Different Senses (29 page)

He’d made some distance with
those long legs, and was not pleased to have me grab his arm. “I
though I made my feelings clear, Ythen.”

“You did, and I’m sorry, but
there’s one thing I need to know. This bracelet, the one that was
stolen—it’s by a master craftsman called ‘Jasraj’.”

Shardul stopped and
glared at me. “Your mother is selling
that
kind of material? She
should be shot—and I’d provide the gun!”

“Please...don’t make me defend
the indefensible. One question. Would any Nihan go so far as to
steal something like that back, if they knew it was going off
world?”

He shook off my hand, his
blue eyes icy with rage and disdain. “No. No
udawatha
, at least.
The Seeker teaches that to cling too tightly to material
possessions breeds greed and jealousy. A concept your people have
exploited quite nicely.”

“They wouldn’t be tempted?”

“Do you think I speak for all
my people? If you want to know, conduct a survey. Good day,
Ythen.”

“I’m sorry, Shardul.”

He paused. “You may be. But I
cannot eat your sorrow.” He walked off.

The
udawathei
considered
regret without reparation a hollow, shameful thing, almost as bad
as the original offence. A truly sorrowful man did his best to make
amends. But in this case, how could I do that? Let my mother suffer
the consequences of her own greed? The bracelet would still be
gone, and Veringe still trading.

Unless I could prove he was
behind the theft. Stop him, and that was one exploiter down. Little
enough, but police pursued criminals even knowing there were plenty
more to take their place. If I could take Veringe down, then I had
to.

My phone went while I was still
raw from Shardul’s rejection. “Yes?” I snapped.

“Sainted reason, Javen, if you
answer your phone like that, you’ll lose clients.”

“Sorry, Kirin. What’s up?”

“Swing past the lab. I’ve got
good news for you on those containers.”

“I could do with some. See you
soon.”

Kirin had done fast work. I
hoped he hadn’t put anything aside to look after this case. My
parents didn’t deserve being given priority.

I told him that when I saw him,
and he gave me a look. “Javen, they don’t. You do. Come over to
Jyoti’s desk.”

She smiled. “Good afternoon,
Javen. Are you well?”

“Very. You and Chandana?”

She blushed at her girlfriend’s
name. “We’re fine.”

“So, what have you got for
me?”

“The strong box is
impregnable,” Kirin said. “The code’s uncrackable, and you only get
three tries. After that, nothing short of cutting equipment will
open it.”

“So the box wasn’t opened
before arrival. The package?”

“Jyoti?”

“The plastic bag is very
well-designed. Almost any attempt to open it results in visible and
irreparable damage.”

“But....”

“But, look.” She picked up one
of the company’s packets. “This is a new one—we obtained more
supplies this morning for testing, in exchange for us informing
TransPlanet of our results.”

“Didn’t think you’d mind,”
Kirin murmured.

“Of course not. Show me what
you found?”

She picked up a slim piece of
equipment. “This is a laser knife, used in surgery. The cuts it
makes are very precise and narrow.” She used the knife to slice the
bottom of the bag. “The critical factor is speed. The cut has to be
annealed within thirty seconds.” She turned the knife over. “There
is a cautery function on this model, which also works very finely.
Watch.”

She ran the knife over the cut,
keeping the two edges carefully aligned. “Now we wait...and there.
Look.”

“It’s invisible!”

“Not quite. Look closely,”
Kirin said.

I picked up the packet and yes,
the line could be seen, just. But in the position of the cut, and
against white plastic.... “No one would notice unless they were
looking.”

“Exactly. And who would, if you
didn’t suspect tampering. So that’s your ‘how’.”

“Excellent work, both of you.
Jyoti, it’s a damn good thing you use your powers for good, not
evil.” She grinned. “Now I know how, I think I know who.”

“Want to share?” Kirin
asked.

“Not yet. I can’t. But thank
you. Send me the invoice—and no discounts, okay? Dad can afford
it.”

“As you wish. Still on for
lunch?”

“Sure. You’ll report to
TransPlanet?”

“Yes, and I’ll prepare a formal
report for you as well. I thought you’d want to see this as soon as
possible.”

“I did. Thank you.”

So if someone got into the
residence, they could have abstracted the bracelet without
detection. But that someone had to know where the bracelet was, and
in what container. The security guards had to be involved. But how?
And more to the point, why?

The whole team was back in the
office, so I picked their highly trained minds. “Why would someone
steal back something he’d just been paid a good deal of money
for?”

“To resell,” Madan said.

“Yes, but the potential market
here is small. The risk of the purchaser finding out is high.”

“The second purchaser offered a
lot more money and the thief thought it was worth it,” Vik
suggested.

“Yes, possibly. Right, that’s
your next job. Vik, I want you to find out all you can about an
indigenous craftsman called Jasraj, from early first colonial
period. I want to know what his stuff is worth, how much of it
there is, and particularly, the history and value of this piece.”
On my reader I showed him the image of the bracelet my mother had
taken, then shot it off to his account. “Prachi, I want everything
on Timin Veringe. Criminal history, if any, family, business,
everything. Who he’s sleeping with, who hates him, who he hangs
around with.”

“Yes, boss,” they chorused.

“Veringe,” Madan said slowly.
“I know that name.”

“The artist. Society darling.
And thief, if I’m right.”

“So who else does he sell
to?”

“That’s what I need to find
out.” But the man who could tell me was furious with me right
now.

With Shardul, subtlety
was a waste of time—he saw it as deceit, and he despised
dishonesty. So I sent him a straightforward message.
“I think Timin Veringe is stealing
stuff he’s sold back from clients. I want to take him down. I need
your help. Who does he sell to?”

An hour later, I had his
answer.
“You only want to
help your mother.”

I wrote,
“I want to stop trade. Stop her
buying, stop him selling. What else can we do?”

“
Demand all trading is
licensed, and ask govt to buy back artefacts sold. Protect them as
cultural heritage for whole country.”

“
I’m no politician. Just a
cop. I catch the bad guys, you work on govt. I’ll help you. Help
me?”

My phone went. “Javen
Ythen.”

“Javen, you have no right to
ask this.”

“Yes, I do, Shardul, because
it’s your heritage, and mine, even if you don’t like to admit that.
The Kelons are never going to act.”

“How sure are you that
Veringe’s behind it?”

“Aside from my mother, he’s the
only one who could know what was going to be in that parcel at that
time. He even engineered a delay ensuring the bracelet would be in
the residence overnight. It’s either him or a confederate. So if he
stole it back, then he’s probably got a buyer. Who does he deal
with?”

“Can’t you work it out for
yourself? People like your mother. Society women. They just love
all that ethnic craftwork, don’t you know.”

“So mostly they’re not selling
off world?”

“Not to my knowledge. I’m not
happy at this development.”

“I got that, okay? Thanks for
the tip. I’ll let you know how I get on.”

“Take out Veringe, and another
replaces him.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Shardul,
trust me. I think I’ve proved you can.”

A long pause, and then a sigh.
“Yes, you have. I have to go.”

“Thanks for calling.”

He closed the call. I tapped
the desk, thinking. Society women, I knew nothing about. But I
happened to be related to an expert. I made a call.

“Mum, if you’d bought that
bracelet for yourself, what would you do with it?”

“What an odd question, Javen.
I’d wear it, of course.”

“
But
where
?”

“The occasion? If I’d spent
that kind of money on myself—or your father had—I’d want to show it
off. It was a very beautiful piece.”

“And can you think of an
occasion soon where you’d show it off?”

“Of course. The Governor’s Ball
this weekend. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten. I sent you an
invitation, even though I knew you’d never come.”

I grinned at Prachi, watching
me. “Mum, could you wangle some extra invitations for me?”

“What are you up to, dear?”

“Investigating, Mum. I’ll need
another four.”

“I’ll need names for
security.”

“You’ll have them by the end of
the day.”

I closed the connection.
“Prachi, my dear, would you like to go to a ball?”

~~~~~~~~

I’d set my assistants a fairly
challenging task, but they were more than up to it. Hard to decide
which of them was better at research. Vik, maybe, by a hair, but
both had made themselves indispensable in the six months they’d
worked for me. By the next day, they had reports for me.

“The interesting thing about
that picture of the bracelet is that it’s inside out,” Vik said
when I called them together to tell me what they’d found.

“What? Are you sure?”

“Absolutely. Its design allows
it to be worn both ways, but the usual way is with the red enamel
facing outwards, not the blue the way your mother has it. It’s a
well-documented piece, made as a wedding gift by Jasraj for his
wife. There are portraits of people wearing it. A real treasure.
Shame it’s been lost.”

“Agreed. What’s it worth?”

“Here? Based on other pieces of
his that have been sold, easily as much as four thousand dolar. But
it’s probably worth more because it’s unique. Jasraj never made
another piece like it.”

Mum had paid five and a half,
and sold it for eight. Had Veringe found someone to pay even more?
Very likely. “Good work. Prachi, tell me about friend Veringe.”

“He migrated from Kelon three
years ago, and set up here in Hegal. He began collecting artefacts
almost immediately, with a small display at his studio. His work
has become fashionable, but the volume of sales wouldn’t account
for the purchase of a house, studio and auto.”

“He’s making more money on
artefacts?”

“And other things perhaps. He
was charged with illegal drug trading on Kelon, but the charge
failed for lack of evidence. He emigrated not long after.”

“If he’s acquiring certain
items by dodgy methods, he could be acquiring other things. Much
more lucrative to deal drugs without excise duties and licenses.
Anything in the local police records about that?”

“Nothing. Officially, he’s
clean.”

Shardul had called him a
reptile. But Shardul hadn’t elaborated. I wish he had.

“
Okay. So the worst we
know of him
officially
is that he varies his sources of income. Does he
declare all of it? Tax records?”

“For the last three years, he’s
made an annual net income of approximately twenty thousand dolar.
The public record doesn’t show how that was composed.”

“See if you can find other
artists to compare him with, Prachi, but I doubt we’ll prove much
this way. He’s keeping himself respectable for his clients. If we
can prove he’s a thief, we’ll hit both his income streams.”

“You’re not just trying to
retrieve the bracelet, boss?” Vik asked.

“If Veringe’s behind this, I
want him out of business. I definitely want him out of the
artefacts trade. So the next step is find out what happened to the
bracelet, and hope that gives us the connection to Veringe.”

Madan had been listening from
his desk, working on his cases. He decided to contribute his own
idea. “What if he sent it off world himself?”

“Shhh,” I said. “Don’t invite
bad luck.”

“Says the Scientific
Rationalist.”

Vik and Prachi grinned at Madan
poking the only atheist in the office. “Bad luck exists,” I said
primly. “I just don’t believe it’s caused by supernatural
forces.”

“So how can you invite it?”

“Don’t you guys have work to
do? Shoo, I’m busy.”

Some days, I didn’t
get
any
respect.

~~~~~~~~

I put off lunch with Kirin
because I arranged a much grander outing for us. When I asked him
if he felt like doing a bit of amateur sleuthing, he leapt at the
chance.

“I didn’t think you’d be
interested,” I said, surprised at his enthusiasm. “You never were
before when...uh....”

“I wasn’t. But I’ve never seen
you in action and I...uh...always kind of wanted to.”

“Kirin.”

He smiled reassuringly, all
teeth and crinkly eyes. “It’s okay, Javen. I’m not trying to
recreate anything. You know I have a bit of a thing for cops.”

I relaxed. “I remember. I’d
like you to take Vik. I’ll take Prachi.”

“Sure. Why that way
around?”

“
Everyone knows my
preferences, so if
I
take Vik, people will assume I’m sleeping with
him, and he doesn’t need the attention.”

“
But you don’t mind if
people think
I’m
sleeping with a lovely indigenous boy who looks
about fifteen.”