The Grotto's Secret: A Historical Conspiracy Mystery Thriller (35 page)

165

As Kelby stiffened, Roy swivelled to see Willow and whispered to her. ‘Let me handle this.’ He stepped past her, gently shoving her behind him.

Willow stuttered, ‘Wh-where did you get to. I-I lost you in the —’

‘Forget it, Willow. There’s no toxicology lab. You were —’

‘There is!’ Kelby dug in her sling bag and pulled out the journal. ‘I have the proof.’

Willow’s long fingers reached out to grab it, but Kelby pulled back. ‘I can show you more horrible proof downstairs!’

‘Okay.’ Roy shoved Willow aside, ‘In that case, Willow, we don’t need you anymore. Kelby Wade is now Annie’s legal guardian so we’re taking her home.’

Doctor Willow halted in mid-step and glanced around him as though looking for an escape. Roy rushed into the room with Kelby following close on his heels. Leaning over a sleeping Annie, she whispered, ‘Is
she okay?’

Doctor Willow edged closer to the door. Kelby spun around and glared at him. ‘What have you done to her?’

‘Nothing. I mean, I’ve changed her medication and —’

‘You’ve drugged her!’

Roy did a quick assessment. Thankfully the tubes in her nose had been removed and Annie’s cheeks were brighter.

Roy patted Kelby’s arm. ‘It’s okay, Kel, she looks better than last time.’ He turned to Doctor Willow. ‘Seen any improvements?’

Doctor Willow scratched his scalp. ‘Before she left St Adelaide someone ordered an ABG.’

Kelby bent and kissed Annie’s cheek. ‘Hey, pumpkin, Aunt Kel is taking you home.’

Annie’s eyes fluttered open and Kelby’s heart almost burst at the look of elation in her niece’s eyes. ‘Aunt Kel,’ Annie’s voice was faint and breathy, like the flapping of butterfly wings, ‘You came back.’ She threw her arms around Kelby’s neck. ‘I thought you had lefted me too. Like Daddy. When can I see Mummy?’

Kelby knelt beside the bed and stroked Annie’s head. ‘Pumpkin, Mummy has gone to heaven to look for Daddy.’

‘When will she be back?’ A sob choked Annie.

‘Let’s talk to Daddy when we get home and see what he says.’

‘Will you go there too or will you stay with me?’

‘I’m with
you,
all the way.’ She gave Annie a tight squeeze. ‘You and me … we’re going to live where we can swim in the hot sun every day.’

‘Yippee!’ Annie’s voice got stronger by the minute. ‘May-ree promised we’ll swim in her special pool. She told me she has cream for my hands.’

Roy and Kelby looked at each other.

Kelby whispered, ‘It’s her. She’s communicating with Annie.’

Roy nodded, his expression thoughtful, ‘We can talk about it later.’

Willow hovered, unsure what they were discussing, but pretending to make himself useful. ‘Sunlight can help eczema, but you must be careful of sunburn.’

Kelby ignored him as though he weren’t in the room. She leaned over Annie and said, ‘Listen, pumpkin. Doctor Rob Roy is going to pick you up now and he’ll carry you, okay?’

Annie smiled at Roy and took Kelby’s hand. ‘I’m ready, Aunt Kel. Mummy has been gone for so long and my ants need feeding.’

Elation roared through Kelby. Annie was her old self.

At the door, Doctor Willow fiddled with the buttons on his suit. He stared at Roy. ‘What will you do now?’

‘Well, Annie will recover fully without the wrong drugs fed into her little body.’ Roy lifted Annie into his arms and held her against his chest.

‘No, I mean —’

‘I know what you mean, Willow. You know what’s coming to you. I don’t need to explain.’

‘But I
can
explain. It wasn’t me.’ Doctor Willow backed to the door. With the awkwardness of a crane preparing for flight, he turned and rushed down the ward corridor, flapping his hands about in a fluster.

‘He won’t get far.’

Kelby followed Roy into the lift. ‘By the way, I need to pop around the corner and fetch an army boot.’

‘A
boot
?’

Kelby rolled her eyes. ‘Yes. That’s another story.’

166

María spotted a metal ladle lying near the doorway and leaned over to touch it. She ran her peeling fingertips over the baking instrument. Her scarred hands looked like a man’s and would profess to a life of manual labour.

A sudden thought gripped her. She darted back to the burnt kitchen and hopped through the smouldering embers. Spotting the soldier’s dagger still lying in the back of the hearth, she used the ladle to haul it out. The dagger’s hot metal scorched her hands, but she threw it into the dry sand outside to cool off. It would be essential on the journey ahead of her.

María picked her way over the burnt timber of the shed to Madre’s burial cellar and knelt down. ‘Mama, you know how I would dress in Padre’s clothes?’ She glanced behind her at the crushed herbal garden. ‘Well, now I will dress as a man. The sailor I told you about is called Cristóbal. The Italians call him Cristoforo Colombo. I will labour aboard this sailor’s boat. I will take Padre’s name.’

Her intelligence and writing skills could persuade the great sailor to chart his journey into the unknown.

‘I’ll go with him to find the new world. You’ll be proud of me. I’ll be the first woman to sail across unknown waters.’ María felt a lump in her throat. ‘My promise to you Mama, is to continue your work. I will honour you and find a way to keep your
medicina
healing the people of this land you love.’

She stood and went over to the bake house and patted the walls.

A few minutes later, María gathered together a few things to help her on her passage. Now she would be on the run from the queen’s soldiers, and trying to find Colombo, it was best to hide her writing secrets in a sturdy leather cloth that would withstand the long journey ahead.

Many years ago Padre had made a leather satchel from sheep skin to carry his tools. María knew where he used to keep it and quickly found the satchel.

After throwing out most of the tools, María added a few of Madre’s
medicina
potions. Then, she wrapped two quills and a few sheets of hidden parchment into a piece of calfskin, tied it in a thin leather strip to make a watertight pouch. If, by chance, her satchel was stolen by vagabonds, she could at least dangle the leather pouch from her belt. The last book she had made lay hidden near Madre, in one of her clay pots.

With the bundle slung over her back, María took one last look over her shoulder.

Suddenly her eye caught something. Hung up on the back wall was Padre’s boots. She glanced at her feet and knew her shoes wouldn’t make the long journey ahead. She stepped back over the discarded tools on the floor and grabbed Padre’s boots. Unlike her shoes, made from softened leather, Padre’s were simple yet heavy ankle boots laced up at the front. He had made a thick leather sole to endure his many journeys.

In Padre’s boots her feet would not suffer the hardened mountain tracks she would surely have to pass through to journey to the sea. Determined to keep them for the worst part of her passage, María tucked them into the satchel.

A chunk of black shiny rock fell out of one boot. As it hit the ground a shaft of sunlight streamed in through the door and fell upon the stone.

Bursts of fiery orange shone up out of the stone.

167

After Roy positioned Annie on the back seat, she curled up. He dropped a kiss on Kelby’s forehead and headed to the driver’s side. Kelby leaned in and tucked the clinic blanket around Annie’s thin body.

Kelby hugged her again. Sometimes she wanted to squash her with love. She straightened and closed the back door. The spot on Kelby’s forehead where Roy had kissed her radiated heat like a sonar beacon.

Suddenly Annie jumped up and yelled through the window. ‘Hey, Aunt Kel, I nearly forgot!’ Annie grabbed her mouth in mock horror.

‘What did you forget?’

‘Daddy said his lost foot has been itching to tell you something.’ Annie started giggling. ‘How can his foot tell you something? Daddy is
sooo
funny sometimes.’ She flopped backwards and snuggled into the blanket.

Kelby stood still for a moment. A drum beat in her ears. She raised her eyes to the sky with her jaw hanging ajar.

Roy’s eyebrows knitted together in a deep frown. ‘Care to share what’s on your mind?’

‘That boot I told you about. Let’s go get it.
Now!
’

‘Okay!’ Roy jumped in and said, ‘I’m calling Joyce first or the police will wonder what happened to us.’

Kelby reached into her bag and handed the police officer’s card to Roy. ‘Can she get this officer to come see us at my house?’

Roy made the call. ‘Joyce, one more thing, we have to get Annie home.
And
Kelby is exhausted, but she has lots to tell the police. Please contact PC Pike and tell him to meet us at Kelby’s home.’ He gave Joyce PC Pike’s shoulder number and personal contact phone number.

When Roy had hung up, he drove off with Kelby directing him around the back of the clinic to the lab. As before, the spooky mansion loomed up ahead of them. Kelby mumbled, ‘Pull up behind Hawk’s car.’

As Roy parked, she hopped out. In one fluid movement Kelby retrieved Gary’s boot from the back seat. She slammed the door and jumped back in beside Roy. He had a finger on his lips to shush her and threw a glance over his shoulder.

Kelby followed his eyes and saw Annie had fallen asleep, so she whispered to Roy. ‘I found this boot hanging on Gary’s wall, surrounded by his precious mementos. I had no idea at the time why I took it.’ She shrugged, ‘Sentimental, I guess. But after Annie’s last comment, I think we may be on to something.’

‘Why?’ he whispered back.

‘This is Gary’s lost foot. If he’s communicating with Annie, he may want me to take a closer look at his boot.’

‘What for?’ Roy’s voice rose to a shout.

‘Shh! I don’t know. Let’s see what happens.’ She pointed to the symbol.

Roy gasped. His eyes glued to the now familiar symbol etched into the army leather.

‘I wanted to show you this, but we can discuss that later.’ Kelby dug her hand deep into the boot and shuffled around. Her fingers came out empty. Next, she turned the boot over and scrutinised the heel. ‘Nothing there.’ She flipped it back and tucked her fingers in between the laces.

A hoarse whisper rose from Roy, ‘Wait!’ He grabbed the boot and spun it back onto its heel. ‘If Gary’s foot is itching to tell you something, it’s most likely the heel.’ He yanked at the thick army sole. Then, he held out a flat palm to Kelby and said, ‘Scalpel.’

‘What?’

‘You know.’ His eyebrows wiggled.

‘Ah! My scalpel. Of course. I forgot I even had it with me.’ She dug in her bag and retrieved Gary’s Swiss army knife. She handed it to Roy and watched as he slid the knife’s point between the sole and the heel. For a moment he fiddled and tugged.

Without warning, the heel suddenly popped off like a champagne cork and hit Roy in the eye. Kelby grabbed the heel as it sailed back into his lap. She flipped it over and exclaimed. ‘Oh my God!’

Together they gaped at the heel. Tucked inside, in a neatly cut cubby-hole, sat a bright green USB stick. Written across the tiny computer memory drive, in thick black ink, were two numbers and a letter.

42A.

168

María knelt and lifted the glowing stone that had fallen out of Padre’s boot. No sooner than it touched her aching palms, the stone radiated a soothing warmth into her burnt skin.

Something in the back of her mind stirred. She remembered that Padre had received a sacred stone from the nuns when he re-built a crumbling wall at Abadía de Torcal. María bit her lip and leaned closer.

Was this the precious piedra Mama kept asking her to find?

The stirring in her mind, burst into a real live memory. Only now did she remember Madre checking if Padre had his
piedra sagrada
in his satchel when he journeyed long distances for work.

Madre had always insisted his sacred stone would protect him. In their gratitude to Padre for not taking money for his labour, the nuns had bestowed their promise. Padre would often jest, but carried the stone to quieten Madre.

María leaned closer to examine it. Inside, a web of glass-like crystalline glowed. The particles of amber formed a shape which looked like back-to-back twisted Cs.

María gasped. It was the same sign Madre had carved onto the leather cover of her
Herbal de Carbonela
. At the time she had thought Madre’s twisted Cs were in honour of her own name.

Another shaft of sunlight slanted through the stone’s golden honeycomb. Gaping in amazement María lifted the stone into the late afternoon’s rays. When the sun shone through the crystals the Cs seemed to expand and flare into fiery colour, whirling into an X.

Suddenly a chill ran through María.

Padre must have left the sacred stone behind on the day the wall crushed him!

Although she had been vaguely aware of the stone, she had never seen it. Up close, it was the most beautiful object she had ever seen. How could this smooth lump of rock, with its strange inner crystalline shape, save Padre? Was there indeed something strange going on at the abbey? She’d never know.

With haste, María rushed back to the trapped cellar door and knelt one last more time. ‘Mama, I have Padre’s
piedra sagrada.
I will keep his sacred stone with me. That is my promise to you and Papa.’

Although yearning to avow to Madre for bringing this upon them, María couldn’t spill her terrible secret. It would remain in the bottom of her heart. Always there to be mindful of her promise to never give up.

A bird cried out in the sky above. María’s head shot up, and she rose to her feet, staring at a pair of turtle doves flapping with whistling wings between the bake house and workshop. Silver-grey in colour, with dark blue spots on their tail feathers, they watched her with their beady eyes. One of them let out another cry. Woo-oo-oo.

María’s heart lifted. Madre and Padre were with her. Up there.

Before any more tears could well up, María leapt up. She took one last look of longing around the Finca and down the beautiful rolling valley.

One day she would return to claim this land as hers.

María grabbed her journey satchel and ran into the woods. She refused to give in to tears.

Far off lands awaited.