"Art of Trouble" 4

Jade finished her coffee and croissant sandwich of ham and cheese as she scrolled through information on her phone regarding the artist, Casper Tresor.

Thomas searched the local hotels on his phone and found one relatively close to the café and  booked their rooms. “We can walk to the hotel from here, it’s only about eight blocks north,”  he said, nodding in the general direction.

Jade looked up from her phone. “Two rooms right?”

“Yes, as requested.” 

“Thank you, and I think I’ve found something very interesting on that artist,” she turned her phone around to show Thomas what she’d discovered.

Thomas took her phone and scrolled through the article. His eyes grew wider with each line he read.

Artist Casper Tresor, turn of the century painter of uninspired landscapes, has of late become an interest to a wealthy set of collectors.
Rumor has it there can be found, within the bland scenery, clues to a treasure. This rumor was highlighted in a personal journal of the late artist’s that was found among his personal items when he died in 1952, but it had been disregarded as fantasy. However, recently a current relative of the artist’s published the journal and the publishing house has floated the possibility of a hidden treasure in its marketing campaign of the book. Needless to say, sales have skyrocketed and sparked a bidding war in the collecting community.
The race is on to own all of the late artist’s paintings in what has become a modern day treasure hunt. There are twenty five known works of Casper Tresor in circulation but supposedly there is a twenty-sixth painting. It is an elusive seascape that has not been seen and has no known location but it is listed in the artist’s work as his last painting. The missing seascape, if found to be real, would be a necessary key in completing the treasure map of hidden clues imbedded in all the paintings.
It is unknown or unclear what the treasure is but imaginations have become engaged as auction houses are reporting impressive monetary figures paid for C.T’s paintings.

 

 “Interesting huh?” Jade asked, seeing the speculation in Thomas’s eyes.

“Very,” he nodded handing her back the phone.

“So…how many of this artist’s paintings have you purchased for clients, or for this one client?”

“Eight, and all were for the same client.”

“And have you been followed after each purchase?”

“Only the last three and that includes this one.”

“And you’ve had to jump out of trains the last three times?”

Thomas shook his head but not in response. He was berating his lack of research. He should have looked up this artist after the first incident, but he thought it was just rival collectors, not a crazy treasure hunt. This new information changed everything.

“Thomas…you didn’t answer. Did you jump out of trains the last three times you made a purcahse?” Jade asked again, wanting clarification to the trouble she knew was seated with them.

Thomas gave her a slight smile. “Not consecutively and not for any of that artist's paintings until this one.”

Her eyes narrowed as she considered his response. “But it is a usual occurrence for you, in your line of work? Being chased and run off trains and other modes of transport? Have you ever had to parachute from a plane?” She asked worrying over the prospect of it. He may have pushed her out of a moving train but there was no way she’d allow herself to be pushed from a moving plane!

“Don’t be ridiculous. If I parachute, it’s for fun not escape…so far,” he added the last as he mulled over the unknown tenacity of those men tracking them for this painting.

“Well then…I want to be clear on this, I am not getting on a plane with you and that painting. So, we’ll have to bus it to Montreal or rent a car, or hike there. Take your pick.”

Thomas gave her a nod of understanding. He was glad she was agreeing to go with him to Montreal. He’d be worried if she stayed back and tried to go home. “Anyway you feel comfortable traveling is how we’ll go but…I think we need to look over this painting, carefully, first. See if we can find any hidden clue.”

“You think that stuff about a treasure is true?”

“I don’t know…it could have been a way for the artist to gain interest in his mediocre works and to insure an inheritance for his relatives but, I don’t want to overlook anything. We should try to determine if it's real or an imagined treasure.”

“It’s too bad you don’t have the other eight paintings you bought, so we could investigate those for clues too,” she said putting her phone back in her purse.

“Who said we don’t? I happen to keep a picture of every painting I've delivered, to show it was intact on turn over, and to insure full payment.” He smiled and patted his phone on the table but at that moment trouble decided not to make it that easy for them.

A waitress passing by Thomas bobbled the tray she held with six water glasses on it. The tray tilted sideways and all the glasses fell over spilling their liquid contents onto Thomas's phone.

“No!” he yelled, but it was too late. His phone was good and soaked.

“I’m sooo, sooo sorry.” The waitress looked like she might cry.

Thomas picked up the dripping wet phone and asked the apologetic waitress, “I don’t suppose you have a bag of rice handy?”

“I don’t think so, we don’t serve rice, but,” she handed him a pile of napkins she grabbed from the next table, “Maybe you can dry it off with these…I’m so sorry,” she apologized again.

“Accidents happen,” he said, shaking the water off his phone and giving her a half smile.

“Is there a grocery store nearby that might sell rice?” Jade asked the waitress, feeling more responsible for the mishap than the waitress should. She knew trouble was her constant companion, everywhere she went, and this was just the kind of thing she’d expect trouble to do.

“Oh yes, there’s a grocery store about three blocks that way.”

 

The grocery store did have a large box of organic rice and Thomas paid triple the price of what an ordinary box of rice would be but he was happy to have a possible remedy for his floating in water phone, and a hope to retrieve those photos.

“Okay, rice in hand,” he said when they stepped outside, “Now let’s go to the hotel and see if I can salvage my phone.”

Jade worried it could be too late for that phone, but that wasn’t her most pressing concern. Just up ahead, she spotted the two men that had been watching the people coming off the train at the station. She pulled on Thomas sleeve to stop him.

He turned and looked at her ashen face. “What’s wrong?”

“Over there, I think those men are looking for us,” she nodded at the men walking half a block ahead of them.

Thomas took note of the men and worried. Why were they focusing on this town. Why be this thorough and why search this one train stop? Unless they knew for certain they’d gotten off the train here. He had a sudden and sickening thought. Were they being tracked?

“Jade, do you by any chance get a paper phone bill from your cell phone carrier?”

“Why?”

“Just tell me, do you?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have a current one lying around your apartment?”

“Huh? Why would that….oh…you think they're tracking me by my phone number? That’s not possible. Even if that man ransacking my apartment found a phone bill, they’d have to have access to my account to turn on the location tracker.”

“That’s right, so…do you keep a book of passwords?”

Jade’s frozen expression told him all he needed to know.

Thomas held out his hand for her phone.

“What are you going to do with it?” she whimpered as she took it out of her pocket but he had to pry it from her tight grip.

Thomas turned the phone over and found the battery was sealed inside so he couldn’t disable it and shutting off the location finder would only be a temporary fix. It didn’t guarantee they’d be safe.

“I’m sorry,” he said and walked to the corner where he dropped the phone down a sewer. 

“I’m going to be sick,” Jade mumbled. Her whole life was on that phone. She didn’t know how she could exist without it and she wasn’t sure she could recover all the contact numbers she’d never memorized.

Trouble wasn’t playing fair at all and she wished she could tell it to back off. But there was no time for Jade to mourn her phone and lost contacts, because those men were starting to turn their way.

Thomas grabbed her hand. “Come on, we have to get out of here.”

 

Thomas and Jade walked down several back streets hoping to keep away from the men searching the main streets for them, but without either of their phone’s GPS to guide them, they had to ask a stranger for walking directions to the hotel.

Twenty minutes later, after a long and winding walk, it appeared they’d made it to the hotel without those men seeing them, or their movement detected.

 

Thomas walked up to the check in desk. “We have two rooms reserved for Mr. and Mrs. Lightfoot.” He handed his credit card to the clerk.

The hotel clerk entered the name into the computer and nodded, “Yes, we have your two connecting rooms ready for you Mr. Lightfoot.” The clerk handed back the credit card along with two room cards. “Your rooms are on the second floor and the elevators are to your right.”

“Thank you,” Thomas smiled and pocketed the cards.

 

When they entered the elevator Jade scoffed, “Mr. and Mrs. Lightfoot? So, you do this often?”

Thomas knew the situation had called for an alias but he’d never had to explain that to anyone before. He never should have involved Jade.

“I have a name sanctioned by my company to use whenever acquisitions tempt theft.”

“So this is a normal day for you.”

“No. I never travel with a Mrs.,” he stressed, “This is a first.”

She didn't know if that was a compliment, or a warning. Did it mean all bets were off on her safety? “Then let's hope we can keep this marriage intact, till the delivery.”

He chuckled. “I’ll do my best Mrs. Lightfoot.”

The elevator doors slid open and they stepped out. Their rooms were just to the left of the elevators.

“Oh, and by the way, that connecting door…I want the room with the locking side,” Jade said and held out her had for the room card.