Chapter 13 #3
“A man of science swept into something like this?” Grant murmured.
By then, emergency personnel had arrived and worked on the man, who was, according to the head EMT, “barely alive.”
He was whisked to the hospital. It was only then that Shelly realized that Grant wasn’t alone, because Perry Banyan had come with him.
“We’ve had eyes on the place, too,” Perry explained. “Our phones rang at the same time, right when the cameras picked up the fact that someone was in the house.”
“Good timing,” Shelly said, glancing at him. “I guess we’re not so great on the houses the Bureau set up for us.”
“You deal with criminals, you get crime,” Perry said. “Well … damn. You also get paperwork.”
Always.
And between the investigation at the house, the emergency crews, the different agencies, it was night by the time the four of them were alone in the house again.
And there was nothing they were going to learn from Alan Barker.
He died on his way to the hospital.
It was then it finally quieted down, and the four of them managed a conference call with Angela. Angela was able to give them something that could possibly help lead them in a new direction.
“Shelly, when you were telling me about him talking after he stabbed himself,” Angela said, “I found a reference to Ra on a site that originally gave the appearance of being nothing other than an Egyptian study group. And so far, I’ve only traced it to one name and place.
There’s a woman named Natalie Greenway who has gotten into the dark web.
Thing is, she’s living in a medical facility just north of the city.
I tried speaking with her on the phone; I’m working on infiltrating the group.
But I’m sending the address. It may be that she did manage to key in the wrong thing or that it is just a group of Egyptologists, but … ”
“Send us all the info; we’ll head out right now.”
“It’s probably past visiting hours, so—” Grant began.
“Warrant,” Angela said. “You’ll have one.”
They finished the call soon after, and the four of them looked at one another around the table.
“And we’re supposedly gifted,” Shelly murmured.
“We are gifted,” Skye said. “And we have good agents all around us; we knew in two seconds to get back here when the cameras picked up Barker getting into the house.”
“True. But … he stabbed himself immediately. How in the world does a man who was a scientist fall for all this? And what did he think? If we’d all returned to the house at the same time, he was going to knife us all to death?” Zach said thoughtfully.
“Brilliant minds have fallen for the absurd throughout history,” Grant reminded them. “So, we’ll go and see this woman, find out if she’s an accidental Egyptologist or if some of her mind is still there. Shall we?”
“Yeah, but first, we haven’t redone the alarm yet! We must do so before we leave.”
“Wait!” Shelly said suddenly.
“For?” Grant asked.
“I wonder if there was another curse tablet left behind!” she told them.
“Well, we had dozens of people tramping through the front area here,” Grant said. Then he stood, and he was gone.
Shelly hurried after him. He was in the room where she’d set her belongings.
Nothing appeared to be out of order.
But he suddenly fell to the floor, looking under the bed.
Zach and Skye were at the door, looking in, frowning. “Um, I guess we’ll check the others,” Zach told them.
“Shelly, there’s something there, by the bedpost,” he said.
She dropped to the floor as well, looking where he’d pointed.
“Gloves!” she murmured, starting to go for her pocket, remembering she’d used her jacket to try to stop Alan Barker’s blood flow.
Grant tossed her a pair. “I’ll lift the bed!” he told her.
He got to his feet easily and lifted up the four-poster bed.
There, close to the left post at the end of the bed, was something. It barely glinted in the light that touched it. But Shelly moved carefully, taking the rolled-up sheet of metal that was becoming far too familiar now in her fingers as carefully as she could.
She moved back, holding the object.
“Got it!” Grant shouted.
“Plastic out!” Skye called back to them.
A minute later, they were gathered around the large front table again, with the curse tablet on a sheet of the plastic meant to keep evidence uncompromised.
And with a tweezer, Shelly very carefully began to unroll the fragile piece of lead.
“Question,” Zach murmured, watching her.
“And I know what it’s going to be,” Skye said. “How the hell did he get in here and do this so quickly when Shelly was almost immediately behind, and we were getting calls about someone having entered the house?”
“That would be the question,” Zach agreed.
“Someone was in here before, possibly,” Skye said.
Shelly had the sheet unrolled.
They all stared at it.
Grant read the words out loud.
“‘She walks with beauty, hand in hand, ’Tis ever so sad that she must no longer stand. She’d tear apart all that was good, and so it must be for this beautiful she, on to another world, just as she should.’”
“Lousy poet!” Zach muttered.
“Wannabe poet,” Skye said dryly. “Okay, I don’t get this. The tablet was meant for Shelly, but you two were already threatened with a tablet before. I’m assuming that Barker’s job was to murder one of you. And that it didn’t matter if he died in the trying.”
“I guess not,” Shelly said. “Hey, that’s the thing. We’ve been threatened. They can threaten all they want. We’re going to catch them, and I think that the fact that they’re losing so many of their minions might make them even more desperate.”
“And that means we’ve got somewhere to go,” Grant said.
“Let’s go,” Zach said.
“Time to do it,” Skye agreed. “Shelly, you okay?”
“Oh, you bet!” she vowed.
But Shelly caught Grant’s arm before they followed Zach and Skye out of the room.
“I’m great!” she told him. “Really. Except, um, I’m not sleeping alone tonight!”
He smiled back at her, briefly touched her cheek.
“You’re damned right you’re not!” he assured her.
And he slipped an arm around her waist, propelling her out the door. And as they left the house she wondered, “Do you think we might summon the ghost of Alan Barker later?” she asked softly.
“Who knows?” he asked. “We can only try. Let’s see this woman who may be able to help show a living way while we can.
Another longest day in history. And maybe when we get back, Skye can close her eyes and see how that tablet got under your bed!
” He paused, looking at her. “Or you can see if you can bring Alan Barker back to us.”