"Art of Trouble" 7

Thomas rounded the bend heading to the bottom of the exit road at a troubling speed and with way too much wobble from the deflated back tire, but that wasn’t his pressing concern. The red light at the intersection thirty feet ahead had his riveted attention, he had to think fast to avoid a non-video game version of sudden death. He pumped the breaks but felt no buildup of fluid so he rolled off the throttle and down shifted one gear at a time hoping to reduce the speed, but the bike’s downward momentum defeated his effort.

The intersection was coming up fast and the light was still blood red. His only hope was an immediate change of direction.

“Hang on tight,” he warned Jade and felt her arms tighten around him then he turned the bike 360 degrees to face the wrong way, and the fast approaching car heading straight at them.

Jade closed her eyes positive Trouble had found them, and it was game over!

Mere inches before they would have collided, the car swerved to the right and impact was avoided.

The vehicle’s driver let loose a barrage of colorful language that blistered the air and Thomas accepted all the harsh names as well deserved. He waved an apology and the driver answered that with one finger, also well deserved.

“Can’t blame him,” Thomas chuckled under his breath as the bike slowed on its own with the uphill momentum.

“Can we get off this road now?” Jade whispered in a trembling voice. Her life had zoomed past her as she braced for impact and the fear it gave her hadn’t yet subsided.

“Yes,” Thomas assured her and since there were no other cars coming down the exit road at the moment, he steered the motorcycle towards the left side guardrail scraping his foot along it to bring them to a full stop and killed the engine.

Jade’s breath of relief was echoed by Thomas. “Yeah, that wasn’t any fun,” he mumbled.

“No, so let’s not ever do that again.” Jade’s whole body shook adding credence to her sentiment.

“But the takeaway is we’re okay,” he said placing a hand over hers.

“I’m not so sure I am,” she grumbled.

“You are. We are. Now let’s get off this bike and I'll call for a tow.”

*

Murphy’s Gas and Repair station hadn’t been far off the highway.

The owner Mac Murphy was looking over the motorcycle while Jade and Thomas waited in the repair shop’s tiny office.

Jade eyed the murky coffee in the over burned pot the owner had offered them and felt nauseous just looking at it. “I really need coffee but that’s not coffee,” she shivered with disgust.

Thomas agreed and was about to suggest they take a walk to find a nearby coffee shop when the door to the service area opened and Mac walked in.

“Well, I’ve got an idea of the problem,” he said and waved Thomas over.

“What’d you find?”

“You’re both lucky to be unharmed,” the mechanic said giving Thomas a grave look.

Thomas nodded. “Yeah, we know that.”

“I found the break lines bone dry.”

“So there was a leak in the line?”

“No, more like the lines were drained, punctured, “ the mechanic glanced at Jade and dropped his voice to add, “and I’d say intentionally because there were precise punctures in the lines, nothing that would come from basic wear and tear, if you know what I mean.”

“I do, but what it means isn't certain,” Thomas lied, keeping his voice low too.

“I think it is. Someone tampered with those break lines.”

Thomas had already concluded that but didn’t want to involve anyone else in his problem so he shrugged it off. “Probably just kids, you know bored teens making a terrible decision, a prank gone wrong?” Thomas kept his expression deliberately unconcerned.

Mac eyed him with concern but couldn’t do more than offer his theory. “Just thought you should know.”

Thomas nodded, “I appreciate that. How long will it take to repair? I’ve got a work thing with a deadline looming.”

Mac wanted to say something more about using caution but decided to keep it to himself. 

“I’ve got the parts, if you can give me about three hours, I should have it done by then.”

“Great, we can do that, and thanks Mac.”

"Sure," Mac shrugged and walked back into the repair shop.

Thomas turned to Jade. “We’ve got three hours to kill. Maybe we should get you that new phone?”

Jade hadn't been able to hear what Thomas and the mechanic were saying to each other but something about their quiet voices had given her the shivers. She’d bet Trouble was playing with them but she managed a smile and nodded to Thomas. “Works for me but first, I need a good cup of coffee and some breakfast.”

*

“How’d we lose ‘em? They should have wiped out already and it should have been near here.” The hired tail, Brutus, shook his head at his partner Ted.

Ted lifted his binoculars to scan the forest road again looking for the broken down motorcycle that should be out there.

“It was that unexpected downpour,” Ted grumbled, “That’s how we lost track of ‘em. I know the breaks had to have given out by now so they're around here, or not far off from here,” he concluded and lowered the binoculars to stare at the hiking trail that wound a path through the woods.

“I thought so too but they aren’t here. Maybe you shouldn’t have stopped at that breakfast to go place, Ted. We would’ve been right behind ‘em if you hadn’t, and we’d know where they’d wiped out ‘cause we’d be right there grabbing the painting.”

Ted glared at his partner. “I was hungry and I didn't think fifteen minutes would have mattered! The break lines and the tire were punctured, they couldn’t have gotten far.”

“Oh yeah...then where are they?”

Ted grimaced and shook his head. “I don't know. I guess we lost ‘em,” he sighed, “So what do we tell B.W?”

Brutus gave Ted a sharp look. “Nothing, we tell him nothing ‘cause we’re gonna find ‘em.”

“How? The girl’s phone is a dead end and his is blocked.”

“Yeah that’s true, but I bet she’s gonna get a new phone. We just need to be patient.”

*

Jade finished the last drop of coffee in her third refill and sighed, “So good.”

Thomas chuckled, “Is that enough or do you want a cup to go?”

“Definitely need a cup to go.”

 Thomas chuckled, “I’ll order it when we leave.”

“Thank you,” Jade smiled but it was still shaky, and not from all the coffee. It was time to address the questions she had since leaving the repair shop. “So what did the mechanic say to you that made your eyes go narrow with suspicion?”

Thomas frowned. He wasn't comfortable with the subject. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

“Oh yes I do. I know we’ve got trouble and I tried to tell you why in the hotel room.”

“I think we’re both clear on why. Those men want the painting.”

“No, that’s not it…not entirely. The reason we have trouble is because I’m a magnet for it, always have been. Having me along with you is why they keep finding us…you can be sure everything that can go wrong will go wrong if I’m with you,” she tilted her head giving him a self-depreciating grimace and waited for him to laugh off her words, like everyone else she’d ever told, but he didn’t laugh.

Thomas stared at her feeling the weight of her words. He might not believe in jinxes but it appeared she did, very much. He placed his hand over hers on the table. “Why do you believe this about yourself?”

Jade scoffed, “It’s not like I want to believe it, trust me I don’t. I’ve tried to dispute the facts but after years of catastrophes dogging me, I had no choice but to accept and learn to dodge and weave when trouble came right at me. So I’m an expert at seeing it and I’ve learned how to avoid the worst of it. Tell me what the mechanic told you so we can prepare for the worst case scenario.”

“There wasn’t any brake fluid left in the lines. I assume there was a leak.”

“Or the fluid was purposely drained from the lines?”

Thomas gave her a steady stare not wanting to add to her trouble follows her theory, but he couldn’t lie to her. He nodded, “It’s a possibility.”

“I think you know it’s more than that. How could those men have found the bike, found us? But they did and they must have tampered with the bike when we were in the hotel.”

“Also possible, and if they followed me back to the hotel I’m not sure where they picked up my trail and I’m not happy I didn’t see them. That’s why we need to get your new phone, let you contact your family so they don't worry, and get back on the bike and out of here as soon as we can.”

“We still have two and half hours before the motorcycle is fixed so…maybe we should take a close look at the painting you have to deliver."

"I don't think that's a good idea to do that here, in the open." 

"You're right, it's not. But we can look at the other paintings you have on your phone. Maybe we’ll find the hidden clues to the treasure and before you turn over the newest acquisition to the buyer, we'll have found it."

Thomas wasn’t sure he believed the hype about clues in every painting leading to a treasure but those men following them sure did. 

“I don't think there's a treasure but it's doesn't hurt to investigate it and if nothing comes of it, it‘ll help us pass the time.” He opened the photo gallery on his phone and pulled up the pictures of the seven other paintings he’d purchased for the buyer. 

“This was the first painting I was hired to bid on and in the order of Casper Tresor’s paintings, it was his third,” he tapped the picture to open it fully on the screen and Jade turned his phone around to zoom into the details. 

It was dreary winter scene with muted shades of grey and white on a barren field and it left her unimpressed with the artist’s talent. The only bit of color was off in the distance where rolled bales of hay and a rusting tractor were blurred into the background with strokes of dun colored oils.

“Boring and unimaginative,” she mumbled.

“I agree. I don’t see the reason for the interest in his paintings,” Thomas chuckled then added, “I guess there would have to be an alternate reason to want them.”

Jade smiled. “Like a treasure worth paying thousands of dollars for these uninspired creations?”

“Maybe…or it's a well thought out fairy tale concocted by the artist to create interest in those uninspired creations.”

Jade nodded, “Also possible, but before we rule out a treasure…we should examine them.”

“Go ahead, if you find something let me know,” he smiled and lifted his cup to finish his coffee.

Jade pulled his phone closer and scrutinized the photo of the painting. She wouldn’t have been inclined to look at it if it were on display in an art show but now she eyed every inch of it as if it were a priceless painting, which it could very well be. If she could find something amiss in the image, a clue hidden in the mundane-ness, it could prove there is a path leading to a treasure.

“Are you sure there’s supposed to be a clue in every painting?” she asked after five, futile minutes staring at the scene and finding nothing.

“That is what the article claimed, but remember I did use my cell phone camera to capture the image and it's not the best pixel count for clarity.”

Jade nodded, “That's true and may be why I'm not seeing anything of interest.”

Thomas turned the phone back around and zoomed into the only detailed part in the background, the hay bales and tractor. He zoomed on each hay stack but it proved fruitless then he zoomed in on the tractor and he did find an oddity, a tiny pinprick of red just under the cab.

“Look, there is something here,” he pointed to the dot of color.

Jade leaned closer, putting her face next to his, and stared at the spot he noted. She saw it too and nodded. “I see it but it’s so blurry I can’t tell if it’s a smear of paint or something more.”

“We’d need to sharpen the image to see it better but that's not possible on my phone.”

Jade smiled, “I have an idea. Since I need to replace my phone, I –

“You could upgrade to a better pixel count,” he concluded for her and smiled, “I think that’s a great idea and I think it's time to get you that phone.”