The Bonnies

by Nicole N. King

Chapter Twenty-One

  I walked away from the crowd out into the hall as the girls followed me. There were a few people outside of the banquet hall so our exit didn’t seem so suspicious. I sat the full champagne glass on a nearby tray and wave the girls over to a statue that was hanging up on the wall. The four of us surrounded the painting, staring at it as if we were actually interested.

  “The painting is a fake.” I said quietly enough for them to hear me.

  Since the girls were smart, they didn’t bother to turn their heads towards me as I said this. But the way their eyes darted, I knew they heard what I’d said.

  “The original Beggar boy painting has a bag of fruit sitting on the ground near the boy’s heel of his foot.” I continued. “In the painting, there is one piece of fruit showing inside of the bag and one on the outside. The painting the Queen is displaying doesn’t have the piece of fruit outside of the bag.”

  The girls didn’t need to ask if I was sure, because they knew I was. That painting had been every part of my childhood. I knew every swerve and curve of every stroke painted on it. In every photo, there was that extra piece of fruit lying by the boy’s heel, just outside of the straw bag.

  “So if that’s the fake painting, where is the real painting?” Kerry asked.

  I darted my glance over to the guards outside the room. They had taken notice of us. But their glances weren’t one of suspicion— it was more along the lines of lust. Though they couldn’t see our faces behind the mask, the shape of our body was more than enough for them. They obviously found us interesting and I knew it wouldn’t be long before they left their post to try and talk to us.

  “I don’t know where the real painting is. Wherever it is, we need to find it fast. We’re attracting attention.”

  I knew the girls had picked up on the guards and was purposely avoiding their attention. All it took was one of us to make eye contact with them and it was over.

  “I should have known the Queen would switch it out.” I said thinking back to the worried phone calls we’d overheard from her. “Our first guess was that the painting would be close in her reach. It was the best place for her to keep the painting safe since she was surrounded by so many guards. But then again, it also seemed like the perfect place to steal it. Maybe security had figured out our plan before we even thought of it.”

  “So what do we do now?” Yuri said.

  I closed my eyes as I tried to run back on everything I knew about the museum and this painting. The museum had a vault, but it wasn’t big enough to carry the painting. It would also be the first place for a thief to look. The vault was in the director’s office and as of right now, the room was unguarded. There is no way they would leave the painting alone in a place like that.

  “What about the extra security?’ Taylor suddenly said.

  I turned to her slightly. “What other security?”

  “Remember when we tapped into the camera’s surveillance. There was tons of security on two separate floors. One was this floor and the other one was on the floor with the basement.”

  “But there wasn’t anything in there besides crates and broken furniture.” Kerry said. “We even double checked it before coming here tonight. There’s no security down there.”

  “What if we were wrong? What if the floor we thought was the basement, was a planted feed in case someone was watching.”

  “You mean like a replica?” I asked.

  “Exactly.”

  Taylor waved us to follow us as the four of us headed to the ladies restroom. Stepping inside, Yuri locked the restroom door as I checked all the stalls. The room was clear. Taylor reached into her dress and pulled out the tablet she had stuck down there inside her bodysuit. We waited as she went searched for whatever she was looking for.

  “I got it.”

  “What is it?” Kerry asked moving closer.

  “When I went to city hall today to get the blue prints for the museum, they gave me two different copies. At first I found it strange that the museum would have two different copies, but I shrugged it off. But now that I think about it, this blueprint is a copy for when the museum was created in 1793. Remember what the entry in Joaquin de la Pezuela journal said? He had the painting moved to somewhere safe. What if that somewhere safe wasn’t the Jeu De Paume, but the museum itself?”

  “But there aren’t any hidden rooms in the museum, we checked.”

  “Not looking at the new blueprint there isn’t.” Taylor said with a smug smile. She turned her tablet around to where she had enlarged the picture of the blueprint. As we stared at it, I saw the room that was blown up on the screen. If I remembered the other blueprint correctly, this room was located right underneath the pyramid.

  “Taylor you’re a genius.” I said smiling over at her.

  “Duh!”

  “But how do we get there?” Kerry asked. “The pyramid is closed for the evening, and the last time I checked, there weren’t any stairs leading into a secret room.”

  “I’ve figured that out as well.” Taylor said putting away her tablet. “The claim is that the painting has been lost for several years, but somehow it just so happens to turn up in a Jeu De Paume. Of all the years it could have been found in that attic, why would the painting turn up now just after months that Autumn’s dad was killed?”

  “What are you getting at Taylor?” Yuri asked tilting her head. Yuri hated puzzles and “what if” questions. It was enough to drive her mad.

  “Autumn, I think your dad was the one who sent us this hint?”

  “What?” I said.

  “I never told you, but the article about the painting being found in the Jeu De Paume wasn’t released by any known news publications. In fact, the news publication, and the author who wrote it was fake. The author’s name was something like Anne Gables and the publication was located somewhere in Nova Scotia.”

  At that I went still. It couldn’t be.

  “Autumn, are you alright?’ Kerry asked placing a hand on my shoulder.

  In a shaky voice I said, “Taylor, what name did you say?”

  “Anne Gables.”

  Yuri eyes widened as she turned to me. “No shit.”

  “What?” Kerry and Taylor asked at the same time.

  “Anne Gables is another name for Anne of Green Gables. It’s one of my favorite books.” I said. “My father used to read it to me every night until I was able to read it myself. Then I read it to him.”

  The girls looked at me as my mind rumbled with so many thoughts. My father had left the hint for me to find. How? Why? Maybe he knew that I wouldn’t just take his death as an accident. So he’d released the article, hoping I would recognize the name. Only I didn’t.

  “I’m still a bit confused guys.” Kerry said.

  “Taylor was right. My father released the article to give us a hint. The painting was never in the Jeu De Paume it has always been in the museum. Now I get it while the Queen seemed to have such a calm façade tonight. She wasn’t worried anyone would really take the painting. She knew that it was safe and there was no way anyone would get to it. All of this, the worrying, the displaying, it was all an act. She’s been in on this the whole time.”

  “Are you saying the Queen was working with your father?” Yuri asked.

  “Yes. I think the frantic phone calls weren’t for us to hear. They were for whoever else was after the painting. The Queen and my father wanted them to think that she would have the real painting tonight— not knowing the real painting was hidden beneath the museum. I think they were trying to draw them out.”

  “This all too confusing.” Kerry said. “If this was all for someone else, why haven’t they taken the bait.”

  It took a second before realization hit me. My eyes widened as I looked at the girls. “It’s because they’ve already figured out the whereabouts of the painting.” I made my way past the girls to the restroom door.

  �
��Autumn, where are you going?”

  “To the Jeu De Paume”