“That’s actually rather accurate,” Bel said. “Surprisingly so.”
The smaller man drew out his own gun and pointed it at Leopold. “Okay, Leo, where is the crucible?”
Leopold licked his lips. He looked at the men for a moment before sighing. “I’ll take you to it. I left it at my hotel.” His eyes flickered as he glanced at me, giving me a brief, pleading look.
“Why don’t you leave him here? Go to the hotel and get the crucible. You don’t need Leopold for that.”
The big man snorted. “That’s where you are wrong. This isn’t just about the crucible. Mr. DuLac double-crossed his family and he has to pay for it. Now, like I said, you stay out of the way.”
A black SUV pulled up about then. I assumed it was the third man, DuLac had mentioned. We stood there feeling helpless as they stuffed Leopold into the car, climbed in, and drove away.
Clarence let out a long, slow breath. He went to the car and opened the door. DuLac’s bag sat on the back seat. He opened it and peeked inside then looked up and smiled. “At least we have the crucible,” he said.
“There is that,” Bel said.
And we all wondered where that left us. More to the point, where did it leave Leopold? I was the one to state the obvious. “Whether or not his family’s thugs have the crucible, Leopold is in trouble.”
“We probably are too,” Clarence said, hefting the bag. “When they finish searching his hotel room, they’ll come looking for us,” Clarence said.
I agreed. “That seems very likely.”
And we were all thinking the same thing... wondering if that artifact that served as a tracking device was somehow unique to Leopold or if it could be used to find us. We had no idea what it was or what it did, exactly. All we knew was that it was compact, lightweight and that it had been very effective at finding Leopold.
The thing about the future is that it’s so incredibly hard to predict... When you deal with cursed objects a lot, that comes as a bit of a shocking reminder at times.
Bel held up his car keys. “Standing around here isn’t going to help anyone. So, I think I’d better drive you three back to your car.”
“Good idea,” Edgar said. And we all got in the car.
Chapter Thirteen
We made the drive to our car mostly in silence. Sitting in that quiet, disturbed only by the sound of the car, I began to feel worse and worse about the situation Leopold was in. He had been doing so much good and at such a personal cost... it seemed totally unfair to leave him to his fate, to the whims of his ruthless family.
I glanced over at Clarence and saw that he was looking at me with an inquisitive expression. He was wondering too.
“Leopold just wanted to do good,” I said.
“And he was willing to pay for it with his life—literally,” Clarence said. “And when they find out that he doesn’t have the crucible, they’ll figure out that he was deliberately leading them away from it.”
That did somehow make his ‘crime’ seem worse.
“The family doesn’t have a history of showing mercy to anyone,” Bel said. “They’ve always taken their investments very seriously. They’ll want to send a message that they aren’t going to let anyone walk off with an artifact, not even a family member.”
“What can we do?” Edgar asked. I could tell that he had started to like Leopold.
Bel shrugged. “They are powerful, and you have the crucible in hand. If we hadn’t come along, then the family would have him and the artifact both. Leopold expected to be caught eventually. Given that having it in hand wouldn’t make them go easier on him, apparently he was happy to do what he could to keep it out of their hands.”
“That’s true,” Clarence said. “Even though he wasn’t thrilled that we are Antique Dealers, he left it with us, trusted us to keep it safe. We promised him that we could put it in a safe place.”
“That’s true enough,” I said. “But ugh. That’s a nasty choice to have to make.”
“Leaving him and hiding the artifact away versus staying and trying to help him?” Bel asked.
“Right,” I said. “Not exactly a Hobson’s choice—take it or leave it, but neither solution is really satisfactory.”
Edgar wrinkled his nose. “Thomas Hobson?”
“Don’t tell me you knew him?” Clarence asked.
“Of course not. Before my time, I rather think. Just remembering the phrase. You could ride the horse in the first stall or none at all, as I recall. His way of making sure his best horses weren’t ridden all the time.”
“Horses,” Bel said. “Right.”
“The point being,” I said, “we have a dilemma here. We can’t abandon Leopold.”
“Or you aren’t willing to,” Bel said.
Clarence snorted. “For us, that usually amounts to the same thing.”
“The problem being... we don’t have a Leopold tracker since the thugs took it back from us. How do we find out where they’ve taken him?”
Bel smiled. “Logically, for whatever logic is worth when dealing with people chasing cursed objects, eventually you’d expect them to take him back to the family’s headquarters. Unlike the Cabal, they are rather centralized. Their customers come to them, so they don’t need to have people scattered about.”
“And where is that?” I asked.
Bel shook his head. “I can’t say for sure.”
After a moment of despairing silence, Clarence snapped his fingers. “I have a thought. If Leopold stole the crucible and headed to the East, then my guess is that retracing his steps, following the path to the West would show us where he started from.”
“Makes sense,” I agreed. “Are you with us on this, Bel?”
He considered the question. “I don’t have a lot of time left before I need to go home—to Las Vegas. But seeing that you will be headed in the right direction it would be on my way.” He sighed. “Leopold does seem to need rescuing, so yes, I will help.”
“How?” Edgar asked.
“How what?” Clarence asked.
“Well, assuming you are right and they take Leopold to the family estate, It seems reasonable that they have fairly good security.”
“Why?” Clarence asked.
“Think about it, Clarence. If people know they have those artifacts, and a lot of people have to know or they wouldn’t have any business, then they’ll be set up to protect them. They generate revenue.”
“That’s true,” Bel agreed.
Edgar drew a square on the car window with his finger. “If the plan is to break in and free Leopold... well, even with Bel’s help, we aren’t equipped for that.”
He was right. “When have we ever been properly prepared for the things we’ve faced in acquiring artifacts?” Clarence asked. “We’ve managed.”
“But the major breaking in was always done by Lila,” Edgar said. “She has a higher sneakiness quotient than any of us.”
“That’s true enough,” Clarence admitted.
“Poor Leopold,” Bel said. “How can we help him?”
We fell back into a sullen silence again, the kind that comes up out of the bog of uncertainty when you’ve realized that you really, really need to do something, but have no idea how you can accomplish it.
I picked up Leopold’s bag and opened it. I took out the crucible and held it in my hand, weighing it as I let the facts, such as they were, tumble around in my brain like Monday washing. Leopold, the crucible, the tracking artifact, the healings, our team of valiant, if almost clueless soldiers all blurred together. I let them stay formless until... it all began to come together—a plan took some shape. “We aren’t going to break into the family’s home,” I said.
Clarence turned at looked at me. “We aren’t?”
“No.”
“But Leopold...”
“We aren’t going to break in. We will walk straight in.” I smiled at them. “There isn’t enough time in this life for over planning.”
My declaration met with a
n awkward moment of silence, then Edgar gave me an odd smile. “Well, all right then. As long as there is no confusing strategy to have to worry about that.”
Clarence giggled. “There’s not much danger of that with Cecilia in charge.”
“Does that mean we are doing it?” Bel asked.
“It does,” Clarence said. “Inevitably, it does.”
I had to admit to mixed emotions at that vote of confidence, if that’s what it was.
Chapter Fourteen
I have to admit I was surprised that not one of the members of this motley crew pressed me for any details of what I had in mind. For once they were just following, all of them seeming oddly content to go along with my assertion that we could just walk in and rescue Leopold DuLac. I wasn’t sure that their faith wasn't misplaced. That weighed on me and finally, as Bel pulled up next to our car, I had to ask. “Okay, why aren’t you guys pressing me for the details of my master plan.”
“We’ve learned better,” Edgar said.
“What does that mean?”
Clarence smiled wickedly. “It means that we’ve come to realize that it doesn’t matter what you tell us. And it isn’t something about you... it’s this work. Nothing we do ever seems to go according to plan, no matter whose plan it is. So maybe it’s better not to get too fixated on exactly what you mean by that.”
I was relieved, yet slightly puzzled by his answer. It saved me from explaining what was only a vague idea and, ultimately I settled for that.
“Where do we start?” Bel asked. “As the lead driver, I sort of need to know.”
“In Leopold’s hotel room,” I said as if I’d expected the question. “That’s where they were taking him.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Right. I guessed that much, but can you be more specific?”
“What do you mean?”
“Just what it sounds like. I was asking what hotel he is staying in. Do you know?”
I didn’t. “No.”
He sat with his hands on the wheel, showing an incredible amount of patience. “So what do we do now?”
“I guess we skip the hotel,” I said. “I’m sure they are gone, but I’d thought we should make a quick check. I’d hate to traipse halfway across the country and find out they were still interrogating him in his hotel room a few blocks from where we were.”
“Good point,” Edgar said. “Backtracking is so boring.”
“Getting there ahead of those men could give us an advantage,” Clarence said.
“How?” Bel asked, sounding like he really was curious.
“I don’t know. That’s how it works in the movies.”
“I suppose it does.”
Clarence got out his laptop and opened it, then called up a photo he’d taken of the map we’d made using stickpins to track Leopold’s trail. He traced the line back with his finger to the location of the first pin. “If we have all the data...”
“There’s no certainty of that,” Edgar said.
“...it seems to have started a few states over.”
“Less than a day’s drive,” Bel said. “If we left in the morning...”
I shook my head. “No. We should leave now if we expect to take advantage of the element of surprise.”
“Which surprise?” Bel asked. “By now the family knows that their men have Leopold and that he doesn’t have the crucible. And I’m sure they know about us. For all we know, they’ve sent out another goon squad to track us down.”
“All true,” I said. “The truth is that if we sit around waiting until the morning I, for one, won’t get any sleep and I’ll be going crazy.”
“She will,” Clarence said.
“Absolutely,” Edgar said. “And driving us crazy too.”
“Better to be driving,” Clarence said.
“We’ll get no rest until this is resolved,” Edgar said.
“What is it with you two?” I said. “Suddenly you are Laurel and Hardy.”
“He’s learned to respect ghosts,” Edgar said. “It’s practically an evolutionary change.”
“He’s learned that bow ties aren’t objects of ridicule,” Clarence said.
I realized they had no interest in telling me. Just one of those things. I took the laptop and looked at the map. Clarence had superimposed it over an online map so we could scroll and zoom and do all sorts of magical things with his semi-cursed laptop. All computers are at least semi-cursed. “Here it is,” I said. “Right near the first ‘miracle healing’. It has to be this one.” I showed it to Clarence, pointing. “The DuLac family has to live in this town. A tiny one called Relic Redoubt?”
“Relic Redoubt—that means an artifact fortress,” Clarence said. “Makes perfect sense.”
“Your habit of doing all those crossword puzzles actually pays off sometimes.”
“And you scoff at me for it.”
“I just complimented you for it,” I said.
“So we leave now?” Bel asked.
“Yes.”
“I’ll drive alone and lead the way. I don’t mind dealing with the DuLac family and their thugs, but I’m not certain I can stand a night of you three bickering.”
He had a point.
Chapter Fifteen
As usual, Clarence wanted to drive. I didn't mind as I like looking at the places we passed and I knew we were headed for new territory. As we followed Bel out of town I found I was feeling oddly optimistic about the chances of rescuing Leopold. As Clarence had pointed out, we’d pulled off missions that seemed to have even smaller chances of success—you just couldn’t get too attached to your plans.
"Do we need any backup?" Clarence asked.
"I was just thinking that it wouldn't hurt to arrange some... just in case."
He nodded, so I got out my cell phone and called Beatrice. “How are you doing?” I asked.
“Just fine, Cecilia,” she said, sounding a bit short. "Is something happening?"
"I can't just call to say hello?"
"You don't ever seem to," she said.
"Sorry." I took a long breath. “You're right, though. Clarence and Edgar and I have come across an artifact. Now we are chasing down another one, maybe more.”
“How lovely. I assume you will put it safely away?”
“We will. But I’m calling because we are also on a rescue mission.”
“Really? Who are you rescuing? Is Clarence in danger?”
“It's Leopold DuLac,” I said.
"DuLac?"
The tone of her voice told me that she knew exactly who that was and didn't approve. “We are hoping that additional help won’t be necessary, but I wanted to give you a heads up just in case.”
Her voice got frosty. “Why would you rescue a DuLac? That family... my goodness... And who are you trying to rescue him from? Certainly, the Cabal wouldn’t bother a DuLac.”
Obviously, she knew more about the family than I had, but I'd learned to expect that. “At the moment we have to rescue him from his own family."
"Really?"
"Leopold left home with an artifact. He has been trying to do good deeds with it. Unfortunately, they managed to track him down. We have the artifact, but they have him.”
She sighed. "That, unfortunately, sounds rather normal."
“Right. The thing is, we don’t know much about the DuLac family and I’m not sure how closely they will be on our tail when we make our escape.”
“I only know about them in a general way. I'm not certain what resources they have. So what, exactly, do you expect us to do?”
“Nothing now. I wanted to find out if you could be standing by to help with a potential getaway through the Grand Storehouse. I thought you could map a route for us, maybe find an entrance to the Grand Storehouse that is somewhere near the family mansion—Relic Redoubt.”
I thought I heard a muffled harrumph. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible, Cecilia. Not now. Albert isn’t around and he’s the one who knows those pathways, not me.”
Somet
hing seemed to be going on that she wasn’t telling me. In my experience, Beatrice had always been pleasant and helpful, but today she sounded short and impatient with me. I decided not to press the issue. “I’m sorry to bother you, Beatrice. Never mind then. That was just a backup plan. We will handle it ourselves.” I tried to sound cheerful.
She sighed. “Like I said, Albert doesn’t happen to be here, but I’ll mention it to him when he returns. So, if you do need help, call me and I’ll do whatever I can.”
When she hung up, I looked at Clarence. “She didn’t sound pleased about being asked to help,” I said.
He glanced over at me and shrugged. “It could be as simple as she’s having a bad day. Or maybe she’s gotten tired of being asked to help out every time we get in trouble,” he said.
“Which seems to be pretty much every time we go after an artifact,” Edgar said.
“Hey, that’s not fair,” Clarence said. “We got the fork with no trouble.”
I laughed. I’d forgotten all about the fork. It was still in the pen case in my purse. “That’s true, but then the fork hasn’t been the focus of anything yet. Give it time.”
“We don’t even know what sort of artifact it is,” Edgar said.
“A silverware artifact,” Clarence said. “At least Beatrice did say to call if we need help.”
“Rather vague and extremely reluctant, but that’s better than nothing,” I said. “I do wonder what’s going on with Beatrice.”
“Just like your plan,” Edgar said brightly. “Vague.”
If he’d been a solid citizen, as in one with an actual physical body, I might’ve smacked him.
“I wonder more about what’s going on with Bel than Beatrice,” Clarence said. “For the opposite reason.”
“What about him?”
“He’s a nice guy and all that, but why is going out of his way to help us? He’s worked with us before, but only because he wanted the same outcome. But this time... even though we are heading in the right direction, so technically he isn’t going out of his way... oh, you know what I mean. I don’t buy the idea that he’s joining us simply because it’s no imposition. I think there is something in it for him. The question is, what?”
The Curious Case of the Cursed Crucible Page 8