Chameleon Lady

By Eeva Raito

A closely guarded diamond exhibition is about to open at the Caracas Museum. The highlight of the exhibition is the magnificent, world-famous Blue Angel. The crowds are large, and not all of them have entirely honourable intentions.

The mysterious Chameleon Lady will also be there with her assistant. Who can you trust and can love change everything?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kari Nenonen
• Release date: Jan 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224548712

Book preview

Blue Angel

The man was small and plump, and he was showing off his desire to perform and sweating profusely in the light of the strong TV lamps. The cameras of all 5 TV stations in Caracas were focused on him. It was the star moment for Jose Villas, curator of the Prado Museum in Caracas. Outside in Plaza Bolivar, a cool mountain breeze was blowing, but inside the main hall of the museum it was sweltering hot and the air was filled with the chatter of nearly 100 journalists and the clink of ice cubes in the drinks served by the museum.

Verna's scalp was sweating and itching under the red wig and she felt a nagging urge to pull it off her head, but she couldn't. She let her green eyes roam the hall searchingly. The place had probably looked exactly the same for the last 30 years. The oak-paneled walls showed curious slightly lighter rectangles in the places where the paintings had been removed for the big diamond exhibition. The building had been the private palace of a Spanish nobleman at some point in Venezuelan history, and the roof rose in a high vault nearly 10 m high. The suction-cup alarms on the 18 small-screen windows made Verna's mouth stretch into a slightly mocking smile of pity. The Prado was woefully inadequately secured compared to its grand arch in Madrid.

But Jose Villas disagreed. The little chubby man showed off his cheeks on the shelves and his little chubby hands waving animatedly. The museum's unprecedented care and attention to security. Verna listened with only one ear as she next shifted her attention to the people gathered. When she spotted the sharply defined face of Sam Colidgren in the crowd. She didn't even flinch. It was perfectly obvious that Sam would be here too. After all, Sam was a diamond specialist, and this was one of the top cases of the year in the diamond industry.

Of course, Sam's presence was a nuisance because it meant competition. Verna would have to strike before Sam, but there was no real worry about that, as Sam's style was to study everything with the utmost care. Sam would still be planning his gig when she'd already done hers. Provided, of course, that Sam didn't know he was in Caracas too. There was no fear of that. So far only one person knew he was here and his disguise was perfect as always. Sam wouldn't know him if he went to talk to him.

For a while, Verna felt tempted to actually go and talk to Sam Colidgren, because she loved taking risks of any kind. But then the fat man in front of the TV cameras moved on to a topic that interested her and she forgot about Sam Colidgren, concentrating on listening to the intendant dutifully explaining the security arrangements.

-As I'm sure you, the media people, will understand. I cannot reveal to you all our arrangements, Jose Villas said with a mysterious smile. Yes. We must have something in our back pocket too, the swordsman laughed. He hesitated for a moment at his wit and then continued.

- But I can reveal that immediately after the end of this event, a group of American electronics experts will be here to mine this hall, so to speak, with the latest advances in security electronics. Vibration sensors will be installed in the floors, which will be so sensitive that they will immediately sound an alarm if, for example, a cat walks on the floor after closing time. In addition, the entire hall will be protected by a photocell network so that no one as thick as a pencil could walk a meter without raising the alarm.

Verna watched Sam Colidgren as Villas spoke and noticed the contemptuous smile that played on the corner of his mouth. Should she suggest collaboration to Sam? No, that wouldn't be wise, after the Venice gig Sam wouldn't trust her, and she couldn't trust Sam, Too much energy would be spent on both of them watching each other and it would be obvious from the start that both of them would try to pull out. Sam would still be worth keeping in mind.

-Given the constant television surveillance and trained guards, we can be sure that the Blue Angel is completely safe here, Jose Villas concluded pompously and then announced that he was ready to answer questions from the press.

—Caracas is currently in the grip of a kind of diamond fever, a New York Times spokesman said. Department stores are full of Blue Angel glassware and they are even being sold in trinket stores. I've heard rumours that the Blue Angel on display is also a replica, which the public will know is not the case.

—Oh, oh Villas smiled with disapproving pity.—I can see that Mr Journalist's knowledge of diamonds is not top-notch. The splendour of the blue angel is simply impossible to replicate. That would be impossible. The fraud would be exposed immediately. You'll see it as soon as you see the beauty in the display case over there.

-Thank you, the journalist grunted, looking a little embarrassed. Verna pushed her way to the front and gave Villas one of her most radiant smiles.

—As a woman, I am very interested in the romantic history of the Blue Angel, she said, blinking her long eyelashes.—There's a real story of a thousand and one nights, isn't there?

—Yes, Villas smiled wryly and devoured Verna's body with his bulging eyes.—The story is told in a brochure that will be distributed to the press at the end of this event, so I won't bother to go into it at length as much as I would like to, Miss...

—Sörensen, Verna said, looking with admiration at the Willa—Sonja Sörensen, from Svenska Dagbladet.—I am delighted to hear that our exhibition is attracting interest from as far away as Scandinavia. Villas' voice was honeyed, and even then he couldn't take his eyes off Verna as he answered to El Merkurio's representative. Verna knew that the fish had been hooked. She wasn't