She looked at Joanne and asked, “Do you have a good blazer, Miss Earle?”
Joanne frowned. “Why?”
Nina smiled, “Because you are about to be famous. Almost as famous as Alexander the Great!”
12
Target Acquisition
Purdue, having abandoned sleep for over twenty-seven hours in order to make his way to Oban, found himself utterly moody and starving by the next day. All who knew him would attest to his almost unshakable cheer, his perpetual joviality, and other positive attributes stemming from a comfortable life of wealth. This short fuse and intolerance was completely out of character.
Seven hours in the clouds had taken its toll on him and he had only allowed himself two hours' sleep between The United States and Ireland. Looking like hell on legs, Purdue could feel his demeanor fall when he came aboard the Manannán to start the slower, longer leg of his trip to keep away from the security cameras of airports. He hoped that the Irish Sea would be kind enough to remain benign during his journey to Campbeltown so that he could catch up on much needed sleep.
Safely in his cabin, Purdue missed home. He missed his house, the historical gem, Wrichtishousis, now somehow in the aegis of the British Secret Service along with foreign archaeological agencies. He was confounded by the involvement of MI6 in his affairs. Apart from his connection to the Secret Service only by way of his friend, Sam Cleave, Purdue could not connect the dots between his fugitive status and Military Intelligence. Of course, he’d previously stepped over the legal lines of international heritage sites, but that was hardly military in nature?
He was also frustrated because he knew he could not protest or question the ludicrous seizure of his estate. After all, according to Scottish Law's Presumption of Death Act of 2013, Purdue had a whole seven years to resurface before the court could grant an order to issue a death certificate. Even then, only his own attorneys and holding companies' boards would have the authority to process his respective papers that constituted any form of passing on properties and business rights.
This was but one skin scratch in a whole bucket of crabs he would have to tend to once he was safe from prosecution and finally ready to climb out of his crypt. To Purdue's relief, the captain and crew of the Manannán, a large charter yacht carrying only a handful of passengers per trip once a day, were not the adamant types that insisted their passengers participate in socializing. They were just there to ferry their paying customers up the Irish Sea toward the port at Campbeltown, not to babysit. He was overjoyed that he could just disappear below deck and sleep until his alarm would wake him an hour short of his port of call.
Not only would Purdue be resting properly for the first time in days, he could do so without concern. Here on the boat there were only a handful of people and there was no threat of unexpected strangers showing up of whom he may have to be wary. He could relax. He could try not to think the unthinkable – that Nina had been taken by someone nasty and that Sam did not care; that he, Purdue, was all alone in his quest toward vindication and not neglected by his friends. With these damning thoughts infesting his uncertain mind, Purdue fell asleep without even trying. In a moment all these dreadful possibilities had faded in favor of replenishment, rest, and God knows, security. It would take him another two days at least to get to Nina's home, so he made good use of the down time.
“You will not believe this, darling,” Maria told Beck when she brought him his apricot ice tea in bed. “Finally I have some good news for you.”
He wanted to sit up out of curiosity, but the fury of depression due to his problems of late objected and he only acknowledged her with a groan. Maria put the glass down and turned the clock radio to face him. It was late in the morning already.
“Actually, I have two good bits of news for you,” she smiled. Now he had to react. “What news is that, Maria? Really, I have to know.”
“That's what I thought. Come see this. No, even better come hear and see this,” she whispered.
“Have you fed the housewife yet?” he asked, moving like a sloth on a bad day to grip his ice tea. “I don't want her to waste away while we figure out what to do with her.”
“I gave her something to eat, okay? Now, come see this,” she persisted. Given Maria's fear for her partner's temper, it had to be something great for her to prod him incessantly without apology.
“Oh for Christ's sake, what is it?” he frowned.
She kissed him on his cheek and grinned. Stroking his head, she whispered, “It is something that more than makes up for the…Nina accident.” She chose the phrase carefully. Insinuating that he was at fault again could start a time-wasting detour of an argument and she did not want him to miss the opportunity. This time Maria had really spurred Beck on and he started moving faster.
“Where? What did you get?” he asked, flinging the covers off of him.
“I might be mistaken, but from our live feed from last night, I believe we don't need to get Dr. Gould anymore, because...” she presented the computer monitor that was surveying Nina Gould's home.
Beck's eyes stretched at what he saw on the feed. “When was this?” he asked unnecessarily, as his eyes examined the time and date information on the bottom right of the screen. He looked at Maria.
“David Purdue? No, fucking, way.”
“Yes way! If you hurry up you can still make it while he is inside, love. You can deliver the big fish without having to worry about trying to fix the little fish problem,” she advised.
“I love you, baby,” he said, grabbing the Scots-Italian brunette's pretty face in his hands and placing a deep, hasty kiss on her lips. “I fucking love you!”
Jonathan Beck wasted no time in getting dressed and retrieving enough money from his cupboard safe to travel back to Oban at the speed of light. This time he took a gun, just in case Purdue was armed. Normally Maria would warn against it, as she was all too familiar with her boyfriend's temper and what could go wrong during an altercation, but she understood better his plight now that she knew what it was like to be on the radar of such a dangerous society.
When he was ready to go, Beck stopped to think.
“What’s wrong?” Maria asked from where she was seated behind the monitors. She had her headphones on, with the left slightly off her ear so that she could hear Beck.
“What was the second news you had?” he inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“That one can wait,” she replied. “It’s not urgent, just a juicy footnote regarding Nina Gould's whereabouts.”
He scoffed, “I couldn't give a shit about her location now, babe.”
“Unless she left Oban in a hurry because she was called out to check out something that could make her richer than God?” she teased him. He cocked his head suspiciously. Maria was remarkably confident about her information. “Her landline tap,” she gave away a little. “A conversation took place…that we recorded,” Maria grinned, hardly containing her glee. “And I know where she headed to investigate a possible trail to treasure.”
“Big deal. There are thousands of claims every year of people who think they found treasure,” he shrugged.
“My darling,” Maria said slowly for dramatic effect, “the woman who called her thinks it could be the treasure of…Alexander the Great!”
“Seriously?” he gawked. Maria nodded excitedly.
“So once you’ve collected the Purdue money from Karsten, we can travel across the sea to join the esteemed Dr. Gould to lead us to it, right?” she suggested.
“What?” His face exhibited ridicule at her small goals. “I say we deliver Purdue to Karsten, collect the money, and then get MI6 to pay us for information on the whereabouts of both the Black Sun bastard and their missing rich boy. That way we get paid more and we get rid of two flies, you know?”
Maria got up and licked his neck, groping his crotch and breathing hard in his ear. “I love it when you get all…depraved.”
“I wonder if I should trust you with Mrs. Beach,” he said
suddenly, breaking the sexual spell.
“Why? Geez, babe, you said you trust me with your life. Now this?” she moaned and sat down in front of her precious audio-visual equipment.
“I don't know. You females always get soft on one another. I know her type. I have psyche training from the SIS and I know her type, believe me. She is going to play on your feelings and before you know it you’re going to let her call her husband and shit like that. I don't like that.”
“Oh God, here we go again with the psyche shite,” she groaned. “Take her, then. Just take her with you. I’m sure getting Purdue done will be a walk in the park while a woman is waiting in your car – a desperate mother who knows that she is like, five minutes away from her own home and her kiddos,” Maria painted the scene realistically for him. “You go on ahead and throw her in the boot, babe, because if, God forbid, something goes wrong you would do great with the fuzz when they find two people hog tied in your car.”
“I get it! I get it, for fuck's sake. Can you shut it for a moment?” he barked. “I just…just don't fall for it, okay, babe? Just don't let her fuck with your head while I'm gone.”
“I won't. Now get going and get it done so that we don't have to fear for our lives anymore,” Maria smiled. Beck nodded in sincere agreement. He kissed Maria on the brow and left, looking absolutely focused on the task. She sank down in the chair, watching Nina's house on the monitor.
“Alexander the Great,” she muttered. “I wonder if all that treasure would help us forget that we killed a mother and wife just for getting in the way at the wrong time.”
On the other side of the locked guest room door Sylvia sank to the floor, covering her mouth and weeping as quietly as she could. Her heart throbbed erratically at the words of Beck's woman. Terrified, she sobbed at the thought of never seeing her children again, but she could never allow Maria to hear her. It would only urge them to kill her faster. She had to play dumb. She had to pretend that she was unaware of her fate and try to procrastinate their plans as far as she could.
There was one problem though. Sylvia had no idea how, when, or where Maria was planning to kill her.
13
Cold Trail
After determining that the large coin found in the dead woman's deteriorated esophagus was indeed ancient in origin, Nina asked Joanne to take her out to the place where the body had been found.
“It’s a crime scene, Nina. I don’t think they’ll allow us to go there,” Joanne warned.
“Why not? Is the body still there?” she asked nonchalantly, munching on a protein bar.
“No,” Joanne replied carefully, “they removed the remains long before the local police even wrapped tape around the area.”
“So, as far as they are concerned it was the scene of a crime from decades ago, right? No expected forensic evidence…none which would even make a difference anyway in solving a cold case like this,” Nina motioned with her snack.
“I…guess,” Joanne responded, still trying to figure out how correct police procedure along with the special circumstances of this specific corpse might cause this to be treated differently than the average crime scene.
Nina was correct. Although it was a crime scene, it was a very old one and the police had little more to do at the spot where the woman's body had been recovered. They would have to see if the camp director would allow them access, though, as he did mention putting some sort of memorial to the murder victim there. The two women made their way through the thick brush, trudging through the undergrowth and forest plants just a few steps away from the lake, keeping their voices low and moving as quietly as they could.
“Did you bring a weapon?” Nina asked softly.
“You can’t be serious,” Joanne replied, looking totally shocked. “A weapon?”
“Aye,” Nina nodded, frowning at her friend's strange reaction. “You always need to carry a weapon, especially when you’re not familiar with the area you’re exploring. It's common sense.”
Joanne looked sobered and a little wary of her companion. “You’ve been hanging out with Sam Cleave too long, sweetheart.”
Nina stopped walking and stared at Joanne, lifting her shirt to reveal a Bowie knife, twelve inches long. “And if I did not carry a weapon at all times I would not be standing here having this conversation with you, believe me!”
“Well then, you can walk in front,” Joanne mentioned, “so you can kill the insurgents who jump out at us, okay?”
Nina chuckled sarcastically. “Oh, God, you are so funny.”
As they stalked along the pathway where Joanne had walked before with her class and colleagues, the woodland grew gradually more quiet with every second as the night drew closer. Although Nina was used to Scotland's cold weather, Canada had a different kind of chill that she was not used to. Soon she felt the urge to return to the comforts of the fire, but the need to uncover the origin of the one singular medallion of antiquity was too intriguing to neglect.
“Here, a few paces from this line. That is where we found her,” Joanne affirmed, visibly wary of approaching the site where the clothed skeleton had been found.
“What's wrong? Come on,” Nina whispered, but Joanne shook her head. Like an obstinate mule she stayed put, refusing to move.
“I-I can't,” she said with a static expression Nina construed as terror. “I can’t set foot there again. Besides, what if there are snakes? I hate snakes! I don't want to be creeped out.”
Nina sighed, placing one hand on her hip. “Earle-girl, you stuck your hands inside a skeleton's rib cage to retrieve a piece of gold. That is some intimate contact, I'd say. And now you won't even go to the patch where she was before? Bullshit. Come on.”
“I’m scared,” Joanne admitted. “It feels wrong. You know how long she must have been lying there? And now two strangers are desecrating her grave.”
“Joanne, we are no more desecrating her resting place than whoever put her to sleep there years ago, okay? Besides, our snooping hardly constitutes violating her corpse or anything. Nothing we do here could do her worse than what was done to her the moment she swallowed that coin,” Nina explained. Her companion winced at the thought, but she had to concede that Nina was right again.
Reluctantly she started forward. “We can't be too long. It will be getting dark soon.”
“I know,” Nina said as she came to the uprooted spot where the local police had worked when they removed the remains. “This is going to sound macabre, but, do you have any pictures of the corpse?”
“Why?” Joanne asked.
“Do you know how she died? If I could see the position she was in, or what she was wearing, for instance, I could maybe figure out more about her involvement in such an ancient treasure,” the historian clarified.
Joanne thought for a second. “I could not take pictures at the time, because by then that idiot Spence and the other kids had already come to see what the big deal was and it would have been in extremely bad taste if I had stood there snapping photo's, you know?”
“Aye, not even I would dare do that,” Nina giggled. Then she gave it some thought. “Maybe I would have. God, you're right. I have been hanging out with Sam too long.”
“Where is he? I am sure he would love to cover this story,” Joanne smiled proudly for connecting the great and renowned Sam Cleave with something she discovered.
Nina stared at her for a long while, displaying no indication of what she was thinking. It was a splendid idea, actually. Sam was in Kuala Lampur. Probably drinking too much and missing good times in hazardous situations. He would be ecstatic to cover a story like this. Groundbreaking and huge, it would once again shoot his reputation over the walls. She knew he was not about ego, but it would elevate his work, his achievements, right into the history books and that was too good to pass up.
“But Nina, then we keep all this hush-hush until we actually find where this trinket comes from, right?” Joanne ascertained, since she was not sure how the experts handled something this
monumental.
“Absolutely,” Nina assured her. “Remember, we know what kind of vermin come out to play when word gets out about something like this. We will keep you posted on the developments as we go along, I promise.”
“Nina! I am coming with you, wherever this thing goes,” the teacher protested.
“No, you are not,” Nina countered. “Do you not trust me? Do you think I will take the credit for it, because I don't tick that way, honey.”
“That's not why, Nina. Jesus, how could you think that I make you out to be some sort of crook? I just…well, the reason…” Joanne hesitated, feeling stupid for what she had to confess.
“What? What then makes you want to track our every move?” Nina asked.
“I feel really childish and silly saying this,” Joanne presented her case, “but…all my life I have been sitting in classrooms, libraries, and exam rooms, talking about great explorations and excursions, teaching kids history about great discoveries. It’s been only from a room, from between four walls, that I’ve had the opportunity to look into the world of history, the excitement of finds and the rewards of hard work in finding these things. Now I have found something that could mean something and…”
“And you don't want to watch from a classroom,” Nina smiled, feeling Joanne's plight wrap around her heart.
“Yes,” Joanne sighed in relief that Nina understood. “I want to be the one on the computer monitor or the TV screen that other people watch and wish they were me, for a change.”
“I get it, honey,” Nina soothed with a hug. “I’m just scared for your safety, should something come of this and we run into trouble. I don't want you to end up dead or get arrested for snooping in places we aren't exactly carrying permits for, you know?”
“Fuck that! If it means I get to live a little and I get in trouble for my passion, then so be it, dammit!” Joanne smiled. Her face flushed and she seemed more confident all of a sudden. The dead emotion and the hopeless expressions were lost in favor of motivation and happiness. For once she felt the addictive thrall of something exciting on the horizon, instead of only having a new syllabus to look forward to in her miserable, anchored existence. “It’s weird, you know,” she told Nina. “You don't realize how pathetic your life is until something un-pathetic happens to you.”
Order of the Black Sun Box Set 6 Page 26
