by K. T. Tomb
“Why didn’t you just take the whole damned bag and run off into the sunset? That’s what you wanted to do, wasn’t it? To slip out in the middle of the night while Julie and I slept!”
“That’s exactly what I should have done, if I’d thought about it! But I’d have been a couple coins short, wouldn’t I? Those two coins could get you millions, so what are you planning to do? Sell them and pay for a wedding?” Gerald sneered at his friend. “Or were you just going to leave Julie behind while you run off with your fortune?”
Piers reached across the table and wrapped fingers around Gerald’s neck, but Piers had never been a big man and Gerald, though gentle and kind, was built like a lineman. He pried the smaller man off of him with ease.
“And what do you hope to accomplish here? You think you can take me down and run off with the rest of the thirty? You are severely twisted if you think you can handle that!”
He shoved Piers backwards and marched around the table to meet him before he could rise from the floor.
Gerald was on top of him before he could push himself upright, but Piers threw his hands up just in time to block a blow.
“You’ve lost your mind, Gerald! It’s sad that you’re even starting to believe your own shit! I bet you didn’t expect us to come with you, right?” He strained as Gerald wrestled above him, wearing down his strength. “That was your plan all along, but when we said we were going to join you, you knew you couldn’t just make a run for it. You had to put on this little show, didn’t you?”
He kicked at Gerald, throwing the man back, into the table, sending chairs sprawling and coins clinking to the floor, but he kept on coming.
“Stop it!”
Julie had been forgotten for the moment, but both men stopped and looked over at her. She had moved several feet from the chaos and had been watching the two roll around like junior high boys with far too much built-up testosterone, neither really gaining much over the other.
“What is wrong with you two! It wasn’t either of you that took the coins. We’re all going a bit crazy here, but who’s lost it the most?”
Piers and Gerald were still on the floor, but she could see them thinking.
“Valery,” Piers said quietly, simultaneously releasing Gerald’s collar. “But how? She hasn’t been around the coins since the night Robert died.”
Gerald stood, holding out a hand to help Piers from the floor.
“What about Robert?” he asked, thoughtfully. “I mean, think about who we’re talking about. Bobby wasn’t going to just give in and leave all those coins behind, right? No, I bet he took one with him and had it on him when he was killed.”
“Okay, so that would explain his death by greed.” She lowered her eyes from Piers for a moment. “Sorry, but I’m still going with a curse here. It’s the only explanation for all the oddities.”
Piers grabbed a chair and collapsed into it.
“It’s okay. I’m not sure that I don’t believe it anymore. Logic just doesn’t seem to be working. But what about Sheila?”
“Well, after you left the café the other day, Sheila told us she had gone to see a numismatist. I didn’t even think about her having a coin then, but she must have had one. She wouldn’t have just killed herself. She had no reason to. It has to have something to do with the curse.”
“Okay,” Gerald chimed in quietly, “so that’s everyone but Valery. If Robert had a coin and Sheila had a coin, which makes thirty coins. So that doesn’t help to explain Val’s behavior if she doesn’t have a coin.”
Julie thought for a moment.
“What about Robert?”
The two men’s eyebrows furrowed as they tried to comprehend what she meant. Hadn’t they just discussed Robert?
“Robert had a coin, but what happened to it? Did anyone else see Val hanging around Bobby’s family during the viewing? I don’t think it’s so hard to believe that they didn’t offer her the coin, knowing that they had been working on the excavation project together; they probably thought nothing of it.”
Piers shrugged. “It’s possible, but wouldn’t she be dead by now? Professor Grindlay, Robert and Sheila all died pretty rapidly, didn’t they?”
Julie and Gerald contemplated what he’d said. He was right. Grindlay had died almost immediately. Robert and Sheila had both been within one day. So if Valery truly had one of the coins, and if Julie’s theory was correct and she’d had one for several days, why wasn’t she dead? None of this made sense to her and as much as she wanted to turn to her books for answers, she knew that they held nothing more for her. History and records could only provide so much for them, so from here on out, they were on their own.
“I don’t quite understand either. There wasn’t a lot of information on the curse, really, so a lot of this is just learn as we go. Though I’d like nothing more than to not learn anything else about these damned things.” Gerald heartily laughed his agreement. “If cursed is what they really are, I’d like to toss them to the bottom of the ocean rather than to have to continue dealing with them. Forget the fame and fortune, I just want to live.” He sighed as he recalled Julie’s notes. “It seemed that in the records of the deaths, the victims lived for different lengths of time. Some even going on for weeks before the curse’s full effects kicked in. What else did it say, Julie?”
She’d written down everything that she’d thought pertinent to their investigation, but now that she thought about it, there seemed to also be a pattern of those that had once been sane, slowly losing who they were. Becoming cruel and hateful to those around them, their loved ones. She couldn’t be sure if this was something to do with the curse, or something related to disease or poor health at the time, but still, she shared the information with Piers and Gerald. She paused thoughtfully.
“Or maybe it has something to do with opportunity. Grindlay was already in a dangerous environment and it wouldn’t have been too much of a surprise for that ceiling to come crashing down on him like it did; curse or not. Bobby, well…” She stopped, watching Piers at the mention of their friend, but he seemed calm, no longer as bothered as he once had been talking about his friend’s death. “Bobby was always a hothead, always looking for trouble. So it wasn’t out of character for him to have died the way he did. If this theory is right, then that guy was probably in a trance with no control over himself or his actions. Merely a tool to carry out the end. Sheila, well, she was alone in her room so who’s to say if she committed suicide or if she fell out the window. The only witness to that is dead.”
She grimaced at the thought. At the reminder of her friend lying spread out on the concrete, splatters of blood sprayed about her. Julie couldn’t be sure if her face had been spotted with blood, or if it had only been her freckles. They seemed awful dark, and awful thick to not have been blood though. She cringed, her stomach rebelling, wanting to throw up her lunch from that afternoon.
“There’s a hole in all of that, though,” Gerald pointed out. “There have been numerous opportunities for Valery to be killed off. Her roommate isn’t here right now, remember? So she’s alone, too, just like Sheila had been. She could have wrecked on her way here, she could have slipped on wet pavement and broken her neck, she could have been mugged. It’s Boston, Julie. The possibilities here are endless. So if death is coming for her, if greed has taken her and the curse is in full swing, why is she still alive?”
Julie bowed her head, somewhat resigned.
“Okay, so theory three: it has to do with the person. We all know that the professor was out for his big discovery. Maybe that was his greed? And Robert was talking about selling the coins and then took one with him, most likely with the intent to do just that. That’s not so hard to believe, is it? Greed. Sheila, well, we know that she wanted to sell them, even if she said otherwise so, greed. So what is Valery’s greed? Maybe she hasn’t even discovered it herself and the curse is biding its time until it surfaces. We’ve already seen the changes in her, so I don’t think it’ll be long before it�
�s discovered. If it hasn’t been already.”
“We need to talk to her. She needs to understand what’s going on before it’s too late.” Piers was anxious as he thought of what had happened to Robert. He had never been close to Valery, but he didn’t want to see it happen to her. Robert’s death had been brutal and cruel. Valery didn’t deserve that. None of them deserved that, and if they could save her, if it wasn’t too late, then that was exactly what they needed to do.
“Don’t you think I’ve tried?” Julie dropped her hands to the table, exasperated and defeated. “I’ve tried talking to her, I tried telling her about what’s been going on, but that was before we knew she had a coin too.” She sighed against her seat. “She won’t answer my calls or the door when I go by. Last night was the first time I’ve seen or spoken to her since the funeral, and you saw how that went. She wants nothing to do with any of us. I would have told her this morning, but it was the furthest thing from my mind. I didn’t think she would be so callous about Sheila’s death, either. I thought she might stick around, grieve with us a little. God knows we’re all tired of grieving.”
“I’ve tried calling too. I got worried and stopped by, but nothing. It didn’t even sound like anyone was in the room and I was beginning to get a bit worried, until she came by your apartment.” Gerald sounded just as frustrated as Julie felt. “But you’re right; we have to reach her somehow. If she’s next, she needs to know, she needs to be made to understand.”
Chapter Three
“From a distance Judas saw them raise the cross piece with Jesus nailed thereon, and upon sight of this he rushed back to the temple and, forcing his way past the doorkeeper, found himself standing in the presence of the Sanhedrin, which was still in session. The betrayer was well-nigh breathless and highly distraught, but he managed to stammer out these words: ‘I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. You have insulted me. You have offered me as a reward for my service, money–the price of a slave. I repent that I have done this; here is your money. I want to escape the guilt of this deed.’
“When the rulers of the Jews heard Judas, they scoffed at him. One of them sitting near where Judas stood, motioned that he should leave the hall and said: ‘Your Master has already been put to death by the Romans, and as for your guilt, what is that to us? See you to that–and begone!’
“As Judas left the Sanhedrin chamber, he removed the thirty pieces of silver from the bag and threw them broadcast over the temple floor. When the betrayer left the temple, he was almost beside himself. Judas was now passing through the experience of the realization of the true nature of sin. All the glamor, fascination, and intoxication of wrongdoing had vanished. Now the evildoer stood alone and face to face with the judgment verdict of his disillusioned and disappointed soul. Sin was bewitching and adventurous in the committing, but now must the harvest of the naked and unromantic facts be faced.” –The Urantia Book 186:1.4-6
They couldn’t be sure if they’d finally worn her down, or if she came out of her room to appease them so they would finally leave her alone, but Valery finally opened the door to her friends’ pounding. Her neighbors had even walked out of their own rooms to address the relentlessness.
“What do you want?” she screamed, as the door swung open, revealing Valery. The group was left stunned.
Their Valery was gone, and in her place was a cruel mockery of their friend. She was wild, her hair in a tangled mess around her head, her clothes disheveled and dirty, her glasses thrown, forgotten, on the table beside her bed. They could see her fist closed tightly around something, and they could only assume it was the coin. She stood in the doorway motionless, waiting for someone to answer her and not moving until they did.
“We need to talk about the coins.”
Julie flinched even as she said the words, anticipating that Valery would lash out at her. She couldn’t imagine what was going on in her head, but whatever it was, it was some sort of an illusion. Valery said nothing. Her eyes were glassy, almost as though she hadn’t heard Julie at all.
“Val? Did you hear me? We need to talk. If you let us in and let us tell you what we came here to say, I promise we will leave.” She hesitated, unwilling to say what she needed to say. What she knew Valery might have wanted and was waiting to hear. “If you want, after that, we’ll leave you alone. But please listen to us first.”
Valery said nothing, but she moved from the doorway and flopped onto her bed, barely registering when Julie, Gerald, and Piers entered her dorm room and closed the door behind them.
“Where are they?” she asked suddenly, breaking the silence that none of the others had wanted to break.
“What are you talking about?” Piers asked. “Where are who?”
“You know damned well what I’m talking about, so don’t play games with me! Where are they?” She was snarling and her friends were pretty certain that even she wasn’t aware that she was doing it.
Julie sat beside Valery, the soft pillow-top bed sinking beneath her. Val narrowed her eyes as she edged towards the wall.
“We just want to help. We really need to talk to you about this before it’s too late,” Julie said.
She tried to reach out a hand to her friend, to show her support, but Valery slapped it away, a low grumble escaping her throat.
“Where? Are? They?” Her voice was monotone and even, but just beneath the surface, you could hear something menacing. “I want them! Where are they? They’re mine! Mine!”
Julie glanced from Piers to Gerald, confused and worried. Was she talking about the coins? Why did she want the coins? She already had one, and that was enough for the curse, wasn’t it? But the greed. The greed was hitting her and Julie feared for her friend’s life.
“You don’t need the coins!” Julie hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but it seemed the only logical response to Valery’s behavior. “They’re cursed and will do you no good. We know you have one, so where is it? We need to lock it away with the others before it gets you killed!”
She was pleading, even though she knew it wasn’t breaking through. Arguing would do nothing. Discussing the consequences would mean nothing. She was already under the spell and the only way to break it would be to remove the coin from her possession. But who was going to be brave enough to do that? Julie looked to her friend, or the shell of what had once been her friend; sweet, kind, mild-tempered Valery was nowhere to be seen and Julie was pretty certain that whoever went in for the coin was likely to lose an eye, or worse.
“I need them! I want them! I deserve them! All you ever do is take, take, take from me! It’s my turn. I want those coins! I earned them!”
She looked odd without her glasses, as if they had kept her restrained her entire life, and now that they were forgotten on the table, the lion that had been buried within was finally coming forth.
“You need to listen to us,” Gerald said as he sat on the opposite side of Valery, trapping her between him and Julie. “Please. We don’t want what happened to the professor, Bobby, or Sheila, to happen to you. I don’t think we have long before it does, either, so please listen to us.”
Valery pushed him away, but was quiet. They couldn’t be sure if she was actually listening, or refusing to acknowledge their presence, but they told her anyway. She remained quiet until they finished, but she was not over her outbursts or over her new found hatred of everything except the coins.
“Robert died because of you!” she said, jutting a crooked, unsteady hand towards Piers. “The hell with a curse. Curse all of you! Robert didn’t have to die, but you let him, you all let him, and you are all going to suffer for it! Now bring them to me! I need them! They belong with me!”
Piers could keep quiet no longer.
“Bobby did not die because of us! He died because he was greedy and selfish, and the exact same thing is going to happen to you because that is exactly what you are being right this second! If you don’t want to listen to us, that’s fine. I hope that coin takes you straight to h
ell, and soon!”
He was shaking. Every ounce of energy and hatred was being thrown at Valery, just in his look, but he couldn’t bring himself to approach her. Someone had to take that coin from her before it was too late, but he wasn’t strong enough to do it. Not physically and not mentally. Looking at her, seeing the deranged woman before them, he was beginning to think that none of them would be strong enough for that.
Julie jumped to his side to calm him, but he was too wound up to stop now.
“You want to know why Bobby never paid you any damned attention? Because he knew that you weren’t going to be easy. He liked easy, he wanted easy, and if you’d have given it to him, that’s all he would have wanted from you. He wanted someone that was going to lie in his bed at the drop of a hat and then leave the next morning. He wanted someone that wasn’t going to hang around like a girlfriend. He didn’t want a girlfriend, he didn’t want clingy, he just wanted a lay! Right Julie?”
Julie stumbled back, hurt and surprised. That had been years ago, and well before she and Piers had begun dating. How had he even known? It had only happened one time and she’d never felt the need to tell Piers. He and Bobby had been so close and she’d been scared that it would ruin their friendship, or worse, her relationship with Piers.
“Did Bobby tell you about that?” she asked, stunned.
She didn’t know if she was hurt, or angry that he was bringing it up now, and here of all times and places.
“And you’re just now saying something about it? How long have you known and been holding it in?”
“I shouldn’t have had to hold it in! You should have told me something like that from the beginning, and not waited until you were confronted about it. So you were always the sloppy seconds, weren’t you?”
Tears stung at the corner of her eyes as she listened to her fiancé’s words. She’d never meant to intentionally withhold that information, but it had never come up in conversation either. There was no defense to be had, no excuse for her to use.