Charlie points at the fence. “It just occurred to me that teams of local and national archeologists must’ve searched these ruins inside out. What if they found the key?”
“The last dig dates back twenty years, much earlier than your mother’s visit.” I pause, before adding, “Assuming this site is the ‘home’ she had in mind for Queen Charlotte’s key.”
I look around. There is no one else in this part of the ruins but Charlie and me.
“Ready?” I help her over the fence, grab our gear, and follow her.
We put on gloves, and arm ourselves with flashlights, trowels, brushes, and small cameras to help us see into the gaps between the stones.
“Where do we start?” Charlie asks.
I survey the ancient stones warming in the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. “Was your mother into wall climbing?”
“She had a fear of heights.”
“Then we start at the bottom, right here.”
I mark the spot and show Charlie how to use the equipment. After that I turn on the metal detector and scan the ground around the tower. Charlie carefully inspects the mortar joints, cracks and crevices and any hollow spaces she can find in the wall, deploying the endoscopic camera and the thermal imaging camera when needed.
My detector beeps from time to time as I pick my way around the tower, but none of the signals lead to anything significant.
While Charlie continues the visual inspection, I take out the portable ground-penetrating radar and recheck the ground around the tower, hoping for a sign that something is buried beneath the surface. But no luck.
Meanwhile, Charlie is working the wall. She’s extremely thorough. She sweeps a segment with her eyes and fingertips and again with the handheld thermal imaging camera. Whenever she has the slightest doubt, she threads the endoscopic camera into the cavity or crack and checks the image on the small display.
I grab my own cameras and join her.
An hour later, we take a break to drink and eat the sandwiches I bought this morning. It starts dripping again, which is just as well. The drizzle chases away the few people that had ventured into this area of the park.
Charlie and I resume the search. The meticulous monotony of the exercise sends my thoughts where they mustn’t go—to Stella.
I’ve been laser focused on this mission from the moment I woke up at dawn. I showered, packed my backpack, and explained to Stella the dos and don’ts of her lifestyle for the next few weeks or, until we reassess the situation with her parents. All the while, she tried to say something to me, but she struggled to find the right words. Every time I felt she was close, I made sure we stayed on the topic of practical arrangements for her safety.
When the time came for me to leave, she looked so miserable that my chest ached as though it were being crushed. With every fiber of my being, I wanted to take her in my arms and kiss her. But I didn’t. Instead, I told her I’d be back to check on her in a week’s time.
That cheered her up a bit.
And then I grabbed my backpack and my new burner phone and strode to the door. Not touching her the morning after the night we’d had was a dick move. But I was conveying a message. I was telling her that our meeting next week wasn’t a date. We were not going to have a relationship.
If the sob I heard when I shut the door behind me was any sign, then she received my message loud and clear.
Samson, the MESS agent who can pass for me from afar, had already arrived at the hotel.
I left my main phone with him in the event Kurt Ozzi was able to track me despite the encryptions. Samson would inform MESS about the change of plan and relay my new number. Adam would send the expert team to Lusignan this afternoon instead of in two days. At nine o’clock, Samson would accompany Stella downstairs to breakfast. On Thursday, he’d take her to Dr. Biel. They’d maintain the charade that would hopefully fool Kurt’s spy until I’m back.
Charlie’s voice breaks me from my thoughts. “Darrel, come take a look at this!”
I turn to where she was moments ago but can’t see her. Then I notice a small doorway nestled in the wall a few meters ahead. When I circled the tower with the metal detector, and again with the radar, I was so preoccupied with the ground that I didn’t see this opening in the wall!
I duck inside. The first things I notice are the vestiges of an arch and a spiral staircase, of which remain a few steps embedded in the wall. Then I see Charlie, squatting on my right.
She points out a cavity cut into the very rock that supports the tower. “This could’ve served as storage space or a small room.”
I hunker down on the other side of the cavity and study it.
“I checked the walls,” she says. “But on the off chance she buried the key in the ground, we could use your metal detector and the other thing…”
“The ground-penetrating radar.” I dart back outside and fetch the gear. “Let’s start with the detector. It doesn’t reach as deep as the GPR, but it’s more precise when it comes to detecting small objects.”
