‘So the thief likes gambling, and so does Toby.’ Phoenix turned to Jazz. ‘Do you think Toby Grimshaw drove the ram-raid car?’
‘Well, loads of people hang out at the casino . . . but only someone involved with the museum would know where to ram the car so they could grab Sapphire and get out of there before security came running.’
‘If Toby is in trouble with Neptune’s, he might have dropped the chip deliberately, to try and make it look like the casino was mixed up in the theft,’ Anika said.
‘What about Sammy, the guy that attacked us at Kendricks?’ suggested Mike. ‘He’s a security guard at the museum, isn’t he?’
Phoenix nodded. ‘But he was distracting Gustav during the raid, remember? We heard him telling Delgado in the conversation I recorded.’
‘Delgado and Sammy are both involved, but we only have evidence that links them to Kendricks. Toby’s the only one we know for sure has links to Neptune’s,’ Jazz said. ‘Whether he dropped the chip by accident or on purpose, the letter proves that, despite his celebrity dates and fancy cars, he owes the casino money. I’d say that’s motive enough to break into a museum, steal a prototype computer and ransom it off to the highest bidder.’
Phoenix stretched. ‘Also, Sapphire is his dad’s computer. Maybe Toby feels kind of entitled to it.’
‘Good point,’ said Jazz. ‘And from the way Sir Robert spoke about him, it sounded like he and his son weren’t exactly on the same page.’
‘One other thing,’ said Anika, clicking open another file. ‘The most recent email in Grimshaw’s inbox confirmed a pending bank transfer of almost seventy thousand dollars.’
‘Does it say who it’s from?’ demanded Jazz.
Phoenix leant sideways on his chair, moving closer to Anika to see what she was reading. He looked across the laptop screen at Jazz, his grey eyes wide. ‘Pablo Delgado.’
Jazz exhaled a long, slow breath. ‘Toby Grimshaw is in it up to his neck,’ she said. ‘I think he’s due another visit.’
02:55
‘So what’s our plan?’ asked Jazz, as they waved goodbye to Anika. Mike had dropped her at athletics on their way to the harbour.
‘We can’t just rock up and ask him “Did you steal Sapphire? And kidnap Dr Zhang?”,’ Mike joked.
‘We can say that we were heard Sir Robert call him from the museum. That we know he lied to the reporter when he said his father sounded fine,’ Phoenix said. ‘We can play him the voicemail Delgado left for Dr Zhang. Maybe Toby will get scared and tell us something so we don’t go to the police.’
‘You’ll be putting yourselves in danger,’ Mike warned.
‘We managed this morning,’ Jazz reminded him.
Mike parked just in front of the apartment building and the three of them walked up to the front entrance. It looked as big as a castle drawbridge and just as secure.
Phoenix pressed the buzzer for the penthouse a few times, but there was no answer.
‘Maybe he’s there, but just not answering. He’s probably sick of reporters by now,’ Mike said.
Jazz frowned. ‘We need to get inside the complex. We’ll be harder to ignore if we’re outside his front door.’
‘I could try hacking into the security system or something,’ suggested Phoenix.
Mike sighed. ‘You seem to be overthinking this a tad. People have to leave, right?’
‘We don’t have time to wait for Grimshaw,’ said Phoenix.
‘I know that. But just wait until another resident comes out, then walk in before the door shuts.’
Jazz and Phoenix shared a look. Could it really be that simple? Before they could think much more, the front door opened and a woman came out wheeling a bicycle.
‘Now’s your chance!’ said Mike, his green eyes gleaming. ‘I’ll wait by the car in case Sammy or Delgado shows up.’
Jazz suddenly felt reluctant to leave Mike behind. But it was now or never. ‘OK, um—thanks!’ Jazz said.
She and Phoenix moved forward confidently, passing the woman as she clipped on her bike helmet. Before the door had even started to close, she was on the bike, riding off without a backward glance. Jazz and Phoenix walked straight inside.
Phoenix hurried over to the lifts.
‘Uh-uh,’ whispered Jazz, grabbing him by the arm. ‘That part may have been easy, but those lifts need a key pass. It’s the fire stairs for you and me.’
The two of them began the long slog, finally emerging, puffing, at the penthouse level. The private foyer was empty. A polished marble floor ended at floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping city views. Abstract steel sculptures decorated the wall either side of Toby’s front door.
‘If this is the view from the foyer, what’s it like inside?’ wondered Jazz.
‘Only one way to find out,’ said Phoenix.
Jazz rapped on the door. There was no answer. She tried again. This time she heard a strange noise. ‘What was that?’ she asked.
‘I can’t hear anything.’
‘Come closer. Put your ear to the door and listen. There’s a funny, mumbling sound.’
Phoenix pressed his ear firmly against the door and listened. Sure enough, Jazz was right. ‘Mr Grimshaw! Are you all right?’ he asked. He turned to Jazz. ‘We need to find someone with a key!’
‘Or a code.’ Jazz pointed to a keypad by the door.
The noise from inside changed, and now Jazz and Phoenix could hear a muffled thumping.
Then the noise stopped. Phoenix opened his mouth to say something when the noise started up again. Then more silence, then the thumping repeated.
‘It’s the same sequence,’ whispered Jazz urgently. ‘Several groups of thumps with a short pause between each one, then a long pause and it starts again.’
As it started up a fourth time, Jazz stepped up to the front door. She heard five muffled thumps, and pressed ‘5’ on the keypad. She carried on until she had entered a four-digit code. The door didn’t open.
‘Try it again,’ said Phoenix, catching on. ‘I’ll help you count.’ They waited until the thumps began again.
Once more, they counted five.
‘Seven,’ said Phoenix, ‘then . . . 9.’
The last number was ‘1’. The keypad lit up green.
Phoenix tried to push the door open. It would only go halfway. ‘There’s something blocking it,’ he said, puzzled. Cautiously, he stepped inside, Jazz following.
They both stopped in shock. Lying on the floor behind the door was a man, bound and gagged. His eyes were desperate as he peered up at them. It was Dr Zhang.
02:15
Phoenix slammed the door closed and locked it. Immediately Jazz fell on her knees beside the bound man. He rolled over so that she could get at the back of his head where the gag was knotted. The older man was grimy with dust and dried blood. He had a large bruise on his head and his wrists and ankles were rubbed raw from his attempts to free himself.
Phoenix ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. He skidded over to the struggling Dr Zhang and started cutting through the ropes.
‘Thank goodness,’ Dr Zhang almost sobbed as the gag came off. ‘I’d nearly given up hope. Please, a phone. I need to call my wife. She must be so worried.’
Shocked at the state of her friend’s father, Jazz fumbled for her mobile. She was about to pass it to Dr Zhang when Phoenix stopped her.
‘No,’ he said, regarding the man with suspicion. ‘Not until we hear his story.’
‘You’re paranoid!’ Jazz said. ‘He was bound and gagged! What more proof do you need?’
‘I need to hear what his role in all this is. What if you give him the phone and he calls Sammy or Delgado?’
Jazz was about to protest some more when she remembered that Phoenix’s life had been in danger less than twelve hours before. She nodded to Phoenix and turned to Dr Zhang. ‘I’m sorry, but Phoenix is right. You need to tell us what’s going on before we can trust you.’
The man slumped, looking exhausted. ‘Alri
ght,’ he said. ‘But can I at least clean up a bit first? Use the toilet?’
‘Of course you can. Just . . . be quick. We need to get out of here.’ Jazz paused before adding, ‘I’ll send Mack a text, to let her know you are OK.’
Dr Zhang nodded his thanks and slowly limped towards the bathroom. Watching the man like a hawk, Phoenix followed him and stood outside the door.
Jazz sent the text. Then she took a look around the apartment. The living room was spacious with a polished wooden floor. Creamy leather lounges were positioned around a Persian rug in the centre of the room. The two front walls were almost entirely made of glass. Through them, Jazz could see Toby Grimshaw’s new rooftop garden and the glittering harbour waters beyond. Opulent chandeliers hung from a ceiling that had been painted to a pale sky blue. The apartment seemed almost to be floating above the sea in its own little world.
On a long marble table at the other end of the room, a large crystal swan made a graceful centrepiece. What looked like ancient weaponry from around the world decorated the wall behind it. There were painted wooden shields, long-faced masks and dangerous-looking spears.
Jazz’s gaze travelled once more around the room, stopping suddenly to rest on a marble statue near one of the lounges. Her eyes widened; her jaw dropped. The statue seemed to dominate the whole space. Jazz let out a gasp. ‘Look! The Medusa!’
Sure enough, there stood the Grimshaw Medusa. Facing one of the glass walls, the statue stared out at a glistening plunge pool in the centre of the garden.
‘B-but,’ stammered Jazz.
‘If there’s one here,’ said Phoenix, coming up beside her, ‘and the one at the museum was smashed—’
‘Then which one’s real?’ finished Jazz.
‘Remember Sir Robert’s reaction when he climbed up to look at the Medusa at the museum?’
Jazz nodded. ‘He saw something then that told him it wasn’t the real deal. After all, he’d know the statue better than anyone.’
‘Let’s find out if this one’s real,’ said Phoenix. He pulled his laptop from his backpack, opened it up and connected the small laser scanner. Dragging one of Toby Grimshaw’s luxury dining chairs over to the statue, he climbed up and flicked on the scanner. A red beam of light appeared across the Medusa. Holding the scanner very level, Phoenix carefully scanned from top to bottom, Jazz watching the laptop screen as the 3D image slowly appeared.
He climbed down off the chair and set his laptop on one of the leather lounges. A split screen showed the Medusa that Phoenix had just scanned next to the scan he’d taken at the museum. ‘Because these are both high-res scans I can do a much better comparison than with the Pan statues,’ he said. He selected the ‘compare’ option and set it to run. The program lay one image over the other, analysing each angle and curve to determine points of difference.
Phoenix used the mouse to draw around one of the points and dragged the isolated section into a new window. He separated out the two images and zoomed in.
‘See this chipped-off section here?’ he said. ‘The one on the left is the Medusa at the museum. The one on the right is the statue here in front of us. It’s been weathered naturally by the elements. The other has been chipped away by a modern tool to make it look old.’
Jazz shook her head in disbelief. ‘So Toby Grimshaw stole a priceless statue from his own father. It was too big for the scanners and printers at Kendricks, so he shipped it to France for his friend Camille Wolf-Ferrari to copy by hand. He sent the copy on to the museum and brought the original here. Toby didn’t want to sell or loan the Medusa, he just wanted to get one up on his dad. Talk about father-son rivalry.’
Phoenix was still comparing the two scans. ‘Wolf-Ferrari must have used a polymer that matched the look and feel of marble. She did a poor job when she didn’t match the weight though. That’s why the broken pieces of the copy that hit Sir Robert felt light when I moved them. He’s lucky it was a fake. The real thing might have killed him.’
Jazz nodded. ‘No wonder Sir Robert was so shocked when he looked at the Medusa in the Velocity wing. She’s been on the Grimshaw estate all his life. He would know that face like the back of his hand! Every line, every bit of discolouration, every tiny detail!’
‘He looked at her face and knew straightaway that it wasn’t his Medusa!’
The two of them sat in silence for a moment, stunned by the boldness of Toby’s actions.
Then the bathroom door opened and Dr Zhang came back into the room. He sank into one of the luxurious couches, rubbing his wrists and ankles as Jazz went to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. Dr Zhang took the drink gratefully and gulped it down.
‘OK,’ said Phoenix. ‘Let’s go. You can tell us your story on the way.’
Dr Zhang surprised them both by shaking his head. ‘I can’t leave. I can’t leave until I know my family is safe. Toby has threatened to hurt them if I don’t cooperate. My wife, Mack and Cooper—they won’t be safe unless I can convince Sir Robert to give me the FTTS laser frequencies.’
Jazz thought quickly. ‘Let’s call the police now then. Make sure they protect your family.’
But the older man wasn’t convinced. He shook his head slowly. ‘No, you don’t understand. They could be watching this apartment, your phones could be bugged. I-I can’t put you in danger, too. You must leave, both of you, and go to the police in person. If Toby comes back and finds you here . . .’ he trailed off.
Phoenix stared at him coldly. ‘You don’t care about Jazz and me. You just want us gone so you can run away. We’ve been to Kendricks. We know you’ve been copying antiquities to sell on the black market. Now things are starting to get rough, you want out, don’t you?’
Dr Zhang hung his head and covered his face with his hands. ‘I know it looks bad, but I’m innocent, I swear. I can explain everything.’
Jazz sat stubbornly on the lounge next to him. ‘Good. We won’t leave until you do.’
Dr Zhang gave in. ‘Alright. You know the Velocity wing went way over budget. To cover the extra cost, the museum needed to double its profits. So I had an idea to create copies of artefacts that were so much like the originals, they could be lent out, or sold to collectors. I’ve spent years working to prevent the black-market sale of antiquities. But demand is so high that criminals think it’s worth the risk to steal and sell the items, often by pretending to be a legitimate dealer. If an established museum gave these collectors the opportunity to buy or borrow replicas that looked authentic enough to be mistaken for the real thing, then maybe the collectors would stop buying the real thing from criminals.’
‘And you used 3D printing to make these copies?’ Phoenix asked.
‘Yes, I invested what remained of my own personal savings with Sir Robert who believed the idea could work. Using Sapphire, he developed specialised 3D printing and scanning technology for ancient sculptures and artefacts. In return for my investment, he gave me the patent on that technology. The plan was to launch the “authentic replicas” at the exhibition opening. Each replica would have a certificate to prove it was an exact copy of the original. Only Sir Robert and I knew about it. I didn’t even tell my family.’
‘Is that why you hid the ledger recording the loans of these replicas?’ Jazz asked, checking his story against their evidence.
‘How did you know about that?’ Dr Zhang was momentarily taken aback.
‘We found it while we were looking for you,’ Phoenix replied bluntly. He motioned for the man to continue.
Dr Zhang took a sip of water. ‘Well, the replicas we loaned out were the prototypes produced by Sir Robert in the UK. His son, Toby, arrived to discuss the upcoming exhibition when I was noting the return of one of the prototypes in the ledger.’
‘So you told Toby Grimshaw what was going on, but not your own family?’ Jazz asked.
‘I had no choice. He’d seen the copy of a valuable Pan statue alongside the original piece. He accused me of forgery, so I had to explain. Besides, his father was a
lready involved. At first, Toby was surprisingly helpful. All of my clients were from the Asia-Pacific region, but he put me in touch with Camille, a collector in Europe. And Toby had business contacts at a local 3D printing company. He recruited a security guard from there to work shifts at the museum and assist in secure transport of the artefacts.’
‘Real secure with Sammy in charge,’ Phoenix said sarcastically, shaking his head.
Dr Zhang looked distressed. ‘You have to believe me. I thought Toby was like his father, a genuine art lover who would treat the artefacts as carefully as I would. I bitterly regret involving him and Sammy now. I should have been more open with my family and the museum staff. But the truth is, I was ashamed. By this time I not only needed money to pay for the Velocity wing, I also needed money to help pay for the medical care my wife needed. She was too sick to work, and we were starting to struggle. With Toby speeding things along, I could sell and loan out the authenticated replicas much sooner. The first few times, I supervised while Toby and Sammy transported the originals out of the museum and into Kendricks. I watched while the copies were made and signed certificates of authenticity. I made sure the originals were returned and carefully controlled any loans. Early on, Toby offered to look after this aspect of the business, and I refused. But as the date of the exhibition opening approached, the preparations were making more and more demands on my time. When Toby offered his help again, I accepted.’
Dr Zhang closed his eyes momentarily, as if summoning the strength to go on with his confession. ‘Then the scheme started working too well. Demand for the copies skyrocketed. Soon we were making much more money than I’d anticipated. That’s when I started to get very worried. I turned up to Kendricks one day to find Sammy copying artworks on loan to us for the exhibition, not just the ones I’d authorised from the museum’s permanent collection. And if that wasn’t enough, they were making far too many copies and selling them, too. I tried to regain control, but Toby refused to cooperate. He threatened to convince Sir Robert to cancel the exhibition if I took any legal action.’
The Medusa Curse Page 12
