The Fangs of the Dragon Read Online Free PDF Page B

various combinations. Until he found the right one, last Sunday night. So he opened the
safe and took out the comic. He only wanted to take a look at it, to read it and see what all the fuss was about. He had every intention of putting it straight back. But almost as soon as he took
it out of the safe, he realised that he was in a whole world of doo-doo.’
    ‘Too right,’ muttered Ed.
    ‘Ed! Just listen to me,’ I said. The car wove ahead, overtaking a lorry and changing lanes to pull away from a chunky people carrier filled with fighting toddlers.
    ‘As soon as Charlie looked through the comic, he realised it was fake. A dummy. A very good one, but a fake none the less.’
    ‘A what ?’ yelled Ed. ‘Rubbish! I know every square millimetre of that comic! Do you think I can’t tell a fake when I see one?’
    ‘We’ll get to that,’ I said. ‘Keep your eyes on the road! What Charlie took from the safe was not the real Tomb of Death . And when he realised that, he panicked.
He had no idea what had happened to the real one. Would you think he’d taken it? Who had taken it? Had it always been a dummy? Were you hiding something?
    ‘He didn’t know what to do. OK, with a bit more thought on his part, or by being honest from the start, things might have turned out better. But he was scared; he knew you’d be
furious. For a start, there was nothing he could say without having to admit that he’d got into the safe. And he reckoned he’d be in enough trouble for that, let alone whatever might
happen because the comic was a fake.
    ‘The point is, while he dithered over what to do, the safe was reopened and the comic was seen to be missing. Then you, Ed, told him to come and see me. Which, reluctantly, he did. And all
this time, he was hiding the fake comic away.
    ‘With Saxby Smart on the case, Charlie realised it was only a matter of time before he was found out. Which is true. He still had the fake comic in his school bag. So he went to the
office, distracted the school secretary and shredded the fake. Now, at least, when suspicion pointed towards him, there was no physical evidence left.’
    ‘Wait a minute,’ said Charlie, finally uncovering his face. ‘When you gave Ed those shreds of paper, you thought they might be the real comic, didn’t you?’
    ‘Ummmm,’ I said, ‘yes, but, anyway, moving on —’
    ‘As if I’d do that,’ muttered Charlie.
    ‘Moving on,’ I said quickly. ‘We come to the first theft. The theft of the real Tomb of Death .’
    ‘By Rippa,’ said Ed.
    ‘By Rippa,’ I nodded. ‘Izzy’s research, and my own observations, had shown Rippa to be a dodgy dealer in more ways than one. He’d already tried to pass off a
facsimile edition comic as the genuine article. He’d nearly succeeded too. So what more logical step for him than to go one better, and produce a really convincing fake, one that only an
expert would spot? And why not aim high? Why not go for one of the most valuable comics there is? The Tomb of Death Issue 1.
    ‘From various published sources, he could reproduce the comic’s covers and inside pages. And there was a local dealer he knew, Ed Foster, who actually had a copy. If he played
his cards right, he could go along and take a look at the real thing, to make sure that his fake was as perfect as possible.
    ‘The trouble was, he didn’t have a good reputation in the trade. He decided that, once his fake was ready, he’d travel to one of the big American trade fairs, where he
wasn’t known, and sell it there. In a huge place like America, the selling of a super-valuable comic book wouldn’t attract quite the same attention it would over here. So he worked away
at his fake, and he managed to get you, Ed, to show him the real comic, for comparison. You said he had some catalogues with him when he came to your house?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Ed.
    ‘And tucked inside one of them, was his carefully made forgery. He only intended to get a close look at