng?' Amy asked politely.

Surrounded by his group's bags, Red Cloak looked up, ‘What? Clear off kids. I'm busy playing. ‘ Accidentally, on purpose, Christopher tripped over one of the bags. He bent down and touched something jewelled and heavy ,sticking out of one bag.

‘Get lost kids!' yelled Red Cloak. ‘And if I were talking to you, which I'm not,the name's Red.'

Disappointed the twins moved to the transit lounge entrance where the security guards stood. Christopher thought about what was in the bag. Why was Red carrying an old sword to Tokyo?

‘Have you ever heard of Mr Ng?' Amy asked one of the security guards.

‘Who hasn't?' He smoothed his tight shirt over his well muscled body.

‘Me. Why else would I be asking you?' said Amy and stopped because Mum would say that sounded rude. Amy felt better when the second guard explained.

Apparently Mr Ng was a private collector. Very rich,he travelled a lot. Originally he made his money from noodle factories. Now he owned property all over the world. He didn't like having his photo taken. His hobby was collecting art works. But unfortunately, someone stole one of his favourites. That was the reason for the ad in the newspaper.

‘Why didn't he call the police?' asked Christopher as the guard re-read the newspaper ad. Amy held out to him. ‘He couldn't complain to the police when it was stolen from his private collection because he wasn't supposed to have it either.That Ming vase was originally stolen from an Amsterdam gallery. If it's the same one. Somehow, Mr Ng got hold of it.'

Amsterdam! Wasn't that where Tess said she had been? And hadn't Brut been in Amsterdam too? Was there a link? ‘Have you been a guard long?' asked Amy. If you are a part-time mystery solver, then you need to collect answers as well as clues. And you look for mysteries everywhere.

‘A couple of years,' said the first guard flipping through a glossy art catalogue. It had pictures of Asian art.

‘Do you always watch paintings?' asked Amy.

The first guard nudged the second and laughed.'I watch T.V., but when I'm on the job, I watch people. I'm a professional people watcher. I'm pretty good at telling what people are like, just by the way they walk or talk or what they do.'

‘Ace,' said Christopher when the guard looked at him. ‘What can you tell us about us,... and about him?' Christopher pointed towards Red Cloak.

The guard looked closely at the two children. 'How much do you want to know?'

‘Everything,' said Christopher. The guard smiled. ‘Don't know if I can manage that but I'll give it a try. Okay.'He looked sideways at their carry-on bags with all the stickers.

‘You're brother and sister, because you've both got LEE as a family name on your bags. Am I right?'

‘Partly. We're twins.' explained Amy.

‘Okay. You'd be about ten or eleven and you travel a lot.'

‘You saw the old luggage labels and stickers on our bags,' said Christopher looking in the same direction. That was easy. ‘You've been to Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Bali and to Cairns.'

‘Right.'

‘You're going to Tokyo?' said the guard.

‘So is or was everybody on this plane. That's not much of a secret.'

The guard accepted the challenge. ‘You.' he pointed to Amy. ‘Collect coins and swap cards. I saw you flipping through them earlier.'

‘ Retro phone cards,' corrected Amy.

‘Same thing.'

Amy didn't agree. Used phone cards were special to collectors. Other people didn't understand the thrill of getting a set. ‘USED phone cards,' she added.

The guard shrugged. ‘A waste. What's the use of collecting used phone cards? You can't even use them for a call.'

‘YOU wouldn't need to.' Christopher had noticed the gun-shaped two-way mobile strapped to the guard's belt.

‘But others might,' argued the guard.

Amy knew that some kids had pasted stickytape over the holes of used cards. But she wasn't interested in that kind of re-cycling.

‘Most times, reading clues is just a matter of common sense.' said the guard.

‘Now, what could you tell us about him?' Christopher pointed towards Red who was still earnestly playing a game with his friends.

The guard shrugged. ‘R.P.G. game player. Got the wrong photos back at the airport FAST-FOTO shop.He works there part-time. Probably going toTokyo for the Confest. Brilliant games creator. Was slow getting off the plane because he was reading his rule-book. Those R.P.G.s live in another world.'

He explained that a Confest was an international game convention. New games were tried out and the best ones sold. ‘Why would he need those photos?' asked Christopher. ‘And where would the others like the photo of the Ming vase come from?'

‘Dunno. Clues for his game perhaps. Props for dress-ups. R.P.G. s are mad about playing. In this job, you pick up a bit about trends. And there's a big market for new R.P.G.games now. And for sports cards. The other mixed up photos could have belonged to passengers on this flight. The shop would have tried to get them ready for the plane's departure time.They do special frames.' Amy remembered Samuel saying his reprints weren't ready in time.

‘Would he use a sword in a game?' Christopher wondered about the weapon he had felt in Red's saggy bag.

‘Might. Wouldn't be a real one though. Just a fake,' said the guard. ‘Or he wouldn't have passed through security. They look after all weapons until the end of the flight. Then they give them back.'

That sword had felt real enough, thought Christopher.

Amy wondered if being a guard might be boring. After all, the paintings couldn't talk to you. Guarding people might be more fun.

‘Does much happen when you're on guard?'

The guard smiled. ‘Need to make sure cargoes aren't switched and fakes put in for real ones. Experts plan those switches. Then sometimes cargoes are ratted. That's why we have to watch.'

‘What's ‘ratted' mean?' Christopher imagined giant rats opening giant mouths so they could yawn and at the same time swallow cargo.

‘Thieves open cartons, hoping to find something valuable they can sell quickly. They like to ‘rat' expensive watches like Rolex because these are easy to sell. Although those watches do have individual numbers.'

That Brut had a Rolex, but so did lots of the passengers. Now Christopher imagine rats with Rolex watches like dog collars. Often, inside his head was like a cartoon program. He thought in moving pictures.Christopher loved funny cartoons. He watched them on TV in any country. The language didn't matter. He laughed anyway. Some cartoons had sub-titles but he could usually work out what was happening from the pictures. On the wall above them a TV screen was on. A cartoon was ending, so Christopher glanced across, his neck stretched back.

The guard said,'Sometimes blackmailers threaten to destroy one-off artwork that can't be replaced and the authorities have to strike a deal.' The guard fiddled with his mobile. 'That's our worry with the Rembrandt. A one-off and priceless. Not an easy job for us.'

Meanwhile, Amy had been thinking about artnapping. ‘What if someone took a valuable vase or coin and threatened to wreck it unless the owner paid some money?'

‘Or a sword?' suggested Christopher quickly. Amy looked across at him, but just then Tess re-appeared.

'Couldn't get through to my friend.No-one's answering the phone.' She turned to the guard.' If you're here, is anyone guarding the painting now?'

Both twins wondered why she needed to know.