Chapter 4

Ilsa and Guerrero walked into the conference room.

"How did it go?" asked Winston.

Ilsa smiled confidently, "Mr. Xiou has promised to let me know if a certain elusive bronze Buddha from Hong Kong becomes available. I made it clear I will make a very generous bid for it."

She pulled out a SIM card from her purse and pointed to Guerrero. "And my associate here, Mr. Jones, will be contacted on this phone number, if Mr. Xiou wants to convey a message to me."

Guerrero raised his eyebrows in surprise, and took the SIM card from Ilsa.

"Anything else going on there?" asked Chance.

"Hard to tell," said Guerrero. " But, Xiou seems to be the head honcho."

"Well, I've run all the people that Chance took pictures of at the jewelry store through the system and nothing comes up. I am checking them on the Interpol database now, let's see if we get any hits," said Winston.

"Darn, I couldn't get a picture of ole Andrew in the back room, since he smashed my camera" said Chance. "He seemed the most suspicious of them all."

"The guy was probably just building something with the cedar wood in the back room and saw you intrude!" explained Winston. "That's hardly a reason to get skeptical!"

"Well, and Claire too." Chance continued, ignoring Winston's comment. "Nothing came up when you ran her picture? Something suspicious was going on there, with those two!"

"Yeah, not the kind of something you are thinking of!" scoffed Winston who assumed the two were just linked romantically. "If you two guys finish checking out the rest of the names on the list, we can have some idea of what to look out for on Sunday, at the preview in the museum."


It was a lively night at the museum. The crowd of patrons was large but not overwhelming. There was wine, music, and slide shows of the new exhibits. Ilsa walked in with Chance: She looked elegant in a charcoal suit and a white chiffon blouse, as did Chance in a black suit and white shirt.

Peter was busy welcoming all the guests. Ames followed him with a drink in hand. She touched her right ear as Winston spoke into it. "Pay attention to the people who talk to Peter. Particularly if they ask any questions about the museum administration."

"Everything's cool, I am on it," assured Ames.

Meanwhile a limousine drove to the rear of the building to park. One of the traffic coordinators tried to direct the car in the opposite direction, but the driver, Guerrero, explained,

"Dude, that parking lot is a mess. My boss is an old man, he isn't going to stay long. It's easier if I park behind the museum."

And so, Guerrero got access to the loading docks of the building. "In position," he let Winston know.


There was laughter in the room, Beethoven in the background, and the guests walked around peering at the new exhibits in the north-wing of the museum. Ilsa was chatting with a couple while Chance stood by her looking for the exit signs. His eyes narrowed as he noticed some movement by the far exit door. "Care for some fresh air?" he interrupted Ilsa. She took the hint, excused herself, and followed Chance through the door into the corridor. The corridor was well lit, but had no signs of life; just muffled sounds from the party room.

"Now what?" questioned Ilsa uncertain of Chance's intentions.

"Just follow me, I have a hunch," whispered Chance trying to figure his way through the corridor. He touched his ear, " Winston, how do I get to the employee's offices?"

"That would be the east-wing, I am sure that's where Peter's office is," Ilsa informed.

"Winston, how do we get to the east-wing from here?" Chance clarified.

"Continue to the end of the corridor and make a left, and then another left, two doors later," Winston responded a minute later.

Chance and Ilsa tiptoed their way to the office-wing.

"Now what?" Asked Ilsa following Chance carefully.

Chance looked around trying to decide which rooms to enter. As he stood in the middle of the hallway looking around, he suddenly began to sniff around by the adjacent doors.

"Really Chance," Ilsa derided, rolling her eyes, "Are we going to be smelling out a solution like at Claypool's barn?"

Chance ignored her comment and stood by a door sniffing hard. He raised his hand to show he wanted silence as he ensured no one was in the room. Then, playing with the door handle, he unlocked the door, and swung the door wide open. Ilsa and Chance stood at the threshold and peered in. They stared at each other in amazement.

"I knew that Andrew was up to something!"

Inside the room was a neat stack of wooden boxes in varied sizes lined up against a wall. The fragrance of cedar wood was strong. Ilsa sniffed around and examined one of the smaller boxes.

"Cedar boxes! Great for storage, lightweight; Oh and look! With false bottoms!" Ilsa started to inspect the secret compartment of some of the boxes.

Chance looked around the room for clues, "So what came or will leave in these boxes, I wonder?"