“I think we found the brass latches from Nick’s trunk,” Nancy told him. “I need you to look at these.”
“I want to see them, too,” Amy said. She was perched on the arm of her father’s chair.
Terry opened the envelope and slowly began going through the prints.
“Can’t you go a little faster?” Amy asked impatiently. “I want to see the dragon latches.”
“Hush,” Terry murmured. He stopped at the picture of the jade tiger. “Nice carving,” he said, then examined it more closely. “This looks like stuff we used to see in Vietnam. I remember we passed one temple that was completely outdoors. The monks had statues like this set in a rock wall.”
“Dad,” Amy said, “let’s get to the important picture, okay?”
“Maybe you ought to go to bed,” Terry suggested.
“Never mind,” Amy said quickly.
Nancy listened to this exchange with one ear. Ever since the art show yesterday, Amy had been unusually edgy. Had Nick Finney’s reappearance upset her?
“Finally!” Amy exclaimed as her father flipped to the photograph of the two brass latches.
“They’re the latches from Nick’s trunk, all right,” Terry agreed.
“Then the case is solved,” Amy declared. “All we have to do is show this to Detective Brower.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said her father, looking at Nancy with concern. “If you didn’t have Mr. Mai’s permission to take these pictures, he might be able to press charges against you. You were in his gallery under false pretenses. And the police aren’t crazy about civilians spying on each other.”
“Reporters do it all the time,” George argued.
“If Nancy or Joanne had a press pass, it would be a different story,” Terry said. “And perhaps if we were working with a more cooperative police department, things would be different. All I’m saying is I’m not sure you want to go to the police with this.”
“What are we supposed to do?” Amy demanded indignantly. “Drop the case?”
Terry didn’t seem to hear her. “I’d give a lot to know what was in that trunk,” he mused. “Something that wound up in Mai’s gallery.”
Nancy reached for the photo of the jade tiger. “You said you saw things like this in Vietnam?”
He nodded.
“The brass latches were lying on the floor underneath a pedestal,” Nancy said. “The jade tiger was sitting on top of that same pedestal.”
“Does that mean the tiger was hidden in Nick Finney’s trunk?” Amy asked.
“Maybe,” Nancy said. “We don’t know for sure.”
Terry shook his head. “If it is true, I can’t help thinking about how Nick got the statue. I don’t know anything about jade, but even I can see this thing is worth a fortune. Nick didn’t have any money. And it’s not the sort of thing someone gives as a present.”
“Maybe he didn’t know the jade tiger was in there,” Bess suggested. “Maybe he just thought he was asking you to hold a trunk for him.”
Terry leaned his head back against the chair and shut his eyes. “That’s what I want to believe, Bess. And before yesterday I would have. But after that little incident at the art show, I think we have to consider another possibility.” He opened his eyes and looked at Nancy, who knew exactly what he meant.
“You think Nick stole the jade tiger from a temple back in Vietnam,” she said.
“Bingo.” Terry glanced at his watch, got up, and turned the sound up on the TV. “Sorry,” he said, “but I’ve got a show in Mendocino tomorrow, and I need to hear a weather report. They’ve been predicting rain and fog for a few days now.”
The local newscast was on, but the newscasters hadn’t gotten to the weather.
“Good grief! Is that what I think it is?” George asked as a photograph of the jade tiger appeared on the TV screen.
The news anchor’s voice confirmed it. “The Fe T’sui Gallery in Sausalito was robbed this evening. A statue of a jade tiger was taken. It is estimated to be worth over seventy thousand dollars.”
“I’m going to bed,” Amy announced.
Her father looked at her in surprise. “Of your own free will?”
Amy wrinkled her nose at him, said good night, and headed upstairs.
“Wonders never cease,” Terry murmured, and it occurred to Nancy that he was right. Why had Amy been so interested in the trunk and then gone to bed so suddenly? She’d figure it out later, she decided. Right now, something else was becoming clear.
“See if this makes sense,” she said to her friends. “Let’s say the tiger was hidden in Nick’s trunk. Someone broke in here and stole it. Somehow the tiger and the trunk wound up in Mr. Mai’s gallery. And now it’s been stolen a second time.”
George grinned. “And the suspects are—”
“The man in the dark red car and Mr. Mai’s nephew, Jimmy. Maybe Mr. Mai, too. He could have put someone else up to it. And we also have a phantom suspect, Nick Finney. I think,” Nancy said slowly, “that all along there’s been more than one person after that statue.”
“You’re probably right,” George agreed. “Now all we have to do is figure out who they are.”
“What I don’t understand,” Terry said, “is why they haven’t left us alone. The trunk was taken from the house days ago. You’d think that at that point whoever was after the tiger had what they wanted. The danger should be over.”
“But it’s not,” Bess said with a chill.
