Chapter 18
Chad pounded the counter with his fist. “Leapin’ Lizards! I almost had them.”
“Franklin and Rogers?” asked Cable.
“Whoever it was who trashed this place. They were driving a Franklin and Rogers truck. They were carrying out boxes when I walked home from the library.”
“Those were all of Souvlakis books and papers,” said Jack. “All the pedestal plans and books about secret compartments. Everything we got from his house.”
“I didn’t think anything of it,” said Chad, “you guys always have bozos carrying boxes in and out of the place. Except I noticed that the front door was broken. But you know, whatever, right? These things happen. I just went in to my apartment.”
“The front window wasn’t broken?” asked Cable.
“Not then,” said Chad. “The lights were all on. It looked like it always does. So like the big coconut cream pie that I am, brewed myself a cup of instant coffee and settled in to watch The Big Sleep on BluRay. But I didn’t have any hazelnut creamer, so I paused the movie and came over here to swipe some of yours. Those guys were still there, but there was no sign of you. The one of them, with a goatee, was nice enough. I guess he thought I was a customer. I went downstairs and it was all dark in the back room, which was weird. I went back upstairs and this one guy, like Sasquatch was behind the counter. I asked where you guys were and he didn’t say anything. So of course I’ve got to assert myself in a situation like that, right? A person doesn’t get to my station in life if he stands by and lets people ignore him. So I say, ‘Hey I’m talkin’ to you Donkey Kong’. That’s when his pal, the one with the goatee comes at me from behind. He goes low and takes my legs out from under me. I’m flat on my butt and he like sweeps all the books from the table at me as he’s running past. He shouts to his buddy and high-tails it out the door. Cause he knows what’s coming if he doesn’t, right? I’ve got one shot at nailing this guy before he can get away, so I dive up on the counter, Dukes of Hazard style, to cut him off. But instead of running around the other side of the counter like I thought he was going to, he stays right where he is and I slide to a stop right in front of him like I’m a beer that some cutie-tomato bartender has slid down the counter in a commercial. He grabs me by me belt and throws me throws me that way.”
“What? Towards the window?” said Quinn.
“Through the window,” said Chad.
“Throws you?” repeated Cable.
“Like I was a sack of laundry,” said Chad, “instead of forty pounds of finely toned muscle and 150 pounds of some other stuff. Then he hops through the window after me. I considered sweeping the leg or maybe using a jujitsu takedown on him, but I decided instead to trick him into escaping by staying on the ground and moaning in pain. Then, when he’d fallen for my ploy and got in his truck to leave, I got up and made a run for the library van. Except I couldn’t remember where I parked it. And by the time I found it they’d gotten a big head start. I called the police, but then I spotted them turning onto the Route 17 bypass and I knew they’d get stuck at the light at Falmouth. I doubled back down along River Road and nearly caught up with them. That’s when you called me.”
“That sounds like the guys who were here before,” said Cable.
“Definitely,” said Quinn.
“So we know who did this to us. And we know that whatever Souvlakis is up to, he’s not working with them anymore,” said Cable.
“And they know that Souvlakis has the dirt on them,” added Jack, “so they’re scrambling now. They’re trying to find him before the Smithsonian gets wise to the missing gems. Or else they’ll have some explaining to do.
“And from what I overheard,” said Cable, “the Smithsonian is getting impatient.”
“It also means that all this,” said Jack pointing at the residue from purple paint bomb they’d triggered, “was meant for Franklin and his Team. This was the trap he’d set to expose the thieves.”
“Yeah, but it didn’t work,” said Quinn. “He caught you guys in it, instead.”
“So now it depends who gets the photos that were taken,” said Jack. “If they go to the police or to Smithsonian security, someone will come looking for us. But if the photos go to Souvlakis or to Otis or to someone else, we don’t know what might happen.”
“Otis is the security guard?” asked Chad, “the one who’s going to be played by Morgan Freeman in the movie version of this?”
“That’s right,” said Quinn.
“Call him up and see,” said Chad.
“What?” said Cable.
“Call the dude on the phone and find out what’s up?” repeated Chad. “You said he was Souvlakis friend. Tell him what you know. He sounds like he’s a good guy.”
“He’s the one who got us into this” blurted out Cable, “and this--“ he pointed to his purple stains and the broken glass all around.”
Chad shook his head, “come back to the raft, Huck baby. You’re the one who got you into this. You told the dude you wanted to check out the animals and he made it happen. He didn’t know anything about that.” He pantomimed the purple spray from the bear’s mouth.
“Unless he did,” said Jack.
“And maybe the whole thing is being controlled by the CIA and President Obama is a secret Muslim and maybe Monkees might fly out of my butt.”
“But he threatened us,” said Cable.
“Peter, Davy, Micky and Michael,” said Chad, “flying all around and singing their little songs, stinking up the place.”
“I think the expression is monkeys, not The Monkees,” said Quinn, grinning.
“Can you guys please—“ said Cable, “you think we just call him on the phone?”
“If we do that,” said Jack, “maybe we can get him to read his note from Souvlakis to us. And at least we’ll let him know that we’re not the bad guys. He might even be able to help us with the Smithsonian people, when they finally catch up with us.”
“When you call them, tomorrow, you mean,” said Chad.
“Yeah, whatever,” Cable.
“There are hundreds of people named Black in the directory,” said Quinn, who was on the computer. “About ten or eleven with the first initial O.”
“Get crackin’,” said Chad.
On their fourth call, they reached Otis. They put him on speaker and told him what happened. He listened without interrupting to ask questions. When the boys had told him everything, Otis said, “Tony wouldn’t have the photos sent to me. I don’t fool around with that computer stuff. But he didn’t have too many friends amongst the suits, either.”
“You’re in the security department, aren’t you?” asked Cable, “would there be someone else who he’d send the photos to? Or would he feed them directly into the main computer or what?”
“I couldn’t tell you,” said Otis, “he hadn’t been himself all summer. There’s no telling who he still trusted by the time he set all that up. I’ll tell you one thing, though. If he were trying to collect information to get Franklin caught, he wouldn’t turn any of it over to the police until it was tied up in a neat package with a bow around it. Otherwise he’d have shared all of this with someone earlier on. No, for some reason he’s taken it all personally and it’s become like a chess game.”
“What do you think happened to the gems?” asked Jack.
“If Tony ever had a chance, he’d have grabbed them and put them somewhere safe,” said Otis, “that’s for sure. But the problem is, Tony’s idea of somewhere safe does not mean a safety deposit box or the vault at the museum. He’d put them where no one would ever find them in a hundred lifetimes. If I had to guess, I’d say that’s just what he’s done. Otherwise Franklin and his goons wouldn’t be looking for him.”
“Would he have told you where they were?” asked Jack, “If he felt that he had to make a run for it? What about the note he sent to you? Did you get a chance to look at it?”
“I haven’t found it yet,” said Otis.
“Do you think you’ll be able to find it?” asked Cable.
“I expect so,” said Otis. “You want to call me in the morning? Before eight?”
“Sure,” said Jack, “We’ll do that.”
They hung up the phone.
“What now?” asked Quinn.
Jack and Cable looked at each other and shrugged. “Let’s clean this place up and then go home and try to wash this purple goop off,” said Jack.
Jack and Cable picked up the books from the floor. They stacked the Souvlakis puzzle books and a couple other leftovers from his collection on the steps. Glass went into the trash. Chad and Quinn fitted some plywood over the open window and door and screwed it into place.
As they drove home, Quinn asked, “should one of us call Paul and Emily? Or were we going to hope this whole thing is sorted out by the time they get home?”
“You call them,” said Jack, “I need to call Max and see if we can arrange a meeting with his dad tomorrow. I’m pretty sure we’re going to need a lawyer before this thing sorts itself out.”
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