Van Gogh Reborn!

226

Sin and Punishment (2)

Arsene clenched and unclenched his fist as he sorted out his thoughts.

‘I can’t find him now.’

It was late.

The boy’s range of movement couldn’t be wide, so he could have searched for him during the time he wandered around the streets.

He was smart enough to avoid the crackdown, so he would have changed his pickpocketing spot, but he didn’t think he would do that every day.

It was hard for him to have multiple places of activity because of the pickpocket’s habit of finding a way to escape and a place to hide in case something went wrong.

If he belonged to a group, he would have a fixed area of activity, which would make it easier to find him.

He probably went to pay his dues or to his own hideout, so he was likely to stay in one place right now.

The only problem was that it was not a conspicuous place.

“…”

It was impossible to find a child’s hideout in London, where more than eight million people lived and buildings were densely packed.

Arsene hoped for tomorrow.

The next day.

Arsene patiently looked around near the bus stop.

He disguised himself as a young woman today, because if he looked the same as yesterday, the boy would run away as soon as he saw him from afar.

He hid his legs, shoulders, and body line with a long and wide coat, and adjusted his height by slightly bending his knees.

He carried his bag loosely without locking it, acting as if he was an easy target for a pickpocket.

But the boy didn’t show up all morning.

He was annoyed by the crazy men who whistled at him, when he saw the boy he met yesterday from a distance.

Arsene pretended not to notice and acted dumb, so that the boy could steal his wallet or bag.

If he succeeded, he would head to his hideout, and then he would follow him and ask him where he got the fake sapphire.

He was wary of attracting attention from the surroundings if he grabbed him and asked him on the street.

Thud-

As expected.

The boy bumped into him on purpose, just like yesterday.

Arsene turned around, pretending to be startled.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

“Are you okay?”

The boy was flustered.

Most people either gave him a contemptuous look or cursed at him, even if they didn’t say anything.

But the young woman asked him how he was with a calm voice.

She helped him up after he stole her wallet from her bag, and even dusted off his dirty clothes without hesitation.

The boy, who was not used to kindness, was confused by the feeling he had never felt before.

“What’s wrong?”

Arsene tilted his head slightly and asked him again. He had an innocent expression, as if he didn’t know he had been robbed.

The boy blushed and pushed the wallet into Arsene’s chest.

“This, this was lying on the ground!”

The boy ran away without looking back, and Arsene was puzzled.

He should have run away with the wallet or the bag, so he could move to a quiet place, but he didn’t expect him to return the item.

“Hey, wait!”

Arsene hurriedly chased after the boy.

His smartphone rang.

Henri Marso, who was working on his project, put down his scissors and checked who had interrupted his important time.

It was a call from Arsene, who was in London.

“Behave yourself.”

Henri Marso warned Papillon and answered the phone.1)

“It’s me.”

-I found him.

He had received a report yesterday that he was tracking down where the fake sapphire came from, so he quickly understood what Arsene had found.

“Good job.”

-It was really hard.

Henri Marso frowned and checked his smartphone.

Arsene, who rarely showed any emotion, said it was hard, and he wondered what had happened.

“What happened?”

-Well. It’s a long story.

Arsene shook his head as if he didn’t want to think about it and brought up the main point.

-There’s a place where garbage trucks gather at the end of Cadington Street. That’s where they found it.

King!

“Stay still.”

Henri Marso warned Papillon again and asked Arsene.

“Why did it come out of there?”

-I was curious about that too, so I looked into it.

“You looked into it.”

Henri Marso urged him as he combed Papillon’s fur.

-They don’t seem to do any recycling here. I think we’ll have to look through each one.

Arsene complained.

The recycling culture in Britain had reached a point where even the sanitation workers gave up, and it was common to throw all the garbage in one bag.

Even if the trash cans were separated, the sanitation workers would collect them all in one place, so it was hard to figure out how the fake sapphire got to the garbage truck assembly point.

“Buy.”

Henri Marso said as he brushed.

-Yes?

“You can’t do it secretly, you know.”

-Yes, I do.

“Then buy the garbage collection company.”

-…

Arsene was flustered, but then he realized that his employer was that kind of person and agreed.

There must be a company that is either under the city’s jurisdiction or outsourced. It seemed that buying it would make the job easier.

-I understand.

After finishing the call, Henri Marso adjusted the length of Papillon’s fur.

He couldn’t stand the sight of a member of the Marceau family walking around in a mess, so he carefully wielded a comb and scissors.

Ko Hun, who was eating the snacks that Henri Marso had bought for him, was amazed by Papillon, who was sitting quietly.

“He’s so calm.”

Henri Marso gave Papillon a snack.

“He knows he can eat a snack if he waits. He’s smart.”

Ko Hun nodded.

He seemed to have learned through repetition that he could eat a delicious snack if he endured the haircut.

Henri Marso looked at Papillon from all angles and nodded.

“That’s it.”

When Papillon turned around and looked up, Henri Marso gave him another snack as a reward.

“What was that phone call about?”

“It’s nothing.”

“You said you bought a garbage collection company.”

“I had to do that.”

Henri Marso shook off the fur and said.

“Sit down.”

Ko Hun blinked.

“What are you going to do?”

“Don’t you know?”

Henri Marso showed him the grooming scissors and Ko Hun snorted.

“I thought you were being generous.”

Ko Hun brushed off the crumbs of the snacks on his hand and got up.

He couldn’t entrust his hair to Henri Marso.

He was sorry that he couldn’t eat more snacks, but he could substitute them with the Korean snacks that writer Ihanna had sent him, so he didn’t need to force himself.

“You don’t have to exercise tomorrow morning.”

Ko Hun, who was about to go outside, paused.

“Don’t get me wrong. I run because Grandpa likes it, not because you tell me to.”

Ko Hun drew a clear line, blaming himself for hesitating for a moment.

He was only staying for a few days until he found a place to live, but he was very annoyed that he tried to manage his schedule.

“Did you say jjajangmyeon?”

Henri Marso lifted his chin.

“Why jjajangmyeon?”

“It’s hard to find in Paris.”

“…Can you eat it?”

“Sit down.”

There was no point in answering.

There was nothing impossible for Henri Marso with money.

Ko Hun, who knew that well, sat in front of the mirror with a sour face.

“I won’t let you off if you lie.”

Henri Marso lifted Ko Hun’s hair and examined it from all sides.

“Just trim it. Just trim it.”

Arsen, who had taken over a garbage collection company, was suspicious of the trash that one of the trucks had brought in.

Underneath the semi-transparent trash bag, there was a black bag that made it impossible to see what was inside, but there was a lot of fur stuck around it.

When he opened the bag, he found a lot of animal fur that had been cut into pieces.

There was no reason to chop up clothes like this.

Arsen tore the bag completely and scattered the trash inside on the floor.

‘It’s real fur.’

It wasn’t artificial fur.

The UK had banned fur farming by law in 2000.

Not only the UK, but most of the European society, where animal rights groups had a strong influence, tended to avoid using fur.

Arsen, who naturally thought it was artificial fur, was flustered.

‘Is it a rabbit?’

Arsen examined one piece of fur closely and judged it to be rabbit fur.

‘Is there a factory that deals with real fur in the middle of London?’

There could be illegal groups, but Arsen couldn’t easily accept it.

As he continued to ponder.

Arsen remembered Damien Carter’s that had been exhibited at the Arnuvo competition.

It was a work that preserved a rabbit in a glass box with formaldehyde.

‘No way.’

Damien Carter had clearly said that the rabbit had died naturally.

Even if he had killed a living rabbit on purpose, he didn’t think that much fur would come out.

He couldn’t have made that much fur without making it several times.

“…No.”

It was also worth considering where he got the rabbits.

Arsen thought it was worth tracking down where the rabbit fur had been collected, and he widened his eyes as he rummaged through the trash.

There was something unnatural drawn on one piece of fur.

But he couldn’t tell what it was because the fur was cut up.

Arsen spread out all the fur pieces so that they didn’t overlap, and then he put them together one by one like a puzzle.

One hour. Two hours.

After staying up all night, he finished the work when the sun was at its highest.

There were 31 rabbits in total, and two of them had the initials D.Carter written on them.

Arsen confirmed the signature that Damien Carter engraved on his work, and he was sure that Damien Carter’s studio was among the routes that the garbage truck was running.

He felt a sense of accomplishment for finding a clue that he couldn’t catch for the last five weeks.

But he couldn’t figure out what secret Damien Carter had.

‘I’ll find out when I go there.’

Arsen couldn’t take his eyes off the 31 pieces of rabbit fur for a while.

1)Papillon: butterfly.

The original name is Continental Toy Spaniel. Among them, the breed with ears that rise up is called Papillon, because it looks like a butterfly.

In Korea, it is like giving the name Jindo to a pet dog of the Jindo breed.