Chapter Seventeen
I kept quiet about the amulet’s connection to Nana Ama’s cuffs, not ready to share until I knew more.
Dr. Patel, while nice enough, was still a researcher employed by the Endowment.
That’s why she was looking at me like I was a snack she wanted to dig into.
She reminded me of the land developers who chased Nana incessantly with nothing but dollar signs in their eyes, wanting to make our home another vacation destination.
As for Hailey? While we shared Naira and Luke, her family still owned the Endowment, and the Endowment had ulterior motives.
I needed to remember that. From the photos, I asked if we could check the cameras, prepared to be stonewalled at this point.
But Hailey, once again, readily agreed, leaving me both curious and confused about her fluctuating moods and her willingness to give me access to her family’s company.
“Who’s he talking to?” I pointed to the screen where Franco’s head angled and his steps halted, like he didn’t have complete control of his legs. He shook his head as if trying to get himself alert. Or shake something loose.
“His lips are moving. Every few seconds it’s like he’s speaking.
Then he stops.” I was a sports broadcaster calling out shots as Franco performed them.
“He dips his head as if he’s listening to something.
Kinda strains like he can’t hear it well.
Then he replies. There’s no volume on this thing?
” I twisted in my seat to meet Patel’s eyes.
She firmed her lips. “Unfortunately not.” She shook her head. “All we’ve done, and here Franco waltzes right in, in the dead of night, and takes maybe the most valuable religious artifact we have. Certainly the oldest, if my guess is correct.”
The oldest, I repeated to myself. Like how old were we talking? I thought about Nana’s cuffs and how they looked so similar, and my stomach lurched. How much longer before the Endowment was on the Isle and learning everything they shouldn’t about Nana and me?
“Simon employed lip-reading experts to parse out what he’s saying, but to no avail,” Patel said.
“What do you mean?”
Hailey had been typing furiously on her phone. Whatever was going on between her and whoever was on the other end wasn’t good. She answered, “They said he was mumbling something unintelligible, so it was hard to figure out what he said.”
Patel shot a troubled glance Hailey’s way, her mouth opening and then snapping shut.
I could tell there was more she wanted to say.
Her brown eyes darkened with an internal debate I wanted very badly to eavesdrop in on.
But Nana Ama taught me better than that.
If someone wanted me to know something, they’d tell me.
Patel’s irritation won out over her need to let me in on what was really in her mind, and she snapped, “Every time I watch this feed, I get angry all over again. We’re entrusted with these artifacts.
We’re charged with the responsibility to restore these items as best we can and return them where they belong. ”
I switched my attention back to the screen. If you ignored the strange movements, Dr. Franco looked like a pretty average guy. “What was Dr. Franco like before he stole the amulet? Had something happened that would lead him to do this?”
Patel’s anger transitioned to sadness. “Dr. Franco was a great colleague. A little depressed, maybe. He was going through a divorce. He was a good guy, and a wonderful scientist. Very generous with his findings.”
“I didn’t know him well,” Hailey said. “But he and Luke were close. He took him under his wing, even though they hadn’t planned for him to be in the lab.
Luke was supposed to attend a school up north when he graduated high school.
But instead, he followed me here. You know, we have always been close like that.
Which is why he followed me here. Followed me to his—”
Some words shouldn’t be spoken into existence.
I whispered, “Don’t you dare say what you almost said.”
I knew the power of words.
But I also knew the power of misguided guilt. Like the guilt Hailey felt, thinking maybe she should move on like her parents did. Neither of those things were true.
And I realized that now.
I reached my hand out before I realized what I was doing and took Hailey’s hand into mine, squeezing it.
Patel cleared her throat, reminding us that we weren’t alone. The awkward silence that followed made Hailey suggest we get going.
I started to follow Hailey out, but her phone rang just as we were about to leave. “It’s my uncle,” she said. “Be right back.”
This left me alone with Dr. Patel, who seemed lost in the frozen video feed of Dr. Franco with the amulet clutched in his hand, gleaming brighter than it should have been in the lighting. I was staring at it too.
Who did it belong to? Why did he take it? Where was it now? And how did it connect to my grandmother?
“I really wish I knew what he was muttering,” I said quietly.
Patel broke her daze, turning to me. She dropped her voice. “They actually did make out one word. It was an old language. Ancient. We sent it to an expert we trusted would be discreet even though we didn’t give much context beyond asking what this word was.”
“What was it?” I asked, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“I don’t know if I’m even saying it right.” She hesitated. “Ah-wu-rah. I always get tripped up.”
I knew the word, and it wasn’t as ancient as Patel’s experts thought. It was an honorific still used by the Akans, one of the groups from the West African region, for women of high rank and prestige. It was a title my grandmother was also called in formal settings.
It meant Lady.