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liked the chains of words which gave her ideas. Christopher liked cartoons, pictures or comics better. On the right hand side of the page was an ad. in a black border.
    REWARD $50,000
    A reward of $50,000 will be paid for any information DIRECTLY leading to the recovery of a rare Ming vase stolen from residential premises in X town on June 7th, worth approximately $1 million. Attempts through the authorities to date have been unsuccessful.
    A rare coin was thought to be stolen at the same time.
    Any decision to pay the reward will be strictly at the discretion of Mr Ng. Queries from any party prepared to consider providing assistance are requested to contact Mr Ng on telephone (03) 7865987 or write to P.o. Box 13, X town. Mr Ng.
    That was the name which Tess had mentioned. The art collector. If he lived in Tokyo, why was he advertising in an Australian newspaper?
    If he was that rich, perhaps he had several homes?
    She showed Christopher who became quite excited. He’d just finished another sketch. ‘That’s a lot of money. What about that photo of the Ming vase? D’you think Tess has anything to do with it?’
    Both of them were a little suspicious of Tess. How could a poor art student afford to fly to Tokyo? Amy suspected that she was carrying something wrapped in her hand luggage. She seemed to know about Ming vases. And she talked to Samuel about selling her uncle’s piece of artwork.
    â€˜Coins show up on the scanner, don’t they?’ Amy nodded. ‘What about ordinary money on your pocket, or your bum-bag?’Before Christopher answered, Amy had worked it out for herself. They’d been through airport security hundreds of times. Mostly people carried notes or travellers cheques. Few were as stupid as Brut, showing a full wallet in public. Sometimes, loose coins would send off the alarm as they walked through the doorway and were ‘wanded down’ by the security guards.
    â€˜So if you were carrying a rare coin, where would you hide it?’
    â€˜With other money, in your wallet or purse...or bum bag.’
    Amy wasn’t convinced. That seemed too simple. Then she remembered how
    Tess had flipped a coin before she told the story. It would be easy to pass off a rare coin as an ordinary one, especially in a bum-bag.
    â€˜What about the Ming vase? Where would you hide that?’ asked Christopher.
    â€˜Wrapped up in your hand luggage?’ suggested Amy. But most of Tess’s luggage had fallen out, in the plane. Even her red knickers.
    And there was no reason to think that the coin or the Ming vase would be on this plane. It could be hidden anywhere by the thief. Perhaps the twins were suffering from ‘mysteritus’ again and imagining mysteries where they didn’t exist.
    â€˜Let’s have a chat to Red Cloak and see if we can look at the photo of the vase again. There might be a clue in the background of the photo.’ said Christopher.
    â€˜And there’s the security guards. They might know something,’ suggested Amy. Anything was better than sitting around waiting for a plane.

Chapter 7
Missing Ming Vase
    â€˜D’you still have the Ming vase photo?’ asked Christopher.
    â€˜And have you ever heard of Mr Ng?’ Amy asked politely.
    Surrounded by his group’s bags, Red Cloak looked up, ‘What? Clear off kids. I’m busy playing. ‘ Accidentally, on purpose, Christopher tripped over one of the bags. He bent down and touched something jewelled and heavy ,sticking out of one bag.
    â€˜Get lost kids!’ yelled Red Cloak. ‘And if I were talking to you, which I’m not,the name’s Red.’
    Disappointed the twins moved to the transit lounge entrance where the security guards stood. Christopher thought about what was in the bag. Why was Red carrying an old sword to Tokyo?
    â€˜Have you ever heard of Mr Ng?’ Amy asked one of the security guards.
    â€˜Who hasn’t?’ He smoothed his