Trove (The Katie Walsh Mysteries) (25 page)

He pushed back his chair and stood, dwarfing her. “It’s too dangerous. Someone knows you have Josh’s notes and that you’re working on the translation. You need to be where you can be protected. Robert will make sure you’re safe.”

“How? Lock me up in my condo or his penthouse? Until when? You’re not in control of my life. You don’t get to decide what happens anymore. You did that and look where we are.”

Alec rubbed his hands over his tired face. “Where, Katie? Where are we?”

“In a hell of a mess and one which I intend to clean up.”

He slumped back into the chair. “I don’t want to fight you, Katie, nor do I want to control you. I just want you safe.”

“Alec,” she said her tone softer, “I’m not a porcelain doll. I don’t break easily. Besides, you need my help. It’s probably a good bet the runes are there. I can translate them. Just don’t shut me out.”

He sighed, seeming to wage an inner war.

Katie leaned against the chair and waited for his answer then added a sweetener. “I think Josh was close to finding something and I think it was related to or possibly the remains of Norland.”

Alec glanced up at her smiling face. She nodded. “You’re right. I still need you,” he finally replied.

Her heart jumped. He didn’t say he needed her help. He said he needed
her
. “So what’s the plan?”

“I need to get us to Scotland and then to Skye. I’ll see about renting an SUV and we need to get some warmer clothing and some camping gear.”

“Camping gear?”

“Yeah, that part of Skye is rather wild and remote. It makes sense to stay in the area. I’m pretty sure his work didn’t take place in the towns near there.”

“Oh,” she said, “I haven’t been camping since I was ten. Sounds… interesting.”

Alec smiled as he shook his head. “Yeah. Thankfully you’re low maintenance.”

Did he just give her a compliment or did he just insult her? She wasn’t sure.

While Alec spent the morning making arrangements, Katie logged on to her laptop and checked her email. There was one marked ***URGENT*** from Eric with the subject line “CALL ME ASAP,” but there was no other information.

She logged onto Skype and entered his address. He connected immediately. “Katie, I think I’ve cracked those odd symbols. Well, most of them anyway.”

She practically leapt into the computer. “
WHAT?
”

Eric’s grin filled the screen. “Aye, lassie, and wait till you see what I’ve discovered. I’m sending you a file. Open it when you get it and I’ll explain.”

She refreshed her email a few times before it popped into her inbox. “Got it. Just let me open it.” The file loaded and she was looking at the odd symbols from Josh’s notes, but not the one on the dagger hilt. Beside each one was an Arabic numeral. “Okay, it’s open. Where did the numbers come from?”

He flashed a huge grin. “Note how these odd symbols are very much alike.”

Katie nodded. “So?”

“Look closely, lassie. They’re only two symbols, though some are bigger than others, almost like capital letters.”

She frowned. “I’m not getting it. What are you trying to tell me?”

“I don’t think these are ancient symbols. Look close. There are just two basic symbols. One shaped like a sigma or ‘E’ and one shaped like a ‘T.’ The remaining two are just smaller versions of the larger ones.”

She focused on what he was saying and he was right. There seemed to be only two basic symbols, with slight variations making them appear different. “So if I’m buying what you’re selling, what am I getting?”

“The difference between the symbols are the lines contained within each. See the first one? See how it’s a large one?”

Katie nodded. “And there are five lines on it.” She moved to the next one. “The next one is also large and has seven lines on it.” She noted the numbers Eric had inserted on the file corresponded to the count of the lines on each symbol. But what did it mean? “So, I’m looking at 5, 7, 6,8,4,2,5 and then the symbol changes and we have 6,3,4,6,9,7,6.” She huffed. “So we have two sets of numbers each seven digits.”

“Aye.”

She ran her hands through her hair. She could tell that he was so wanting her to figure out the meaning but she just couldn’t. She was a document person dealing with abstracts, more right-brained than left. She just couldn’t connect the dots. “Arrgggh,” she moaned, “I just don’t get it.”

He laughed. She scowled.

“Katie, you said you believe the runes to be from Scotland, possibly the Hebrides.”

“Yes.” She was more convinced once Alec had told her about Josh and where he’d gone over the cliff. Josh was searching on Skye.

“If I take those numbers and, for argument’s sake, interpret the numbers from the first large symbol I have 57. And then I take the smaller numbers of the same symbol, what do I have?”

“I have no idea, but
I
have a headache
,” she replied as she twirled a strand of hair around her finger.

“Think, Katie. Large numbers, small numbers.” Eric waited.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Tell me, just tell me,” she whined.

“Decimal points, lassie. The smaller numbers are to the right of the decimal.”

She let his words sink into her brain. “So if that’s true, then we have 57.68425 and 6.346976 and that means… what? So help me, Eric, if you don’t tell—”

“All right,” he said, cutting her off. “Maybe I have a slight advantage since I’ve been testing the GPS interface, but just—”

It was her turn to cut him off. “GPS. Did you say GPS?”

Eric smiled and nodded. “Aye.”

“Then you think they’re coordinates.” Her heart raced as she asked, “Where exactly are these coordinates?”

“Duntulm, on the Isle of Skye.”

That was near Josh’s accident. It had to be correct. They were his notes, and the symbols weren’t runes. He was marking the site for anyone clever enough to figure it out. “Oh. My. God.”

Katie sagged back in her chair, trying to absorb everything Eric had explained and showed her. Her mind was in overdrive thinking of the implications of his work.

“Lassie? Are you all right?”

She wrapped her hands around the ends of the armchair and hoisted herself forward. “I- I’m just having a hard time processing this. Give me a moment.” She propped her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hands. Could it be possible after all this time that they stood an extremely good chance of finding evidence of Norland or maybe even the location itself? She shook her head and pushed off the table. “Eric, you’re absolutely sure about this?”

“Aye. I’ve run and re-run the data multiple times and I get the same results each time.”

“This Josh Mason was right. He’d indicated he was close. I just wonder if he realized how very close he was. He had the area tied down. He just needed some help, some technological help.”

“Do you think his partner knew?” Eric asked.

Katie shook her head. “No, at least I don’t think so. If he did, I’d think the research world would have heard about it or at least rumors of it.”

“Do you think this doctor is a treasure hunter cutting corners, crossing the line between legal and illegal?”

She nodded. “Yes. I think it’s quite possible that he’s responsible for Josh’s death. I think he’s quite capable of anything.”

“So maybe he’s covering his tracks, operating a rogue excavation. And maybe he makes loose ends disappear and that’s why no one’s heard of anything.”

Katie pursed her lips, tapping her forefinger against her mouth.
So we could be walking right in on his covert operation
, she thought. “You’re right. I guess this monster is capable of anything. So how can we find out?”

“With all the technology at our disposal, we should be able to leverage something.”

She burst out laughing. She couldn’t help herself, and she couldn’t stop. She grabbed her sides, it hurt so much.

“Katie girl, have you lost your mind?”

“No,” she managed to squeak out, “no.”

Eric waited a few moments until she got herself under control. Finally when she quieted, he asked, “Now just what was so hilarious? I could use a good laugh myself.”

She smiled into the webcam. “You don’t see it?”

“Obviously not.”

“What is it we’ve been working on, our project?”

He shook his head. He looked confused. “Not sure where you’re headed, lassie.”

“Eric, think about it. We’ve been developing a software program that peels back time…” Her voice trailed off, waiting for him to grasp what she was saying. She watched his face on the screen. Katie nodded her head the moment she saw his expression change from puzzlement to amazement.

Eric laughed. “You’re a genius.”

“
We’re
geniuses or is that genii?” She giggled.

“Genii, I think?”

She reflected for a moment. “Do you think that’s where the word ‘genie’ comes from?”

Eric shrugged. “Who knows? I just know we are quite possibly about to discover Norland.”

Katie nodded. “So here’s what I think we should do, and by that, I mean you since you’ve got a secure data line and heavy duty bandwidth into the Nordstrom computers. I think you should take those coordinates and pull satellite photos. Start with the most recent and move consistently back. I’m not sure how frequently that area gets snapped, but there should be enough to get us close. Roll it back, say, two years and then roll it forward. Document any changes however miniscule and then let me know what you find.”

“It’ll probably take a few days. When are you headed back to Boston?”

Katie shook her head. “I’m not. I’m going on a camping trip.”

“You’re doing what? I could swear I thought you said ‘camping trip.’”

“I did. I’m heading to Duntulm.”

****

After ending her call with Eric, Katie checked her inbox one last time before logging off. There was a new message, but she didn’t recognize the sender. She was about to delete it when she read the subject line:
THERE IS A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE MISSING RUNES AND YOUR PAST.
She took a chance since there were no attachments and opened it. The message was blank. She hit the reply button and typed back
WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?
then hit the send button.

She didn’t have to wait long. The subject line:
I’M CALLING YOUR CELL NOW. ANSWER IT.

Damn! She didn’t have it. She’d left it upstairs in the bedroom. She quickly typed:
I DON’T HAVE IT WITH ME. I NEED TO GET IT. SHOULD TAKE A MINUTE OR TWO.

The answer flashed back at her
: GET IT NOW
.

She flew out of the library and raced down the hall, stopping only long enough to make a ninety-degree turn at the base of the staircase. Halfway up the stairs, her leg muscles began to ache and freeze up.
Damn
, she thought,
I really need to start working out more
. She held the railing and used her arms to help her legs keep moving.

Tears were welling in her eyes as she crested the last step. Her breathing was labored but she kept moving to the bedroom. She flung the door open, still trying to catch her breath. She grabbed her phone and turned it on. Had it been two minutes, five? Those stairs were killers. She looked at the missed call log.
Private Caller
was all it displayed. She shut the door and then collapsed on the bed.

She jerked when the shrill tweet broke the silence. She looked at the screen.
Private Caller
. She hit the “Talk” button. “Hello?”

The voice was mechanically distorted, but something made her think it was a male voice. Maybe it was the strength of the pronunciation. She wasn’t sure but if she’d had to bet, she’d pick male.

“Dr. Walsh, you are a hard person to reach.”

“Who are you?” Katie asked.

“Not important. I have information.”

“Why should I trust you, believe you?” she snapped. “You know who I am, but you hide behind games and threats.”

“I’ve never threatened you. If I wanted to hurt you, it would just happen.”

She swallowed and wrapped her free arm around her waist. For some reason, she believed him.

An eerie distorted laugh followed. “Sorry about that misunderstanding in the North End the other morning.”

She snapped, “You tried to abduct me. You’re a monster, a sick, evil monster.” She punched the “End” button. The moment she hung up on him, she regretted it. This bastard was probably Josh’s partner, maybe even his murderer. She had the only link to him and she’d just severed it.

She tried to call the number back, but it had been blocked, leaving her with no choice but to wait until he contacted her again. She prayed he would.

The phone chirped and she answered.