Page 76 of Fatal Thrill
“It’s Old Norse, I believe,” Charlotte said as the men worked to pry the concrete lid off the casket. “I used to know some folks whose surname was Sparks. A goodlot.”
A scraping noise echoed in the room, drawing her attention to the casket as the lid slid back with much effort from Jon and Miles. “We can’t set it down,” Jon grunted. “Shine your flashlight in here,J.”
Teeth chattering harder, she fiddled with the flashlight. Truth be told, she’d never seen human bones before. Sure on TV and in the movies, but not in reallife.
But they’d come this far and the plane was waiting for them at the airport to take them back to the States. Beatrice had sent Trace Hunter and a couple other guys, Jon had told her, to get a bead on the Thief River kidnappers before they got back, but the sooner they were in the air and on their way to Finn, the better. It was no time for sissies or the faint ofheart.
It’s just some old bones.Nothing to be scaredof.
Except,eww.
Sticking your hand inside a container with a dead body, disturbing thatghost…
Boy, her bonkers life in Oklahoma certainly paled in comparison to this kind ofcraziness.
Taking a deep breath, she took one step, then two, Charlotte joining her alongside the casket. Jon and Miles had slid the lid far enough to the side to create a large triangle of space into the vault. Jaya took her flashlight, hand trembling, and shone it into theshadows.
What she saw didn’t make her jump, nor did it gross her out. Instead she frowned and leaned forward. “There’s nothinghere.”
“What?” Jon and Miles asked at the sametime.
Jaya bent farther, dipping the light under the lid and into the expanse. “There are definitely no bones. It’s empty…Wait!”
At the far opposite side of the long rectangle was a lump.Is that abag?
It was the same color as the concrete vault. There was no interior casket or even a lining. No body, no bones, just that lump offabric.
“He lied again,” Jon said. “Your dad sent us on a wild goosechase.”
“I don’t think so,” Jaya said, her voice sounding muffled as she ducked her head lower. “There is something here. In thatcorner.”
She pointed and both men groaned, realizing they had to shift the lid in the oppositedirection.
Grunting and the shuffling of feet ensued and Charlotte and Jaya took up residence at the other end of the stone vault. As soon as there was enough space for her hand, she stuck it inside, fingers brushing somethingrough.
Shining the flashlight to get a better look, she saw the material of the bag looked like burlap. Relieved there were no bones or body parts, she started to lift it out. “Gosh, it’sheavy.”
She maneuvered it through the opening, dust particles rising in the air and making her nose itch. Once she cleared the top, Jon and Miles relocated the lid back to its original spot with a loudthud.
Jaya set the bag on the lid. The top was sewn shut with a thick cord. Her pulse beat faster as she imagined what the item inside might look like. Yes, it was the key to getting Finn back, but it was also a part of her history. A part of her family. Were there actual emeralds inlaid in the handle? “Anyone got aknife?”
“Let me help you,” Jon said, extracting a mean-looking tactical knife from his cargopants.
In one swipe, the cord was cut. Jaya worked to unravel it through the burlap. Inside the bag, her cold fingers hit more fabric, this material soft and slippery.Satin.
Carefully lifting the inside contents, she fought to get the burlap off the interior cover. Jon finally yanked on the sack, causing a slight tear along oneseam.
The slippery fabric was a black cloth, wrapped around and around the cross. With help from Jon, she unwound it until the elaborate gold crossemerged.
The thing had to weigh ten pounds and was over a foot in length. Even in the shadowed light, the emeralds sparkled bright in the center where the two sections of the Celtic cross met, each gem as big as a marble. Intricate etchings around the jewels added to theornamentation.
“It’s a beauty,” Charlotte said softly, reverence in hertone.
Jaya ran her fingers over the lines and words carved into the gold, over the emerald stones. Her grandfather, great-grandfather, and who knew how many other of her ancestors had held thiscross.
The thing was so heavy it gave her a feeling of being weighted to the ground, in touch with the men and women who’d once handled it, some of them buried in the caskets she’d walked by on her way here. Quiet descended as everyone stared at the beautiful cross, seemingly as impressed as shewas.
There was engraving on the back, roman numerals and several letters that might have been Latin. “Itisstunning.”
