The Mystery of Eden Homeworld

The whole group was escorted by the two guards back along the corridor to the stairs they first came up. When they passed the exhibition room, they looked inside. The desstrolite sculpture, the priceless jewel, was missing from its display stand.

Two museum guards were by the stand, looking puzzled. The spiky haired guard put his hand over the stand's barrier and the alarm went off, exactly as it had done for Grace. The red light shone and the force-field ascended to push his hand back from the barrier.

The alarm was silenced and the air cleared, revealing an empty display stand again.

Now the tour group was hurried along the corridor down to the great hall and asked to sit in the delegates' chairs in the council chamber to wait for instructions.

Min approached the blonde guard.

"Excuse me, Ma'am, I'm Min Dae. I'm responsible for getting my tour-group back to Daughter City astroport. They're due to board a shuttlecraft to their hyperspace liner in about ninety minutes. Do you know how long we'll be delayed? As you know, the monorail takes twenty minutes."

"I'm sorry, Miss Dae, I don't have anything to tell you. That's my boss there, Mr Atherson, the Museum Manager, talking to a staff member. He'll let me know as soon as he has any information."

"What's your name?"

"Jill Coburn. Please try not to worry."

Min's group sat waiting patiently. They took at look at Mr Atherson, who was of medium height, past middle age, fair-haired with a reddish face at the moment. He was giving orders but seemed to be using activity to overcome his embarrassment at the greatest test of his career: a priceless jewel stolen on his watch, even while he was in the building.

Also sitting at the other end of the hall were about thirty other visitors who had been in the castle when the alarm went off. They were guarded by members of the museum staff, who were soon joined by two constables from the police station next door.

A stocky dark-haired woman in a blue uniform with sergeant stripes followed the constables. Finally, a dour looking man in a grey suit arrived. He was the senior policeman, known to Mr Atherson, who went to greet him.

"Inspector Masham, thank you for coming, thank you. It's such a disaster, a catastrophe. What can we do? What do you need me to do?"

"We'll talk in your office, Colin, and we'll get this all sorted out. Come on."

4 Investigation

Inspector Masham followed Colin Atherson into his office, which was beside the main entrance, next to the cloakrooms. The door was open, showing the computer workstation that controlled the security system for the museum.

The sergeant came over to talk to Jill Coburn. Min stood up to explain her worry that the tour-group might miss their flight.

"Sergeant Wren, Ma'am," the police officer introduced herself. She had a brisk efficient voice and a straightforward manner. "I understand your concern, but you'll have to be patient for now. Inspector Masham will explain things to you soon. I'll let him know that you're pressed for time."

The sergeant joined Inspector Masham in Colin's office to watch the security footage from the exhibition room. After ten minutes, during which Min became increasingly agitated, the inspector finally came out to address the museum's visitors and staff.

He stood in the middle of the hall and waited for silence. He was a melancholic man, with heavy bags under his eyes, a grey mournful face and grey thinning hair. Though he stood tall, his demeanour made it look like he stooped. His freshly-pressed suit looked like it came already crumpled.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said in a sad voice, "I'm Inspector Masham. I'm sorry to keep you here but there's been a theft from the exhibition room. A four-inch square sculpted jewel has gone missing from its display stand. At the moment it's a complete mystery how the theft was performed.

"You may appreciate the difficulty we policemen find ourselves in. We need to learn how the theft was done, who took the jewel and where it is now. If you'll forgive my saying so, the thief is likely to be a visitor to the exhibition, so I'm going to ask you to permit Sergeant Wren, her constables and the museum staff to search you.

"Now, I tell you upfront that we have no search warrant. It'll take about thirty minutes to obtain one. A judge has already been notified. The problem is: I know some of you are on a day-trip here and need to be at the astroport soon.

"Unfortunately, I can't let anyone leave, just in case you have a priceless jewel on your person. So I hope you'll all consider it a fair request, in order to save everyone's time, to let us search you.

"My constables are setting up an x-ray device and the museum guards are preparing a table on which they can search your bags. Does anyone object to being searched?"

With Min's encouragement, there were no dissenters in her tour-group. Nor did the visitors at the other end of the hall protest, though none was near the exhibition room at the time of the theft.

The group of thirty was processed first. They relinquished their bags for a visual inspection and lined up to walk slowly through a portable x-ray machine like a thick doorway. The jewel was not found on any of them so the inspector let them all leave.

Min's group was also quickly processed and the jewel was not found on any of them, to Min's relief. She assumed they would also be free to go, but the inspector asked them to return to their seats.

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said. "You may wonder why we've kept you behind. The reason is that you were all near the exhibition room when the jewel was first seen to be missing. In fact, two of you were in the exhibition room when the security video shows the jewel disappearing."

Without waiting for a response, nor observing the consternation his remark caused, the inspector returned to Colin's office, which Colin had temporarily vacated, leaving Sergeant Wren with the tour-group.

"Hestia Smith and Hana Jeffries?" she read their names from a sheet. "Please come with me."

"Oops! Now we're for it," Hestia said standing up.

"Shush! Aunt Hestia," Hana warned. "It's not funny."

Min stood up as well, preparing to accompany them.

"Sorry Ma'am," Sergeant Wren said. "The inspector wants only these two ladies."

Inspector Masham greeted Hestia and Hana with a smile that did not make him look any happier. He guided them into Colin's office, which was a windowless box with a computer workstation at one end and an oval table for meetings at the other.

Hana took the details in at a glance. There was a clear desk, with the computer keyboard aligned square. There were no family photographs or posters of favourite sports teams, but the only personal item in the office was a Chinese puzzle box: the kind with a false bottom or drawer.

Inspector Masham invited them to sit and view the video projection, while the stout sergeant stood defensively by the open door, legs apart, arms folded, a stern look on her face.

"Thank you for joining me," Inspector Masham said mournfully. "I wonder if you wouldn't mind looking at the security video."

He began the video of the exhibition room. It showed Hestia and Hana staring in a kind of rapture at the desstrolite jewel without moving for at least three minutes, until they were informed by the spiky-haired guard that the exhibition was closing. Then Hana took Hestia's arm and guided her like a blind woman out of the room.

The inspector paused the video and said to Hestia:

"Can you tell me what I'm witnessing please, Ma'am?"

"It looks daft, I know, but I thought the jewel was so beautiful that I didn't want to look at the ugly paintings in the corridor, so I asked Hana to guide me out with my eyes shut."

"That makes eminent sense to me," the inspector said with his sad smile. "I'm no fan of paintings that look like someone sneezed on them. But, if you'll forgive my saying so, such behaviour might be considered somewhat, er, unusual."

"I know," Hestia admitted.

"Even a not particularly alert policeman might go so far as to call it ... well, ... what's the word?"

"Suspicious," Hana said quietly, unable to resist filling in the blank left by the inspector.

"Thank you, Miss Jeffries. It could seem like suspicious behaviour. I see you're an intelligent young person, so maybe you'll tell me what precisely is so suspicious about this behaviour?"

"It looks like a distraction," Hana said.

"Quite so. Let's watch some more of the video. Look, if you will, at Mike Baddage's face."

He played the video. It showed the spiky-haired museum guard (whose name evidently was Mike Baddage) focussing on Hestia and Hana as they paraded to the exit. If they had been trying to distract him, they could not have done a better job.

"Now take a look at the display stand while the video plays on."

Mike Baddage was looking at Hestia's bottom as they left the room when there was a shimmering in the air around the display stand and the jewel magically disappeared, as if by a conjuror's trick.

Mike did not notice at first, but when he did his checks before closing up, his gaze passed the display stand and he did a double-take like a cartoon character. He did a third take and then ran to the wall to press the alarm button.

The video continued, seeming to Hana to go in slow motion, so closely did she absorb every detail, committing it to her perfect memory.

A male museum guard arrived first. He went up to the stand with Mike. They looked shocked and worried.

Jill Coburn, the short blonde guard, appeared in the doorway. She stared open-mouthed, said a few words and left at a run.

A minute later, the tour group stood in the doorway, looking on as Mike put his hand out toward the absent jewel to trigger the alarm and the protective force-field.

Inspector Masham paused the video there.

"Now isn't that interesting?" he asked. "Even the dullest policeman would be suspicious, don't you think?"

They did not answer.

"However, you don't have the jewel with you, and you were many feet from it when it magically disappeared, so you couldn't have swiped it and hidden it somewhere. It's all a big mystery."

"It is," Hestia agreed.

"You weren't the only people acting suspiciously in the exhibition room before the jewel magically disappeared."

He reversed the video to the place where Grace triggered the display stand's protective measures and paused the image there. He sat back in his chair, gazing miserably at Hestia and Hana. His silence created a vacuum into which he hoped their confessions would leak.

There were no confessions.

"It was an accident," Hestia said. "Grace didn't mean to set off the alarm."

"No doubt. The jewel was still there when the force-field receded. But it's my curse to have a suspicious nature."

There was another sad pause, a gap waiting for an incriminating admission while he examined their faces for signs of guilt.

Sadly, no admission came. He sighed: an action that plumbed his melancholy demeanour another level. Hestia thought it all an act and struggled not to laugh at him. She put her hand over her mouth.

If the inspector noticed, he said nothing but merely turned back to the screen.

"I've no more questions for you at the moment," he said. "Please return to your seats. Sergeant Wren: bring over Mr and Mrs Martens."

While the inspector borrowed his office, Colin Atherson went to check on the museum guards, trusting to the police. Satisfied his staff had no problems, he visited the closed canteen and returned with a tray of soft drinks for everyone.

Having taken drinks from his tray, Min said to Jill Coburn:

"He's a thoughtful man. He's kind to us tour-guides, who can be a nuisance in the museum."

"He's fair but a stickler for the rules."

"I feel sorry for him," Min said.

"So do I," Jill agreed. "He looks calm on the surface but I think he's worried."

As Sergeant Wren collected Grace and Tom for their interview with the inspector, Hestia winked at them.

"We're suspects," she said, trying by levity to mollify the alarm Grace appeared to feel.

"It's not good to be suspects," Hana whispered to Hestia.

"Don't worry, I've done this before," Hestia said. "Your dad once suspected me of murder and your mum suspected me of stealing her suitcase. Anyway, they've got everything on video, so I'm sure they'll find the culprit soon and let us all go."

"Maybe, but I'd like to see those videos for myself."

"Do you know something about the theft?"

"I'm not sure. I need to think about it. I may know how the theft will be done, I just don't know who'll do it, nor whom to tell about it. I don't know whom to trust."

"I think the inspector's trustworthy."

"Why do you say that?"

"He has such a sad face."

"That makes him trustworthy?"

"It does to me. Call it woman's intuition."

"There's no such thing. Besides, I'm a woman and my instinct says the opposite."

"All right, darling," Hestia said, smiling at Hana's determination. "How about confiding in that nice museum manager who brought us the drinks?"

"It's the same problem. Anyone might be the culprit."

"I suppose so."

Hestia then realised what Hana had said.

"What do you mean you know how the theft will be done? Hasn't it already been done?"

"No, I don't think so. We saw on the video that Mr Baddage set the alarm off by hand. We also saw Mr Baddage test the alarm after the supposed theft, proving it was working. Grace set off the alarm before the theft. So, if the security system has been working the whole time, and the jewel can't be taken without setting off the alarm, then the jewel must still be there."

"Well that's where logic lets you down, Hana. We both saw that the display stand was empty."

"Logic isn't defeated so easily, Auntie. An empty display stand means either that the jewel is missing or that the jewel is still there but invisible."

"How can it be invisible?"

"You remember the microwave compressed air technology that powers the force-field around the display stand?"

"Yes."

"It's the same technology that Doctor Goldrick used to make the airsuits that Grace and Tom's son Luke flies."

"What of it?"

"I read Doctor Goldrick's paper on airsuits last night and one of the things the microwave compressed air technology can do is create something like a mirage. When light passes through air of different pressures, it gets bent, and bent light can focus an image, so that something distant can appear nearby. If there are microwave beam emitters on the display stand, then they can produce an effect in which the light is bent around the jewel, making it appear as though it isn't there, as if you can see right through it."

"You mean it's a trick done with mirrors?"

"Yes, except the compressed air works as a lens, not a mirror."

"Why would someone trick us into thinking the jewel's been stolen when it's really still there?"

"In order to cause exactly this kind of commotion, where everyone gets searched and the whole museum gets turned upside down. In the confusion, a thief can simply swipe the jewel, knowing that no one will suspect him because he's already been searched."

"Won't he set off the alarm himself if it's working properly?"

"He will, so there must be a way around that problem which I haven't worked out yet."

"What else do you need to know?"

"I need to look at the security video from a good time before the jewel seemed to disappear, to see if someone places microwave beam emitters on the display stand. They might be tiny dots. And it would help to know how the security system works, to see if it can be bypassed."

"You could ask Tom. He works with security systems."

"Yes, but isn't he the most likely suspect?"

"Tom! Why's he a suspect?"

"Tom and Grace together. He might know how the security system can be bypassed and Grace triggered the force-field."

"It was an accident."

"It certainly looked like it, but what if Grace set off the alarm while placing something on the display stand?"

"Like microwave beam emitters?"

"Exactly. Tom or Grace might have turned on the beams when we all left the exhibition, to make the jewel seem stolen. Now all they need to do is create some kind of distraction so they can go back to the exhibition room to pocket the jewel."

"I don't suppose we can ask Tom if he knows how to bypass the security system without alerting him to our suspicions."

"No, and it's just as likely that Tom and Grace have an accomplice on the inside who can turn off the security system at the right moment to steal the jewel."

"Ooh, yes!" Hestia said. "Tom's the brains behind the heist; Grace placed the beam emitters; and an inside man (probably one of the museum guards) sabotages the security system. No one suspects the inside man because he was nowhere near the exhibition room when the jewel went missing; and Tom has already been searched, so no one suspects him either."

"That's one scenario."

"Why can't you suggest it to the inspector?"

"Because he's a suspect as well. It's as likely the inside man is a policeman as a museum guard. But I do like the idea that it's an inside man in cahoots with one of us visitors because we might be back on the spaceship before everything's properly sorted out here."

"That's it, Hana! That's why the theft was planned for closing time when a tour-group was present, because we're pressed for time to get back to the shuttlecraft. If the inspector's in on it, then he'll keep us here to the very last moment, then declare the case unfathomable and let us go. Meanwhile, he'll arrange for the security system to be turned off and nab the jewel for himself."

"I thought you said the inspector is trustworthy."

"Don't mock me, young lady. Besides, it might be any policeman or museum guard."

"It looks like Inspector Masham agrees with that judgment," Hana said, indicating activity in the middle of the hall.

The museum staff was lining up to go through the portable x-ray machine, observed by the policemen. The policemen themselves followed. Even Sergeant Wren went through it. When Inspector Masham finished interviewing Tom and Grace, he walked dejectedly through the device himself.

Looking on, Hestia and Hana smiled to each other, sharing the knowledge that, for at least one of the participants, it was a charade. None had the jewel hidden on his person. Not yet anyway.

******

The x-rays did not reveal the thief, so Min and most of the tour-group were feeling frustrated. There was about an hour before they would miss the shuttlecraft.

"If Tom and Grace are suspects," Hestia said, "what about the rest of the tour-group? Can Nuo and Chen be implicated?"

"What kind of shop do they own?"

"I don't know."

Hestia turned around in her seat and spoke to the man behind her.

"Nuo, what kind of shop do you have?"

"A jewellery shop," he said.

Hestia could see Hana's smile through the back of her head.

"How much is the stolen jewel worth?" she asked Nuo.

"I don't know for sure, but I would guess at least 100,000 Galactic Pounds."

"Phew! That's a pretty big fortune," Hestia said.

She turned back to Hana.

"That settles it" she whispered. "The Yangs are involved. They're going to fence the loot. What about Agatha and Rowen? They're respectable teachers."

"What better disguise to transport the stolen merchandise?" Hana said.

"So they're mules. Is Min also a suspect?"

"As you said, it's very useful to the thief that the last tour-group to visit the exhibition should be one that urgently needs to leave the scene of the crime. Min might have arranged it so that we would be the final tour-group."

"I think Min is either a good actress or she was genuinely trying to hurry us up. Remember, Sweetie, you and I dawdled the most."