“What can I do for you?”
“My father, Mr. Lin. I know he’s not interested in speaking with me directly, but there’s an item in his art collection that is of interest to my research. A project a friend and I are doing for school. I’m wondering if it might be acceptable for us to show it to our group. I believe it’s currently on loan to a Disneyland museum. My friend is traveling down there, so if it would be convenient…”
“I don’t know, Ms. Redwood, it’s a rather personal request.”
“I wouldn’t ask, but it is very important to this project, and getting Mr. Lin’s approval would speed up the process.”
Ori raised an eyebrow at me.
“I’ll be seeing him tonight at an event. I’ll ask him casually, if you like, and let you know tomorrow?”
“That would be fabulous, Mr. Worthington. You have no idea how much it would mean.”
“I can hear it in your voice, Ms. Redwood. Have a great rest of your evening.”
I hung up. “Whew, well that might actually work out better than I expected. He’s seeing my dad tonight at some party. So, we’ll have to wait. Hold on, I have an idea. Juke, can you do for the Anaheim museum what you did for the Egyptian museum? Send an email from my dad to them saying they need to release the scroll case to Vivian? Then maybe you can go get it?”
“I can, but…”
“I hear an uh-oh.”
“I’d need an IP to hack into. Do you have an email or phone number?” Juke straightened a butterfly in her hair, thinking.
“No phone. Email always comes from the lawyer. Hang on. Charles forwarded me a Christmas card a couple of years ago when Mom died. My dad wanted me to know he was still around, although he wanted nothing to do with me—that kinda thing. It even saidMerry Christmas, which was thoughtless, but then that is him.” I searched my phone. The email attachment had the forward header. I sent it to Juke.
Her phone chimed, and she held it up. “Got it. Give me a couple of minutes. I need to haul the laptop out. Same thing? We need a short loan or need to pull it from the exhibit, due to family reasons?”
“That. That’s perfect. When you sign, use-GL. He always signs with his initials.”
“Got it. Are we doing a dry run for the garden thing?”
I glanced at my phone’s lock screen. Waiting was not my strong game. “Without the third piece of gold, we can’t complete the ritual but, yeah. We could set up, and we’ll need supplies. We could go to Rose’s for them since my place is still a target. Anyone heard from her? She was furious with me when she left.”
I texted Rose—no response. I dialed and got voicemail. “Hey, it’s Sorrel. I’m really sorry. Please call me?” Rose almost always picked up. Maybe she was in the shower. I glanced at the time.“No one has heard from her?Hmmm. Okay, I’ll try again in five minutes.”
My phone sang with an unknown caller. “Hey there, Greenie. Looking for your bud, Rosebush? She’s pining for you, hoping you’ll come visit. We both miss ya.”
Fabra had Rose.
The revelation echoed over and over in my head. “What do you want?”
“Your big, handsome dead guy, of course. Bring him and we can do swapsies.”
“Where?”
“Hmmm. How about the cemetery? Don’t you have to be there at seven?”
“That was last night, but how do you know… wait, you’re at my house?” I shouted into the phone.
“Yeah, and your keeper lady came by wondering where you were. I told her you’d be back in a bit, and I’d take care of the groceries. Those nori rice cakes she brought are killer, but you need to buy more.” She crunched one into the phone for effect.
I balled my fist. “I want to talk to Rose.”
“Sure, honey-child. Here you go.”
“Sorrel, don’t meet her. She’s going to—” Rose said, then a loud smack was followed by a groan.
“Your sweetie pie has a big mouth,” said Fabra.
