Chapter 10
Outside the window of the car, the world passed in a blur. Cars and tractor trailers sped along, each with its own destination and urgency of purpose. But inside the car, a stillness had gripped all three boys. A slight tremble in Jack’s hand – maybe it was caused by the sway of the car as it hurtled down Route 95; maybe it was caused by adrenaline – seemed the only motion. The delicate blue page with its cryptic poem shook as though it were alive.
Cable finally said, “I’m still waiting for some acknowledgement that my theory has been right all along. I knew there was something weird going on with this guy. Someone stole some gems from the Smithsonian and I think we’re holding proof right here.”
“What gems have been stolen?” asked Quinn. “What are you talking about?”
“I overheard a conversation while I was upstairs in the gem exhibit,” said Cable, “between that guy who came to the store and some museum bigwig. Evidently the gems that were supposed to go into the exhibit have disappeared. They were arguing about that. Both of them were blaming the other and it was getting ugly. Then when they found out that Souvlakis ID card had been scanned, both of them went racing out to find him.”
“You’re way ahead of me,” said Quinn, “or else I’m missing something obvious. Start at the beginning.”
“The Smithsonian bigwig was asking the guy with the goatee – he seems to be in charge of the renovations – where the gems were. He says they were turned over to the construction company eight weeks ago so they could put them in the exhibit. But instead of installing them, the construction company started making adjustments to the displays and things like that.”
“Why?” asked Quinn.
“According to the guy with the goatee, the gems didn’t fit. They needed to rebuild some of the displays. Anyway, fast forward to this afternoon, it now sounds like neither of them knows where the gems are. The goatee guy said that he didn’t have them. The Smithsonian guy said he didn’t have them either.”
“And Souvlakis has gone missing and is seven weeks late on his rent,” added Jack.
“Then,” continued Cable, “as soon as security called the Smithsonian guy to tell him that Souvlakis’ ID had been scanned – that was me entering the gem hall -- they both went running to find him.”
Quinn didn’t say anything, but a chronology of events started to form in his mind.
“Meanwhile,” Quinn mused out loud, “the construction guys showed up at the bookstore yesterday looking for Souvlakis.”
“Right,” said Cable, “so my revised theory is this: Souvlakis was working on the renovation of the Mammal Hall and the Gem exhibit. He knew that the gems would be moving around during the construction. He came up with a plan to steal them. Somehow, he got secret compartments built into the pedestals in the mammal hall -- he would have needed the construction company to know about that. Maybe the plan was to stash the gems in the secret compartments until the restoration was done. Then it would be easy to retrieve them any time at all.”
“But according to this note,” said Jack, “Souvlakis changed the plan.”
“Meaning that he decided to keep the gems for himself,” said Cable, “so he put this note in the pedestal and disappeared.”
“And the only people who would have known that the note was there would be the contractors,” said Quinn, “because they’re the only one who knew that the compartments were there at all.”
“Right,” said Cable.
“Brilliant,” said Quinn.
“Brilliantly devious,” said Cable.
Jack said nothing.
“Jack?” said Quinn.
Jack was reading and rereading the note.
“What do you think, Jack?” asked Quinn.
Jack rubbed his forehead. “I think this doesn’t make sense to me. Why make a riddle out of this if all he’s doing is telling his partners that he’s swiped the gems and disappeared? Why not just disappear?”
“Doesn’t it say he left them something?” said Cable.
“’What I think is fair,’ is what it says,” said Jack, “whatever that means.”
“Maybe it’s payment for their part of the heist,” said Cable.
“And this part,” continued Jack, reading again, “In TEAM there is no I, nor in LON, nor TGER nor BEAR.’ What the heck is that all about?”
“Let me see the note,” said Quinn from the back seat. Jack handed it to him. They drove along in silence again.
“’There is no I in TEAM’ is one of those stupid motivational mottos on coffee mugs and posters,” said Quinn. “So maybe it means there is no I in Lon or Tger or Bear, either.”
“Which means what, exactly?” asked Cable.
“I don’t know,” said Quinn. “What’s a Lon?”
Cable shrugged.
“Or a Tger,” continued Quinn.
“Sounds like Tiger to me,” said Cable.
“No, it’s not tiger,” said Quinn, “it’s Tger.”
“That doesn’t mean anything,” said Cable.
“We can google it when we get back to the store,” said Quinn.
“How do you spell it?” asked Cable.
“T-G-E-R,” said Quinn. “Like Tiger but with no I.”
“No I?” repeated Cable, “as in ‘no I in T-E-A-M.’ As in Tiger with no ‘I’. As in Lion with no I is Lon?”
“Whoa,” said Quinn, rereading the note, “I think you’re on to something.”
“What’s the last one?” asked Quinn.
“Bear.”
“Bear-I? Ibear?”
“What about if it’s just Bear,” said Quinn, “he needed something that rhymed with ‘fair.’”
“I hate to interrupt you guys while you’re enjoying yourselves so much,” said Jack, “but what on earth are you talking about? How did this become a word game? iPod, iRat, iBear. I mean, I understand what you’re saying, but so what? Even if you’re right, where does it lead?”
“I’m not sure,” said Cable, “but remember all those books he had on word games, crossword puzzles, secret compartments. This was not a normal collection of books, Jack. And now we’ve got missing gems on top of it all. Maybe it leads to the gems?”
“Right, because the jewel thief thought it would be clever to leave a trail telling people how to track him down?”
“Jack’s right,” said Quinn, “it doesn’t completely make sense.”
“Tiger with no I,” said Cable, “get it, “Tiger with no eye. Lion with no eye. He was a taxidermist, right, so think about it, Tiger with no eye – remember those glass eyes we found in the cut-out book at his house. They looked like gems to me. Could he have put something in the eyes of the Tiger and the Lion and the Bear?”
“Like gems instead of glass eyes?” said Quinn from the back.
“Maybe,” shrugged Cable, “payment for the help he got from the contractors. It’s not impossible.”
“It’s very close to impossible,” said Jack.
Cable flipped on the right-turn blinker. Then veered across a lane of traffic onto the exit ramp. They made it onto the exit, but not without Jack grabbing onto the door and yelping, “Cable what the hell!”
Cable slowed down as the exit ramp curled under the highway. “There’s just one way to find out,” he said, “let’s go back to the museum.”
“Are you insane?” said Jack, “we just ran out of there with all the security guards in the place on our heels. They’ll be waiting for us. Pull over, Cable.”
Cable kept driving. He turned onto the highway entry ramp and accelerated up onto the highway, heading in the other direction now.
“I’m serious Cable, this is insane,” said Jack.
“What’s the matter?” asked Cable, “you used to like adventures.”
“Cable, we can not, can not, go back in there right now. You weren’t down there in the security office with Quinn and me. Those guys were serious. They’ve got closed circuit cameras and I’m telling you, they were serious about catching Souvlakis. They were already on high alert, and after this afternoon it’ll be worse. Plus, they know us. They know me and Quinn anyway. The only reason they didn’t catch you this afternoon was because I dumped a soda on the computer that was hooked up to their monitors.”
“Even better,” said Cable, “That means that their security system isn’t working right now. If we wait until another time, they’ll be back on line. And they might have beefed up security.”
Jack shook his head. “Cable, you’ve lost what little common sense you had. We just left there what? Forty minutes ago? The guards will probably still be searching the exhibit halls for us.”
“It might be our only chance,” said Cable.
“Chance for what, though?!” blurted Jack. “To steal gems from the Smithsonian museum? Isn’t that what you’re hinting at? They belong to the fracking Smithsonian! I mean, it’s one thing if you’re trying to catch the thief, but it sounds like you’ve become the thief.”
Cable didn’t respond. But he kept driving back towards Washington. The Washington Monument was visible at the horizon. Jack’s temple throbbed with anger and frustration.
“Cable, you are being impossibly stubborn. What are you doing?” he said.
“I just want to go look,” said Cable. “I just want to see what’s there, in the eye of the Tiger and the Lion. That’s all I’m talking about.”
“And the guards?”
“If there are guards there, we tell them what we know. We haven’t done anything wrong.”
“Except sneaking into the gem exhibit using the ID of a suspected jewel-thief and dumping soda on their security equipment,” chimed in Quinn.
“Except that,” said Cable, “but when we show them this note, they’ll understand. And we can give them the books and stuff. We’re on they’re side, after all.”
“I’m not sure they’d see it that way,” said Jack.
“Look,” said Cable, “just trust me. Please. I want to do this.”
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