The Curse of the Lion's Heart

by Angella Graff

  “Ten minutes,” I said, checked my phone and amended, “I mean… nine.”

  “Well step aside, ladies, this will not be a problem.”

  I did as he asked, and watched as he took a small pick out of the silver case he’d been throwing, and he stuck it into the lock. “I don’t trust him,” Penelope said in my ear as we waited to see if he could open the door.

  I sighed at her, shaking my head. “Well we don’t have much choice, and he’s right. Why would he be helping us if he was the one who took it? Why would he have returned my necklace if he wanted to steal it in the first place?”

  “Just… let’s be careful, okay?”

  I nodded, intending to do just that. I may have trusted Jack, but I wasn’t dumb. There was just too much going on for me to drop my guard completely. After a few seconds of silence, I heard the door click, and with a triumphant smile, Jack pushed it open and let us in. I cast an excited glance at Penelope, who looked worried still, and we crept into the stairwell.

  “Where to now, ladies?” he asked as he tucked his silver case into his pocket.

  “We need to get to the staff elevator,” I said, and brandished my card. “The office with all of the paperwork is on the third floor. We have…” I checked the time, “… seven minutes to get what we need and get out.”

  “Do you know where everything is kept?” Penelope asked, biting her thumbnail nervously.

  I nodded. “Yeah, I do. I’ve been around this stuff since I was a baby.”

  “So let’s go,” Jack said.

  He pushed open the door to the lobby and the three of us made a mad dash for the elevator. Swiping the key, the doors swung open and we climbed inside, Penelope frantically pushing the CLOSE DOOR button on the side. I hit the number three and within seconds, we were whisked up.

  When the doors opened, Jack stayed us with his hand while he stuck his head into the hall, listening. None of us heard a sound, so we crept out and I led the way down the hall to the records office. The light was off, and when I checked the handle, it was locked.

  Before either one of us could say anything, however, we heard a noise inside that room. The door handle began to jiggle and with a gasp, I grabbed Jack and Penelope’s sleeves and yanked them across the hall into the almost pitch-black women’s bathroom. The door closed soundlessly as we heard the door to the records room open, and footsteps on the floor.

  Jack shoved me over, lying flat on his belly at my feet and pressed his face to the small air vent in the metal door. I crouched next to him, but peering over his shoulder, I couldn’t see anything other than black polished shoes with gold buckles on the sides. It was a man, from the sound he made when clearing his throat, and after a tense few minutes, the footsteps faded away.

  Leaning against Jack, I let out a breath. “Oh my god that was close,” I hissed near his ear.

  “Who was that? Any idea?” Jack whispered back.

  “Not a clue,” I replied.

  “Well, we’re wasting time. We’ve got to get this over with,” Penelope cut in, and pulled the door open. I held my breath as she stuck her head out, looking both ways, then signaled that the coast was clear and waved us out.

  Stopping in front of the records room, I tried the handle, but it was locked again. I groaned. Normally that door was always open, and I most certainly didn’t have a key to any of the doors on this floor. Jack produced his silver case again, and within a minute, he popped the door open. The office itself was small, a table in the center, and file cabinets from floor to ceiling. It was cramped, and I took one look at Jack’s face to see that he was incredibly uncomfortable. We couldn’t risk him staying in the hall, though, and I shut the door, finding my way around by the light of my phone.

  “Just give me two seconds,” I said as I rummaged in a cabinet. It took me a little longer than that, but I found the papers I was looking for. They were in the investigation cabinet, since the locket had been stolen. All of the papers regarding where the locket had gone, and who had handled it, were in a neat stack.

  “Are we going to take them?” Penelope asked. “We’re really pushing time here, Lex.”

  “I know, but we can’t leave the building with the papers,” I said. I laid them out on the table and began snapping photos. “If my dad sees them missing, he’ll know something’s up. I’m just going to download these photos to my computer and we can examine them later.”

  “One minute left,” Jack warned.

  Just as I snapped the last photo, the three of us froze. We heard the voices first, and then saw the sweeping light of a flashlight as it moved across the floor. We all ducked down under the table and held our breaths. I could hear the security guards outside the room talking, and one of them jiggled the handle, but the door was still locked from the outside.

  After a few minutes, we heard their footsteps heading away, and we all relaxed. “That was close,” I breathed, shoving my phone into my pocket.

  “Too close,” Penelope agreed.

  “And worse,” Jack added, “they’re heading back down. Which means our escape route is probably compromised.”

  He was right. Even if they didn’t see us, they were close enough now to hear the elevators and would know someone else was in the building. I felt my stomach sink. I could not get caught doing this again. If I did, I would be in huge trouble. And worse, my dad could get fired. He most certainly didn’t own the museum, and his boss had already warned him about me sneaking around where I didn’t belong. I had no idea how were going to get out of this one, and I started to feel panicked.

  “Not to worry ladies. Like I said before, I’ve been trained for this,” Jack said after a moment.

  I looked at him in the pale glow of my phone light and frowned. “Trained for what, exactly? I thought thieves just broke into places.”

  “Oh the things you’ll learn being friends with me,” he said with a wink. “Honestly, there’s so much more to this than just breaking into rooms. Diversions happen to be my specialty, and I can definitely get us out of this building without getting caught. All you need to do is count to one hundred after I get in the elevator. At exactly one hundred, ride it down and run as fast as you possibly can to the exit. Don’t stop for anything, just go. Get home and I’ll call you tomorrow so we can compare notes. Got it?”

  Penelope and I exchanged skeptical looks, but really, what choice did we have. “What if you get caught?” she pointed out.

  “I vow to tell them I was working alone,” he said, putting his hand over his heart.

  “You want us to trust a thief?” she argued.

  “I want you to trust the person trained as a thief, who just helped you break into a museum,” Jack corrected. “Thieves have a very firm, very strict code of honor, besides. Now that you’re in my circle, I’ll protect you as much as I can.”

  “We don’t have a choice, Penelope,” I stated, feeling a little more confident from his speech. “It’s our only option. It’s this, or we all get caught.”

  She realized she had to agree. There was no other way out, and right now, our only hope was Jack. He could see we’d given in, so with a grin, he bound out of the room and to the elevator. I followed quickly behind and swiped the key. “Be careful,” I called as the doors started to swing shut, and before they did, I caught a quick wink from him.

  I heard the elevator start humming and together, Penelope and I began to count. I stared down at the floor, wondering what was happening. The room was deathly quiet aside from the whispered numbers from our lips, and I could only imagine what he was doing down there.

  “…ninety-nine, one hundred,” we both said.

  With a nod, I swiped the key and listened for the familiar ding. The doors opened and we stepped inside. I hit the G button for the ground floor and held my breath. Penelope reached out and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tightly. It was the moment of truth. It was the moment we learned whether or not we could trust Jack, and if he was the person we were looking for.

 
; The doors swung open and I couldn’t help but flinch in anticipation of getting caught. Instead of a guard shouting and shining lights in our eyes, though, the lobby was deserted. Penelope and I remembered Jack’s instructions and we quickly made a mad dash for the exit, our shoes echoing on the tile as we raced to the staff door. It clanged loudly behind us, but we didn’t stop. We ran and ran, across the street, across the grass, through the street, and we didn’t stop until we reached my building. I looked up at the apartment window which was still dark, and I let out a breath of relief. We’d made it this far.

  “Oh my god, I can’t believe we got out,” Penelope gasped, putting her hand on my shoulder as she caught her breath. “Do you think Jack got out okay?”

  Just as she said that, the phone in my pocket buzzed. I pulled it out and saw it was a text from none other than Jack. ‘Thanks for the great night. Let’s do it again sometime. x’

  “I guess so,” I said, showing it to her.

  We walked into the building, creeping up to the elevator and finally into the apartment. I could still hear the snores coming from my dad’s bedroom and I could not believe we’d made it in and out in one piece like that. And with the evidence we needed.

  Penelope flopped down onto my bean bag the moment we got into my room and I slid into my desk chair, pulling out my laptop. Plugging the cord in, I started the download of the photos I’d taken and leaned back, rubbing my hands over my face. My adrenaline was finally calming down, but I was still shaking a little. I’d done some risky stuff in my life, but breaking into the museum without a key, stealing images of private files, and then letting a friend cause a distraction to sneak past the guards was definitely a first. I felt like one of those movie spies, and it was thrilling, but also incredibly terrifying.

  “Do you trust him now?” I finally asked after we were both totally calm.

  She looked up at me and gave a half-shrug. “I mean, he got us out of there, but until we figure out who took the locket, I don’t. Who has skills like that, anyway?”

  “Apparently he does,” I said. “Maybe he is part of the Ainsworth family line and trained as a thief, but maybe he didn’t do it.”

  “Maybe,” she said, but she didn’t sound so sure. Honestly, it was all too much of a coincidence, and I wasn’t sure who to trust. Either way, we had the images we needed, and in the morning we could go through everything. We were both exhausted and within minutes after climbing in bed and turning out the lights, we were both fast asleep.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Lion Heart’s Curse

  I woke to the smell of something sweet, like pancakes. I ventured in the kitchen to find Penelope at the stove, cooking, while my dad sat at the table drinking coffee. He smiled at me as I walked in, still sleepy, hair a mess, and said, “Late night?”

  I felt the blood drain out of my face, but Penelope gave a discreet shake of her head so I calmed. “Uh, I guess.”

  “Penelope said you girls were up all night talking,” he smiled. “She’s also a fantastic pancake maker. I might have to hire her on.”

  She smiled a little and flipped one of the pancakes from the pan onto the plate by shaking the pan into the air. “Cool,” I said and took the offered breakfast with a grin.

  “My mom hates to cook, so I watched a lot of the food network,” she explained.

  A few minutes later, we were all at the table eating, and I realized this was the first time since I could remember that anything this domestic happened at my dad’s. Even he looked somewhat chipper despite the locket business, and he allowed himself a second cup of coffee before putting his tie on for work.

  “You’re welcome to just hang out here for the day,” my dad said. “I’m going to be pretty busy until lunchtime at least.”

  “Can Jack come over?” I asked, trying to sound casual.

  My dad gave me a funny look, but shrugged. “As long as you promise to be responsible. And no holding hands, and no… you know… funny business.”

  “Oh my god, dad, he’s just a friend,” I said, slightly horrified.

  He smiled and ruffled my still-messy hair before grabbing his briefcase and heading out. The moment the door was shut, I ran to my room and grabbed my laptop. Penelope was waiting for me on the couch, and I quickly pulled up the images I’d taken with my phone.

  Most of them were receiving documents, where my dad had signed for insurance, delivery of the locket, and things like that. But about four pictures in, I saw the one I was looking for. A&C Inc., with a logo I couldn’t make out. It was a receipt for the cleaning, and a scribbled signature at the bottom next to my dad’s. It stated that the locket would be taken, cleaned, and returned in one week.

  “Okay so, is that the normal cleaning place that they send stuff to?” Penelope asked. “I mean, do they normally do that sort of thing? Clean antique stuff?”

  I shook my head. “Not normally, which is weird to begin with. Usually they do restorations on stuff that’s really bad, but from what I understood, the locket was in pretty decent shape.”

  “So who ordered the cleaning?”

  “Milton Barnes,” I said, my voice falling. “He’s the curator.” Something flared to life in my belly, a suspicion and fear. Mr. Barnes had been acting really odd lately, more so than usual, and my suspicions began to grow. Could he have something to do with this? But why would he? Why would the curator of the museum try and steal a locket he practically owned anyway?

  “Sounds fishy to me, the curator sending out the locket that didn’t need any work,” Penelope said gravely. She was right, it was fishy. The man orders a restoration on a piece that didn’t need to be restored, and it went missing that same week. And no one noticed?

  I shook my head and sighed. “Well, let’s see what Jack knows. I mean, he might not be the thief, but if he comes from a family of them, maybe he’s got some sort of clue to go on.”

  Penelope gave me another skeptical look, but I ignored her and texted Jack. He replied quickly, saying he would be happy to come over, so I gave him the address and then waited. It only took about ten minutes for the knock on the door. Penelope looked nervous, but I wasn’t. I was certain it wasn’t Jack.

  He was dressed in slightly baggy jeans and a t-shirt with a red handprint, a black car and angel wings across the top. He gave me a nod of greeting as he dropped his skateboard by the door and came in. “Lucky Penny,” he said with a wink when Penelope stood up to greet him.

  “Seriously, I will punch you in the face. Don’t test me,” she warned.

  He grinned, his face saying that he wouldn’t be giving up that nickname any time soon, but I ignored it for the moment. There were more important matters at hand. I brought Jack into the living room and sat him down. “Time to spill,” I said, pointing my finger at him. “How did you learn all of that stuff from last night? I mean, who are you?”

  He looked between me and Penelope several times before answering. When he did speak, he sounded different, almost nervous. His arms were crossed tightly over his chest, and his face was paler than usual. “So, I broke into your locker and I saw my family Coat of Arms and the name written on pieces of paper,” he admitted, looking down at his shoes. “I knew there was something up with you, but I wasn’t sure what it was. See, I figure you know the rumors, about the first born sons being trained, and that’s true. We are. My father and his father before him were some of the most skilled thieves in the world today. But… then he died,” his voice broke a little and he cleared his throat. “Remember when I said my parents died when I was three?”

  “Yeah,” I said with a nod.

  “Well erm, that wasn’t strictly true. I came to live with my uncle when I was three, but my dad sent for me a few years ago and I spent an entire year living underground with him and my mum in London. My dad taught me everything he knew in that year, too. How to break into any building, how to get past alarms, how to be in a crowd and never be seen. He taught me how to read lips so I can follow a conversation from across th
e room, and trust me, I know how to use all of the cool tools, including this,” he said and displayed his little, silver case again. “But one night my parents just disappeared, and no one ever heard from them again. I went around to everyone they knew, desperate for information, but I came up empty-handed every time. They were eventually declared dead, and I went back to live with my uncle, cousin, and my sister. My uncle even looked into their deaths for a while, but even with all of the people he knew, we never got a single lead.”

  “Oh my god,” Penelope breathed.

  “I know it sounds like total rubbish, but it isn’t, I swear. I never really wanted to be a thief. I’m not like that, but when I knew you were investigating something, I just… I wanted to help.”

  I sat down on the side of the coffee table and stared at him. He looked so honest, and I could see from Penelope’s face even she believed him. I finally nodded and said, “So you didn’t give us the drawing of your Coat of Arms?”

  He shook his head with a frown. “No. I… I assumed you had gotten that yourself. How were you even tipped off to my family?”

  I shifted uncomfortably at the question. Learning his information was one thing, but spilling my secret? I wasn’t sure I was ready for that. “The day you gave me that paper you said I dropped, well I had never seen it before. Somehow it got slipped into my backpack, but I still haven’t figured out where it came from.”

  “Weird,” Jack said.

  “Do you think your parents are really dead?” Penelope asked, off topic, with wide eyes. I winced at such an insensitive question.

  Jack, however, didn’t seem bothered by it. He shrugged and said, “Dunno. They might be, or they might be in hiding. Whatever happened, they left me underground in London and I had to find my uncle on my own. So, I’m not entirely fond of them, dead or alive.”