Good morning friends and readers!
Welcome back to Story Orgy. Welcome back- I'm catching up with Izzy and Owen slowly, but it should be clear by now that this story is going to go on a whole lot longer than originally planned. It was supposed to end on October 26th, at which time the whole of Story Orgy was switching to a holiday theme and writing some good old fashioned feel good holiday stories. That didn't quite work out, as you can tell. I have a few more posts to go before we get this all squared away and move on.
Ready to see what happens next?
Welcome back to Story Orgy. Welcome back- I'm catching up with Izzy and Owen slowly, but it should be clear by now that this story is going to go on a whole lot longer than originally planned. It was supposed to end on October 26th, at which time the whole of Story Orgy was switching to a holiday theme and writing some good old fashioned feel good holiday stories. That didn't quite work out, as you can tell. I have a few more posts to go before we get this all squared away and move on.
Ready to see what happens next?
Mum's the Word
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fourteen
Izzy
handed the badge holder back to Gregoire… whose real name appeared to be
Gregory Noire, which wasn’t much better than his assumed identity. “I’m sorry.
I didn’t know you were law enforcement I would never--”
“Throw
a cannonball at a cop?” Hearing the clear, crisp voice, Izzy was amazed that
he’d ever thought the man a foreign national. “Good to know.”
“I
can’t really take credit for the cannonball.” Izzy demurred. “You actually
knocked that shelf over all by yourself.”
“Because
you hit me in the head with something else!”
Shrugging,
Izzy glanced around the room. “So, there’s no Cigar Store Indian here either.
Is that what you’re really looking for?”
“Today
it is. I didn’t figure we’d find it though. Same as with all the other
moderately valuable items. It’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“Stolen.”
“There
isn’t really going to be any new grand reopening of the museum for the alumni
association, is there?” He’d thought after the weeks of fruitless seeking,
through box after box of worthless trivia, of the growing certainty that there
would be no archaeological glory, that disappointment had become something he
knew well.
But
it seemed that he’d been holding some secret hope, some spark of a dream that
had been nurtured by their recent findings. And that small spark had been
enough to warm the fire of his ambition and if not fan it to a full flame.
Noire’s
words were a bucket of ice water thrown rudely in his face.
“No.
There is not.”
Frustration
spilled over into rash speech. “Then what are we doing here? Why are Owen and I
wasting our time in this museum?”
“You
can’t guess?”
“Why
should I?”
“Your
professor Gamez was the most likely suspect. While I was investigating his
thefts, I needed to keep an eye on his two proteges in case they were a part of
the scheme.”
Flinching
under a tidal wave of emotions, anger, resentment, fear, Izzy’s lips moved, but
no sound came out. The university thought he and Owen… “Professor Gamez?” He
asked, shocked. “You think the professor stole artifacts?” Even as he couldn’t
believe it, neither could he find any other solution.
“There
is no doubt at all.”
“But
these things could have been taken any time. The museum has been closed for
decades.”
Noire
shook his head relentlessly. “No. The last complete inventory was done in 1994,
when the previous museum head retired and Gamez took over the position with his
promotion to full professor. since as you noted, the museum was not open to the
public nor used to teach classes any more, there was exactly one set of keys
which remained in his possession.”
Izzy
shook his head in disbelief. “It’s not possible,” he murmured. “Other people…”
“The
losses are too extensive, Izzy. A professor here and there, or a student who
might have come in for research? They just didn’t have the time or the
opportunity to hunt down the most valuable artifacts, no. There was only ever
one suspect in this case.”
“Professor
Gamez.” Incredible. He’d known the professor so long, and never suspected the
amiable man was capable of such… dishonesty.
“And
his two teaching assistants.” Izzy tacked on bitterly. “I can’t believe--”
“Oh,
believe it.”
“And
the university let you… just… we don’t really have jobs for this semester?”
That hurt more than finding out the professor he’d defended was a criminal.
He’d counted on this job, on getting caught up with all his bills and being
able to quit working at the senior citizens home. Looked forward to lattes
before class and steak… not every night but once in awhile.
If
you’d asked him even two years ago what food he could eat every day and not
grow tired of it, he’d have said pizza. Now? He was heartily sick of every kind
of cheesy tomato pie you could imagine. “I think that’s pretty shitty thing to
do. Owen and I have never done anything dishonest.”
Noire’s
brows rose, “Except take home boxes of docuemnts that aren’t supposed to leave
the museum?”
“Except
that.” Damn Owen had really screwed them over with that move. “And we did
return them promptly.”
“Exactly.”
Noire had the good grace to look slightly ashamed. “I’m not sure about your
jobs. I’m pretty sure at this point that you two had nothign to do with the
thefts. But as for your employment, that’s up to the university.”
“Of
course,” Izzy muttered. “Owen has been gone a logn time.”
“He
has, hasn’t he?” Noire stood up, smudging the blood smear on his head as he
brushed at it. “We’d better go find him.”
“He’s
not stealing anything.” Izzy felt compelled to defend his friend. “I know he
isn’t.”
“Then
what’s taking him so long? If he’s not doing something he shouldn’t be then
he’s taking the longest piss in medical history.”
“He’s
looking for a mummy.” Izzy confessed, feeling like an idiot for not realizing
what Owen meant sooner.
“A
mummy? The one referred to in the box of correspondence you took home?”
“Yes.”
“It’s
not here.” Noire said flatly. “That was one of the first things we looked for.
It’s a sizeable piece of stone and easily recognizable.”
“You
knew it wasn’t here?” That explained why he’d had little interest in the box of
documents.
“We
knew. It was a red flag for the university.”
Noire
opened the door and allowed Izzy to pass in front of him. Instead of heading
toward the staircase and the restrooms, Izzy shined his light toward the end of
the hall. It was dark, and looked much the same as when they’d left it earlier
in the day.
“The
restrooms are up here.” Noire pointed out.
“Owen’s
not in the restroom.” Izzy confessed. “He left to check out a secret door we
found earlier today.”
“Secret
door?”
“Down
there,” Izzy gestured, sending light scattering up the walls and around the end
of the hall.
“He’s
not there.” Noire must have extraordinary night vision because he shot past
Izzy into the darkness without a second thought.
“Seriously?”
Izzy followed more slowly, shining the beam of his flashlight into the side
corridors as he went checking to see if Owen had wandered off somewhere else,
even though a growing sense of foreboding told him that the secret room behind
the secret door had swallowed Owen whole and left Izzy here with the law and no
idea…
“Come
on Izzy. I can’t believe our initial searches missed this.”
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