The Interrogation pt 2

THE INTERROGATION
Part Two

Daphne entered the Museum through the front entrance and was immediately welcomed by the guards near the front door.  “Good afternoon, Miss Blake!” they called cheerfully.  “Hey guys!” she smiled back over her shoulder, without noticing the two middle-aged men were shamelessly ogling the pretty redhead’s long gorgeous legs.
She checked the marquee in the center of the lobby, and sure enough, there was an exhibit from Venezuela, having just arrived in the middle of the night.  All of the pieces had not yet been set-up, according to the docent, for whom she had worked on numerous occasions.  “I’d love to see the pieces!” she remarked cheerfully.  “Can I help you set them out?”
“Well…”, he hesitated, looking around to see if anyone else was listening.  “I guess it wouldn’t hurt.  I’m not keeping you from anything else that’s important, am I?”  
Daphne blushed a little, remembering that today was her library day, not a museum day, and both places knew about the other.  “Well….” It was her turn to hesitate.  “I sort of promised Mr. Applegate that I would reshelve some books this afternoon.  I could come back when I’m done.  Would that be okay?”
Mr. Scott smiled.  He was close to 70 years old, but a pretty redhead was still hard to resist, especially one wearing a very short dress and high-heels.  “I really doubt that I will get to it until late this afternoon anyway, so whatever is there will be waiting for you when you get back!”  
“Groovy”, she grinned, knowing her choice of 70’s slang would bring a smile to his face.  He was a college professor 40 years ago when students were first using the word ‘groovy’.  “So, is it a date?” she smiled wickedly, knowing the effect she was having on the old man.
“Darling, if I were even 30 years younger….”  He let the rest of the sentence trail off and the two of them just laughed.  Daphne hurried out of the museum and back to the library.  She was anxious to get her day of work over and return to the museum.  She just had to get a look at that exhibit from Venezuela!  
Daphne did not see her fan club when she returned to the library.  She stopped off at a sandwich shop and had a quick lunch before returning.  Then she settled right into reshelving the books from earlier today.  She thought, again, that it was odd that the room was virtually empty until she climbed up on the ladder.  Once again, patrons seemed to fill the room, so that she had plenty of company while she was putting the books away.  Two men even came and stood under the ladder so that she would not have to climb down.  They told her they would gladly hand the books up to her.  How sweet!
After a few more chores in the library, Daphne called it a day around 4:30.  She made her way back to the Museum of Fine Art.  Once, she thought she saw the boys from earlier today on their skateboards.  But once they saw her, they immediately went the other way.  A little later, before reaching the Museum, she thought she heard someone give a wolf-whistle.  But when she looked, there were no boys around.  She did recognize the woman from the library earlier today sitting on a park bench reading a novel.  Nah….couldn’t be, she thought.
Once inside the Museum, she got Mr. Scott to show her the locked room upstairs where the artifacts for the Venezuelan exhibit were stored.  Everything, he said, had been photographed.  She just needed to catalogue it all and enter everything into the computer.  He also wanted her to put the security codes on all of the items in the room.  He then wanted her to start putting the items onto carts and using the sketches he had laid out, start setting up the exhibit.  The most important thing, he told her, was not to leave the exhibit room or the store room, either one, unlocked when she was not around.  Above all, he warned her, was to NOT leave the door unlocked even while she was inside.  “Unlock the door, look around, then go inside quickly and lock the door behind you.  And when you’re leaving, open the door a crack, and look around before you come out.  It’s for your safety as well as the security of the Museum’s collections.  Probably no one would want to harm you, personally, but if someone wanted to steal the Museum’s treasures, they might hurt you to get to them.”  This thought chilled Daphne somewhat.  
“I’ve been in danger before, Mr. Scott.  You forget.  My friends, Freddy, Shag, Velma and our dog Scooby-Doo have handled quite a few dangerous mysteries.  I, myself, have been captured by the bad guys in many of them.  Even the worst criminals we’ve met have not been that bad.  I mean, no one’s ever wanted to hurt me.  They just usually tie me up, gag me and stuff me into a basement, shed, secret room, or in one case, a piano!”  
Mr. Scott chuckled at this.  “Well, you certainly have been around my dear, and you’ve had more experience in this sort of thing, than I am afraid, even I myself have had.”  His face darkened just a little as he spoke, however.  “But do not underestimate the sort of person that is willing to commit art theft.  Even as a younger man, I wouldn’t have taken chances with getting myself between an art thief and his treasures.  If it ever comes down to it and you find yourself trapped.  Just give the thief what he wants.  Don’t try to be a hero….er….heroine, artifacts can be replaced, my dear, but you cannot”.
“Ahh”, Daphne sighed.  “That’s sweet, Mr. Scott.  I appreciate your concern.  But I promise I’ll be careful and won’t even LET myself get into that fix”.  
He smiled.  “Good, now get going.  You have a lot to do.  Whatever you don’t get finished this evening, you can do tomorrow.  You are going to be here all day tomorrow, right?”  
“Yes Sir”, she said.  
With that, Daphne went tapping up the stairs, found the store room and unlocked it.  She quickly locked it back behind her as soon as the door was closed.  She turned back around, leaving the key nearby.  She gasped as she saw all of the artifacts in the room.  A pile of photographs was near the computer.  She switched it on so that it could boot up and make the job of cataloguing go that much faster.  She hoped that the photographs were print versions of digital ones, but quickly found, once the computer was fired up, that this was not the case.  
She decided to go about the cataloguing only after she had found what she was looking for.  She actually found several items of pottery.  There were, in all, about a dozen pieces in the entire exhibit.  She photographed each one with the camera in her cell phone and sent a short, cryptic text message to Freddy, asking him which piece he intended.  There was no answer immediately, so Daphne set to work.  She gathered all of the photographs and went to another room to use the computer scanner.  She put her cell phone in her purse and brought everything with her while she was scanning all the photographs into the computer.  She did remember, however, to lock the door behind her.  When the elevator opened its doors, Daphne came face to face with the man she had seen in the arboretum earlier in the day.  He held the door for her, but she lied and told him she was going up.  In fact, she had been on her way downstairs, but she did not want him to know that.  When the next elevator came, Daphne rolled the cart into the car and punched the button for the third floor.  The job of scanning photographs was an arduous and time-consuming one, but Daphne had all of them scanned in before long and had saved them on a flash drive that she kept on her keychain.  
She started back to the storeroom.  Halfway down the hallway from the door, she was pushing the cart when her cell-phone rang.  She saw that it was Freddy.  Quickly she answered.  Once, they had exchanged greetings, Fred began, “Hey Daph--, I got your message.  You wanted to know which piece I needed.  Well, it’s the”--  Daphne never heard the rest.  She stepped on one of several tiny pieces of paper on the floor, and suddenly, a loud popping sound issued from under her feet.  She jumped and accidentally stepped on another one.  One after the other, they began popping under her shoes.  Daphne screamed and dropped the cell-phone.  It hit the floor with a loud clatter.  As Daphne stooped to pick it up, she heard quick footsteps coming in her direction.  “Freddy, someone’s coming.  Freddy!”  There was no answer.  Daphne looked and the light on her phone was off.  She tried turning it back on, but it would not work.  She shook it hoping the battery was just knocked loose.  But that didn’t do it.  She grabbed the cart and headed for the door as quickly as she could.  
The Latin gentleman arrived at the door just behind her.  “I’m sorry, Miss Blake, are you all right?” he asked.
Daphne was confused for a moment.  She had not expected him to be so polite.  Then it occurred to her that he had just spoken her name.  “I’m sorry, you seem to know my name, but I don’t know yours”, she told him.  
“Guevara”, he said.  “Francisco Guevara, at your service”.  He tipped his hat to her.  
“Well, Sr. Guevara, I am fine.  Thank you for your concern.”  She started to unlock the door, but more than being trapped out here in the hallway with him, she would rather not have him follow her into the room.  Mr. Scott had been very specific about not allowing anyone into the room with her.
He leaned forward.  “Just before the loud noises, I heard a phone.  Was it yours?  I hope the loud popping sounds did not disturb your conversation with your friend”, he told her.
“Well, as a matter of fact”, she explained, “I was startled and that made me drop my phone.  Right when my friend was about to tell me…”  She stopped herself before she said too much.
“Oh”, he clucked his tongue, “such a pity.  You never got to finish your conversation.  I will leave you in peace so that you may call him back.”
“It was a her”, Daphne lied.  “I was talking to a female friend.”
“Of course”, he grinned.  “How silly of me to assume.  I just expected a beautiful redhead such as herself to have many gentleman admirers”.  Daphne did not know how to respond to that one.  What did he think she meant?  Oh well.
She unlocked the door and quickly slipped inside after checking the interior of the room.  She went to the computer and typed an email to Fred, to explain about the dropped phone and let him know that she was unable to receive the rest of his message.  She hoped he would email back soon so that she could learn which piece he was looking for.
After sending the email, Daphne decided to log the first dozen or so of the larger items in the exhibit.  She really wanted to get started setting it up tonight before she left.  Most of the museum staff had already left, as it was now early evening.  That would give her several more hours to work in peace and quiet.  That way she could start to get a feel for the way the exhibit would look.  The way Mr. Scott had it laid out, it looked exciting.  Besides, she kept hoping that if she waited long enough, she would hear back from Fred.  If she found out which piece he wanted tonight, she would not have to log it into the computer.  Then she could just destroy whatever records the museum had and would most likely be able to get it out of the museum undetected while they were closed.  Therefore, she was set to work all night, if she had to.  
Meanwhile, in Venezuela, Freddy was standing in his Caracas hotel room.  He had just explained that the piece of pottery in question could easily have been missed, because it was duct-taped to the inside of a larger piece.  Most likely, he had explained, it had been missed by Customs Officials as well as by the Museum staff, and most likely would not have been catalogued by any of them.  Therefore, she could just peel it loose and stick it in her purse.  He received a beep at the end of his sentence that told him his minutes were expired.  Quickly he told her.  “That’s it.  I gotta go Daph.  I’ll try to call tomorrow, or send an email.  See ya”.  He hated to hang up so abruptly without getting to hear her voice again.  But tomorrow, he would buy some more minutes and they could talk longer.  He felt better knowing he had been able to fill her in.  But then he remembered that he had forgotten to tell her about his friend from the Venezuelan authorities who would be contacting her soon.  He’d remember to tell her about that tomorrow as well.  Colonel Guevara was most likely in the United States by now.