Tokyo Heist by Diana Renn

Author:Diana Renn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2012-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

2

1

It’s my third day on the job, and Mitsue’s so busy with the exhibit that I’m left alone most of the time. By afternoon, though I’ve made little progress on measuring, I’ve searched every cabinet big enough to hold a van Gogh canvas, and nothing has turned up.

Just because the pencil-rubbing trick from Vampire Sleuths worked in real life doesn’t mean the hidden panel business is going to work, too. Mr. Fujikawa is expecting a van Gogh in eight days. I wrangled it out of Mitsue that the financial offer was declined last night. He will only accept the painting. I’ve wasted three days on a crazy theory.

And Reika’s wasted time, too. She turned up a dead end on the fish-processing-plant venue. She went to a library and read some old newspaper articles on microfiche about the project. The plant was to be built outside of Kyoto. But after the investors pulled out, the building site sat empty for three years. In 1990, an entirely different company built a factory that packaged ramen noodles. And Fine Ayu Food Products no longer exists; that company went bankrupt in 1991 when Japan’s economy began to decline. “It took me eight freaking hours to make it through that newspaper article with a dictionary and with the help of a librarian. And for nothing,” Reika grumbled.

I had to agree with Reika that the painting is not likely to be in a noodle factory.

In my last hour of the workday, I return to measuring prints. I hope Mitsue won’t notice how little I got done, and I hope Reika’s having better luck doing Internet searches on businesses with ayu in their name. I look at my cell phone photo of Tomonori’s ayu until my eyes burn.

Then, almost mechanically, I go to the oldest-looking file cabinet, which I haven’t searched yet because it would be too small to conceal a painting. Its five drawers contain smaller flat files with more of the same—prints and scrolls and drawings. I look through each file carefully for anything with a fish symbol that might match Tomonori’s ayu.

As I’m closing the bottom drawer, about to give up, I notice, toward the back of the drawer, a stack of international art auction catalogues. They’re from the 1980s. The top one, from Christie’s auction house, says 1987. I pick them up, and beneath is a box with a smudge on the lid. I look closer. Not a smudge. A fingerprint.

No. Not a fingerprint. A stamp.

A faint stamp, showing two ayu circling around in a pool. Shaking, I grab my phone and compare it to the photo. It’s the same image as Tomonori’s drawing!

I lift the box lid. Inside is a faded brown eight-by-eleven-inch mailing envelope. When I pick it up, something shifts inside. I turn over the envelope. There’s no name or address.

The envelope is so old that the flap practically springs open in my hand. I tip the envelope toward the table. A slender leatherbound notebook slides out.

It’s a sketchbook.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.