The Fairfleet Affair by K. H. Saxton

Author:K. H. Saxton [Saxton, K. H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Published: 2022-08-09T00:00:00+00:00

Alex dedicated the next few hours to his latest digital art project. Asha curled up in her favorite armchair with a stack of well-worn books, familiar old friends. She could stand Alex for a lot longer than she could stand most people, but when she felt herself getting irritated with him, it usually meant she needed to take a break and spend a few hours with Harriet the Spy or Bilbo Baggins instead.

For a true detective, however, the call of an unsolved mystery cannot be ignored for long. Asha’s mind kept wandering back to the Shakespeare quotations. Alex found that the creation on his computer screen was starting to look a lot like the intriguing temple carvings in the photograph of Eremos. By 7:00 p.m., they were both back in the tree house.

Alex had his laptop out and was working through several possible ciphers with the King Lear numbers. “Is ‘aibeage’ a word?” he asked.

“Cabbage?”

“No, aibeage.”

“Not in English,” Asha said. She was looking through Dr. Ito’s sketchbook, searching for any additional clues that Dr. Fairfleet might have left them. She thought the more realistic drawings in the notebook were quite good, and she didn’t understand why Dr. Ito’s style changed so dramatically toward the end of the portfolio.

Asha paused on a page of charcoal swirls. Several dabs of paint—mostly blues and purples—were crowded in the leftmost margin. There was something familiar about the swirling pattern . . .

“Alex, do you recognize this?”

Alex plopped down next to her and examined the page. “I know those colors!” He pulled the sketchbook in close to his face and then slowly pushed it away as though playing with a Magic Eye book. “That’s her, all right. The Gremlin de Tang!”

“La Grenouille de l’étang? Let me see!” Asha snatched back the sketchbook. Sure enough, she could now make out the face of a frog with a spiraling tongue amid the swirls.

The discovery of the frog prompted twenty minutes of frenzied research. Alex compared Dr. Ito’s drawings to pictures of the famous painting online and discovered that there were at least four other sketches in the portfolio that seemed to be copying elements of La Grenouille de l’étang.

Asha found an entry about the painting on an art history website. “Listen to this.” She began to read aloud: “ ‘A masterpiece of the mysterious French artist known as Le Merle, La Grenouille de l’étang was a global phenomenon from its debut. The painting was initially housed in the Centre Pompidou in Paris, but it was auctioned off to private collectors when the museum reorganized its contemporary wing. Over the years the painting switched hands so many times that it could no longer be traced in public records. La Grenouille de l’étang was presumed lost until it was discovered in an estate sale by Dr. Prudence Ito of the Fairfleet Institute. The painting is now part of the permanent collection at the Fairfleet Museum of Art.’ ”

When she finished reading, Asha fell silent. Her face was grave. “Do you remember what Dr.

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