Page 6 of Curses & Keys
He shakes his head. “That’s not the important question here.” Holding out his hand, he murmurs an incantation, and the prints begin to glow white. “As I thought.” His finger traces the outline of the pattern. “Tactical gear. Have you ever known a supernatural to wear it?”
This just got a hell of a lot more complicated. “Humans? Are you sure?”
“The spell I used is designed to identify race,” he says thoughtfully. “Humans render white.” Letz walks carefully around the space, twisting and turning to follow the prints, until he can get an accurate picture of the scene. “It was one hell of a fight, but they were well prepared.”
Perplexed, I scan the bloody floor. “How can you tell?”
He tilts his head. “Because it only took five humans to severely wound one of our oldest vampires.”
Jamison hears his comment, and his head snaps toward us. “Are you sure?” His eyes sweep to me, and the amount of anger in their depths causes me to take a step back. He stalks over to us. “Show me.”
While Letz is pointing out the pattern of the fight, I carefully walk around with my senses out. The few remaining items of power haven’t been touched. Instead, the boxes of smaller items piled with jewelry, coins, and various trinkets, have been tipped over one by one. I slip my hand into one of the small upright boxes and lift up a handful of gold coins. “Well, they’re not your run-of-the-mill thieves.”
“They were searching for something specific. Small,” Jamison says grimly. “Could you have missed a powerful piece in the collection?”
Letz looks at me for the answer. “Dr. Galanis completed the inventory of this room. Did you find anything of note?”
I pretend to think about it. There are only a few people who had access to this room in the last few days. Someone saw something of power and relayed that information to another, which means this is an inside job.
“There could have been, but I didn’t examine every piece.” Only the most dangerous ones. “I can check the catalog. We might want to question Dr. Kline’s assistant, Sia, and a few of the museum staff who had access to the room to see if they noticed anything suspicious.”
Jamison raises his finger, and another mage comes running over so he can give them orders. “I want to question everyone who had access to this room.” His eyes dart to me. “Including you, Dr. Galanis.”
I smile. “Of course.” I hand him the catalog. “Here’s the final inventory report, the assessment of each piece, and a corresponding picture.” I frown. “What was security doing in here?” When he looks at me blankly, I raise an eyebrow. “The vampire. It’s odd he was in here, don’t you think?”
Jamison’s jaw tightens. “I can vouch for him. He had my and Letz’ permission to search for a family heirloom. It was last seen in here.”
Relief washes over me. They don’t suspect anything. “Can you describe it?”
He thrusts a hand through his hair and picks up his phone. Seconds later, he reads off a description of the locket to me. “Gold locket, on a thick matching chain, with tanzite embedded in the cover. It opens to reveal the image of a dark-haired little girl.”
A beautiful piece. I walk over to a box in the corner of the room, on the third shelf, and sift through it until I find the necklace. “Here. Maybe this will help your man recover.” I hold it up by the neck and watch it swing back and forth, then hand it over to Jamison. When he takes it, I motion to the catalog in his other hand. “I need to make a notation on the catalog to mark its absence. Everything needs to be documented.” I want him to see how serious I am about documentation, because I need him to look past me to find another suspect.
He hands it over. “Can you tell if anything is missing?”
I walk over to a nearby clipboard and grab the pen lying on top. “It’s hard to tell. Most of the items in here are small. It took us weeks to organize them into boxes and another three weeks toinventory all of it.” I pause and motion to the messy pile of items on the floor.
His mouth curves down. “So, you think it will be weeks before you know?”
I shake my head while I note the removal of the necklace. “It will take someone weeks to go through it all, but it won’t be me. I’m only here for a couple more days.”
He looks at Letz, who confirms my statement. “For her services, Duke University will receive an endowment of several of the pieces. Same for Dr. Kline and Yale. Both could only assist for a short time.”
Jamison stiffens. “I see. Dr. Galanis, if you’ll step over here. I’d like to get an official statement.” He motions to the corner, and I follow him over.
Steel-blue eyes study me intently until the air is thick with tension. If I were anyone else, I’d probably crack under the scrutiny. “Tell me everyone who had access to this room and their purpose for being in here.”
“Everyone had a different reason for being in here. Dr. Kline’s assistant was to identify Ancient East items. Given my expertise in ancient civilizations, I tend to focus on the artifacts and tools used in everyday life. The smaller items. Dr. Samuels tasked me with examining the items in this room to determine authenticity and value. A collective inventory was created…”
“What do you mean, collective inventory?” he interrupts.
“Items in this room will be loaned or endowed to museums and universities for further study or display. In fact, some of the pieces have already left. The remaining items in here will either be loaned out based on request, or they will return to the vault held by the newly elected vampire councilmember, whoever that might be. The inventory in your hand is a complete list of everything, but not all the items are still here.”
Realization dawns, and he runs a hand down his face. With the pieces scattered around the world, it would take a massive team to track and catalog every item, and even if something went missing, it would be almost impossible to determine if it was stolen or simply lost in the overall shuffle. It’s the perfect scenario for a thief.
“We need to look at this from a different angle.”
Exactly. I give him an apologetic smile. “Is there anything else I can do to help?”
