The Guggenheim Mystery by Robin Stevens

Author:Robin Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141377049
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

THIRTY

Scylla and Charybdis

We came out on the northwest corner of Union Square. I noticed that the tilt of the Earth and the position of the sun meant that its light was passing through more air to reach ground level in New York. Each air molecule it bumped against made it scatter more and more, so that by the time it reached our eyes it was red and yellow instead of blue.

Kat raised her hands to her eyes. ‘Look at the sunset!’ she said.

I tilted my neck back down to look at the city around us. The grassy square was to our right, with trees and paths and people jostling each other along them. Hot, dirty smells came up into my nose, and traffic flashed between us and the square, stopping and starting, a circuit breaking and coming together again. I noticed that the traffic was stopping more than it should, and people were leaning out of their cars and waving their hands as their horns blared. We turned through ninety degrees, and that was when I saw the reason for all the horns and shouting. Part of the street, the part under a green sign with white lettering that said UNION SQUARE WEST, was blocked off by bright orange traffic cones. Three people in bright orange suits were crouched around a hole in the ground. I wondered if it was a sinkhole that had opened up under Manhattan.

Salim put his camera up to his eye and took a picture of the men. Then Kat said, ‘Come on!’ She grabbed Salim’s arm and ran towards the men. I did not think Kat was being very sensible. She was not obeying the rules of the road, and that was dangerous.

‘Kat!’ I shouted at her, but that word was lost in the honking and other people’s shouts. I squeezed my eyes shut and my hand shook itself out. Everything suddenly felt too loud. I felt like Odysseus again, Odysseus facing the whirlpool Charybdis.

I counted and breathed, and then I opened my eyes again. I could do this. The orange DON’T WALK sign turned white and said WALK, so I walked, ten paces across the road, and came to where Kat and Salim were standing. They were both shouting at the men in orange jumpsuits, because one of them had picked up a heavy drill and was using it. It jolted across the tarmac, shooting noise out into the air.

‘HELLO!’ screamed Kat.

‘BEN!’ shouted Salim. ‘I KNEW YOU’D BE HERE!’

‘SALIM!’ shouted Ben. ‘HEY, GUYS, STOP!’

I looked at Ben and saw that his body was approximately the same size and shape as Hank’s had been, and their faces had the same proportions. He also had freckles across his face and body. It was true: this was Ben, and he was Hank’s brother.

The other men stopped drilling. Ben stepped towards us to talk to us, and turned to Salim. ‘Hey, guys. Salim, I heard your mom got arrested,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Yeah, but she didn’t steal the painting,’ said Salim.

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