“Yes. Hi. I’m Mallory Vianu and this is my Nana. We are, or rather were, clients of one of your colleagues, Elsa Dustfeather. We’re looking for our ancestor’s diary—we gave it to her to translate, and it’s very important to us.”
The woman stepped closer, her lips pursing even tighter, if that were possible. “Of course. I’m Bianca Hyena. I’ve been through her office already and I’m afraid I’m unaware of your diary.”
Mallory chewed her lip. She wasn’t about to give up. “What about her assistant? Do you know where we could find him?”
Hyena’s thin brows dipped together in the middle. “Assistant? Who’s that?”
“She didn’t have an assistant?”
“No. I’m sorry, but she didn’t. Elsa worked with Professor Spirit on occasion but not lately. You can find his office down the hall.”
Hyena jerked her head to the left, presumably indicating the direction Professor Spirit could be found in and dismissed Mallory and Nana by walking away.
“Okay. Well, thanks.” Mallory tried to keep the sarcastic tone out of her voice and started off toward the left.
They walked slowly down the hall. Each office had a metal rail with a name tag slid into it on the side. The door to Professor Spirit’s office was open, and she peeked in.
Professor Spirit was definitely not prim like Hyena. He was standing in front of a filing cabinet that was stuffed full. Papers and folders spilled out of the top and sides. Books were stacked waist high around the room. The faint scent of spices and mildew drifted out into the hallway.
Professor Spirit turned around, a smile lighting his face when he saw the women standing in the doorway.
“My, my, must be my lucky day. Can I help you?” He cocked his head to one side.
“I hope so. I’m Mallory Vianu and this is my Nana.” Mallory held out her hand, and the man navigated his way over, dodging the stacks of books and other obstacles that littered the office. He glanced at Nana then back to Mallory, the smile still on his face but now with his eyebrows raised.
“We hired Elsa to translate our ancestor’s diary, and we were hoping you could help. We heard you were working with her.”
The older man’s face deflated. “Yes, I was.”
“We’re very sorry for the loss of your colleague.”
“I’m Mick,” he said holding out a wrinkled hand, the knuckles gnarled with arthritis.
“Really, that was my grandfather’s name, Mikhail, but everyone called him Mik.” Mallory shook it, surprised at the older man’s firm grip. “Can you tell me what might have happened to our diary?” Mallory asked.
Mick pursed his lips and squinted, his wrinkles collapsing into even more wrinkles. “I never saw the diary, myself. She mentioned something about a gypsy seer… pardon me. The correct term is Roma, isn’t it? Anyway, she said she was heading home to work on it.”
“Do you know where she would have kept her notes? Do you have an online Dropbox or something where you shared files?”
“Elsa and I were mostly old-school which is why we often teamed up. We prefer good old-fashioned pen and paper.” He turned to a side table which was piled high with books and produced a box from between the stacks.
“No kidding, huh?” Nana uttered.
“Elsa often took work home with her. She liked to work in front of the fire—always cold that one. Have you checked there?”
“I did have a brief look when I found her. There was nothing out on her desk.”
“No, there wouldn’t have been. Elsa was a clever fox. She didn’t trust just anyone. The desk was more of a prop. She always kept her actual files hidden away.”
Mallory’s heartbeat ticked up a notch. “What a relief. Could you come with us, then? We’d really like our property back.”
“I’m sorry but, like I said, Elsa was a secretive person She didn’t tell me.”
Nana frowned. “We saw her assistant pop into her office. Do you know where we can find him?”
Mick nibbled the edge of a caramel, narrowing his eyes as he chewed. He tilted his head to the side. “No, she didn’t have an assistant. None of us do.”
“What about a boyfriend, or were you two seeing each other?”
“Oh, heavens no. Elsa was tight lipped about her personal life. Anyway, you’d be better off asking Hatti.”
Nana glanced knowingly at Mallory.
“Oh well, we should be on our way—” Mallory turned to leave, but Nana grabbed Mick’s hand, turning it over so his palm was facing up.
“Whatever are you doing?”
Mick pulled back, tripping over a round cardboard shipping package in the process and ramming into a stack of books that teetered precariously.
“Why, reading your palm, of course. I want to make sure you’re telling us the truth.”
He held his hand back out to her. “Oh, I get it. Was I seeing Elsa?” He gave an over the top wink to Nana—that, or he had something in his eye. “Well, why didn’t you just say so. I’m an open book and you’re welcome to touch any part of me you’d like. As a matter of fact, I was just about to go home for lunch. Care to join me?”
Nana let go of his hand as if he’d just licked it. “No! Thank you, I—we appreciate the offer but we really must be going.”
Mick looked disappointed. “Of course. Maybe another time? I do hope your cousin has better luck.”
“Cousin?” Mallory’s brows mashed together. Though she sounded cool, Mallory was filled with a quiet dread.
“Yes. Didn’t I tell you? He was just here before you left. I believe he was going to check her home office.”
11
A LL three of Vianu ladies sat in their parked vehicle just down the street from Elsa’s house. Mallory and Nana had picked up Danior from the Manor and they’d been on this stake-out for an hour already and so far, there’d been no sign of the mysterious phantom cousin. Nana had left a voicemail for Penny but they were getting restless, waiting.
“Does anyone else think that spy we saw is the same person who posed as our cousin?” Mallory’s stomach tightened as she surveyed the windows for movement. She privately wondered about the mysterious call from the phantom uncle. Was that too, somehow connected?
“We should have asked Mick for a description. We really weren’t thinking.” Nana frowned.
Mallory’s lips were pressed in a thin line trying to stifle a laugh. “Oh, I was going to, but you practically bolted out of his office. Which was probably a good thing.”
“Oh, be quiet. I don’t want to think about that.” She shivered.
Mallory buried her smile. “Maybe we should just call the BLPD.”
“Nonsense.” Nana shook her head. “They’ll freeze us out and we need to find that diary.”
“It’s getting dark,” Mallory commented.
“It is. Time to get off the pot.” Nana grumbled as she opened her car door.
The girls walked up the street, close to the bushes, cautiously. Nana first, with Mallory, and Danior close behind.
Nana knocked on the door. “Hello?” No one answered. “Let’s check the back.”
Mallory’s stomach tightened even more.
“How are we going to get in without a key?”
“We don’t need a key.” Danior said and headed for the door. She pulled two bobby pins out of her hair and bent one into a hook. Next thing Mallory knew she’d pushed both inside the tumbler.
Standing in the dark outside Elsa’s back door while Danior tried to pick the lock, Mallory questioned the wisdom of her Nana’s ways.
“Hurry up.” Nana whispered. “You were never this slow when you were sneaking back in after a tryst with one of the neighborhood boys.”
“Shhh.” Danior fanned her hand behind her. “I’ve almost got it.”
Mallory heard a click and then her heart skipped a beat as Danior slowly pulled the one bobby pin out. The key lock turned. “Voila!” She said, turning the knob.
Nana and Mallory followed.
Inside, the house was dark. Moonlight filtered in through the windows, causing eerie shadows. They stood in the kitchen for a few seconds, listening to the silence.
“Which way to the study, Mal?” Danior took a small flashlight out of her jacket pocket, pointed the beam at the floor and started walking. The floor creaked and groaned under their feet, each sound sending Mallory’s stomach plummeting.
They went through the dining room and stopped short at the study door, which was taped off with yellow crime scene tape. Danior hesitated for a second, then ducked under the tape lifting it for the other women to follow.
Mallory’s stomach roiled at the thought of contaminating the crime scene, but what choice did they have? The room was still littered with papers.
“Okay, so where should we look?” Danior raised her brows at Mallory.
“You look through that filing cabinet and I’ll rifle through the table here.” Nana leaned against an old antique desk that was piled with papers and pointed to an oak filing cabinet.
Mallory’s heart thudded in her chest as she went over and pulled open one of the drawers. The files inside were labeled with letters A-Z. She pushed the files back to reveal the “V” section and her heart jumped when she saw a manila folder labeled “Vianu”.
“Bingo!” she whispered. Nana crossed the room as she pushed the folder open inside the filing cabinet, her heart plummeting when it proved to be empty.
“There’s nothing in it,” Nana said.
“Did someone take what was in here, or was it always empty?” Danior questioned.
“Maybe Elsa hid her notes with the diary like her colleague suggested?” Nana said.
“If she even had notes.” Mallory bit her lower lip as she scanned the room for likely hiding places.
“Something’s not right.” Nana turned to head down a hallway to the left when they heard a noise.
Mallory saw Danior’s eyes narrow as she put her finger up to her lips, cocking her ear in the direction of the noise.
Nana wasn’t as cautious as Danior and she took off toward the front of the house.
“Nana, no!” Danior tried to grab for her but she was already out of reach, down the hall and closing in on the room the noise had come from.
Mallory sprinted up behind her and the two of them got to the opening that led into what must have been Elsa’s living room at the same time.
Mallory’s heart jolted as a ghostly figure loomed before her. Was it Elsa? She couldn’t tell. The spirit disappeared from sight and then she realized it was playing the old piano down the hall. A familiar song filled her head. Suddenly something banged to her right; and she turned just in time to see a hooded figure darting out the side window.
Mallory barely had time to register any of this when someone hit her in the head from behind. Blackness threatened to take her out, but she fought back. Next thing she knew, they were out in the hall and she felt a weight on her back. She spun around and slammed her body backwards into a wall and then the piano as she tried to dislodge her attacker. Three times she rammed her body and that of her attackers against the wall but whoever it was gripped her like a chimpanzee.
Panic clutched at Mallory’s chest as she could hear Nana yelling at her to stop. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nana’s hands and realized she’d been shouting for her to stop hurting Eve.
She turned around, rubbing at her neck. Sure enough it was Eve, who’d finally let go and now lay unconscious on the floor.
12
H ER head felt like it had been dumped inside a cement mixer. She dropped to her knees next to Eve.
“Eve?”
Eve blinked and opened her eyes to look at Mallory.
“Remind me never to surprise you again, girlie.” Eve’s voice sent relief and laughter through the room. “Did we get the guy?” She bolted upright then groaned.
Nana pushed her back down. “What guy? What were you doing here surprising us, you idiot?”
Eve accepted the cup of water Danior handed her, sucking it down in one gulp. “The window. He ran off …”
Danior took off.
“Anyway, what the heck? Is that how you say thank you?” She held her cup up raising her eyebrows at Nana.
“You hit Mallory in the head and got yourself knocked out. What exactly am I thanking you for?”
“For coming to your aid, you ungrateful bohemian witch. You called me and left a message to meet you here. You said you thought some shady dude from the historical society was here trying to steal your ancestor’s diary and I almost had him.”
“You had Mallory,” Nana clarified. “And we called Penny.”
“Same thing.” Eve smirked.
Mallory shook her head. “So, where is she? Where’s Penny? Does she know you’re here and intercepting her calls?”
The look in Eve’s eyes told her no. “I left her a note. She was out of the office.”
“Well, let’s hope you don’t make a habit out of this. I don’t think your fighting skills are quite on par with Pen’s mixed martial arts.” Mallory looked up at Nana. “She’s right though. There was someone else here. I saw him go out that window right before Eve beaned me.
Eve’s phone played some sort of funeral march ringtone, and she winced at the message. “Penny found my note.”
“And that’s your ringtone?” Mallory asked.
“Yeah, isn’t it funny? Penny hates it. I change it weekly to something that might annoy her. Anyway, she’s on her way.”
“Over here.” Mallory crossed to the piano where she’d seen the ghost playing. The piano looked normal but something felt off. She pressed down one of the keys and that’s when she realized none of the keys had sounded when she and Eve had knocked into it during their little tussle and yet she’d heard music before that.
“Shine the light over here.” She indicated the upright part where the ghost had been pointing. She reached out and pushed and the wood came down like a shelf. Nana took out her cell phone and clicked on the light.
“It’s been upcycled into a bar cart. How clever.” Eve commented.
Mallory nodded. But why had the ghost led her here? Maybe the ghost needed a drink—Mallory sure did.
The beam of the light shone over the bottles. Nothing there but booze and glasses. Mallory’s heart skipped as she realized why the keys wouldn’t play. She pushed and pulled until she found a way to open the key section of the piano. Sure enough. A cleverly disguised drawer.
“Found it!” Mallory spun around.
Nana crossed the room in three steps and took the book to inspect it just as Danior returned. “Flash Gordon got away from me.”
“I wonder who it was,” Mallory questioned.
“The nerve of some people sneaking in right under our noses,” Eve said.
All three Vianu women turned with narrowed eyes on Eve.
“What? Ungrateful, much?”
“Oh well, at least we beat whoever it was to the diary. Now to figure out what’s in it,” Mallory said rubbing her temples. The pain was starting to escalate.
“You okay, kiddo?” Eve asked. “I’ve got a bottle of liquid painkiller in my purse.”
Mallory laughed. Everyone in Bohemian Lake knew just what sort of painkiller Eve kept in her purse. “Thank you, Eve, but you can save your booze and cannabis candies for the old age home. I don’t want a hangover in addition to a concussion.”
“We should get you back to the Manor now.” Nana started toward the door.
“But what about the translation? The book is still written in German. We’re back to square one.”
“We’ll find another way to translate it. Who knows maybe someone else from the historical society can help.”
“We can’t trust them again. Not after what happened.” Danior looked suspiciously at the book. “Besides, what if it’s a fake? To throw us off track.”
Nana thumbed the pages holding them under the beam from the flashlight. “It would be hard to fake an old book like this. Besid
es, I’m getting good vibes from it.”
“Now let’s get out of here before our intruder comes back. We need to translate this thing and figure out what Elsa was on to before someone else comes after it.”
“I don’t trust hiring anyone we don’t know. I didn’t realize the journal would have anything important in it … but in light of what happened to Elsa, it seems like there is. I don’t think we should jeopardize anyone else’s life,” Mallory added.
“I can think of someone,” Nana said. “Raymond Weasel!”
Mallory smirked. “Nana.”
“What? He’s expendable.”
Mallory shook her head in disapproval. “I’ll talk to him first thing tomorrow.”
13
P USHING herself to a sitting position, Mallory leaned back against the headboard and peeked at the herbs on her nightstand. Her heart warmed. Nana had made a special concoction of willow bark and chamomile for her to steep into a tea which would help her headache.
She got out of bed and slipped on a pair of yoga pants and a wool sweater. Her head still throbbed with a dull pain but it was much milder than the day before. She did have a tender spot on the back of her skull, which made brushing her hair tricky, so she threw it into a top knot and headed for the apartment’s kitchen.
Nana and Danior were already downstairs cooking and welcoming new guests as was the Vianu way of life as hosts of Caravan Manor. Normally Mallory would have been with them but they’d clearly shut off her alarm. She heated some water, grabbed a mug and dunked the tea bag, watching the steam waft up.
With her tea in hand, she made her way downstairs passing several guests along the way. Voices drifted out from the parlor, so she headed in that direction. Standing in the doorway, she could see Danior and her boyfriend Emilion sitting next to each other on the sofa, their heads bent over the coffee table.
“Morning.” She cracked a smile, walking further into the room.
“Hey Mal, how are you feeling?” Danior asked.
“Pretty good.” Mallory rubbed her head. “So, what are you guys doing?” She perched on the edge of one of the overstuffed chairs and leaned forward for a better look.
Make-Believes & Lost Memories Page 6