Friday Barnes 10 by R.A. Spratt

Author:R.A. Spratt [Spratt, R. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760148317
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

Skrik (The Scream)

Edvard Munch 1893

91 cm × 73.5 cm

Oil, tempera, pastel and crayon on cardboard.

Friday looked around the rest of the room. She particularly noted the cameras. There was one diagonally opposite the empty wall, but it had been smashed. The broken camera was dangling from the ceiling by its wires.

‘This camera didn’t catch who smashed it?’ asked Friday.

‘No,’ said Agent Olsen. ‘It was pointed at the picture on the wall. The person who struck it must have been standing directly below, out of frame.’

‘Then they would have been picked up by that camera,’ said Friday, pointing to the security camera at the opposite end of the room.

‘No, they aren’t on that footage either,’ said Agent Olsen. ‘A fly landed on the lens. It caused that camera to go out of focus. The rest of the room became a blur.’

‘Really?’ said Friday. ‘A fly disabled the camera?’

Agent Olsen shrugged. ‘These things happen. That’s the problem with introducing the very latest technology – sometimes the technology is too smart for its own good. The museum is so new they hadn’t worked out all the bugs yet.’

‘In this case, the bug was actually a bug,’ Melanie observed.

Friday walked over and took a closer look at this other camera. ‘That’s an awfully stationary fly,’ she observed. Friday looked about the room. ‘Surely a museum would have anti-insect strategies? Insects could cause a lot of damage if they didn’t.’ She turned to Agent Olsen. ‘Crouch down, I want to climb up on your shoulders.’

‘What?’ asked Agent Olsen.

‘I want to have a closer look,’ said Friday, pointing up at the camera above her.

‘Do you think some of the visitors are secretly circus performers and they did elaborate acrobatics to disable the cameras?’ asked Melanie.

‘Maybe something like that,’ said Friday, before turning back to Agent Olsen. ‘Are you going to crouch down, then? You’re very tall. It’s going to be hard for me to climb up on you otherwise.’

Agent Olsen got down on one knee.

Melanie clapped excitedly. ‘I love seeing a man on one knee! Even if it isn’t Ian. Although, wouldn’t it be good if he was here?’ Melanie started getting her phone out. ‘He’d be so jealous. I’ve got to take a photo!’

Friday eventually clambered up on Agent Olsen’s shoulders. When he stood up, Friday’s face was only a foot below the camera. ‘Just as I thought,’ said Friday, reaching up and grabbing the fly. ‘It’s not a real fly. It’s made of rubber.’

‘Someone put it there?’ asked Agent Olsen.

‘This robbery was planned with brilliant simplicity,’ said Friday as she clambered down. ‘The 2004 robbery was like something out of a movie. The robbers burst in armed with guns, so all the security improvements since then have been designed to counter a similar attack. That’s why the best way to rob the Munch now was with elegance and simplicity.’

‘But who did it?’ asked Agent Olsen. ‘And how?’

‘Let’s go back downstairs and take a look at our suspects,’ said Friday. ‘It shouldn’t take long to figure out.

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.