Secret of the Ankhs: A Maggie Edwards Adventure (Maggie Edwards Adventures Book 2)

by Nellie H. Steele

  Henry’s jaw dropped. “Wow, you should take that act on the road, princess,” he mustered.

  “I just did,” Maggie said with a giggle.

  “Correction: I did,” Henry said with a shake of his head. “All jokes aside, why were you chasing that woman?”

  Charlie hurried down the stairs toward them, trailed by two security guards. “Oi, what was all that about? Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Maggie sighed, brushing the dirt from her clothes. She shrugged. “I don’t know. She was in the restroom. Something just wasn’t right about her. I was the only other person in there and she came right for my stall and then when she couldn’t get in, she waited to use it. It just seemed strange. So, I asked if she was okay and the next thing I knew I was sprawled on the floor. She ran out of the stall, knocked me over and kept running.”

  Henry’s eyes narrowed and Maggie continued. “Stupid, probably. I guess she was pretty angry at me for disturbing her.”

  Henry shook his head. “Yeah, I’d agree she was angry, but not because you were stupid. You don’t try to run someone down because they interrupted your trip to the loo.”

  “Perhaps she didn’t see me,” Maggie conjectured.

  “Maggie, she gunned the car right at you. She saw you. Nah, I don’t buy it. Your instincts were correct, something was off.”

  Maggie shook her head, her brow furrowing. “But what?”

  “A day after a theft at the museum, I’d venture to say it’s related to that,” Charlie conjectured.

  Maggie raised her eyebrows, considering it. “Really? I mean, it’s a possibility, but…” She paused. “Maybe she just shoplifted something from the gift shop.”

  Henry mulled it over. “Eh, maybe, though I doubt it. You don’t try to run someone over because you nabbed a souvenir from the gift shop.”

  Maggie crossed her arms, the crease in her forehead deepening. “So, if it’s related to the theft… perhaps we can make some connection between that woman and someone from the party.”

  “Maybe we can identify her from the security footage,” Charlie suggested. “Use facial recognition to match her to one of the guests.”

  “Yes!” Maggie exclaimed. “Yes, maybe this is the break we need! Come on!”

  Maggie grasped Charlie’s shirt, pulling him along behind her. “Careful, chicky, careful. I bruise easily.” He winked at her.

  “We should check the stall, too!” Henry called after them.

  “Good idea,” Maggie replied as they entered the museum. “You check the stall. I’ve got to get my stuff.” The trio crossed the lobby to the restroom. Maggie opened the door. A woman washed her hands at the sink. A quick check of the rest of the ladies’ room showed no one. They waited for the woman to leave before Maggie and Henry entered.

  “Which stall?”

  Maggie pointed to the second from the right. She retrieved all the items that spilled from her purse as Henry pushed the stall door open and studied the space. He sunk to his knees, checking around the toilet. He reached his hands around it, feeling blindly near the back. He rose to standing, pulling the lid from the tank.

  “Anything?” Maggie called in.

  Henry replaced the lid. “Nope, nothing. Whatever she was after, she got it.”

  Maggie sighed, and they retreated from the ladies’ room. She dragged the pair back to the security office. Several guards were already discussing the strange incident. Maggie burst through the doors. “We need to review your security footage of the main lobby from the last thirty minutes,” she demanded.

  The stunned guard manning the CCTV cameras glanced around the room before turning his attention to the monitor in front of him to retrieve the requested files. Henry shot Maggie a glance. “What?” she questioned.

  “Nothing, just… you sure you weren’t a cop before?”

  Maggie chuckled. “No, just a fast learner.”

  “All right, here we go,” the guard said as the footage on his screen sped backward. It slowed to a stop, reversing course and playing at a normal speed. They waited for a few moments as visitors strolled through the lobby.

  Maggie spotted Henry, Charlie and herself appear on the top of the screen. “There we are,” Maggie pointed out. “Oh, hmm.”

  “What is it, Maggie? Do you see something?” Henry questioned. He squinted at the screen for a breath, then glanced to Maggie.

  “I’m not loving the way this dress looks on me from this angle,” Maggie noted.

  Henry clicked his tongue at her. “Go forward a minute or two,” Henry instructed the guard.

  The guard accelerated the video. People sped across the lobby. Maggie’s form raced toward the restroom. “Okay, okay, slow down,” Maggie instructed. “The woman came in the bathroom not long after I went in.” She leaned closer to the screen and studied it.

  Maggie’s past self disappeared into the ladies’ room. She stared at the restroom door. Within two minutes, another woman pushed through the door. “There!” Maggie exclaimed. “There she is!”

  The brunette appeared outside the ladies’ room. She wore sunglasses, her long hair obscuring her face as it had when Maggie encountered her.

  “So bizarre!” Maggie exclaimed.

  “Yes,” Henry agreed. “Her behavior is bizarre. I’m surprised I didn’t pick up on it when she passed us.”

  “Oh,” Maggie corrected. “I meant her outfit. It’s just… no one wears those shoes with…” She glanced at her male colleagues. “Never mind. Go forward a minute or so.”

  The guard pushed the video forward. When it returned to normal speed, the restroom door burst open. Maggie viewed the replay of events on the screen. The guard switched the view to the camera covering the parking lot. Maggie gasped in horror as she witnessed the car speed toward her before Henry knocked her out of its path.

  “Go back,” Charlie instructed after they viewed the entire episode. The guard rewound the footage. “Freeze there!” Charlie commanded. The camera froze as the woman turned to face it before entering the ladies’ room. “All right, let’s cross reference that with all the guests from the footage before the power outage and see if we’ve got a match.”

  “Huh?” the guard questioned, spinning in his chair to offer Charlie a confused stare.

  Charlie rolled his eyes. “Move,” he directed. He shooed the man from his chair and collapsed into it. He clacked around on the keyboard before pulling his laptop from his backpack.

  “What are you doing?” the guard questioned.

  “Sending the footage to my laptop so I can analyze it.”

  “I’m not sure I can let you do that,” the guard interjected.

  Charlie waved at him as though his opinion was inconsequential.

  “Don’t worry, mate. We’ve got the authority. If you have any questions, you can talk to Agent Frank Thomas of the FBI.” Henry handed him the card.

  “Okay, done,” Charlie said, slamming his laptop closed.

  “And?” Maggie asked.

  “My program is working its magic. Checking every woman at that party against this one. It’ll take a few hours to run. In the meantime, I believe you promised me some pizza, chicky!”

  Chapter 5

  Maggie tossed her napkin onto her empty plate and took another sip of her soda. She gathered the empty dishes from the table, delivering them over the kitchen bar and into her sink. “So, how did you like the deep dish?” Maggie inquired of Charlie.

  “That is one hearty pizza, chicky,” Charlie admitted, patting his belly.

  “It’s too bad Piper couldn’t join us,” Maggie answered.

  “Yeah,” Charlie agreed. “I mean because of the free pizza.”

  “Sure you did,” Maggie replied with a chuckle as she plopped back down in her chair. She sunk her head into her palm with a sigh. “Isn’t that program of yours finished yet?”

  “Nope, not yet. It’ll alert us when it’s finished.” Charlie glanced around the apartment. He rose from his chair, stalkin
g around the room as he stretched. “Nice place you got here, chicky.” He patted the couch. “Nice couch. Very firm. You know, if you’re unnerved by what happened today, I’d be happy to sleep on the couch in case you need me.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

  Maggie shook her head at him. Same old Charlie, she reflected. Before she responded, a loud rap beat filled the air. Maggie glanced around.

  “What is that?” Henry questioned.

  “Not sure,” Maggie answered, glancing under the table.

  Charlie raced back to the table. He slid his laptop from his backpack. The music grew louder as he plopped it on the table and pulled it open. “Program’s complete,” he announced. He clacked around on the keyboard. The music ceased.

  “And?” Maggie inquired. She leapt from her chair and hurried around the table, peering over Charlie’s shoulder. Henry joined her, squinting at the screen over Charlie’s other shoulder.

  A large text box stared back at them with bold white letters announcing the result of the program’s search. NO RESULTS FOUND, the screen read.

  “No results found! Ugh, are you kidding me?” Maggie groaned. She returned to her chair and collapsed into it. “Stuck AGAIN!”

  Henry crossed to his chair and sunk into it. Charlie frowned at his screen while he typed furiously.

  “Could your program have made a mistake?” Maggie questioned.

  Charlie shot her a glance over the laptop’s screen. “Okay, sorry!” Maggie said, holding her hands up in defeat. “Just asking!”

  “Would the sunglasses prevent an ID?” Henry asked Charlie.

  “Maybe in some programs, but not mine. My program compares over five hundred different variables. While the sunglasses didn’t help, they would not prevent a match from showing up. This woman was not at the VIP party.”

  Maggie sighed, her lips forming into a pout. She leapt from her chair, pacing the floor. After a moment, she flung her arms out. “Maybe the woman had nothing to do with the theft,” she suggested.

  Henry mulled it over for a moment. He drew in a deep breath, raising his eyebrows. “Perhaps you’re right,” he admitted.

  “No, I’m not right,” Maggie countered.

  A puzzled expression crossed Henry’s face. “No, right, you’re right about being wrong.”

  “It fits, right?” Maggie asked, then continued speaking, answering her own question. “She steals the ankh, she ditches it in the ladies’ room and comes back for it the next day. The ankh was not found on anyone leaving the party because she hid it until she could retrieve it when there was less heat on her.”

  “It seems reasonable,” Henry agreed.

  “There’s only one problem with that theory,” Charlie argued. He spun the laptop around to face them, pointing at the screen. “The woman was not at the VIP party.”

  “Ugh!” Maggie shrieked. “We’ve got nothing! Uncle Ollie texted me earlier. He’s found nothing about the other two pieces! No suspicious characters on the guest list. No matches on the suspicious lady from today.”

  “Got to find a new angle to work,” Henry stated.

  “WHAT angle?” Maggie huffed.

  Henry took a deep breath. “That’s the million-dollar question, princess.”

  Silence filled the room. Maggie dropped into her chair, a frown on her face. “I have a headache,” she moaned.

  “Don’t sweat it, princess. We’ll figure something out. For now, I think we all need some rest.” Henry rose and kissed the top of Maggie’s head. “See you in the morning.”

  Maggie grabbed his hand, squeezing it before she smiled up at him. “Good night,” she responded.

  Henry glanced at Charlie. “Well?” he asked.

  “Oh!” Charlie exclaimed, stiffening in his chair. He closed his laptop, stowing it in his backpack. “Sorry, mate, I wasn’t sure if the lady preferred me to stay. She never answered earlier.”

  Maggie rolled her eyes at him. “The lady is just fine on her own, thanks.”

  “If you insist,” Charlie responded. He stood, shrugging his backpack onto both shoulders. “But should you need me in the middle of the night…”

  “Good night, Charlie,” Maggie interrupted him.

  Maggie saw them out, closing and locking the door behind them. She slumped against it, heaving a sigh. Maggie shuffled to the couch and threw herself on it. She flung her arm across her eyes, shutting the world out.

  She could have died today. The words rattled through her brain. Tears filled her eyes as she realized the enormity of what happened. She blinked them away. Perhaps she had made a mistake in joining her uncle’s team. It sounded like an adventurous challenge when he proposed it. Fresh off the Cleopatra’s tomb triumph, Maggie agreed. She had survived that escapade. She could handle anything. Now self-doubt filled her. Who was she kidding? She didn’t have the skills for this. Her first mission was proving that with each passing moment.

  Maggie uncovered her eyes and glanced around the room for her phone. She found it on her end table. With her text app toggled open, Maggie began and erased a text to Henry five times before she switched off her phone’s display. She shook her head. No, she resolved, she wouldn’t panic. Henry’s last statement was correct. She needed sleep. She dragged herself to her bedroom for what she hoped would be a clarifying rest.

  Maggie bolted upright in her bed. In the dark, she flailed wildly as she reached to turn her light on. Items spilled from her night table, clattering to the floor as she searched for her phone or the lamp, whichever she found first. Her hand struck the cold metal of her bedside light. She followed the lamp’s body to the switch, flicking it on and filling the room with light.

  Maggie squinted as the bright glow offended her eyes. With her eyes open a slit, she hunted for her phone. In her frantic blind search, she had knocked it onto the floor. She leaned over the side of the bed and snatched it.

  Her hands shook as she scrolled through her contact list. She located Henry’s number and tapped the phone icon to dial. The line rang as Maggie pressed the phone to her ear. “Come on, come on!” she urged under her breath.

  On the third ring, Henry’s voice greeted her. “Maggie? Are you all right? What happened?”

  “Henry! Nothing, I’m fine. But I had an idea.”

  “What?” Henry mumbled. “What time is it?”

  “Uh…” Maggie glanced at her clock. “Two forty-one.”

  Henry yawned. “Okay, let’s get some sleep and talk about it in the morning.”

  “No!” Maggie exclaimed, jumping from her bed to stalk around her bedroom.

  “Maggie, it’s not even three in the morning. It can wait a few hours.”

  “Shh,” Maggie shushed him. “Just listen.”

  Henry yawned again, then sighed. “All right, go ahead, princess.”

  “Okay. I was asleep. And I was dreaming. I was wandering around the museum, except it wasn’t the museum it was like a museum mixed with a mall. I stopped outside a shoe store. They had this killer pair of heels in the window. They were fuchsia with a cute ankle strap, a rhinestone buckle and…”

  Henry cut her off. “Maggie, I love you, but you can tell me about the shoes in the morning. What idea prompted a 3 a.m. call?”

  Maggie sighed. “Right. Okay, anyway, in the dream, I remember recalling the woman that ran into me today. The one who nearly ran me over. Her shoes were so horrible. And with that skirt! I started to think about who would wear that kind of outfit. I mean, no one at the VIP party was THAT un-chic! I caught a reflection in the store’s window. When I spun around, the woman was there, and she had a knife! She charged me, but I woke up and that’s when it hit me!”

  “What hit you?” Henry inquired.

  “No woman from the VIP party would dress like that.”

  “O-okay?” Henry questioned. “And this warranted a middle of the night call?”

  “Yes, because that person WAS at the VIP party! And I wanted to have Charlie start the facial recognition software so we have an answer in the
morning.”

  “But you said…” Henry began.

  “I said no WOMAN would dress like that. But it hit me when I woke up. That was no woman! That was a man!”

  “A man?!” Henry responded, the pieces beginning to fall into place.

  “Yes! A man! The outfit, the sunglasses, the hair obscuring the face, the way the person ran, how hard he knocked into me when he came out of the stall. It was a man. Charlie ran his software on the women’s faces at the party. He excluded the men to expedite the search. He needs to run it on the men!”

  “Ohhhhh,” Henry answered. Maggie overheard the rustling of his covers. “Maggie, you are a genius!”

  Maggie smiled to herself as she waited on the phone. “Hey, mate, wake up, wake up,” Henry murmured on the other end of the line.

  Maggie overheard Charlie. “Huh, what? What’s going on? Did something happen?”

  “Maggie’s had a brilliant idea. You need to run your facial recognition program again.”

  “Ugh, go to sleep, mate. I ran it. My program is perfect. There was no match.”

  “Hey, hey, get up. You ran it on women only, right?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “So… the idea came to Maggie that it wasn’t a woman but a man. She wants you to run the program against the MEN at the party.”

  There was a momentary lapse in the conversation. “All right,” Charlie agreed. “That her on the phone?”

  “Yeah,” Henry responded.

  “Coulda called yourself, chicky, if you wanted to talk to me that bad,” Charlie shouted.

  Maggie rolled her eyes. “Just tell him to run it,” Maggie told Henry.

  “She’s not impressed, mate,” Henry replied.

  “No?” Charlie responded. “She will be if this works,” he promised. “It’ll take a few hours though.”

  “Yeah, hence the three-in-the-morning call. She wants it done when she wakes up.”

  Maggie overheard the keyboard clacking, then Charlie said, “Done. Running.”

  “He’s got it running, princess.”

  Maggie smiled again. “Good.”

  “Now get some sleep. I’ll call you as soon as the search finishes.”