“I’m just finishing up!” Justin yelled across the room. He was just putting the final touches to his contest entry. Justin had immense artistic capability; he was entering a contest at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was late June in the Big Apple, and his family had fallen into some financial difficulties. Justin thought the prize money would really help out. He always used his gifts to help others. His Uncle Rob had given him the canvas for his birthday. The paints and supplies he needed he bought with his allowance money. Suddenly the doors burst open and there was Uncle Rob. “Do you need a ride to the Met? You wouldn’t want to be late, would you?” Uncle Rob asked.

“Yeah, that would be great!” Justin replied. They both hopped into Uncle Rob’s new BMW. He was a very successful business in the past, but his company was nearing bankruptcy at the moment. They arrived at the Met with not much time to spare. The deadline for the entries was just in a couple minutes. Each person had to check in at the information desk with Mrs. Johnson. She was an older lady that Justin had never seen before. She asked Justin to sign in on the sheet. Then he handed his artwork to her, for her to put in the back with all of the rest of the paintings. All of these paintings would be put on display for all to see on the next day. Justin asked the museum curator Mr. Hawkes, who he had met many times at the Met, what time the event started to tomorrow. Mr. Hawkes then pointed to a giant poster that had the time of the event in giant black letters. Justin could smell the aroma of sharpie on the poster board. The sign said nine-thirty sharp. Justin nodded and walked out of the building. Justin was so excited to come back the next day and show his work to the public. Maybe if he knew what was about to happen he wouldn’t be so eager.

Justin slammed the snooze button on his alarm clock, but that didn’t do much since his baby brother was screaming. “Justin are you awake, you don’t want to be late for you big day!” Mrs. Russo yelled up the stairs. She really didn’t get a response, just a grunt. A couple minutes later Justin was dressed and sitting at the breakfast table. His father was reading the newspaper as he sipped his black coffee. There was several ads that were on the front page. Justin noticed a couple grand opening advertisements, he couldn’t believe people actually read the newspaper.

When Justin arrived at the Met, he was surprised to be one of the few people there. Other than a security officer, and Mrs. Johnson the grand hall was pretty much empty. He looked down at his watch and it was only nine o’clock so he still had some time before everyone got there. He searched through the names on the list and found that his table was table number twelve. He walked by all of the amazing artwork that was on display, he thought of the countless hours all the artists had put into their work. He found table number twelve, but that’s all he found. There was just a table. Where was his artwork? “Um, excuse me officer do you know where my painting is?” Justin asked.

“Sorry, kid when I came in early this morning there was no painting there,” the officer replied. Justin then went to the information desk to see if Mrs. Johnson had his painting in the back somewhere. Mrs. Johnson explained that all the paintings were put out on display the previous night, and that she hadn’t seen Justin’s since last night. Justin didn’t know what to think other than his painting that he had worked really hard on was gone. His chances of winning the prize money for his family was down the drain. Justin wondered what had happened to his painting. He was determined to find out.

Justin arrived back at the house just as his parents and brother were about to leave for the art show. “Why are you back so soon?” his father and mother asked him simultaneously.

“Don’t bother, my painting is gone it just isn’t there,” Justin answered

“I am sure there is some mistake, it can’t just be gone,” Mr. Russo said reassuringly.

As the family walked back into the house, and sat down at the table, Justin convinced them it was in fact gone. His father being a very good problem solver, went through all the possibilities of the disappearance of the painting. “The last time it was seen was last night when Mrs. Johnson clearly put it on display with the others. So from that time till now the painting must have been moved or taken,” Justin deduced.

“But why would someone take it? No offense, but if someone was going to steal a painting from the Met wouldn’t they steal one that was worth something. The museum is full of very valuable paintings. Why would they steal an eighth grader’s contest entry, it just doesn’t make sense,” Mr. Russo explained. The Russos tried to figure out who could have possibly done this, but they couldn’t think of anything. Until the thought of Max appeared in Justin’s head. Maybe he was the culprit. He suggested that he go back to the Met and see if he could figure anything out.

When Justin walked through the doors there was so many people, the sound of the hall was like a continuous echo of footsteps. Before Justin started to investigate what had happened to his painting, he wanted to go and see his favorite piece of artwork in the entire the museum. “The Raven” was under very high security since it was one of the more valuable pieces on display. They had extra security all around just to keep an eye out. Justin loved staring at the piece of artwork. He had seen the painting a thousand times but this time it felt different. He noticed something in the bottom right corner of the painting. It was a signature of the artist that had painted it, John Michael. He noticed that it was different color than usual. He pulled up a picture of the painting on his IPhone and he was right. The signature was blue instead of black, and he also noticed that the picture and the painting looked kind of different. Then the thought dawned on him that the painting inside the glass was not the painting at all, a fake.

Justin began to ponder this, the painting obviously was not the original. This meant that the real was swapped with the fake. Justin then began to think of all the high security and defenses that getting that painting would be near impossible during the day. This meant that the swap would have happened not during museum hours, but afterhours. The only problem is how they got the painting out of the museum without getting caught. Maybe this was somehow connected the disappearance of his painting. The only question is how they got in and out of the museum undetected with all of the security guards and cameras. It would be pretty obvious if they walked out with a million dollar painting especially with cameras watching every move they made. Justin put this thought in the back of his mind as he explored around the museum. He noticed a janitor run out of the janitor’s closet down the hall. Justin didn’t really pay any attention to this until he walked by the janitor’s closet and smelled the smell of paint. He looked into the closet and found paint, blue paint.

Justin was very curious about the camera security system of the museum. He asked one of the tour group leaders where the main office for security was at the museum. He then proceeded to the end of the hall on the second floor. He had to sneak in and try to see the tapes for the last 24 hours. It was perfect timing because it was lunch break now, so the room was empty. He tried to find the tape for the time that he thought the painting was taken. To his surprise, he found that the tapes were destroyed, the film on the tape was all ripped up and in a mess.

Justin was on his way home pondering what took place at the museum, he walked by the newspaper stand and Justin remembered something. He remembered the newspaper that his dad was reading earlier that morning. The front page had several ads and one of grand openings was of a new carpenter shop. Justin walked down a couple blocks to the store. He approached the giant sign “Wood You?” he knew this was the place. He walked in and a bell above the door rang. Justin approached the middle-aged man that was covered in sawdust. “Excuse me, can I see the records of sales for the past month?”

“Why do you need to see the sales records?” the carpenter replied.

“It’s for a school project,” Justin lied. Justin would never lie under normal circumstances but this was a different situation. He had to know if it was true.

“OK, but make it quick,” the carpenter replied. He pulled out the records and showed Justin the records. Justin was scanning for a particular name, and right next to the description of the order were the words canvas with hidden compartment. Justin suspicions were true he had solved the crime. He was very eager to tell everyone.

Justin raced home to tell everyone what he had figured out. “I figured it out! The reason for the disappearance of my painting and the culprits of it all.” Justin yelled with enthusiasm. The entire family sat in the living room as Justin explained, “When I was looking at ‘The Raven’ at the Met. I noticed that the signature in the bottom right corner was a different color. The painting was a fake. The real one was swapped with a fake one. Then I found blue paint in the janitor’s closet. After that I found that all the security tapes at the time of the heist were destroyed. The last bit of information I found was from the new carpenter shop down the road. He showed me the record of sales for the past month. I found the last piece of information in the description with the key words canvas with hidden compartment. My painting had a secret compartment.”

“How was there a hidden compartment in your painting,” Mr. Russo asked.

“Maybe we should ask the mastermind behind the whole thing Uncle Rob, he knew that I would enter the painting in the contest, and set up the perfect plan for him to steal the painting and save his company at the same time.” Justin explained. “What happened was the night after I turned in my painting, ‘The Raven’ was stolen. It was stolen by the janitor, the security officer, and Mr. Hawkes. It was then placed inside my canvas in the hidden compartment. After destroying all of the security tapes of course. Then the morning of the art show, it was taken off my table and walked outside by Uncle Rob. Mrs. Johnson of course not telling me this because she was going in on the plan also.

“And I would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for your meddling kid.” Uncle Rob admitted with disgust. The next morning Mr. Russo was sipping his black coffee as he read the newspaper. The front page showing a picture of Justin holding his artwork with a bunch of CSI detectives around him, with yellow tape surrounding the whole scene. The title reading “It’s not what is on the outside but what is on the inside.”