9:25 a.m.
It became true to the people inside the gallery that the vandal known as Maestro has struck here in London. Now, they were all watching Pietro examine the black vandalized letters with his index finger. He then turned around and started walking toward the group behind him, including the four French art students and their teacher.
"Will you be able to ?" asked Mr. Simmons with a hopeful look on his face.
"Oui," said Pietro. "But, I need to ask a favor from ze people here." He continued to the crowd and said to them, "Eef anyone has a pen of any sort, please roll up your sleeves and take eet out carefully so ze ink won't go on any of your clothes." He turned to his friends and the teacher and said, "For you guys, you're fine 'cause I know none of you would have any reason to toil weez our art." Though the students felt relieved that we weren't being suspected, they were a little confused over their new friend's methods. How could a pen spill its ink on one's clothes if they are already closed? Pietro watched carefully as each person rolled up his or her sleeves and take out their pens carefully and handed them in one by one. Pietro studied each of the pens carefully, looking every inch of their length and width and feeling their very sharp tips. He went back to the vandalized room and started to examine which tips worked best for this kind of fancy handwriting.
He then called out, "Paul, Armand, Louise, Andre, come ovair here for a meenute." The four students did as they were told and came to the vandalized wall.
"What eez eet?" asked Andre. "Did you find somezheeng?"
"You bet I deed." Pietro replied. "Take a look at zhis." He pointed at each of the letters in the name "MAESTRO." "What can you make out of all of zhis?"
Paul looked at it first and said, "Well, ze writeeng eez quite perfect, somewhat een calligraphy."
"Indeed." said Louise. "Zhis kind of writeeng would have been done by a writer who's elegance far surpasses many een France."
"Magnifique!" applauded Pietro. "I see zat you have been taught quite well. However, I see somezheeng else here zat you four may have overlooked."
"And what would zat be?" asked Armand with interest.
"Well, how would you make out of ze letters?"
Andre took a good look at it and responded, "Hmm, ozhair zhan ze fact zat's zhere's no sign of any dripeeng ink, eet's hard to believe zat zis "Maestro" can do all of zhis in a just few meenutes!"
"Very true, Andre, but Maestro was able to vandalize an entire wall quickly een at least one stroke of ink. But, you steell haven't found ze zheeng zat I was referreeng to."
"What do you mean?" asked Louise.
Pietro pointed at each of the letters from left to right. "What I see eez zat Maestro writes from right to left." At that moment, the four students were puzzled.
"Right to left?" asked Armand. "How can zat be?"
Pietro continued with his explanation. "Well, ze English language, as I'm sure you are aware, reads from left to right. Our Maestro does heez writeeng backwards: right to left." He pointed at the letter 'O' first then across to the 'M'. "You can tell NOW by ze overlay of ze letters."
The four students now understood and were quite impressed by this. But, Andre began to wonder out loud, "Why would Maestro write from right to left?"
At that moment, Pietro started to giggle to himself. A confused Paul asked, "What's so funny, Pietro? Zhis eez a serious matter."
The new friend stopped immediately and responded, "You call yourselves art students, and yet, you don't understand at all. I zhought you knew." This made the students even more confused. How does Pietro know about this stuff and not them?

Suddenly, one guard came over to Mr. Simmons and said to him, "Sir, sorry to bother you at this moment, but we have just found the reason why the lights suddenly went out!"
Mr. Simmons was interested to hear this. "Is that so? Proceed with your report."
The guard cleared his throat and started to speak. "Well, sir, it was not much, but when we were caught in the blackout, we searched our surroundings to see if we can find the lights. Once we found the lighting room, we found that the wires to the new French art room were slightly cut and the door was strangely unlocked.
Right now, our technicians are working on fixing them both."
The curator suddenly became confused. "Only slightly? How could the lights go off in a flash when the wires were only cut a little and how did the vandal manage to break in without a trace?"
"Maybe I can answer that." said Pietro's voice from behind.
Mr. Simmons turned around in an instant when he heard it. "Oh, Pietro!" He took a sigh of relief before he continued. "I can see that you are still investigating. So, have you found anything suspicious?"
"Of zat, I deed, Monsieur Simmons. Your guard says zat someone went inside ze lighting room weezout breakeeng down ze door?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Well, you might zheenk I'm crazy, but my guess eez zat ze vandal had to use a certain tool in order to unscrew some of ze heenges and open ze door easily."
"A certain tool? But, no one other than the technicians have tools for fixing and unscrewing things."
"True, but Maestro deedn't have to ask a technician een order to open a door. Instead, he had to use a sharper tool to act as an alternate screwdriver and make heez way eenside."
Mr. Simmons thought for a moment and suddenly his eyes lit up. "You mean like a sharp-tipped pen!"
Pietro nodded his head and said, "Precisely."
Armand then came over and asked him, But, why would he choose to slightly cut ze wires when he could'ave cut zhem altogezher."
"Well, I'm glad you asked zat, mon ami. You see, eef Maestro cut zhem all ze way, ze sound of his runneeng footsteps might'ave led ze guards eento trackeeng heem down. So, to avoid suspicion, he secretly cut ze wires only a little beet and caused a brownout in order for heem to quickly vandalize ze room. I'm guessing he's very smart een zheenking on how time he has left before ze lights go back on."
"I see."
Then, Monsiuer Gluant came over and asked, "But, eef ze lights were completely off for a while, how come zhere were two flashing lights in ze room? Well, I know Felipe might'ave dropped heez own camera again, but where deed ze ozher light come from?"
"Well, Monisuer Gluant, that can be explained by one of your students who were weez you. Right, Armand?"
Armand looked shocked as he stared at Pietro. "What? What do you mean by zat?"
"Well, seence you were steell wearing your glasses, you were at least lookeeng at ze corner where Felipe's camera was. Once eet flashed, ze surroundeeng light flashed off your glasses and eet might'ave, how you say, spooked Maestro een sayeeng zat he might be caught right zen and zhere."
At hearing this, Armand and Monsieur Gluant stared at each other in obvious shock. The guard looked at Mr. Simmons and said, "Never thought I'd say it, but that kid is good!"
Pietro turned back to the vandalized wall. "Hmm, alzhough eet eez very strange zat zhere eez no sign of any smear when Maestro deed zhis."
Andre looked at his friend quite strangely. "Smear? What do you mean by zat?" Suddenly, there was a noise of running footsteps nearby. The students all turned to see Paul starting to make a break for it down the hall.
Pietro too started to take off after him. "Paul! Paul, wait!"