Page 94 of In the Pursuit of Haven
He answered the door with a wrinkled forehead.
“Me again,” I said. The doors swished closed behind Jessie and me, immediately swallowing the sounds of the parade from outside.
Hoping to use my connections with Luther to get clearance, I peered past the guard into the museum’s long hallway and searched the stairs. Haven’s old friend was nowhere in sight. I unzipped my coat. “Is Luther in yet?”
“No.”
This would take some doing, but I was used to moving freely through this museum by acting like I belonged. “Okay, just let him know to meet me at The Lady exhibit when he comes in.” Breaking from the security guard, I headed that way. Jessie was at my heels, taking on the role of my assistant.
“He won’t be coming in until after the parade.”
I waved my hand at the security guard from behind my back. “Sounds good. We’ll catch him then. Thank you!”
Our footsteps echoed over the marble flooring as we moved past the figurehead exhibits anchored against the wall. All of the ship’s mascots were holding an instrument or a tool… unless their arms had been cut off. The wooden bodies were massive, much bigger than actual human beings, and all through the golden age of sailing, only grew more hulking and cumbersome, showing the mostly illiterate bystanders exactly what ship they’d come across. Figureheads like these had been known to weigh down ships until the extravagance became too much and the navies were forced to cut back and concentrate on the fighting.
We pushed up the elegant staircase and made our way to a workroom in the back. The Lady was on the work table—my eyes narrowed—exactly where I’d left her,like she was awaiting an operation. Had Mariah done nothing with her?
Figured. I was still annoyed at my museum for letting her go, but Luther’d had his eye on The Lady for a while. I didn’t blame him. It would fit perfectly with the exhibit in the front.
Jessie pulled out the pipe whistle from his jacket pocket. I took it from him and handed him the Bible that had been clumsily placed inside The Lady’s grip, yet again—thank you, Mariah!
I moved the pipe whistle into The Lady’s hands. It was a perfect fit, even down to the missing fingers, not that clunky replacement that likely Reverend Cheever had put in its place.
My shoulders rose in triumph, and I allowed myself to take in how miraculous a find this was, even without the treasure.
Luther would be thrilled.
I let that ease my conscience as I dragged the arm of the X-ray machine from the far side of the room. The heavy machinery was anchored into the ceiling above us. There would be no talk from Jessie about breaking this priceless historical artifact in two. We’d taken multiple X-rays of The Lady as we uncovered her mysteries throughout the years. We’d found water damage, salt stains, even chipped and splintered sections where she’d experienced a fall.
She’d also seen action in battle. There were sections on The Lady that had been hit with buckshot; it was her backstory that made her so interesting, but how had I missed a hidden Relic?
Feeling like a doctor searching for a life-threatening disease, I adjusted the arm of the X-ray machine, tilting it over The Lady’s prostrate form before taking Jessie’s wrist and bringing him to the screen in the other room. Flipping on the computer, I opened up our program, guiding the X-ray’s camera to pass over The Lady’s inert body. I watched the familiar images pop up on screen.
Did I just not have an expert eye to see what I was missing? “There’s the buckshot.” I pointed that out. “And the water damage. You can get past all the layers of paint to see how she was originally painted all the way to the wood below, but… what are we missing?” I stared at the images coming across the screen. “I can try different angles? Maybe there’s something hidden in the draperies of her dress or in the details of her palms?”
Jessie turned the Bible over in his hands. “This replaced the pipe whistle?”
“Yeah, a cheap little distraction.”
“X-ray it.”
I swung around to stare at him. Of all the X-rays I’d taken of The Lady, I’d arrogantly skipped over that Bible, only because in no world did those two go together. I touched the front. It was leather, though most of its structure was formed from wood. An inscription was burnt into the front:“For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light—Psalms 6:93.”
First off… there was no Psalms 6:93 and secondly… “Get that under the X-ray machine,” I cried out.
Jessie was already setting it underneath the arm. He hurried back to the screen as the machine ran over the Bible. The spine was jagged and bumpy because it held something inside, and then in the hollowed-out center was a squiggly mark and an initial. Anyone would assume that this was the artist’s signature—anyone but us.
“That’s the snake”—Jessie pointed to it—“with a letter. That’s an ‘N.’ I’m sure of it!”
“An ‘N’?” The tin piece had a “D” on it.
Jessie turned on his heel to go back to the real thing in the other room. “Let’s crack this Bible open.”
“Wait, wait!” I cried out. “Let me do this. I’m trained!”
To his credit, he waited for me to find a scalpel in the metal drawers before we went in. Scooping up the Bible, I thrust the blade into the edge of the fake pages sealed shut with white paint and slit open the sides, so that we could work it open like a real book. My hands shook. We almost had it peeled apart when I heard the door shut in the other room.
I straightened just as Jessie stuffed the Relic into his jean jacket. The irony that he was breaking one of the Ten Commandments by stealing a Bible wasn’t lost on me.
