The Chalice Thief

by K. J. Emrick

  Instead, the blade snapped against the hard, thick cover. It snapped right in two and I heard Ada cry out in surprise and pain as the sting of it radiated up her arm.

  Cradling her wrist in her other hand, Ada screamed like a wild animal and lunged at me. Not sure what she thought she was going to accomplish. I didn’t give her a chance to show me, either.

  The heavy reference book smacking into the side of her face made a very satisfying sound. Sort of a hollow thud that echoed around the room as Ada spun in a complete circle, and her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell to the floor unconscious.

  I dropped the book beside her, breathing heavily and wishing I hadn’t broken my mobile on the way here. I really needed to call Kevin and get him over here before Ada woke up.

  The book of Tasmania’s history fell on its spine where I dropped it, and bounced open to the exact page with the photo of Mahinna on it. Ada’s ancestor looked up at me with an expression that was impossible to read across the distance of time.

  Kevin did me one better. He and Constable Arianna Eckert came to Ada’s house in two separate blue and white chequered patrol cars to arrest Ada. In Kevin’s car, riding up front with him, was Drew Norstrom.

  I’d made two phone calls from Ada’s house line. One was to Kevin. The second was to James. I still didn’t know where we stood with things, but I was hoping that giving him the leg up on every other reporter in Lakeshore about the arrest of the real thief might go a long way. A gesture of good faith, if you will.

  When he arrived, Carly was with him. I figured that was his gesture of good faith, too.

  I was on Ada’s front porch when Carly and Drew went running into each other’s arms. It did me a world of good to see that. Still had my reservations about him, but if my daughter loved him that much then—

  I saw the look of heartbroken disbelief that came over her face a moment before she slapped Drew. Hard. She came stalking over to me, tears pouring from her eyes, and fell against my shoulder with a heavy sob.

  “He’s married,” she mumbled as her body shook with anger and the sort of torment that only love could bring a woman. “That’s what he didn’t want to tell me. That’s why he was willing to stay in jail rather than tell us his reasons for wanting to leave Lakeshore. He’s married, and he left her in Canberra but she found him and she wrote him a letter saying she was on her way here. He just told me. What kind of man marries a woman and then leaves her? What kind of man is he, Mom?”

  “The kind who isn’t worth your time,” I told her honestly. So my instincts had been right, not that it gave me any kind of pleasure. “Why’d he tell you now?”

  “Because,” she said in a sour voice, “Kevin found out. Kevin told him he was either going to tell me about it, or he wasn’t ever getting out of that cell.”

  “Meant it, too,” Kevin said as he walked up to us. “Nobody treats my Sis like that.”

  I smiled at my son, as I stood there holding my daughter. There’s a lot more of Kevin’s father in him than he’ll ever know. Dedication to his family will always be one of his best qualities. “How’d you find out he was married?”

  “Wasn’t hard,” he boasted. “I’m good at me job, remember. It’s the same way I found out that Ada was our thief.”

  “Um, excuse me?” No way is he going to take credit for this! “Seems to me I found out. Remember? Almost got stabbed and everything.”

  His expression darkened. “Yes, and don’t think we won’t be adding that to her list of crimes when we get back. But, I’m sorry to say, Lakeshore’s finest figured out the real culprit before the great Dell Powers this time. Had a visit from Dan Calico this afternoon. Told me about your visit, about how he got accused of all sorts of nasty things and he wanted to set the record straight. Gave us the video surveillance from the Thirsty Roo going all the way back to when he and Alfonse brought the Chalice there in the first place.”

  “So you watched… what, days of video surveillance?” I asked, wondering how long that would’ve taken.

  “Didn’t have to,” he explained. “Oh, I watched it with him, just to make him happy. Figured I owed him that much after me own mother got his feathers in such a ruffle. Started with yesterday and worked backward from there.”

  “So you saw Drew go in like before.”

  He nodded. “Then I saw something else. A cleaning lady. See, when we saw Drew in there looking in the box we didn’t go back any further. Figured we had our guy. This time Dan insisted I watch more, and lo and behold, there’s this cleaning lady in the back room after everyone was gone. I saw her break the lock off that box, and I saw her smuggle the Chalice into a white towel and make off with it.”

  The cleaning lady. I remembered Dan mentioning a cleaning lady to me. I should’ve realized. Other than Dan and Alfonse, and the bartenders, the woman cleaning up the tavern after hours would have access to the back room, too.

  Only this wasn’t a regular cleaning lady.

  “That’s right,” Kevin said, reading my guess on my face. “This was Ada masquerading as someone else. She paid a friend of hers who just happens to be the regular cleaner at the Thirsty Roo to switch places for a couple of nights. Neither Dan or Alfonse have been here long enough to know everyone in town, and I doubt they come to Ada’s little library here much. They never knew what was going on under their noses. Not sure how she knew which nights to be at the Roo, but Ada timed it perfect.”

  “Her cousin is Gladys Austin, the reporter,” I explained. The pieces were all fitting together now. “When the Calicos started calling around to news agencies to drum up interest to see the Van Diemen’s Land Chalice, Gladys called Ada to get some information. Ada must’ve seen her chance to get rich.”

  Kevin nodded as it all fell into place. “Well. She still might’ve gotten away with it, because she kept her face away from the cameras, but we checked with the real cleaner and let her know the trouble she could be in if she didn’t come clean. So to speak. Turns out Ada’s friend isn’t stupid. Gave her right up.”

  “Not in time for you to save your mother from almost dying!”

  He laughed at that, and Carly looked between the two of us, sure we’d gone insane. “Here now,” he said defensively. “Aren’t you the same Dell Powers that took on the ‘Ndrangheta? The same one that got away from an escaped criminal and a psychopathic kidnapper down in Port Arthur? I’m pretty sure a small town librarian with a penknife is no match for you!”

  “It was a letter opener, thank you very much.” His smile was infectious though, and truth be told I was just happy to be alive and have this mystery put to rest. “Do you think you’ll ever find the Chalice?”

  “Oh, I’ve got no doubt we’ll track it down eventually. Might be a job for the Federal police at this point. National treasure, and all that. If the thing was ever real to begin with.”

  I started to tell him that the Calicos certainly thought it was real, but that doesn’t make it so. Maybe the Van Diemen’s Land Chalice really was just the stuff of legend. Maybe what Ada sold was just a replica. Then again, maybe it was the real thing.

  That’s a mystery I’m glad to leave for another day.

  Drew was still hanging out by the patrol cars as I watch Constable Eckert walk a dazed Ada Wenting over to the closer of the two cars and secure her in the back. He kept looking over our way, but he was smart enough to keep his distance. “What’s the story with him, then?” I asked.

  Kevin shrugged. “It’s a bit private. Carly, you mind if Mom hears it?”

  She shook her head. “Whatever it is, I want us all to hear it.”

  It was more the way she said it that made me catch my breath. That’s my daughter, trusting me with her private life. Well. Will wonders never cease. Guess we made some progress to fixing our relationship after all.

  “All right,” Kevin told her. “He’s married, but he’s got her served with divorce papers and a restraining order to boot. Turns out she abused him. Pretty bad from what I can gather from
constables back in his home town. Broke his arm once. Cracked his ribs another time.”

  Carly gasped, putting her hand up to cover her mouth.

  Kevin gave her a minute, then said the rest. “He finally got the nerve to leave her two years back and he’s been hiding here in Lakeshore ever since while the courts sort things out. When he heard she was coming to see him… well, he knew it wasn’t a good thing. So he was going to take off, and wait for the trial date next month to get his divorce final.”

  Carly took that all in with a lot more composure than I could’ve mustered. Eyes wide, chewing on her lower lip, she studied the ground at her feet.

  “I know he shoulda told ya, Sis,” Kevin said gently, “and I’ll knock his block off for ya with pleasure, if ya like, but understand me when I say I know how abused husbands and wives act. There’s a lot of fear and a lot of shame, too. What he might need right now is someone to support him. Maybe even forgive him.”

  She started to shake her head, but then stopped, blinking up at her brother. “I do love him. Don’t think for a second I don’t love him.”

  With a tilt of his head, Kevin motioned over to where Drew was patiently waiting to see what would happen next. “Then go tell him that.”

  Slowly, the corner of her lip curled. She threw her arms around Kevin’s neck, and then mine, before walking slowly over to Drew. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but she didn’t slap him this time. Guess that’s a good start.

  “It’s nice to have her back in town,” Kevin said. “Don’t ya think?”

  “Yes. It most certainly is. What will you do if Drew’s wife shows up?”

  “Arrest her,” was his prompt answer. “She’ll be in violation of a protection order. I promised Drew I’d protect him if he wants to stay. Told him I’d understand if he wants to leave, too. Then I told him if he ever hurts my sister he wouldn’t be welcome within five hundred klicks of Lakeshore ever again.”

  Yup. A lot of his father in him. It’s nice to see my son has grown into a man I can be very, very proud of. His future wife was getting herself one of the good ones.

  “Now,” he said to me, “I’ve got a lot of work to do, so thanks for that.”

  “No worries,” I told him.

  “Sure, sure. I’m not the only one with something to take care of though.”

  And then he pointed over to where James was, over there with Constable Eckert, getting whatever quotes she could give him for his article. The night and the lights from Ada’s house, along with the headlights from the cars, played along his strong features. So handsome. So much trouble.

  With a heavy sigh, I realized Kevin was right. That talk I wanted to have with James earlier needed to happen now.

  When the patrol cars drove away, Drew offered to walk Carly back to the Inn, and she agreed. Last I see of them was my daughter holding his hand and the two of them leaning in close to talk privately. All right, so maybe my instincts weren’t one hundred percent, completely right about him. We’ll have to see what Carly’s decided tomorrow morning.

  James closed his little spiral notebook and tucked it into his pocket. We stared off down the road for several awkward seconds, following the taillights of the patrol cars, before he finally spoke. “I tried to give your mobile a ring on the way here. It just went to voicemail.”

  “Oh. Er, I had an accident with my phone. It broke.”

  “Strewth?”

  “Yes. I haven’t decided if I’m going to replace it or not. I might just go without one for a while.”

  He chuckled at the thought. “Hard to believe anyone can go without a mobile these days.”

  It’s easy, I wanted to tell him, when you’ve got ghosts ringing you up every few hours to tell you to be careful. Come to think of it, the first time they gave me that message was when I was here with Ada getting the book. Guess that should’ve been my first tip off about her.

  Hmm. Maybe having a phone to receive warnings from beyond the grave wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

  “I’m glad you’re okay,” I heard him say. When did he step closer to me? “I got your call and the first thing through me head was, Dell’s gotten herself into trouble again.”

  “You know me.” I shifted my feet, and hooked my hair behind my ear, and it’s the craziest thing but I wished Jess was here right now to tell me what to say. She always had such an easy time with men. “I’m always getting into danger, you know.”

  He nodded his head, and I saw how it troubled him to hear that spoken out loud. “Do ya think… could ya maybe just be a little more careful? I’d like it if Dell Powers was around for a long time yet.”

  “You would?” My heart was already doing flips in my chest, and somehow, we’d gotten closer still. “Now why’s that?”

  He needed to take a breath before he could say it. “Because I miss us. I miss being together. The two of us, we were something special. I see that now. After our little trip to Port Arthur I was just messed up all around. That business with my daughter, and her death… that shook me. I was being stupid and I don’t know why I couldn’t see it. I see it now, Dell. I see… us.”

  It was about the sweetest apology I had ever heard. He opened his mouth to say more and before he could I put my lips to his. The kiss said everything that needed to be said, far as I was concerned, and no way was I going to let him wreck this moment with a wrong word. For a man who made his living translating real life into stories for people to read, James Callahan had the worst habit of ruining things with too many words.

  I didn’t know how long we stood like that, there in the near darkness of a beautiful Lakeshore night. It was a long time, and it was far too short.

  Tomorrow, there would be details to work out like whether or not James would move back here to Lakeshore. Or whether this was forever, or just for now. Or who was going to do the cooking at the Pine Lake Inn while Rosie took a few more days off to just enjoy her new family.

  Or how Richard’s ghost would react to seeing me with James again. That one, at least, didn’t worry me all that much. Richard wanted me to be happy. He wanted to see me with someone I loved.

  In this moment, here in the arms of James Callahan, I was happy.

  And I was loved.

  * * *

  Continue reading?

  Book 7!

  Author Note

  Greetings readers! It’s K.J. Emrick. I have just a few last words, if you don’t mind. This is the sixth book in the Pine Lake Inn storyline. This one gets into what is, for many people, a touchy subject: the fate of the Palawa, the indigenous peoples of Tasmania.

  While it’s true that our world we know today wouldn’t exist without the spread of European culture throughout the globe, it is also true that great nations such as Australia, the United States, Canada, and even Mexico—among others—must recognize the effects of that colonization. In almost every case the act of spreading into a new land meant displacing the people who were there before. Sometimes forcibly. Sometimes violently.

  It is a sad and sorry past that we owe our present to.

  The Tasmanians existed as a unique and isolated people, separated by geography from the rest of the world for some 12,000 years. The Van Diemen’s Land Chalice may be a myth, but the facts I mention about the indigenous Tasmanians are real enough. The first British colonies were established in Van Diemen’s Land in 1803 (it wouldn’t be called Tasmania until 1901). Over the next 50 years, the British would ship 75,000 convicts there. Over the same period of time the indigenous peoples were displaced to make room for settlers and convicts alike, and many died in conflicts with the British.

  In 1803, a formal census of the Palawa put their numbers at between 3,000 and 15,000. In 1833, the remaining 200 or so Palawa were forced to surrender and were exiled to the Furneaux Islands. Although there are still people who can trace their lineage back to these amazing, creative people the last full-blooded Palawa died in 1876.

  Today there are several organizations and individuals wh
o devote their time to collecting and preserving the culture of the indigenous peoples from Australia, and from every other part of the world where similar tragedies occurred. Painful as it may be to think about, we cannot forget what happened.

  Rather than turn a blind eye to what happened in the past, I’d like to suggest we learn from it instead. In this book, both Dell and Carly said that they’d like to think this sort of thing would never happen today. That we’re so enlightened and caring as a modern society that we would never even think of treating people the way colonization treated indigenous populations back then.

  After all, time moves on.

  I know what I think. How about you?

  Thanks for reading. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to write more stories, and to create more mysteries. I enjoy them just as much as you do. There’s more to the story of Dell and James. Watch for the next book soon!

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