"How did you get them from him?"
"Did you steal them?" Clarence asked, sounding worried that she might've done that.
She cocked her head. "I would have picked his pocket but I didn’t have to. When he figured he’d made more than two million, he put them in my hand.”
“Why?”
“As payback. He figured it would serve the casino right if when they kicked him out, the real luck stayed behind to win more from them. So when the security moved in on him I already had them."
"But you didn't go nuts with them?"
She smiled. "It was tough not to. The moment I had them in my hand I had an urge to put a bet down on roulette. As it turned out, it didn't matter what I bet on, that was the winning bet."
"So how did you control them?"
"I play odds and angles, but I’m not a gambler.”
“Freddy said you are a con artist.”
“That’s nothing but a nasty label and not at all politically correct.”
“Really?”
“Really. What I do is give people life lessons. I teach them not to take things at face value. At any rate, once I had the dice I needed to size things up and figure out what they did.”
“Did you?”
“I saw the hook and refused to bite, I can say that much. Given my line of work, I do know when I'm being conned, and I sensed that those dice were definitely a con. The luck was real but addictive. They were urging me to bet and let the money ride. Both went against the grain. I try not to attract attention to anything I’m doing. I've been around the tables and while I couldn't resist the call entirely, I could control the amount I bet. I mostly stuck to the table minimums and I went from one table to another."
"And then one casino to the next," I added.
"Right. And I tried other things, just kept my eyes open. Those dice were something. Even though they prefer roulette, they want you to use them. So when I stayed away from the tables the luck kept coming in other ways. I picked up a keno ticket from the edge of a slot machine it had the winning number. I found money sticking to my shoe. When I needed a break, I went into a store and found I was their 1,256th customer of the month and the winner of a one thousand dollar shopping spree." She gave me a thin smile. "Heady stuff and all down to the dice. That made me nervous. I prefer to win things by skill, so this entire episode, while nicely lucrative, was creeping me out."
"And eventually they kill you.” She gave me an odd stare. “Those dice kill," I told her. The look on her face told me she didn't know what had happened. "The man you got them from is dead. That night, after he left the casino, he was killed in a freak accident. He had to be terribly unlucky for it to happen. The same kind of thing happened to two other gamblers—they won big for the first time in their lives, then died in statistically improbable ways. My theory is they were the previous owners of the dice. We don't have any idea how far back that chain goes."
"Criminy," she said. "It's a good thing, then."
"What's a good thing?" I asked.
"That I smelled something wrong, that I realized that the dice were too good to be true. A sudden lucky streak like that… it's gonna cost you down the road. It has to. The principle of the right working of things is based on karma."
"So what did you do?" I was afraid I knew exactly what she’d done with them.
"I got rid of them. I looked for a buyer. I'm a con artist, Cecilia. As soon as I realized what was going on, I looked for a way to make a profit while getting rid of them. Even if things that seem too good to be true always are, that doesn't mean the mark you sell them to will think that way. Once I sold them, I figured he was on his own. And I didn’t know that the problem was that massive. I figured they’d turn on you, but not fatally."
“That makes sense. And passing them along is clever, especially if you aren’t keen on that person.”
“I don’t hate him, but...”
"Who?" Clarence asked.”Who did you sell them to?” I was surprised he hadn’t figured it out yet. I thought that was obvious.
She smiled. "After I hid my winnings away I arranged a meeting with Ulrich.”
“Why did you pick him,” Clarence asked.
“It’s well known that he collects a wide range of things that seem curious or unusual. Best of all he pays well to get them. I gave him what I knew about them, and he was interested in seeing them. That's why I was in the building and leaving when Clarence showed up."
"So you already sold them to him?"
She smiled "If your theory is right, he got his money’s worth too. He offered me fifty grand for them on the spot. I'm sure he thinks he got a deal. He was beaming like a cat given a bowl of cream. I was feeling good too, because I had seen him transfer the money to my account."
I sighed. "That's too bad."
"Why? You were just saying I needed to get rid of them to be safe."
"Because we need to get them back from him.”
“Why would you do that.”
“It’s what we do,” Clarence said. “We collect… things like that and put them away so other people will be safe.”
I shook my head. “That's why I was tracking you. I wanted to warn you, but I also wanted to get them from you."
"If it's any consolation, I still would have sold them to Ulrich… unless you were willing to better his price."
"Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams that we would have that kind of money?" Clarence laughed.
“Unfortunately, no.” She shrugged. “So here we are.” She sat back and looked at me. “Anyway, the rest of the fairy tale goes like this. I came down and was going through the lobby when I saw Clarence trying to talk his way into the back security room. The guard wasn’t having it, and Clarence was pushing too hard. The man was about to call the police.”
“Why?” I asked.
“What?”
“You don’t know Clarence, didn’t know him. Why did you rescue him?"
She grinned. "I don't like to see beginners lose it all first time out. Call it professional pride. And also," she paused to look at him, "I think he's cute."
That part of the story was so absurd that I believed her. "It's the bow tie," I said. It was the first thing that I could think of that would be dismissive.
"He wasn't wearing it," she said. "He'd gotten that part of his plan right. He'd put on coveralls and was pretending to be a tech."
"Oh."
"But the man who owns that building isn't someone to mess with. He takes his security both seriously and personally."
"Who owns the building?"
"Ulrich Steele. I thought you knew."
"He owns that building too?" Clarence said. "I knew he lived on the top floor."
"He doesn't believe in paying rent."
"Neither do I," Clarence said, "but…"
"Yeah, I know." Lila hugged his arm. "You don't have his money. Sad but true." She stared at me. "So what happens now?"
I wanted us to stay focused. "Well, he has two things we need. So we have to find a way to get them from him."
Clarence shrugged. "The good news is they'll be in his collection so for us it's now a matter of one-stop shopping. We can work as a team to get them both."
Lila looked distressed. "Oh, Clarence, that is such a bad idea. Here, right after I save you from one aborted attempt to break into his building you intend to immediately try again?"
"Not the same way. But we have to do it," he said. "We’ll make a new plan. Of course, if you were to lend your assistance we might come up with a better one. We could use your more extensive… criminal experience. I mean that respectfully, of course."
She sat up. "I will do nothing of the kind.”
“Does that violate your principles?” I asked.
“It certainly does. I am against getting caught on principle.”
“But you are a crook.”
“Yes. I'm an incredibly talented petty thief. I have quick and dextrous fingers…" she waved her hand over the table, rippling
long fingers with fairly short nails painted a red that went with her hair. "That is a narrow specialty, however. I don't do grand larceny. I’m not some cat burglar, well, not usually and not in secure facilities. Even if I wanted to expand my horizons in that direction, I certainly would not start by ripping off Ulrich Steele. I recommend that you two reconsider the whole idea."
"We don't have a choice," I said.
"You always have a choice," she snapped. "In this case, choosing to rob that man also means dealing with the incredibly unpleasant crowd he runs with.”
“Is he part of the mob?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. Maybe. I don’t know who they are, to be honest, but you hear things. In his case, they are vague and sometimes a little mysterious. I was even a little nervous about selling the dice to him. If he'd just taken them from me there really wouldn't be a thing I could do about it."
"We understand that," I said. "But these two items that Steele has, the ancient Egyptian lock and the dice… they don't belong out here in the world."
"He showed me that lock," Lila said. "It didn't look like much to me. I took a close look because he insisted, but I figure I could pick one of those up at any local craft fair. It needs new paint. But boy is he proud of it."
"I noticed that," Clarence said. “Both things actually. The only paint left is in the grooves.”
“I'm disappointed to see that you are so easily discouraged,” I said. “I’d think getting these objects would be quite a challenge for you.”
Lila looked at me. "What do you do with them if you get them?"
"We’ll lock them away. We have a safe place for such things.”
“We don’t want people getting hurt by things they don't understand. You felt how they call to you, try to get you to use them."
"So what makes you two the 'right' hands for them to be in? Why should I think that is any better than leaving them locked up in Steele's penthouse private collection?"
I held out my hands. "I have no idea what might convince you of that. When you get down to it, I'm asking you to believe me. And Clarence. All I can tell you that might help is something you can see for yourself. We came here looking for these things and I’ve been trying to find you, to warn you not to use the dice because of the danger."
"And, for what it's worth," Clarence said, "I’ll tell you that Cecilia did save the world rather recently."
"From what?" Lila said, her eyes starting to sparkle.
"It's rather complicated," he said. "But it has to do with altering time."
"Like a Time Lord?"
Clarence chortled. "Of course not."
I put my hand on hers. "Actually, it was something a lot like that. Clarence is a Doctor Who fan and doesn’t like thinking of it that way. But we chased down something else, another artifact that a bad person, with bad friends, was trying to use to alter time."
It surprised me that she seemed to accept all this calmly as if it was nothing new. "Well, in that case, then I can at least hear you out." She glanced at Clarence. "I won't promise to help you, but if you tell me a little more…"
"Let's order some food," Clarence said. "It's been a long day."
That was a good idea. I was starving, but not enough to go out into that heat any more than I had to. So we had the waitress bring menus and we ordered the pub food and another round of drinks. As we waited for the food, we laid it out the background for Lila Twill, giving her a redacted version of how I inherited Uncle Mason's shop in Destiny’s Point, and how it involved us in the business of tracking down cursed artifacts.
When we finished, she pushed her plate away. "Whew," she said. “Okay, then.”
I looked at her. "Okay?"
"As in, I'm in. I’ll contribute my criminal wisdom and cunning, toss it in the pot.”
“Then let's go make a plan,” Clarence said. “Some place private."
Chapter 17
The three of us caught a taxi from the bar back to the motel to plot and plan. Clarence was excited, happy to be working in a team again. But I felt that things had begun moving in strange directions, even for our new normal. Lila suddenly was eagerly blending into the team. We’d overcome her resistance far too easily, and I was suspicious. I was suspicious of all the events surrounding her, and the way we’d met her. Even if you accepted the possibility of coincidence being at work, the confluence of events defied logic.
Of course, our experience told me that I needed to take into account the possibility that the mere presence of cursed objects influenced both our reality and our perception of it. We always knew they could, but we never were certain to what extent they managed to do that. It could be a moving target at the best of times, and lately, we seemed to be operating in multiple realities at once. That left me in limbo – I couldn't be certain if the ways we got influenced was a help or a hindrance. So that concern, that awareness had to remain in the background.
When we arrived at the motel, we went into Clarence's room, turned the air conditioner on full blast, and he and Lila sat on the bed. Clarence getting out a pad of paper. "Let's compare notes,” he said.
“On what?”
“Steele’s security measures. I’m sure you noticed them and I might have missed a lot.”
Lila nodded. “We can do that.”
I sat uncomfortably in a chair near the air conditioner. Some of the discomfort was because my pen box was poking into my hip. I took it out and opened it. "It’s about time," Edgar said, forming up beside me.
Lila perked up. "Now who is this? Are you a ghost?" she asked, not seeming as surprised as you'd expect from seeing a being materializing out of a pen box.
"We think that’s what he is," Clarence said, not sounding pleased at the interruption. I supposed he was unhappy at Edgar taking Lila's attention away from him.
"You can see him?" I thought that was the more interesting question.
"Not entirely clearly," she said.
"No one sees him clearly," Clarence said.
"We think it's part of his ethereal nature—part of him being a ghost," I said.
"Assuming I am one," Edgar added.
"Right. Only assuming that," I agreed. "But mostly we do assume that. Even you assume that."
"Very true," he said. "I do. I was just keeping this discussion honest."
"An honest ghost," Lila said. "I'd never thought of ghosts from that perspective before."
"I still want to know why you can see him," Clarence said. "Most people can't unless Cecilia tells Edgar to let them see him."
"That's a good point," Edgar said.
"Except Enid," I said. "She could see him when we turned up on her doorstep."
"Another curious point," Clarence said.
I considered the possibilities. "Maybe it's because Edgar was helping me look for her."
"Helping you? How exactly was I doing that? You stuck me in the box."
"You were nagging me."
“Constructive criticism is not nagging,” he said stiffly.
"Does it really matter?" Lila asked.
We both looked at her. "I beg your pardon?" Edgar asked.
"As Clarence suggested, I think we need to start going over the security details. For all we know Ulrich plans to sell the dice to someone else. I doubt the lock is going anywhere, but I got the impression he wanted the dice because he thought he might have a buyer for them. In the scheme of things, why I can see Edgar, or even whether I can or not, isn’t all that important."
She was right. Everyone but Edgar agreed on that. So Clarence quickly sketched out two floor plans, one for the apartment and the other for the room housing the collection. Then he told us everything he could remember about the security, indicating the location of cameras with checkmarks. He described the skylights and the security door. "That's about it," he said. Then he drew a cross. “And this is where the lock is.”
"I have a couple of additions I can make," Lila said. "Not that I check out security every time I go into a secure faci
lity, but…heck, I do check it out. It's habit.”
“A good habit, in this case,” I said. “Any ideas you have about getting through all this would be helpful as well.”
She pointed to the square that represented the security door at the bottom of the stairs that ran from the collection to Ulrich’s apartment. “He keeps the pass key for the door in the drawer of the table that sits by the front door. It seems careless to me, but he didn't seem to mind me seeing where it was."
I smiled. “Nice.”
“I should mention that I spotted motion sensors in the collection room that are mounted on the walls, about ankle level. I assume those are on when the place is locked up at night.”
She took the pen and leaned over the drawings. “The dice are, or were, here.” The cross she drew was in a different room.
“That’s inconvenient,” I said. “It will take longer.”
“Or take more people,” Lila said. She looked at Clarence. "So what was your plan, Clarence? Your original idea? Why so interested in that back room in the lobby?"
"All the security is routed through there. It’s should be set up with overrides so that techs can install updates and troubleshoot problems. I wanted to use that access to shut it all down.”
“What about the guards?”
“I was going to set off the fire alarm.”
“Really?” she grinned. “That’s subtle.”
“My thinking was that everyone would evacuate the building and there wouldn't be any guards. I could slip upstairs and grab the lock, get down and disappear in the crowd."
Lila chuckled. "That's sweet. I think I saw that movie too."
Clarence looked distressed. "You don't think it would work?"
She put her hand on his shoulder. "Darling, I see two problems with it right off. First, if you turn on the alarm, what happens? Why a bunch of people from the fire department shows up. They bring cops with them too. A guy who doesn’t belong in the building coming our with an ancient lock is kind of hard to make believable. And the firemen will be quick about getting here. Ulrich Steele pays lots of taxes in this town and probably bribes on top of it. They'd be here in minutes. By the time the building emptied, they’d be here.”
The Curious Case of the Cursed Dice (Curiosity Shop Cozy Mysteries Book 2) Page 11