alt=""/>
ON HER WAY INTO SPECTRUM, Ruby took 4th Avenue, which ran close to Radio Street. It had been named that way many years ago, when the big technology boom took hold and one by one all the stores in that street became suppliers of radios, cameras, TVs, stereos and the like. It was cameras that Ruby was interested in today. She stepped off her board when she reached Photo Cam, a store that specialised in Polaroid instant cameras. She wasn’t too bothered about the quality, though she figured it was worth getting a good one. She took the advice of the man behind the counter – he seemed to know what he was talking about. She bought several packs of Polaroid film and stuffed her purchases in her backpack. Then she continued on her way to Spectrum.
Ruby went straight down to the lab and asked SJ if she could study the card. Then, when it was lying on the counter, Ruby loaded the film into the camera, held it above the card and pressed the button. The camera flashed and spat out a small square photograph. Ruby waited for the required three minutes before pulling off the paper to reveal the print. Ruby wasn’t actually expecting it to work, it was what’s known as a stab in the dark, but now she was seeing things – what had been invisible was now visible.
What had been a total blank was now a card stamped with three words – or rather, the same word, written three times.
TAP
TAP
TAP
Plus, of course, the ‘loyalty card’ design that had been revealed by the warmth of the lamp the previous day, and the Braille-like code. One card, seven black lines, three TAPS, a whole lot of bumps.
‘This guy seems to have access to some pretty sophisticated materials,’ said Ruby. ‘I mean this ink? Where would one lay one’s hands on such an item?’
‘Beats me,’ said SJ. ‘I haven’t seen it used before, he’s either some sort of hotshot who’s managed to develop a flash-sensitive ink. . .’
‘Unlikely,’ said Ruby.
‘Highly,’ said SJ, ‘or he has access to a place where this ink is being produced.’
‘Where does that lead us?’ asked Ruby.
SJ shrugged. ‘Nowhere that I’m aware of. I’ll report it to Spectrum 1, see if they can find a connection – something’s always going down somewhere.’
The TAPs meant something, clearly, but she had no idea what. The bumps: well, she had no idea what they meant either. They looked like Braille, but the configurations bore no relation to the Braille she had studied. The picture that kept coming into her head was a corridor. It was not like the corridors of Spectrum, but rather was scruffy, with flaked paintwork and chipped stone floor. The image kept coming in and out of focus, then shoes popped into her mind. Shoes, she thought. Why? The thought connected with the Little Yellow Shoes, but was not the Little Yellow Shoes. The ones she saw were black, men’s shoes, work shoes. Not fancy, not scruffy. Then something else. A hand, a piece of paper. A small white piece of paper. Blank.
Ruby opened her eyes. She stared ahead of her, unblinking and then suddenly activated her watch transmitter and buzzed for Hitch. He responded on the second ring.
‘Redfort?’
‘We gotta speak to the security guard,’ said Ruby.
It didn’t take more than ten minutes to get the answer to her question.
‘It seems you were on the money,’ said Hitch. ‘What you saw the security guard at the Scarlet Pagoda pick up was a card, just like the one found at the Okra apartment. He’s had it in his pocket since the night of the costume show, didn’t think anything of it – why would he?’
‘So we have two,’ said Ruby. ‘Are they exactly the same?’
‘I guess we better take a look,’ said Hitch. ‘I’ll go pick it up and bring it on back to the lab. I won’t be more than twenty minutes.’
He was true to his word and only a half-hour later, Blacker, Hitch and Ruby were gathered in the lab studying the new card as SJ went about her business.
‘Same results as the other card,’ she said. ‘We got the grid of lines and see here, in the Polaroid shot, we have the taps – but this time only two.’ She laid the shoe card next to the poetry card and they all stared down at them. Both had embossed dots and bumps; both had the grid lines. Next to the cards the two Polaroids. On one, three words revealed and on the other just two. All the words were the same – TAP.
Hitch and Ruby were staring at them; it was a breakthrough.
RUBY: ‘So one has to wonder, why are there two stamps on the card found at the Pagoda theatre?’
HITCH: ‘They were the second item the thief stole. The book was the third, hence three TAPs.’
BLACKER: ‘That’s my bet.’
RUBY: ‘So this naturally leaves us wondering. . .’
HITCH: ‘What was the first robbery?’
BLACKER: ‘Correct.’
BLACKER: ‘Also, if we are right about our theory and I am bold enough to say I think we are, then we are expecting a further three high-rise thefts.’
HITCH: ‘So it looks like what we’ve got is a serial thief; a very organised one at that.’
BLACKER: ‘Yeah and one who seems to want to get caught.’
HITCH: ‘Or he thinks he’s too good to get caught.’
‘Or, maybe,’ said Ruby, ‘he just wants to be noticed.’
RUBY, HITCH AND BLACKER HAD AGREED that the main focus should be trying to anticipate the next item on the thief’s list – trying to get a step ahead of him.
Ruby had to start somewhere and since she had got next to nowhere with the poetry book, she decided to find out more about the Little Yellow Shoes. She checked the newspaper for the film festival listings and made a note of the time.
She was early to school for once and was hanging out waiting for Clancy. Unusually he wasn’t one of the first to make it through the gates, nor was he dressed at all like himself – he looked kind of normal. Ruby was already seated when he finally made an appearance, not late but not overly punctual, as was his style ordinarily.
‘Where have you been and what are you wearing?’
‘What
