Artifact (A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery)

by Pandian, Gigi

  “But that’s a theory based on no evidence.”

  “Personally I thought it was most likely the gold was melted down,” Lane said. “It was, and still is, quite common in India for new techniques and styles to replace traditional ones. Unfortunately, but understandably, they use the existing materials they have on hand. That’s one of the biggest problems of studying the art history of such malleable forms. But if that was the case, it was odd that the distinctive gemstones never resurfaced. They should have. If they existed. Which is why the theory embracing Selective Realism doesn’t seem like such a stretch.”

  “When did it disappear?”

  “Centuries ago. Long before the advent of photography. That’s why it’s amazing you—” He stopped abruptly.

  “What?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “What is it?”

  “I was wondering,” he said slowly, “if it’s possible to fake a photo this good.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I know it looks real. But it would prove established belief wrong. That creates a huge motivation to fake something like this.”

  I glanced uneasily at the messenger bag at my feet.

  “It’s not a fake,” I said.

  “How do you know? Photoshop is really good these days.”

  “Trust me.”

  “No offense,” he said as though he meant the opposite, “but I’m guessing you don’t have a trained eye, since you came here for help.”

  “Okay, then don’t trust me. Treat it as a hypothetical exercise.”

  He sat perfectly still as he looked at me coldly. “I don’t have time for hypothetical exercises.”

  “Then believe me when I tell you it’s real.”

  “I don’t know what you expect to learn from whatever game you’re playing.”

  “I’m not—”

  Lane stood up without warning and squeezed around the desk. He leaned across me and pulled the office door open, leaving his hand firmly planted on the doorknob. “Thanks for stopping by.”

  “It’s not a game,” I said. I made no attempt to leave.

  He loomed above me, his expression blank. I swiveled in the folding chair and kicked the door shut. It threw him off balance. He nearly fell, but caught himself on the desk and glared at me.

  “What if I told you I have it?” I said. “That I was given the bracelet.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Lane sat down on the edge of the desk and gaped at me. “You’re serious?”

  I picked up my bag and extracted Rupert’s handkerchief. I opened the folds and held it out in front of him. Even in the bad florescent lighting, the uncut ruby shone beautifully.

  He didn’t presume I’d let him touch it, but he leaned in closer. When he looked up, I saw the awe in his eyes.

  “You can’t expect me to believe,” he said, “that your friend casually handed this to you without any explanation.”

  “I never said that,” I said. “It did belong to a friend who gave it to me. But I don’t know where he got it. He’s dead, so I can’t ask him.”

  “And the rest?”

  “It only had the one ruby when I got it.”

  “No, I mean the other pieces of the collection. The full treasure. He didn’t leave the rest to you as well?”

  I stared openmouthed at Lane. He must have thought the bracelet had been left to me as part of an estate in a will. There was more? My normally expressive vocal chords didn’t want to cooperate. I swallowed and shook my head.

  “A treasure?” I whispered.

  Rupert had certainly gotten himself into one big mess.

  Chapter 6

  “Your friend wasn’t a maharaja, was he?” Lane asked.

  A day ago I would have thought it was a joke if someone had asked me if I was friends with a maharaja. I wasn’t laughing now.

  “It’s the real deal, then?”

  “It certainly is.”

  The chair squeaked beneath me as I took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling.

  “He was English,” I said. “Killed in a car wreck in Scotland. I don’t know how he got the bracelet, except that I’m sure it wasn’t a family heirloom. I don’t know anything else. I had to start somewhere, so here I am.”

  I wasn’t lying. Not really. Concealing certain facts isn’t quite the same thing.

  “I don’t know any more off the top of my head,” Lane said.

  “But I thought…” I trailed off as a sickening sensation washed over me. “From what you said before, I thought you knew more.”

  What I really thought was that there was no way I would have shown him the bracelet if I thought he didn’t have anything else he could tell me.

  My mouth went dry. What had I done? Someone now knew I had the bracelet. That was exactly what I had wanted to avoid. Why hadn’t I listened to Sanjay?

  “Don’t worry,” I said, trying to appear casual even as I found it difficult to speak. “You’ve been a tremendous help already. I owe you one. Let me know if you ever want a free dinner at the Tandoori Palace restaurant in the city.” I covered the bracelet and stood up.

  “Wait a sec,” he said, scrambling to his feet as well. “I can still help fill in the missing pieces. I just have to look up a few things.”

  We stood close to each other in the cramped space in front of the desk. I had to arch my neck to look him in the eye.

  “That’s really okay,” I said. “With what you’ve told me, I can take it from here.”

  “But you won’t know what to look for.”

  “I know how to do archival research,” I said. “I’m a historian.”

  That threw him off.

  “Oh,” he said after a beat. “You mean you’re a history major in one of Michael’s classes.”

  “I have a doctorate,” I said, more icily than I intended. Since I’ve only been teaching for a year, I get mistaken for a coed more often than I’d like.

  “You’re a professor?”

  “A damn good one.”

  “Dr. Jones,” he said thoughtfully.

  “Yeah.” I sighed.

  “At least you’re not an archaeologist,” he said, smiling.

  I reached for the doorknob.

  “Wait.” Lane reached out a long arm in a gesture to stop me. “As a historian, you know how research works. You know how much easier it is to dig into something if you already know some facts about what you’re looking for.”

  I lowered my hand from the doorknob.

  “In your field,” Lane said, “what’s your expertise?”

  “The early foundations of British India. The British East India Company in its various incarnations. You know, trading power, military power, its dissolution when rule was assumed directly from the British Crown.”

  “So I bet you could tell me all about pirates on the high seas, but you couldn’t even identify this piece as a bracelet.”

  “If you have further tips, don’t hold back.”

  “You know the intangible nature of doing research like this. Even if I could tell you more about where to look, that narrows things down from a thousand haystacks to maybe a hundred. With my background, it would be easier for me to find something. I wouldn’t mind doing a bit more research.”

  Whatever historical origins Lane might be able to find, I needed them to lead to the more recent origins of where Rupert had gotten his hands on it. And now that Lane had told me of a larger treasure somewhere out there, I had a feeling I needed to work quickly. The idea of extra help was tempting.

  “I know a few things I can check out right away,” he added.

  “Why are you so interested in helping me?”

  “Can’t you tell? This is a really big deal in Indian art history. Something like this could make my career. I can help you, so I’d like to be a part of it.”

  I stood there feeling helpless and indecisive, two emotions I rarely encounter. What was I doing? I scribbled my cell phone number and email address on a piece of paper.
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  “Call me as soon as you find anything,” I said.

  We headed out of the building together. Lane said he would get started at the university’s library right away. As we passed Michael’s office, I stuck my head inside to thank him for putting me in touch with Lane, then hurried back to my car, anxious to get the bracelet out of my hands. A safe deposit box seemed the safest place. The fact that I didn’t have a safe deposit box wasn’t going to stop me. I drove straight to my bank and opened one.

  Feeling much better without the priceless artifact on my person, I whipped the car around a sputtering VW Beetle and headed to my own university’s library.

  Lane was right that he was much more likely to come across relevant information. That didn’t mean I couldn’t try. I’d go crazy if I sat at home waiting. I was thinking about Rupert too much already. In those spare moments when I didn’t have something else to focus on, I wondered what could have been.

  I hadn’t thought too much about Rupert in the past year. I’m good at staying busy and pushing inconvenient thoughts from my mind. Rupert’s mysterious death was stirring up feelings I hadn’t realized were so close to the surface. Feelings that I wasn’t even certain I had. God, I needed somebody else’s history to throw myself into. I sped through Golden Gate Park and floored the car toward the library.

  The librarian I often worked with was on vacation, so I got some assistance from a new librarian before settling into a corner table with a heap of references for Mughal art and jewelry. I sighed as I looked at the long list, then got down to work.

  Several hours into my research, my stomach was growling, I was dying of thirst, and I still hadn’t managed to find a single thing I thought might be helpful. My least favorite thing about libraries is their policy on no food or drink.

  I wasn’t getting anywhere, so I decided to call it a day. I drove home with vigorous bhangra beats blasting on my speakers and a Big Gulp balanced between my knees. As I pulled into a parking space only a block from my apartment, my thoughts turned back to Lane. I hoped he’d been more successful than I had. I needed something—anything—that would point me in the direction of the ruby bracelet’s modern history.

  Nadia stood on the porch in front of the house, an icepack held to her head.

  “Jaya!” Nadia called out when she saw me. “You have been robbed!”

  Chapter 7

  Nadia held the icepack to the back of her head with one hand and a shot of vodka in the other.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” I asked, pointing at the vodka. “You might have a concussion.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “You want to hear what happened with the burglar, yes?”

  I shut my mouth. I needed to know if the unthinkable had happened. If Rupert’s troubles had followed the bracelet across the Atlantic.

  “I heard a crash from your apartment,” she said. “I was worried, so I went upstairs to check. A strong man knocked me down.”

  Nadia paused to drink the shot of vodka. She shook her head as she placed the empty shot glass on the railing of the porch. “He was too fast for me to see his face. I only have a sense of his build.”

  “You sure you don’t want me to take you to the hospital?”

  “People in this country are soft. There is no problem with my head. Only with your door. We will get you a new one. Let us go upstairs to see if I was fast enough or if he has stolen anything.”

  On the walk upstairs, I found myself hoping something was missing. That would mean it was a random burglary. Otherwise it would mean Rupert’s murder was jumping into my life 5,000 miles away and Nadia was lucky to only have a bump on the head.

  It could have been coincidental timing, after all. The Haight-Ashbury area was the home of free love in the ‘60s, and while the liveliness of the neighborhood has endured, it’s not known for its safety. I would have been happy to find a few of my belongings missing if it meant this was a random breakin that had nothing to do with the ruby bracelet.

  The digital camera I’d used that morning was in plain sight on the kitchen table, next to the music player I used when I went running. This wasn’t looking like the standard burglary I was hoping for. But I was relieved to see my tabla case. I would have been devastated to lose those drums.

  My body tensed as I spotted the one object that was out of place. Aside from the door, there was only one thing leaving evidence of the burglar’s presence. My jewelry box from Goa had been smashed. The contents were spilled across the bed.

  I sat down on the edge of the bed and closed my eyes. My body shook as I took a few deep breaths in an attempt to calm myself. A jewelry box was exactly where someone looking for the ruby bracelet could have expected I would put a piece of jewelry I now had in my possession.

  “What is missing?” Nadia asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Good. Then we do not call the police.”

  “Shouldn’t we still—”

  “The lurking fellow!” Nadia exclaimed, making a hand gesture that caused the icepack to fly out of her hand and hit the wall. “Why did I not think of it? Poets do this kind of thing for the love of a woman.” She pointed a finger at me. “You should have gotten a restraining order.”

  The idea of Miles breaking into my apartment hadn’t occurred to me. I considered the idea, but it was hard to believe the pacifist would knock down a retiree.

  “Miles couldn’t have done this,” I said. “He’s more likely to harm himself than anyone else. Like accidentally stepping in front of a car or walking into a tree while writing in his notebook.”

  “I will interrogate him the next time he comes back.”

  “Nadia,” I began, but she had already scooped up the ice pack and was headed out the door.

  Instead of following her, I contemplated whether or not I should call the police. Nothing had been stolen, and Nadia didn’t want to tell them about her injury.

  I fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling for guidance. As the bedsprings jostled underneath me, I realized one more important thing I hadn’t checked on. I rolled over and poked my head under the bed, looking for the packaging in which the bracelet had been sent. It was still there.

  In my relief, something clicked in my mind. I had ignored a crucial piece of information. The return address. Rupert had written an address not for a private residence, but for the Fog & Thistle Inn.

  My cell phone rang, causing me to drop the package. Lane’s voice greeted me.

  “I’m done following up on those leads,” he said. “I’ve found some things at the library I thought you’d like to hear about.”

  An idea I didn’t like flashed into my mind. “Where are you?” I asked.

  “Right outside Doe. Why?”

  The caller ID on my phone gave a Berkeley area code. But if Lane was calling from his cell phone, he wasn’t necessarily at the library like he said. He could be in San Francisco half a block away.

  “How long would it take you to get to San Francisco?” I asked.

  “Don’t you want to hear—”

  “It would be easier if we talked in person,” I said. “Don’t you think?”

  I gave him directions to my place. Of course I was curious to hear what he’d found. But there was something I was even more curious about. Since Nadia had gotten a sense of the build of the attempted robber, it wouldn’t hurt to have her take a look at Lane. The graduate student had been awfully interested in the ruby bracelet.

  To avoid either screaming or pacing a hole through my floor while I waited for Lane, I looked up the Fog & Thistle Inn, which turned out to be a small pub with a few rooms for rent in the lower Highlands of Scotland. It didn’t have its own website, but was listed on a local tourism page and on a blog of an avid hiker. It wasn’t too far from the famous Dunnottar Castle ruins.

  More searching explained what Rupert had been doing there. An archaeological dig for Pictish standing stones was taking place less than a mile from the inn. Professor Malcolm Alpin from the Univers
ity of St. Andrews had put together a thorough website about the expedition.

  He was seeking additional funding for the project, which explained the abundance of information. That was fine with me. It told me what I needed to know. The site included a photograph of a man next to a Pictish standing stone. That man was Knox Bailey, Rupert’s best friend.

  Neither Rupert nor Knox had been academically interested in the Picts when I knew them. The Picts were the long-ago barbarian painted people of Scotland, as Professor Malcolm Alpin’s website reminded me in great detail. They left standing stones across Scotland, with carvings in their primitive language. A newly discovered cluster of standing stones in this region of eastern Scotland provided the impetus for this dig.

  I was fairly certain the Picts did not possess any hidden treasures that would have attracted Rupert and Knox. And an Indian bracelet had nothing to do with the Picts. What were they up to?

  I slammed the laptop shut and headed down the stairs to see how Nadia was doing. I heard her voice before I rounded the corner of the house.

  “Now is not a good time for a visit,” Nadia was saying. “Jaya has been burglarized. No, there is no need to worry for her. She knows jiu-jitsu. You would not think it of someone so small, no?”

  Enrolling me in jiu-jitsu classes was one of the rare practical things my dad had ever done. When he realized I wasn’t going to make it to five feet tall, he drove me around in his old VW bus to all the martial arts classes he could find in Berkeley and Oakland. Jiu-jitsu was the one that stuck.

  I hurried around the corner of the house. A floppy mess of dark blond hair attached to a long-limbed body stood on the sidewalk in front of the house. It was Lane. His hands were tucked into the pockets of a jacket in the crisp late afternoon air.