The Stone of Secrets

by K. L. Nelson

  Lindsay asked if there were any records of the Pict language by the Picts themselves.

  “Only the great stone slabs that dot this land,” Mert said proudly. “An example is the Aberlemno serpent stone.” Mert retrieved his phone and tapped the screen a few times to bring up a picture to show Lindsay.

  “The Aber…Aber what?” Lindsay asked in her dumb voice. She had perfected it long before graduating high school, but found it particularly useful at college.

  A shocked Mert stared back at her. “You don’t know what it is! Quite popular Lindsay! Don’t you read the research files?”

  Lindsay giggled, mocking Mert. “Of course, Mertalicious. The stone has drawings of a serpent, the double disk and the Z-rod symbol. The items in the research files just feel more real hearing you talk about them,” she added. She held up her own phone to let the files hear Mert talk.

  Mert angrily threw dust at Lindsay and her giggle resounded in the air of the open field. Skye sometimes imagined that Mert and Lindsay were a couple. It was ridiculous to watch two graduate students play like mindless children.

  “Professor McAlister,” Sebastian called from behind her.

  Skye turned to see Sebastian staring at a figure approaching the ruins. She had forgotten about their mystery onlooker. Somehow he had crossed three hundred yards of open terrain without anyone noticing. “How did he do that?” Skye thought.

  A well-cut suit can cover a scrawny physique. Or, it can complement a chiseled one. This man, thought Skye, was definitely the latter. She wanted to be on her guard, but seeing this man coming at her somehow disarmed her. He wasn’t exactly muscular. He was just so…solid.

  “Miss McAlister,” he nodded courteously, stretching out his hand. “Emmett Burke. I’m pleased to finally meet you.”

  He sounded American. He looked American too. Skye gave him a once over, examining his features. His slightly bent nose bespoke a man that had been in a fight once or twice. His dark wavy hair fell in a random curl on his forehead, and his boyish face was too good looking to not be trouble. He was staring back at her patiently as if his next words depended on her response.

  “Oh,” Skye said suddenly, shaking herself from a little fantasy. “Um, how do you know my name?” She cautiously took his hand.

  “Are you kidding?” he replied raising his brow. “You are a legend with my people. Your work at Cheoptiquezal, the way you completely turned the world’s perception of the Maya…well, let’s just say I’m honored.”

  “Forgive me, Mr. Burke. I’ve never met an archaeology groupie. It’s a rarity in my line of work. You can’t have come all the way out here just to meet me.”

  “Call me Emmett,” he said, his smile half turning into a laugh. “No, you’re right. I’m here on behalf of my firm. We are very interested in your work.” He looked at the others standing behind her. “I was wondering if I might have a word with you.”

  Sebastian, Andrew, Lindsay and Mert were standing behind Skye to face this stranger as the team they were. Skye folded her arms together and maintained her stance. “Whatever you have to say can be said to my team, Mr. Burke.”

  He didn’t seem surprised. He simply smiled at her. Skye thought he must smile only to impress women because it was quite disarming. But Skye was not one to let a smile distract her, no matter how endearing. She’d fallen for a beautiful smile once before. It didn’t turn out well.

  “Oh please, call me Emmett.”

  Skye gathered her wits and raised an eyebrow as she spoke.

  “Okay Emmett,” she said. “Do you mind telling us what you want? You have been hanging around a whole lot lately. ‘Lurking’ I think is the word for it. It’s starting to creep us out.”

  Creep us out? Where did that come from, the junior high locker room? Skye felt her face flush as she maintained her posture.

  “Of course,” Emmett said. “My organization is interested in your work here, Miss McAlister. I was sent to offer a deal that would quietly eliminate the problems that your team has had, and provide you with all the necessary tools to continue your research.”

  Skye couldn’t believe her ears. “Most of the problems?” she asked.

  “Yes, your relationship with the Historical Society has been a bit rocky I understand.” Emmett hit the nail on the head.

  “And how is your firm able to eliminate the problems ‘quietly’,” Skye asked skeptically.

  “It is my understanding that the press has been uncomfortably involved in your activities here, Miss McAlister,” Emmett explained. “My firm specializes in making this kind of thing go away.”

  “Is that even possible?” Mert breathed behind her.

  Mert had a point. Once the press was involved there was nothing to stop them, except perhaps giving them another bone to chase. Skye was familiar with the tactic. You call attention to the very thing you are trying to hide. Then, when they think there’s nothing to see here, along comes another story to hold the reader’s interest and the media heads off in another direction. Problem solved.

  But that other story is not easy to come by. To pull it off requires someone with an exorbitant amount of money, a healthy dose of political pull, or preferably both. That’s what scared Skye.

  “Discretion is one of the specialties of my firm,” Emmett explained to the group. He could tell he was losing them.

  “And why is your firm willing to help? So it can take ownership of the artifacts perhaps?” Skye pressed.

  “Not at all, Miss McAlister,” Emmett replied using his smile again. “My firm treasures history. We would love to see the story of this place revealed. We are after the same thing here. We just want to be involved the next time Skye McAlister makes history.”

  No one orchestrates a deal just to see history told, especially not high powered organizations like Emmett’s ‘firm’ evidently was. There was an angle here, and this man’s complete lack of details sent up a red flag. Skye had learned by unfortunate experience to beware of the lookers the most. Emmett was definitely easy on the eyes. That didn’t necessarily make him bad; it just made it harder to tell. Nothing about this man made Skye comfortable.

  Except that little fantasy of the picnic blanket on the hillside where she laid her head on that strong chest.

  Focus Skye.

  “I’m sorry, Emmett. I just don’t understand exactly what you’re after. You obviously have some interest in what we’re doing here because you’re always out here watching. I’m sure you don’t work for free, so it must be worth a lot to your firm to let you sit around on company time and just stare at us. But quite frankly your presence has put my team on edge.”

  “I apologize, Miss McAlister,” Emmett replied. “Thank you for your time. Here’s my card if you change your mind.” Skye took his card and watched him turn and walk away. He had the same three hundred yards to reach his black SUV, and Skye almost wanted to see if he would disappear on the way back.

  She thought about the trouble they’d had. Though she was handling it, she knew they’d not seen the last of it. For a moment she visualized her team being able to do what they came here to do – archaeology. What if she were watching her best chance at that walk away?

  She looked at the card in her hand. There was nothing on it but his name and number. Terse. How typical of him. It made her so mad she crumpled it and threw it on the ground.

  “Wait,” she called out.

  Chapter Six

  Tintbay Garden, Aberdeenshire

  September 2015, 9:53 pm

  “This guy has been hanging around way too much. Doesn’t anyone else find that strange?” So Mert began the nightly discussion. Every evening the team gathered in the common area of their new lodgings to talk about the day’s activities. The subject always found its way to Emmett Burke. Mert made sure of that.

  “Come on Mert,” Sebastian chided. “For a man whose firm is interested in the dig, you don’t expect him to hang around?”

  “Exactly,” Mert replied with a raised finger.
“It’s the firm that I’m worried about. Anyone other than me notice that for a week now, Emmett hasn’t mentioned the name of this firm? We haven’t even met anyone from the firm apart from him. I’m starting to think he is the firm.”

  Skye could hear the discussion from her room. Mert was becoming increasingly suspicious of Emmett’s overbearing presence at the dig. Skye wondered if Mert’s history with his father going to prison had made him more distrustful. She didn’t exactly trust Emmett either. But other than being somewhat cryptic, so far the man had presented no reason not to trust him. Emmett was indeed starting to become more of a mysterious fascination for her.

  The argument this night started because work had recently been completed on a security system installed in the house. To call the alarm system state of the art would be putting it mildly. The technology was over the top. Voice recognition. Retina scanning. X-ray imaging. The thing showed you a picture of the keys in your pocket when you walked in. As Emmett went over the use of the system with the team, they had said nothing but traded suspicious glances.

  “Come on, don’t be silly,” Lindsay replied. She took her time to contribute to the argument. There was silence as the three young men waited for her to continue.

  “Mert is only jealous because Emmett and Professor McAlister are getting closer.” Lindsay addressed Sebastian and Andrew. “If I was stupid, I would think that Mert misses Skye’s usual praises and attention.”

  “I can hear you,” Skye called from her room. She was sitting on her bed with the door open. She liked to end the day with some not-so-light reading before sleep overtook her. Like many others of intelligence, she found that she tends to dream about whatever she was thinking about when she fell asleep. Many of her best ideas came to her in the middle of the night upon waking from a dream. If you have to sleep anyway, why not use that time to increase your brain power?

  “You are too vain to be stupid, Lindsay,” Mert continued in a lower tone. “I am not jealous of anything. I am simply uncomfortable about this whole thing. Did you see the bells and whistles on that security system? Who does Emmett think is coming after us, Spetsnaz?”

  “He is a benefactor, nothing more,” Lindsay responded. “And if it wasn’t for the firm that you so prudently suspect, you would still be in that run-down flat where the walls are growing.”

  Lindsay had a point. When Emmett appeared into their lives a week previous, he requested that the team move into a private complex owned by his firm. It was part of the plan to get the heat off the project. He also explained that it was better if everyone lived under the same roof. From the moment the team walked into the place, it was easy for them to settle into luxury.

  The compound was elaborate, if not elegant. The buildings were all of stone, a common architectural element of the eighteenth century Scottish manor. The main house comprised two stories with a rear balcony overlooking the acreage in the valley to the west. Several other buildings occupied the property, not the least of which was the guest house where Emmett stayed. Like the main house, it was completely renovated with modern amenities throughout. Stables, a storage shed and a large carriage house completed the arrangement, and the whole compound was enclosed by an eight foot high stone wall.

  And it was gratis. It was a timely boon for Skye. Her preparations for the project had been so hurried she hadn’t found adequate housing for everyone. Mert ended up in the low rent section of Aberdeen. Emmett’s arrangement came at just the right time to solve yet another one of Skye’s problems. The three young men had been the most excited with the proposal at the time. Skye had suspected that the idea of living in the same house with Lindsay pleased them. That’s when Skye laid out the house rules. Actually it was one rule, and Lindsay let the professor know she was on board: Lindsay’s bedroom was for Lindsay. No one else would be allowed in at any time, and she was not to enter the others. The professor was most insistent. Any infractions and the culprit would be on the next plane home. She didn’t need any more nonsense than they’d already had. Each member of the team nodded their acceptance of the terms. They knew she was serious.

  Mert may have started out pleased with arrangement, but now he advanced his objections.

  “If he installs the security lock, doesn’t that give him ample opportunity to come and go as he pleases?” he was asking now.

  Andrew hardly spoke, but he had thought about Emmett too. He disagreed with Mert. “I don’t see him doing anything suspicious,” he said. “Besides, the professor seems to have grown comfortable around him. Maybe we should give him a break.”

  Skye decided that she had heard enough. She quietly set the book on the drawer, switched off the bedside lamp and wrapped the bed sheets comfortably around her body. Her team was just concerned for their safety. She didn’t blame Mert. She was suspicious of Emmett at first too. She had been careful around him for days after that first encounter with him at the site. She didn’t even allow him near without displaying her attitude. Skye smiled as she thought about what a hard time she’d given the poor man. She thought back on the conversation Emmett initiated the previous day out of frustration:

  “You don’t like me, Miss McAlister,” he opined aloud as they were ferrying equipment back to the car at the end of the day.

  “I do…” Skye replied, leaving room for an unspoken “but.”

  Emmett laughed and stepped in front of her.

  “What is it then?” he asked with eyebrows raised. “My presence aggravates you?”

  “Don’t be condescending,” Skye snorted.

  “What then?” he insisted, refusing to let her past.

  Skye sighed and stared up at him. It was the first time she had really looked into his eyes. Somehow she’d avoided it up until then. Maybe she knew what would happen. Indeed, those eyes were dark blue and Skye thought she could jump in and go for a swim.

  “Miss McAlister, I don’t think it would be wise for us to ignore each other if this project really means that much to you,” Emmett implored.

  Skye didn’t know how it happened but he suddenly seemed closer to her than before. Something was happening to her senses at his words. It was the way his voice slowly crept into her heart. It was as if he was trying to tell her something, that he wanted to be close. The message was received loud and clear.

  “So, it’s the work you’re primarily concerned with then?” she asked.

  “Not exactly,” Emmett replied, avoiding the trap. “I just…think we could be friends.” His infectious smile was a natural companion to the offer, and the way he put his hands in his pocket and squirmed to one side when he said it made him seem especially adorable to Skye. But she kept that to herself.

  “Friends,” she echoed flatly. The others were beginning to wonder what they were talking about.

  “Yes…” Emmett affirmed cautiously, still using that smile, “friends.”

  “Perhaps with intentions down the road then?” she asked with one eyebrow raised. Red flags went up for Emmett. He was losing this.

  “Only if they’re yours,” he said struggling for the recovery. “I mean, I probably wouldn’t turn you away…” He was now at the point where more words could only dig him a deeper hole.

  “Perhaps there were intentions from the beginning,” Skye said accusingly. “You see something you like and suddenly you’re an archaeologist. Is that the nature of your firm’s offer?” It was a harsh blow in this verbal joust, a major score for the professor.

  Emmett smiled at his feet. “If it were,” he said looking up, “would you have a counter offer?” It was bold, considering the woman’s coldness. But if there was a chink in her armor, Emmett would find it.

  “Would you even consider a counter offer?” Skye replied. “Or is it all or nothing with you?”

  “Not at all,” he said with a direct look. “Everything’s negotiable.”

  “I see…” Skye replied. She wanted to celebrate their friendship by jumping onto him and squeezing him with all her strength. But she fought
the smile that she felt welling up inside and pretended to be giving the idea some thought. As a university professor, she had a very good thoughtful look. It was one of the job requirements. “Very well then, Emmett,” she finally said holding out her hand. “We shall be friends.”

  Emmett took her hand and said, “Here’s to counter offers.”

  “Yes,” Skye replied, finally letting her little girl smile come to her face, “to counter offers!”

  As they parted to retrieve more equipment, they caught each other glancing back. But neither one cared. They just smiled and continued on. Skye cursed herself for letting Emmett use that smile like that. He was just too darn good with that smile.

  Skye had to give out assignments to load the equipment because the team had all stopped working. They had noticed the smiling too, and the talking. Emmett and the professor had just said more in five minutes than the whole time they’d know each other.

  “This can’t be good,” Mert commented under his breath.

  “I will see you tomorrow, Emmett,” Skye called as Emmett got in his car. “And please call me Skye. It is one of the first steps when you intend friendship.”

  Standing at the door of his black SUV, Emmett smiled and watched Skye walk away in her dusty work clothes. He got that feeling again watching the beautiful woman walk. But this time it was different. He couldn’t help thinking this woman was special. He’d certainly never met anyone like her. He’d known several women in his life, but none of them made him feel like Skye did. As he drove away, the smile left his face. “Emmett my boy,” he told himself, “you’d better not screw this one up. Not this one.”

  Skye reached a milestone when she began to trust Emmett. She wasn’t in the habit of giving men any slack since the divorce. Her mother’s words rang in her ears, “Not everyone is like Daniel.” She knew Mom was right, but that didn’t make it easy. Emmett seemed like as good a place as any to start taking her advice.