“Meaning you’ll also hire the car?” Darby asked, amused.
“Indeed. Shall we say a 7:00 am start?”
“Only if we must,” I said, with a slight groan.
“You’ll just have to get yourself to bed early, won’t you?” Darby said, a twinkle in her eyes.
“Yeah,” I replied dryly. “I guess I will.”
Lugh’s gaze shot between us. “I have a vague feeling there’s something Mathi and I are missing right now.”
“I find it best not to ask when women are being deliberately vague,” Mathi commented. “It generally only gets you in trouble.”
“It does depend on the reason for the vagueness. There is one other thing.” I rose and retrieved the scrolls and the little black book from my purse. “We found these in a house the thief was targeting, and we’re wondering if they make any sort of sense to you.”
“In other words,” Lugh said, “can you please transcribe them.”
“Yes,” Mathi said. “Though I would suggest it be done here rather than at the museum, given we are unclear as to where Eljin’s loyalties lie.”
Lugh rose, washed his hands, then carefully unrolled the first scroll, keeping his fingers to the edges to lessen the risk of contaminating the old vellum with skin oil. He studied it for several minutes, gaze narrowed and expression thoughtful.
“It appears to be based on hieroglyphs, with a few other random ancient languages thrown in.” He let the scroll roll back up and opened up the black book. “And this contains the means of deciphering them. Handy.”
“How long will it take you?” I asked.
“A couple of days, most likely. Glyphs can be tricky even at the best of times.” He glanced up. “And if I’m honest, tracking down the truth about both the article Eljin and ours is more of a priority right now.”
On that we both agreed. I glanced at the clock and saw it was close to ten. “I should go. I promised Ingrid I’d help her close again tonight.”
Darby cleared her throat and gave me a pointed stare. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Oh, yeah.” I waved a hand. “I had another dream. Apparently we’re on the clock and this godly game will be over in nine months.”
“Well, it’s always good to have a timeframe to work with,” Lugh said. “But I’m thinking the result is not currently guaranteed to go our way.”
“No, but we now have Beiraandmy father on our side, so that’s got to swing things a little in our favor.”
“When it comes to gods, nothing is ever guaranteed.” Mathi’s phone pinged. He glanced at it, then pushed to his feet. “We can share an Uber. I need to get back to the office.”
“Neither of your drivers working tonight?” Lugh asked, expression surprised.
“Henrick’s vehicle was bugged. We found one tracer, but until both vehicles have been fully swept and cleared, they cannot be used.”
“Competitors? Or something else?”
“Unknown at this stage, but I intend to find out.”
“And woe betide those responsible,” Darby said.
Mathi glanced at her. “Indeed.”
We grabbed our smelly clothes and our coats, and headed out. Mathi called the Uber, and we walked up to the end of the street to wait. It arrived a few minutes later and quickly scooted us across to the tavern.
“Ring if you want company to Eljin’s tomorrow,” he said as I climbed out.
I shook my head. “If he is up to something, then he might well have set up a camera or two. When will you get the report back from your friend? Or is that the reason you suddenly have to go into the office?”
He smiled. “Indeed. According to Dawson, he’s almost finished compiling his initial report and will send it to my computer later this evening. He’s going to run a background onthe woman, just to be certain as to her identity, but that probably won’t be available for a day or so, given you said she was from France.”
