"Any particular airline?"
"I wonder if we shouldn't avoid the airport entirely," Clarence said.
"Afraid of flying?" Ronny asked.
"I have never been before, but we had a rough trip recently. It makes me feel like we kind of used up all of our collective luck that relates to not dying while falling out of the sky."
"The man has a point," Lila said. "Besides, if anyone is after us because of our investigation, say a guy named Ulrich, he'll have eyes on the airport."
"Is that one of the conspirators?" Ronny asked.
"Actually, he is." That idea sealed it for me. "Fine. Ronny, do you know of a place where we can hire a one-way rental car fairly cheap? Driving home will give us a chance to decompress. I'm still shaking."
Ronny did, and he took us to one off the strip. They were happy to rent us one and mentioned that the drop off charge would be more than the rental. We didn’t care. I paid Ronny and tipped him more than I should… just in case we needed him again.
"It was a lot of fun watching the three of you falling," Edgar volunteered as I drove out onto the freeway, headed East. "For a while I thought one or more of you might wind up with me."
"With you? In the pen?" Lila asked. Then she sniffed. "Not hardly. That pen isn't my style at all."
"I meant more generally... on this side of things… whatever that might actually be."
"I have to confess that that possibility crossed my mind, Edgar," she said. “At the time I wasn't sure if it would be good or bad.”
I knew what she meant. So many possibilities and it was hard to evaluate the landscape, see how things really were when you had magic, and ghosts, curses, and bizarre technology altering the landscape on a continuous basis. As I drove I tried not to think too hard, but let my subconscious sort things out for me. It seemed to be working, at least it was until the tire blew.
"Bad luck," Clarence said ominously as I let the car roll to the side of the road.
"Maybe. How are you at changing tires?"
"I guess we will get a chance to find out," he said, hopping out. I popped the trunk open as he went back to check the spare.
"Flat tires are a bummer, but at last no one died," Lila said.
"Do I detect a bias against the dead in this car?" Edgar said.
"Not at all," she purred. "One of my favorite people is dead—you. But I realized that I'm just not ready to move along to that space and time… or lack of it… whatever."
"Point taken," Edgar said. He seemed content.
Clarence was jacking up the car. "So maybe all of us are out of luck now," I said, thinking out loud.
Lila clucked her tongue. "I don’t think this is unusual or special bad luck. It seems more like normal bad luck. After all, we know this is nothing in terms of what enhanced bad luck does. The flat tire is even on the right side, so Clarence isn't risking getting hit by a passing car. So maybe that little toy box of yours helps."
"I hope you are right. If you are, we are going to need a lot more boxes."
"We?" Lila leaned over her seat and touched my shoulder. "I'm a passenger on this ride, taking a ride to get far, far away from Ulrich."
"Why don’t you hang around? Look at the fun you've had chasing down artifacts, Lila. You were born for this work. We could use your help."
"You want access to my sneakiness."
"We can put it to doing useful work, help it take meaningful shape in an increasingly complex and irrational social context."
"You think I should go straight, you mean?"
"You could put it that way, although, after this expedition I'd have to say it would be more accurate to describe our path is 'differently bent' than actually straight. Besides, do you have any better offers?"
"I don't seem to at the moment." She leaned back and sighed. "And you want me to help you chase impossible things, things that can't exist, across the landscape. Sure, why not? It has the makings of a decent movie, with the right casting. Scarlett Johansson can play me."
"Good choice," I said.
"Then you've got yourself another band member."
"Great," I said. Even now, I had doubts. I wasn't certain about Lila, what she was after, and how much we could trust her, but she did have some skills that Clarence and I both lacked. And I wanted her to meet Enid. Enid always had an interesting take on people.
The door opened and Clarence got in out of the oven. He reached over and turned the air con on full blast. "I put on the spare. Now let's head for a place where we can get a cool drink, in a cool place, while someone else repairs the flat tire."
The motion was voted on and passed unanimously. "Lila is joining the team," I told Clarence.
His eyebrows went up. "That’s great," he said.
We got the tire fixed at the next stop, knowing full well that if we did, we wouldn’t need it, but if we didn’t… and we did have a drink, although as the driver, mine was lemonade.
Then we settled in for the mind-numbing freeway drive home, stopping only for food and gas, and changing drivers. When we finally pulled into Destiny's Point it really felt like coming home after being gone forever. "Here we are," I said.
"What now?" Clarence asked. He chuckled. "You have to choose since we didn't plan anything. You are the head improviser."
"Fair enough. I'm beat. We need to bring Enid up to date but that can wait until tomorrow. Lila, why don't you come home with me? You can sleep on my couch."
"That's nice of you," she said. "But I'd be more comfortable in my own room. Is there a motel, or B&B in town."
"Some of each," Clarence said. "The motel is cheapest, but…"
"A motel will provide a bed and private room, so good enough. How will you keep the little toys safe?"
"For now, I'll keep them with me. Tomorrow we'll introduce you to our friend Enid."
"What's her role in all this?"
Clarence twisted in his seat to answer the question. "She used to help Cecilia's uncle Mason do... well, probably nothing quite as dangerous as dealing with Ulrich Steele, but likely close to it."
"Right. That would be Mason Parish?"
"Did you know my uncle?"
"Know him? He isn’t here?"
“He died recently.”
"No, I didn't know him, but Ulrich mentioned him as someone everyone should know."
"Everyone dealing with cursed objects, at least," Clarence said.
Her answer made me wonder. I was sure the name meant something more to her than she was letting on. And so, I drove to the motel. We got Lila checked in and then Clarence drove me home. "I'll turn the car in in the morning," he said.
"Why not pick up Lila and then swing by here and get me? We can all go for breakfast, and then you can turn it in and we will go see Enid."
He liked the idea. It seemed sound. It covered all the bases and eventualities. Except one that we couldn’t predict.
The next morning, when Clarence drove down the alley behind the shop he was alone. I'd had a great night’s sleep, assisted by a nightcap from the perpetually half-empty bottle of Jameson's Irish whiskey in Uncle Mason's desk drawer. Well it was my desk drawer now, and my whiskey, for that matter. The important part of that is that I was feeling fresh and rested.
"Where is Lila?" I asked as I got in the car.
He shrugged and handed me a folded note. "Dear Cecilia and Clarence: Darlings, sorry but I had to take off. I realized that I have some important matters to attend to. They might not be as important as cursed objects, but you've done wonderfully without me and I know you can carry on for a time. I promise to be in touch."
At the bottom was a note addressed to Clarence that simply said: "XXOO, Clarence." Below it was a kiss made with red lipstick.
"You have a fan," I said.
He gripped the wheel tight. "Something is wrong here."
"Or she just decided she didn't want to work with us. She is talented, smart, and so on… I'll leave you to decide if she is sexy or not, but she is used to being on he
r own, following her own instincts."
"Like you."
"To an extent, at least in that regard, we might be something alike. And it doesn't matter if she's telling us the real reason she's moving on or not. If she wanted to be here, then she'd be here. Clearly, she wanted to move on and not have to explain why."
"Well, the rest of the plan is still valid. Let's get breakfast," he said. "I'm famished."
"Good idea." I didn't really want to talk about Lila with him anymore.
Chapter 31
After a big breakfast at the diner, Clarence wanted to change the plan.
"You don't need me to go with you to Enid's," he said. "You know the whole story and will tell it clearly.”
“You have your contributions to make. It helps to have two perspectives.”
“But if we are both there… well, we just wind up talking over each other in our excitement. Also, we haven't had the shop open much recently, have we? How will that help business? It would be a good thing to open on time."
He was right, so I went to Enid's alone. I wondered if he had a hope that Lila might still be around and decide to check out the Curiosity Shop, giving him a chance to convince her to stay. I wished him luck.
Enid was happy to see me. She invited me in and offered chamomile tea and I felt at home. We sat in her living room, amid the smells of lilac and lavender, and started talking.
"Tell me everything," she said. "Leave nothing out. Nothing at all."
I knew she meant it too. Often as not when hearing our stories, Enid would pounce on a detail and it would remind her of things, sometimes important ones.
So I began and she forced herself to listen. She had to bite her tongue a couple of times to keep from interrupting, but she managed to be silent until I had told the entire tale, including Lila's disappearing act that morning. When I finished, she wrinkled her nose as if something smelled bad. "Ulrich Steele," she said, shaking her head. "That's a familiar name. An unpleasantly familiar name."
"He's a handsome man," Edgar said. "Big and powerful."
"And he's with the Cabal," I said. "Our enemy."
"I didn't say he was a nice guy," Edgar said.
"He's chattier than normal," Enid said.
"He likes being out of the box. I have to keep him out until we figure out how to store the dice more safely. Maybe we can figure out how to make a box that is an upgrade to hold more dangerous artifacts."
"At least for transport," Enid said. "Good thinking."
"Meantime, I have Edgar around twenty-four hours a day."
"Isn't that nice?" Edgar said. "It gives us a chance to bond."
Enid sipped tea. "About this girl…"
"Lila. Lila Twill."
Enid closed her eyes and sat back. "Twill…"
"Is hers another familiar name?" My heart pounded. If Lila was part of the Cabal, nothing that had happened in the last few days made any sense at all.
She nodded. "Mason and I once knew a man named Timothy Twill. It was a long time ago. He was an Antique Dealer." She opened her eyes. "He was a nice man, but he started using the artifacts for personal gain."
"What happened to him?"
"He paid a price. The details aren't important. That was history. But I'll bet that when she discovered who you wanted her to meet, she knew that I'd know her past."
"I wonder how much Lila knows. She seemed to learn things, sometimes surprising things, without being flustered."
"And you met her because of the dice."
"That's right. I was tracking them, and she had them."
"That makes a body wonder…"
"Heck it makes a being without a body wonder," Edgar was tired of being ignored.
It did. "I know she didn't arrange that. She couldn't have. To make that happen she would've had to know I was looking for the dice before I did. And then coming across Clarence in the lobby when she did wasn't something she could control either. He'd made his move spontaneously. She couldn't have even known we were after the lock or had any dealings with Ulrich Steele."
"There are a lot of coincidences in that equation all right. Far too many for comfort."
"Which makes me think it was luck. The dice made that happen, just as they did so many other things."
"That seems sensible, dear, as much as any of this could be considered remotely sensible."
"But if that's true, and given that Lila is more deeply involved, through her father, we have another question to resolve."
"Oh dear, what is it?"
"Well, if the dice put Clarence and I on a collision course with Lila right after she got them, that means it was a lucky thing for her."
Enid grinned. "Yes, I can see it would mean that. There's no question."
"But by the time we met her, she had already sold the dice to Ulrich. She might have intended to rob him, but maybe decided it was too difficult. Who knows? But she joined forces with us and that almost got her killed."
Enid laughed. "Not a lucky path, or at least it doesn't seem so."
"I don't see that pulling us together did her any good. I can't see how any of that was lucky for her. In the end, it was lucky for us."
"Unless…" Enid said, "… there is a cosmic intertwining of your luck… yours, hers, and Clarence's that somehow needed to be made manifest for some other reason we can't know yet."
"Manifest is one of those ugly words… dark, and serious, and heavy."
"But likely accurate. Whatever is going on, there is enough attraction among the three of you that it is extremely unlikely that we've seen the last of her. Or you have, actually."
"That will please Clarence," I said. "He likes her. And speaking of Clarence, I need to go talk him. While I'm gone, please think about how we might enhance the boxes."
"I will. And I'm delighted that you and Clarence are working things out," she said.
I thought of how their differences drove Enid and Uncle Mason apart. "Me too. You were right about us being a good team."
"About those boxes though, I imagine we will come up with a way, but you probably won't like it."
"What's new? If it's too onerous, I'll have to make a trip to the Grand Storehouse."
"You could just leave it where it is," Edgar says. "It doesn't take up much room, the box is attractive…"
"And I can't stuff you in it with the dice there."
"See, yet another advantage."
"Go talk to Clarence," Enid said.
And I did. I went straight to the shop where I found him reorganizing some odd little souvenir glasses on a shelf. “Welcome to the Gulf,” one said in garish letters.
“How did it go?” he asked.
"It went fine. I want to apologize to you," I told him.
"For what?"
"For acting badly, for thinking that your way of doing things wasn't as good as mine. I've not been fair. I've acted arrogant and bossy when I should have been recognizing your contributions. The truth is that I think we are an incredible team, Clarence and I want to hold onto that."
"Why the epiphany?"
"Partly the way we worked together in Las Vegas, even factoring in Lila's contributions and the problems her presence introduced. More to the point though, I'm responding to an example from recent history that shows what happens when a team unravels.”
“Enid?”
I nodded. “Enid and Uncle Mason weren't able to talk through their differences; she had issues with what he was doing and they let that drive a wedge between them. I think they both regretted that and both suffered because of that split. I don't want to lose you as either a friend or teammate.”
"That's mighty sentimental talk for you."
"I have my weak moments."
"She has more than she'll admit," Edgar said. "She wanted Lila to hang around too."
"You did?" Clarence asked.
"Part of me did. Part of me was glad to see her go. She is an intriguing, if somewhat troubled person, and you know I like interesting people. I told her we coul
d use her skills. I liked the idea of building the team, and being more effective, more efficient."
"And that's all?"
I laughed. "Clarence, I'm never going to tell you all my motives for doing things, much less for how I think about things."
He saw I was teasing him again. He noticed that more quickly these days and was less prone to take offense. "So what happens next? Do you have a plan?"
I laughed. "I think we agreed that planning is your department. What I do have is all the last week's tabloids." I handed him a stack of papers. "We need to catch up on our reading."
"Which might lead to chasing new artifacts."
"Dare I say it?" I cringed slightly. "If we are lucky."
Clarence had the decency to groan softly. “I think you are too ready to go to war.”
I smiled. “See. We are a natural balance.”
He took the papers. “If we find more than one, I get to pick which we go after.”
“That works for me,” I told him. And it did. At least for now.
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The Curious Case of the Cursed Dice (Curiosity Shop Cozy Mysteries Book 2) Page 19