The Last Enemy(3)

‘You mean you have two discs here, with exactly the same number on them?’ he asked, stunned.

The assistant shook his head.

‘No, absolutely not,’ he said. ‘We only have one of each number. But it seems that this disc, number nineteen, has already been used to remove the item.’

‘But it’s my bag!’ exploded Jake. ‘Mine! I left it here! And I was given that disc!’

‘I know that’s what you say, sir, but we don’t have duplicate discs . . .’ began the assistant.

‘Then who’s taken my bag?’ demanded Jake angrily.

The sound of Jake’s raised voice, and the tone of anger in it, brought a man in the uniform of a security guard hurrying over.

‘Is there a problem?’ he asked.

‘Yes, there certainly is!’ burst out Jake. ‘Someone has stolen my bag!’

The assistant’s face tightened and he said tersely, ‘We don’t know that for sure, sir. If you’d calm down . . . Are you sure you handed the bag into the counter in the first place?’

‘Yes, and I was given that plastic disc!’ snapped back Jake, exasperated. ‘And if you ask the woman who gave me that disc, she’ll confirm it was me. Ask your colleague to come here. A woman, about fifty, blonde hair. Glasses. Irish accent.’

‘Dervla.’ The assistant nodded. ‘I’m afraid she’s left for the day. Her shift’s ended.’

‘What about the person who handed in the disc and took the bag?’ asked Lauren.

‘They didn’t give it to me,’ said the assistant. ‘The only other person who’s been here this afternoon is Mo.’ He turned and called, ‘Mo!’, and a young man in a uniform appeared from behind the scenes.

‘Yes?’ asked Mo.

The assistant held out the plastic disc with the number 19 on it.

‘Did you take this in?’ he asked.

Mo looked at the disc, then nodded.

‘Yes,’ he said. ‘About five minutes ago.’

‘Who collected it?’ asked the security guard.

‘A woman,’ said Mo. ‘In her early twenties, I’d guess.’ He looked at Lauren. ‘About your age and height. Black hair.’

‘And she gave you this disc?’ persisted Jake.

‘Yes.’ Mo nodded.

Jake turned to the security guard.

‘You’d better call the police,’ he said. ‘Someone’s stolen my bag.’

‘We don’t know that,’ said the security guard defensively.

‘Yes we do,’ said Jake firmly. ‘Check with this Dervla, she’ll confirm, it was me who handed the bag in and the disc she gave me. And you’ve heard this man say he gave the bag to a woman.’

‘I’m sure it must be just a mistake,’ said the assistant in a hopeful tone. ‘A mix-up.’

Jake pointed to the two identical yellow plastic discs, both with the number 19 on them.

‘Not with those two, it’s not,’ he said.

The security guard looked at the two plastic discs, at Mo, and weighed up the situation. Then he announced, ‘If you’d come with me to the office, we’ll begin our investigation.’

Jake and Lauren followed the security guard to an inner office, where they discovered that ‘beginning the investigation’ meant filling in forms; in particular, Jake’s name and address, a description of Jake’s bag, and a list of the bag’s contents. When that list consisted of a bar of chocolate, a bag of peanuts and a bottle of water, the security guard looked warily at Jake.

‘Why would anyone want to steal these items?’ he asked.

‘I’m not saying they did,’ said Jake. ‘I’m saying they stole the bag, because of what they thought might be in it.’

‘And what did they think might be in it?’ asked the security guard.

‘I don’t know,’ admitted Jake. ‘Who knows how thieves think? They see a bag and snatch it, and then look to see what’s in it.’

‘But, if what you’re saying is true, then there’s a lot more to this than a casual bag-snatching,’ pointed out the security guard. ‘You’re suggesting that someone prepared a duplicate disc, with the same number on it . . .’

‘It needn’t have been the same number already on it,’ pointed out Jake. ‘It could have been a blank disc, and when they saw the number I’d been given, they put that number, nineteen, on afterwards.’

‘But why would they do that?’ asked the security guard. ‘Just for a small bag with some snacks in it? If it was a scam to steal a bag, surely they’d use that same blank disc and put a number on when they saw a bag that looked like it might contain something valuable.’