He stripped off his saturated coat and hung it up. Water pooled on the stone floor tiles beneath it. The waterproof had protected his shirt, but the lower half of his trousers and those beautiful leather shoes were destroyed.
Ari herself had not been so lucky. She knew she looked like a drowned rat and she was shivering so hard now she thought her bones might come loose.
Madalen shrugged and left them standing there in the hall. A moment later she was back without the wine and with a pile of beach towels in various bright colours. The sound of a car outside made them all turn and, with a sense of dread, Ari realised her brother was back.
‘What happened to you?’ Jason exclaimed as he came in. ‘Why did you take off?’ He was glaring at Rafael, clearly suspecting him of something terrible.
Ari didn’t have time for this. Her brother didn’t get to play the overprotective idiot with her. Not now, not ever. Besides, she had other concerns. ‘Where did you put the mask, Jason?’ she asked.
That threw him off track. He jerked around to stare at her, instantly on edge, alarmed. If anything had happened to their find, they’d have problems. More than problems. He knew that. ‘The mask? It’s locked up in the store. How did you get so wet?’
‘There was a storm,’ she said. ‘Where’s the store? Show me. I need to make sure.’
How could she tell him that she was afraid it had been stolen? How could she tell him she’d seen Simon, or his ghost, or…or whatever she had seen?
‘What storm?’ Jason asked. ‘There was a shower. Why are you both so wet? And you’re covered in mud. What happened?’
Nico led the way, ignoring him, sensing perhaps her urgency in a way her brother had completely missed. Jason, it appeared, was too caught up in concern for her. That was a surprise. Irritating, but a surprise nonetheless.
Nico fished out a key from a bowl on the table and led the way to the door she had taken for a cupboard or a utility room at the far end of the hall. It was old, the thick wood painted a brilliant white, which contrasted with the black iron of the hinges. The modern padlock on it was incongruous in comparison. He opened it and flicked on a switch so the lights came on. Shelves were stacked with equipment and supplies, like an Aladdin’s cave. The box sat on a shelf, still full of sea water, and the mask lurking inside it.
Nico lifted it out and brought it into the kitchen, where he set it on the wooden table.
‘Looks all in order,’ he said.
They all craned over it, and Nico opened the top. Carefully, he lifted it and Ari gasped.
The mask was still there, but now it was completely clean. The ceramic was bright. Gold patterns glittered in the artificial light and the blue marking looked like ripples in the sea itself, almost like enamel, clear and shimmering with life.
It looked brand new.
The dirt and debris that had covered it swirled through the water in the tub, turning it milky white and then slowly clearing as it all slid to the bottom. It lay there like a sludge, like mud.
‘What the hell?’ she whispered, before she could stop herself.
‘They’re never going to believe we found that in the sea.’ Nico’s voice was no more than a whisper. The shock was palpable. ‘They’ll think we compromised it by cleaning it at best, or at worst that it’s a fake or… What happened to it?’
Jason, meanwhile, stormed from the kitchen into the sitting room, yelling at the top of his voice. ‘Thierry? Who was in the storeroom? Who cleaned the mask? What the hell?’ He switched to French, angry and full of accusation.
Thierry himself protested his innocence and Madalen joined in. Suddenly everyone was yelling.
Ari swayed on her feet, exhausted, overwhelmed. She stared at the mask cradled in Nico’s shaking hands. Pristine, beautiful.
Just the way she had seen it in Simon’s hands earlier.
Without a word, Rafael pulled out a chair for her and she sank on to it gratefully. ‘Are you OK?’ he asked softly, while her brother carried on yelling at his friends, asking everyone in turn a myriad of questions.
Nico stared in horror at the mask, trying to examine it and work out what on earth happened.
Ari found her voice. It sounded breathy and thin, as if someone had punched her in the stomach and driven all the air from her. ‘How is that possible? Any of it? Anything we saw? We… You saw it too, right?’ She looked up at Rafael, aware in that moment that he was all the evidence that she had that she wasn’t losing her mind.
Rafael fixed her with his dark, solemn eyes and nodded slowly. But he didn’t answer. How could he? What answer was there?
‘They say no one’s been in there,’ Jason blustered as he came back into the kitchen. ‘And no one else has been here all evening. They’re all off at that wretched Irish pub getting hammered for Solena’s birthday.’ He shuddered, sharing every Irish person’s dread of an Irish pub abroad. ‘What happened to it, Nico? How is that possible?’
Nico slid the mask back into the water, his hand shaking as he did so. The sediment at the bottom swirled up around it like ghostly hands. ‘Perhaps I should get clean water,’ he said softly. ‘I don’t know. I don’t want to touch it. Maybe it wasn’t as secure as we thought. Maybe tremors or something. I don’t think it was near anything that might have… Maybe the washing machine vibrations travelled through the floor or…’ He looked as lost as Ari felt. ‘We’ll have to talk to the university. Maybe they have an explanation.’
Jason groaned. ‘We’re seeing them tomorrow. They won’t believe—’
