Fashion Fraud (4 page)

EJ was sitting on the crowded underground train filled with tourists speaking in different languages and people on their morning commute to work, watching the stops flash by. Checking her Paris
Métro
map, she knew there were only three more stops before she arrived at the Louvre Museum. EJ knew which stop to get off at even before she saw the sign because all along the platform were statues (EJ recognised some from ancient Egypt), mosaics and paintings.

‘Wow, they really like their art,' murmured EJ to herself as she took the escalator that went straight up into the museum foyer. She picked up a map and an audio guide to the museum from a woman wearing a small light globe badge and made her way through the crowds to the
Mona Lisa
room. When she got there, she saw it was packed with people. She couldn't see a thing. She clicked the heels of her shoes and felt herself being slowly elevated. Soon she could see over everyone's heads and was looking straight at what they thought was the
Mona Lisa
. EJ, turned on the audio tour. There was a crackle in her tour headset and a voice began to speak.

‘Welcome to the
Mona Lisa
room. In this room you find the world-famous
Mona Lisa
portrait by Leonardo Da Vinci but there are also many other beautiful paintings to admire.'

Yes, there are,
thought EJ looking around,
but I need to find CC12.

‘At the other end of the room,' continued the audio, ‘you will see the
Wedding Feast at Cana,
a huge painting and one that will be of particular interest to EJ12.'

What? Had she heard correctly? EJ replayed the audio.

‘… a huge painting and one that will be of particular interest to EJ12. She should particularly look at the bottom left-hand corner of the painting where a young lady is sitting at the banquet table.'

EJ clicked her heels back down and walked to the back wall. There were only a few people looking at this painting and EJ went as close to it as she dared without worrying the guards that she was going to touch it. The bottom left corner of the painting showed a lady at a table, her eyes staring out almost at the same level as EJ's.

It's lovely but what am I looking at?
wondered EJ.

She kept looking at the woman and was about to look away when the eyes blinked. The painting blinked?

EJ checked there was no one standing too close. ‘I believe the fashion this season is all about pyjamas,' she whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

EJ kept looking at the painting. She saw nothing but she heard a soft voice.

‘Oh, yes, pyjamas with flashes of gold.'

‘CC12? Really? Are you in there?'

‘Yes, it's me EJ.'

‘But how?'

‘Look carefully at the eyes,' said CC.

EJ did and could now see CC's real eyes peering through two small holes in the painting. ‘You're behind the painting?'

‘Yes, and don't worry, we haven't ruined it. This is also a computer-generated copy. We set it up yesterday. While the show was being packed up I overheard two of Alicia's assistants talking.'

‘Go on,' whispered EJ.

‘One of them said that the ballet show would be even better.'

‘Ballet?' said EJ. ‘The message I decoded said “like tower ballet too” but we don't know what that means. Did they mention a tower?'

‘No,' said CC, ‘but they were saying the studio was frantic with all the new dresses being made at the last minute and that they were going with Alicia Noir to the media conference at
Le Salon du Chocolat
on the Left Bank.'

‘
Le Salon du Chocolat
?' said EJ. ‘That's Madame Ombre's café. When was the media conference?'

‘It's going to be held this morning at eleven,' replied CC.

‘That's in less than an hour,' said EJ, checking the time. ‘I'd better get moving. Thanks, CC.'

A woman came up to the painting. CC stopped talking and fixed her gaze across the woman.

‘It's amazing isn't it?' said the woman. ‘It feels like they're all looking at you.'

‘Oh yes,' said EJ to the woman.

‘I could look at it for hours,' said the woman.

Hoping for CC's sake that she wouldn't, EJ hurried off to the
Salon du Chocolat
.

The
Salon du Chocolat
was the largest café on one of Paris's most famous avenues, across the river from the Louvre Museum. The avenue was lined with cafés, with their large awnings sheltering the tables and checked wicker chairs set out on the footpath. Waitresses dressed in black with long white aprons buzzed around with silver trays while people sat drinking their morning coffee, reading the newspaper, eating breakfast croissants and watching the busy world go by. And that was exactly what EJ was doing. She had taken a table outside, put on her sunglasses and was watching and waiting. But for whom? Madame Ombre or Alicia Noir? Or both?

She didn't have to wait for Madame Ombre for very long. EJ could hear her in the café kitchen.

‘Enough chitty chatty, people! Where are my éclairs? Where are my macaroons? Why must I work with idiots!'

Éclairs?
wondered EJ.
The message was in an éclair but it sounds like she is just cooking, or at least yelling at other people cooking.

EJ flicked through the newspaper left on her table. The front page was filled with pictures of Alicia's
Hidden Smiles
show from yesterday. EJ looked at the clothes and admired the elegant cloaks in dark browns and greens with touches of gold—no wonder Alicia wanted to have it in the same room as the
Mona Lisa
. The colours matched the painting perfectly.

As she looked at the paper, a small black car and a long black limousine swept up the avenue and stopped outside
Salon du Chocolat
. It was almost mobbed by photographers and women holding notebooks. Reporters, guessed EJ. It was eleven o'clock, time for Alicia Noir's media conference call. The door of the small car opened and five young women, all in short black dresses and holding bags, clipboards and bottles of water, stepped out and rushed over to the limousine. A driver opened the door and Alicia Noir got out, dressed in her black suit. The photographers began taking photos, their flashes buzzing. Alicia, her eyes hidden behind her trademark huge black glasses, did not move. Then she stretched out one hand and clicked her fingers. ‘
Mes chiots!
'

EJ realised that she had called for her puppies when one of the women instantly rushed up with three poodle puppies, two black and one white, each with a ribbon for a lead. Alicia snatched the ribbons and dragged the puppies over to a café table. As she sat, waitresses descended upon her with cups of coffee and pastries.

‘Alicia! Alicia!' cried a reporter in English. ‘Why did your show finish so suddenly yesterday? Did something go wrong?'

‘Go wrong?' answered Alicia in a very low voice. ‘Nothing ever goes wrong with my collections! I will not answer such questions. I am here only to say this. My fashion perfection, my art continues. My show early this morning,
Ballerina Dreams,
was a triumph.'

Alicia's assistants broke into applause and EJ started. If Alicia had already had her ballet show, did that mean another painting might have been stolen?

Alicia continued. ‘Once again, I am keeping fashion real. Everything must be completely beautiful. Everything must be real, be true, with no fakes. I showed this in my
African Shadows
collection last year. I only used real skins, no fakes.'

EJ started again. African
Shadows
?

‘Where will your next show be, Alicia?' asked an American reporter. ‘Why do you keep them a secret?'

‘I like to surprise and my final two shows will surprise and dazzle Paris, the world, like never before,' said Alicia. As she continued talking, EJ noticed another woman in a short black trench coat and dark sunglasses watching from a distance. EJ switched her glasses to telescopic mode. The woman was holding a purple shopping bag with a swirly heart, a Madame Ombre
Salon du Chocolat
bag. EJ watched as the woman took out a little Madame Ombre box, the same size as the one that had contained the intercepted message in the éclair. She opened the box as if to check something, then put it back in the bag. EJ watched as the woman approached the crowd and Alicia's table. She stood looking around and, when she thought no one was looking, dropped the bag at Alicia's feet with her other bags.

I need to take a look in that bag,
thought EJ.
She looked at the puppies. And I think I know how get a chance to do it.

EJ called a waitress and asked for an éclair to take away. In minutes she had a Madame Ombre bag of her own.

Now for the switch,
she thought.
I just need to create a little distraction.
EJ saw the three little puppies straining on leashes that were loosely tied to a chair. She took her bone-shaped charm from her bracelet.
A few Chew Chums should do the trick,
she thought. Chew Chums were special
SHINE
-issue dog treats, completely irresistible to all dogs. EJ twisted the charm and took three chews from the jar. She laid them on the floor near her table. Immediately, the three puppies put their noses in the air, sniffing. Then they began to bark excitedly and pull even harder on their flimsy ribbon leashes. EJ got up and moved towards where Alicia was sitting as the dogs' barks became even louder. Then the puppies rushed towards the treats, pulling the chair over and dragging it behind them. The chair knocked over the chair next to Alicia and that chair knocked over her coffee cup. There was chaos, which was exactly what EJ wanted. While assistants dived at the dogs and the coffee cup, EJ quickly and quietly swapped her bag for the one behind Alicia. She then returned to her table and waited.

‘This is ridiculous!' shrieked Alicia. ‘Get those puppies! Get my car. We must get ready for the next show!' And with that, Alicia stormed towards the car with her assistants stumbling after her.

EJ waited, pretending to read the newspaper, until both cars had driven away before she took out the box. It was, as she had suspected it would be, another éclair.

‘I knew it,' said EJ as she carefully opened the éclair and felt for the plastic tube in the cream. ‘Gotcha!'

EJ licked the cream off her fingers before taking the paper from the tube. She saw immediately that the message was another word search.

SHADOW
really needs a new system,
thought EJ.
This is too easy. The first two pictures are the same as in the last message, so that's ‘love ballet'.
EJ looked at the words and her heart sank. The first message had said ‘like ballet too' and now this said ‘love ballet.'
Oh no,
she thought as she felt her stomach tighten and her mouth dry a little. Had
SHADOW
already got the ballet painting? How would she tell
SHINE
?

Piinngg!

It was another message from
SHINE
.

SHINE
already knew the painting had been stolen but they didn't know what EJ knew: that it couldn't have been Madame Ombre because she had been in her kitchen noisily cooking the whole time. So was Alicia Noir the thief? EJ quickly worked through the rest of the message, hoping it would tell her.

The next picture is a shoe but that doesn't have ‘oo' so it must be boot but I need to swap the ‘oo' with a ‘u' to make ‘but'. The next is snow without the ‘s' and ‘w' so that's ‘no' and there's ‘tower' again. What does that mean, ‘but no tower'? Were they expecting another painting?

EJ thought back to the first message:
‘like tower ballet too'. Maybe that means a tower painting and a ballet painting. I need to get the rest of this message out.
EJ worked quickly.
The first picture is of meat but I need to swap the ‘a' with an ‘e' and when I do that, I get ‘meet'. Next is a witch but I take off the ‘c' and that makes ‘with'. The next is bread, no a toaster, but this time I swap the ‘to' for a ‘w' and take off the ‘s' to make ‘water'
. EJ worked quickly through the last three pictures and then looked at what she had written.

‘The next painting to be stolen will be of a water lily,' muttered EJ to herself. ‘And I think
SHADOW
is telling someone that they will collect the painting at a park. And that woman dropped this message at Alicia's feet so it must have been for her so that means it is Alicia Noir who is taking the paintings.' EJ thought back to what Alicia had said before she left the café. Now things were beginning to make sense.

Ballerina Dreams! That was her fashion show this morning,
EJ thought. She sent a message to
SHINE
.

‘I knew it,' murmured EJ. ‘But how do I know which painting of water lilies will be stolen. There could be thousands!'

EJ opened her phone and keyed in ‘water lilies paintings Paris' and pressed search. It was worth a try. She wasn't surprised that so many entries flashed up but she was that they were all about the same paintings. EJ clicked on the first one.

EJ pressed on ‘Water Lilies' and her screen was filled with images of paintings, beautiful water lilies floating in dark blue water with willows hanging overhead. They had been painted in a blur of colours, of lush deep blues and greens. Even on a phone screen, the colours were so vivid and evocative that EJ could almost feel the wet water.

These must be what
SHADOW
is after,
she thought as she went back to reading the main entry.

That had to be where the next show was to be held! EJ checked her tourist map of Paris. She was just across the bridge from the gardens. She left some money on the table for the waitress and all but ran out of the café and down the tree-lined avenue back towards the river. She arrived at the river's edge just as a waterbus appeared. EJ jumped on and the boat pulled back out and up the river. The famous Eiffel Tower came into view and the tourists happily snapped photos but EJ had no time for sightseeing. She tapped her foot impatiently as the boat made its way slowly under each of the bridges. She had to get to the Musée de l'Orangerie quickly. She couldn't let another painting be stolen. It was only then that she remembered
SHINE
had instructed her to monitor Madame Ombre. EJ knew she was doing the right thing, she was sure of it but she couldn't ignore her instructions.

Piinngg!

EJ smiled. That's just what her mum had said.