 XXIV. Salam 12:00 AM The housekeeper was thoughtful as she sat on the edge of Hadrian’s bed. “May I see that diagram of the compass again?” she asked Marcus. “It looks awfully familiar.” He handed her the sheet of parchment that he had stuck into Ira’s manuscript. She smoothed it out as he gave the manuscript to Hadrian. “Put this in your suitcase. For safekeeping. I have a feeling that someone might search my own luggage without my knowledge in the near future.” “What makes you think that they won’t search mine?” said Hadrian. “In the e-mail, the manuscript was directed to me,” he explained. “They would naturally assume that I’m guarding over it.” “I know what it is,” Mary said suddenly. “The compass looks familiar because it’s the same one on the library floor.” “It is?” Reine peered at the parchment and squinted. “Now that you say so, I think you’re right. Perhaps we should go down to the library to check up on it.” “Go down to the library with all the traffic out there?” Hadrian said, jerking his head toward the door. “Don’t you think we’ll get caught?” “We can pretend we’re going to play chess,” Reine said blandly. “Or maybe Chinese checkers,” supplied Mary. “There are four of us, remember. Chess is a two-player game.” “Whatever,” Reine waved a hand. “The point is, if we’re to go as a group, who exactly will question us? The Baron and the Baroness are definitely asleep. Xanthia is watching over Diana. Palwick is probably in his quarters. Larrington is locked in his room.” “Well, that leaves the Friesners.” Hadrian shuddered. “And one of them has a gun.” “Somehow, I doubt they will be disturbing us any time soon,” said Mary. Marcus shrugged. “Don’t depend on it.” Finally, the four of them trooped out of Hadrian’s room. The hallway was once again clear and dark. It was also silent, and for that Reine was grateful as they quickly headed to the library. In that darkened room, Hadrian and Marcus started up the fire in the hearth again as Reine and the housekeeper examined the parchment and the floor with their flashlights. “You’re right, Mary. They are exactly the same. Why haven’t we noticed it before?” “Most people don’t even notice what the color of the carpet is even if they’ve lived in a house for over twenty-years,” she said. “I think perhaps we got lucky this time because the floor in this library is so unusual.” “Perhaps we should also compare this with the compass.” The fire in the hearth finally caught the tinder and the small twigs that Hadrian fed it. Immediately, the library was filled with a warm salmon glow that flickered with strange shadows among the books and the furniture. To Reine’s relief, there was no sign of vandalized mannequins sitting on the armchairs. Marcus dug the shining compass out of his pocket. “Look, the arrow is spinning.” Reine quickly walked over to him and glanced over his arm. The arm on the compass was slowly rotating counterclockwise, unable to determine a direction. “Try walking around. Perhaps it will soon stabilize.” He nodded and took a step forward. Instead of slowing down, the arrow seemed to be spinning faster. “It’s getting worse.” “Walk further then and see what it does.” He took another step and the arrow spun yet faster. He took three more steps and the arrow was whizzing. But suddenly the arrow stopped in the middle of his fourth stride and began turning the opposite direction. “What?” He frowned and took a half step back. The arrow stopped, pointing straight ahead at an innocuous looking shelf of books. “You’re standing on the center of the compass on the floor,” Hadrian remarked. Marcus looked down at his feet. “So I am. So what does this mean? That something is located on that shelf? Behind that shelf?” “We can take a look,” suggested the housekeeper. She walked over to the shelf to skim through the titles. “All of these books are on geography. Or the occult. Strange.” “Actually, that isn’t strange,” said Hadrian. “That might just be what we’re looking for.” Marcus tucked the compass back into his pocket. “Then perhaps it’s a particular book that we’re supposed to be looking for.” “I don’t see what looking for a book is going to do us any good,” said Reine. “Ira’s missing and a mysterious person is sending us e-mail. People are searching Ira’s room.” “Don’t forget that we saw Diana and Larrington in here a few days ago,” Marcus reminded her. “They might actually be onto something.” “Perhaps a map,” supplied Hadrian helpfully. “I thought we already found a map,” said Reine. “On that compact disc.” Mary began leafing through a treatise on the early North American colonies. “Well, there’s a lot of books here. Let’s get cracking.” “Maybe it’s one of these,” Marcus murmured as he took out a book that said ‘Black Magic’ on its cover. “It seems likely to me considering all the odd things occurring lately.” A creaking sound behind them made all of them stop their work to turn around. The library door was opening by itself to reveal a tall dark figure. Reine held her breath, hoping that this was not a repeat of one of her horrible nightmares. The figure finally emerged into the dim light, revealing Vicker. He had his arms crossed at his chest. Behind him, Esther emerged from the darkness carrying a flashlight. Both of them had changed from their nightclothes to something more pedestrian. “Well, Esther, what did I tell you? All of them are in cohorts with each other. They must have found the map before us.” “What map?” said Reine, playing dumb. “The map to the treasure, of course,” said Vicker arrogantly. “I have heard Ira say something about the old Phineas Cronan burying most of his life savings somewhere in this house. Esther, here, overheard the overzealous Larrington and Diana discussing about the treasure on the night most of you were staying over on that island, camping. So after all of this rumor, I decided to see if it might be true.” “Why would you want treasure?” said Marcus. “You’re already an international tycoon.” “True, money is of no object to me,” Vicker Friesner acknowledged. “But to me, it is the hunt of the treasure that inspires me the most. I was hoping to get to it first.” “So what about Ira?” Hadrian said. “What about Ira? She’s on her vacation in Cancun, didn’t you say? She’s not going to notice that a treasure under her house that she had not been aware of is missing.” He reached behind him, but his hands came up empty handed. “Damn it. Esther, where is it?” His young wife shrugged. “The last time I remembered, you were pointing it at the editor and the housekeeper back in his room.” “Looking for this?” The Baron stepped into the room, the barrel of the revolver briefly pointing to the bewildered editors and housekeeper before training it on the Friesners. The Baroness stepped from behind him carrying a small pistol that was trained steadily at the people near the bookshelf. “It seems that you have dropped this during your marital altercation in front of Mr. Block’s bedchamber.” “That thing’s not loaded,” said Vicker. The Baron tsked. “Don’t think to trick me, Friesner.” He patted his side. “I had also brought my own with me, but I thought, what the hell, two is better than one.” “Baron? Baroness? What is exactly going on?” said Hadrian. “Oh, no one’s going to get hurt if you do exactly as we say,” said Tabora easily. Despite her age, the older woman’s eyes sparkled dangerously. Her husband moved the revolver, making the Friesners join the rest of the guests near the bookcase. “We’ve been waiting quite a while, knowing that someone here was smart enough to figure out the puzzle. We had a sure bet with Vicker.” “Me?” Vicker said surprised. “Yes, you,” she said. “You were always so gullible when Ira and I played our tricks on you when we were young. We knew you would immediately sniff out adventure when you heard about Phineas Cronan’s treasure. Larrington, with his financially greedy mind, and his kleptomaniac partner Diana Goldstein figured out what all of this was about first, unfortunately, but both of them put together don’t have enough brains to figure out exactly where it was. Vicker, now you could have figured it out.” “Somehow, I don’t think that as a compliment,” he muttered. “It is though.” Tabora smiled, her white teeth gleaming. “Now, you three editors. I’ve heard Ira rant and rave about how brilliant you three were. Admittedly, you were an unknown variable. I didn’t know if you would act together or separately on the hunt. But in the end, it didn’t matter, did it? Everyone came to the same conclusion. And you three figured it out beautifully.” “We didn’t even know there was a treasure,” Reine protested. “But you couldn’t resist a puzzle could you?” the Baroness arched an eyebrow. “So you knew all along that I had a compass that could direct us here?” said Marcus. This time Tabora frowned. “What compass?” Marcus shut his mouth. Apparently she knew nothing of the trinket that he had found in the catacombs. “You know, the one on the parchment,” supplied Mary. “Oh, you mean pavement,” the Baroness sneered. “All you housekeepers are all the same. No education.” Mary stiffened, but Hadrian placed a hand on her shoulder in warning. Apparently the Baroness knew nothing about the copy of the compass stuck in Ira’s manuscript either. Some other force was at work. Reine cleared her throat. “Yes, of course. We remembered the compass on the library’s floor and naturally figured it out from that.” “Quite clever then,” said the Baroness. “Now what were you doing before we came in here? Don’t try anything or we will start shooting someone.” “We were trying to find a book,” Reine said slowly. “We think it may be in one of the books on this particular shelf.” “Then what are you waiting for?” said the Baron. “Hurry up and find it!” With many curses, the six people turned to the book shelf and began pulling out books and flipping through them before discarding them into a pile nearby. “Any ideas?” Marcus whispered in her ear. “Ideas? I have no ideas,” Reine retorted. “I can’t have any ideas with my life threatened like this!” She reached for the next book on the shelf she was working on. She glanced at the title. “It’s about Cancun. How fitting.” She tossed the book onto the growing pile without flipping through it. “You’re right,” Marcus conceded. “Besides, the Baron’s the only one who has a cell phone.” Reine peered into the shelf and saw something glittering at the back. “What is this?” She reached in and plucked a small silvery colored stone from its perch in an indentation on the shelf. “Wait a minute. I think this is the twenty-fifth stone that Ira was telling me about. The one she lost a long time ago.” “Reine, this is not the time to talk about seeing stones,” Marcus replied, exasperated as he threw another book into the pile. “Can’t you see we need to look for something important here?” The shelf itself began to shutter and collapse inside itself. “Get out of the way!” Hadrian called out. Everyone stumbled backward as the shelf began sinking into the floor in a loud groaning noise as rock grated against rock. When the shelf completely disappeared, there was nothing but a large dark hole, enough to fit two people, side by side. Esther shone her flashlight into it revealing a curving staircase leading downward. “The basement,” Mary breathed. “Good God, they’ve did it,” chattered Tabora excitedly. “The treasure is going to be ours!” © 2002, S. Y. Affolee |