The Sword Maker's Seal (7 page)

Ezra and the twins entered their first class still rubbing sleep from their eyes. Madame Durand was an ancient teacher who taught French. She had silvery hair, which always had a new style depending on her mood. All of the students knew that, while she looked old, on the inside she was no older than twelve.

Madame Durand called the class to order.

“I have a very special announcement today. Several schools in the Portland area are taking a class trip to France later this year. We will visit Paris, Versailles, Avignon, and Nice. The trip can be a little expensive but I promise it is well worth it.”

Madame Durand began handing out fliers to the class.

“There is limited space, so those who wish to go along should show this flier to their parents. In a week there will be an informational meeting where your parents can sign you up to go.”

Mason squirmed in his seat anxiously.

“Look at this,” he said pointing to the flier. “This would be so cool!”

Ezra received his flier and skimmed it, looking mainly at the pictures of happy teens in front of various famous monuments. The Eiffel Tower, Versailles, and the TGV were the three prominent photos. Ezra remembered from a French lesson in Junior High that the TGV stood for ‘Train à Grand Vitesse,' or, ‘high-speed train.' He couldn't remember how fast it went, but he knew it was faster than any train in the U.S.

The noise level in the class increased wildly as the other students spoke back and forth about the trip.

“Ten days?” the boy behind Ezra said surprised.

“I have to go!” a girl said back.

Ezra turned to his left and saw Addie pointing enthusiastically to her flier. He turned back to Mason and Madison who were sitting on his right.

“What are the chances we can get our parents to let us go?” he asked.

“Maybe if we get perfect grades and suck up to mom and dad,” Madison mused.

“I don't have a problem with that,” Mason replied jovially. “It'd be worth it.”

“You were always great at sucking up to mom and dad.”

“Hey, you don't have to because you're daddy's little princess. I have no shame in sucking up to get what I want.”

“Well, there's no telling what I'll have to do to go,” Ezra said sighing. “Maybe I'll be my dad's personal assistant until I graduate.”

Madame Durand spoke in more detail about the trip and then continued with her normal lesson plan. However, not surprisingly, most of the class still spoke in whispers about the trip.

With each class that came and went, Ezra and the twins tried to come up with a plan for after school. They didn't want to call the police and be charged with raising a false alarm by not having the evidence they needed to bust the thief. They had to find out the truth behind the heist. And fast.

Finally, it was time for their last class. Ezra sat tapping his foot in time to the teacher writing on the board. Madison was taking down notes on her notepad and when the teacher stopped writing on the board she wrote in the margins to Ezra, who quickly wrote a reply while Mr. Casey wasn't looking.

Mr. Casey's history class was the most lax in the school. Half the class sat texting under their desks or playing games on their phones. Blain “The Brain” was on the other side of the room, no doubt drawing tanks or some kind of war machine. Mr. Casey turned around from the board and Blain nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise.

Carson snickered from behind Blain and whispered something to him. The comment was surely snide but Ezra couldn't make out what he said.

Ezra shrugged it off and began playing with the purple matchbook he found on the MAX weeks ago. “Hotel DeLuxe.” He knew that hotel. It was the only hotel within a few blocks of the Ancient Artifacts Museum. What was it doing on the MAX?

Madison prodded him with her pencil, snapping him out of his thought process. She pointed down at their note page. Who will you talk to first? Was written in quick clumsy letters.

Ezra wrote back, Tanya.

I'm sure she did it! Madison wrote.

We'll see.

The bell rang and Mr. Casey, taken by surprise as usual, rushed to tell them about their homework assignment. As usual, half of the class was out the door before he could finish. Ezra packed up his bag and turned to Madison and Mason.

“You two ready?”

“Let's do it,” the twins said in unison.

The MAX ride seemed longer than usual. Ezra felt his stomach turn with anticipation. This could be it, he thought. This could be the end of the case.

The railcar went through the tunnel near the Portland Zoo. Pretty soon they would be near downtown and the Ancient Artifacts Museum. As they passed Goose Hollow Station, Madison opened her bag and pulled out a small object that looked like a tube of lipstick.

“What's that?” Ezra asked.

“It's pepper spray. Mom and Dad made me start carrying it. I thought it might come in handy if we catch the thief.”

Mason grabbed at the bottle but Madison withdrew her hand.

Mason frowned and said, “Mom and Dad never give me anything cool like that.”

“You don't need it because I'm always around to protect you.”

“Well I'm always with you! I mean…I could protect you!”

“Apparently Mom and Dad don't think so.”

Mason scoffed and stared silently out the window with his arms folded across his chest.

Ezra smiled and retreated into his mind as he often did before a difficult exam, or before the whistle blew to signal the start of a race. The sun was hidden from view behind the tall downtown buildings. In between the buildings the telltale clouds crawled closer to the city; the signs that a storm was coming. After living in Portland for all of his fourteen years, if he knew anything, it was that the weather in Portland could change at a moment's notice, and often did.

Madison turned her eyes to Ezra, who was swaying with the movement of the train.

“You alright Ezra?”

“I'm fine. I feel like we're getting close to the answer.”

They disembarked from the MAX and Madison and Mason began walking toward the museum. Ezra stood staring down the street in the other direction until the twins noticed he wasn't behind them.

“What is it?” Madison asked Ezra.

“Before we go to the museum I need to check something.”

“Check what?”

“There's a key shop a few blocks that way,” Ezra said pointing.

“Do you think that's where the thief copied the key?”

“I don't know, but there's only one way to find out.”

The three of them hurried down the street to a small store, which was nearly hidden between two restaurants. The sign above the window read Lipschitz Locks, 24/6.

“24/6?” Mason asked.

“He must not work on the Sabbath.”

Mason shrugged and entered the shop. The bell on the door jangled and a curly-haired man appeared behind the counter. Ezra looked around the shop slowly before approaching the counter. Countless keys hung from the walls as well as a plethora of sample locks. The shop was stuffy and old fashioned, and Ezra half felt the need to dust or vacuum—something to make the shop suitable for customers. He winced as he felt Mrs. Thorne's influence rub off on him.

Mason slid his hand along one of the dusty locks and almost sneezed when a cloud of particles entered his nostrils.

Ezra put his hands on the countertop confidently and said, “I'm here to pick up a key.”

“I've never seen you before. You didn't order a key from me,” Mr. Lipschitz said with a raspy smoker's voice.

“Well not me personally, no. I'm here to pick it up for Tanya Brand. She's my mom.”

He checked his list of clients and looked up at Ezra with a sneer crossing over his wrinkled face.

“I haven't made a key for a Tanya Brand either. Why don't you just run along now children?”

Madison leaned over the counter attempting to read the names on his sheet. When Mr. Lipschitz noticed he closed the leather-bound ledger quickly and placed it behind him on a small table.

“Oh I get it,” Ezra said sarcastically. “He's scared we'll find out he's copying keys designated as do not duplicate.”

Madison played along, “Right. There can't be too many key shops around here. If the police were to find out Mr. Lipschitz made an illegal copy of a key…”

“He could go to jail as an accessory,” Mason finished.

Mr. Lipschitz looked uneasy. His wrinkles became deeper and darker as he bowed his head.

“What do you want from me?”

“Just give us a minute with your ledger and we'll keep our mouths shut.”

He reluctantly handed his ledger to Ezra; he opened it to the previous week and looked down the line. There were no names in the ledger that rang any bells with Ezra or the twins.

Ezra looked up at Mr. Lipschitz angrily and asked, “Who did you make the key for?”

Mr. Lipschitz waved his hand at Ezra and spoke quietly in his ear. Ezra's eyes opened wide and his jaw fell slightly.

A man and woman walked into the shop, the bells on the door jingling wildly.

Mr. Lipschitz still spoke in a hushed voice, “Now get out of here. Please.”

Ezra and the twins left the small shop and departed for the museum.

“Who copied Tanya's key?” Madison asked.

When they were outside again, Ezra said urgently, “We have to hurry.”

Inside the Ancient Artifacts Museum, tour after tour was being led through the exhibits. Since it would only be at the museum another few days, everyone seemed to be coming out of the woodwork to see the Japanese Sword Exhibit.

Ezra and the twins rushed through security flashing their membership badges. The curator's blonde dolt of a nephew was working. He waved them through and then returned to his Surfer Magazine. When they came to the fork leading in one direction to administrative offices and in the other to the Japanese Sword Exhibit, a noise made Ezra freeze.

Ezra turned and looked down toward the offices. He pressed himself against the wall and slinked slowly toward the noise, the twins following his lead. The noise they heard was a heated altercation between Tanya Brand and Mr. Roy.

“I know what you did,” Mr. Roy said viciously in his fake British accent.

“Frank, I told you before, my keys were stolen and I was nowhere near here when it happened!”

“A likely story…” he said sarcastically. “One that hasn't been confirmed by anyone.”

Ezra noticed Tanya's face flushing.

“I told you! I met with Mr. Dillinger at the Hotel DeLuxe and then showed him around town. We went to the sword exhibit because he was very interested in the Masamune. I dropped him off at his hotel afterward and I went home. When I came in to work the next day I noticed the sword had been switched.”

Mr. Roy wasn't satisfied.

“I led the police to believe you had a solid alibi because I never believed you would be capable of this,” he said with his phony accent fading and his voice becoming darker and booming. “If the police received a warrant to search your house, I wonder what they'd find?”

“They wouldn't find a thing. If you'd just listen, I've been working out who did it, conducting my own investigation!” Tanya said sleekly.

As if on cue, two police officers walked past Ezra and the twins and read Tanya Brand her rights, cuffed her, and made to lead her outside.

“Is this YOUR doing Frank?” She shrieked.

“I'm afraid it is. You see, I've been doing my own research, and you're the only person I know who could have done this. I can't wait until they search your house and give Kenji back what rightfully belongs to his museum.”

“I wouldn't place so much trust in Kenji Okazaki if I were you! Did you even look into his past?” Tanya shouted while trying to worm her way out of the handcuffs but failing.

“Take her away!” Mr. Roy commanded, his accent returning in full force.

Ezra watched as the officers led her away past the hordes of onlookers. The spectators got more than they bargained for when coming to the museum that day. Instead of viewing artifacts of times come and gone, they witnessed history being made in front of them.

Moments later the officers reached their squad car and loaded Tanya in the back. She looked out from the back seat, a nasty glare in her eyes. The onlookers returned to their respective tours, though few listened to their guides after the scene. The whole incident had only lasted a matter of minutes, but Ezra was still pumping with adrenaline. They had done nothing while Tanya was accused and taken away. Ezra knew in the pit of his stomach that the case was not yet complete. Something else didn't make sense.

“Did you hear what Tanya said just before she was taken away?” Ezra asked.

“I don't remember. What was it?”

“She said she wouldn't trust Kenji Okazaki,” Ezra repeated.

“So? We know she never liked him. She was probably trying to find a way to pin it on him the entire time.”

Madison chimed in, “You saw her. She was trying any story to get out of being arrested.”

“When I had detention yesterday I saw a picture in the display case. The caption said that Hatake Okazaki, the descendant of Masamune Okazaki, presented a Masamune Sword to President Truman at the end of World War II.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Mason asked.

“Shut up and maybe he'll tell you,” Madison said quickly.

“When I first talked to Kenji he said he learned everything he knew about swords from his grandfather, Hatake Okazaki. So, Kenji is a direct descendant of Masamune!”

Madison groaned and said, “I think I need to sit down.”

“The next time I talked to him he said he just found out the sword was real. It was Tanya who discovered Masamune's hidden seal and alerted everyone to it the day before. Once Kenji found out it was real, he would have motive to steal it.”