The Chalice Thief

by K. J. Emrick

  Another long pause. I could tell that everyone else in the room had already heard this part. I could also see that what was coming next was the real reason everyone was so upset.

  “This is all history,” I said. “Every primary school student knows the history of the First Fleet. Kevin said something got stolen? I doubt you had a ship from the First Fleet hiding out in your back room, Alfonse.”

  “Not the whole ship,” was the cryptic remark.

  Kevin had disappeared from my side a few moments ago. Now he was back, and handing me a longneck. “Gonna need this,” he says.

  Before I could ask why, Alfonse finally got to the point.

  “You’re right, of course. Everything I’ve said so far is history. What they don’t teach in the school books is that besides convicts, and besides supplies, the Sirius was carrying the Van Diemen’s Land Chalice.”

  I stared at him. Then I looked at Carly, and Kevin, and Mayor Brown, and stared at them.

  If this was a joke, no one was laughing.

  “Alfonse, the Chalice is just a myth. You’re talking about that cup. The one that’s supposed to give total ownership of the British colonies in Australia to whoever is holding it. That cup?”

  “Yes,” Alfonse said with a miserable nod of his head. “Passed from the Dutch to the British back when Tasmania was still called Van Diemen’s Land, and then lost at sea with the wreck of the Sirius. That Chalice.”

  “Like that metal Seal thing the Russians were supposed to give the United States to give them ownership of Alaska? Or the myth that says whoever holds Excalibur is the ruling King of England?”

  “Yes,” he says with another nod.

  “Alfonse, the Van Diemen’s Land Chalice is a myth.”

  “I had it,” he insisted.

  “You couldn’t have it,” I tried to argue.

  Alfonse shrugged helplessly. “I did.”

  “It isn’t real.”

  “I had it.”

  “How?”

  He pushed up from his chair, slowly getting to his feet, and he began pacing the spaces between the tables. “As it turns out, my husband is more amazing than I ever realized. Dan’s family… that’s my husband. Dan.”

  “I know,” I told him. “I’ve met him before.”

  “Oh. Oh, right. Anyway. Dan’s family is descended directly from the original settlers who came over on the First Fleet. He can trace his lineage right back to those folks. I’ve seen the chart. When the Sirius crashed it was one of his rellies at the helm. He and the crew salvaged what they could of the cargo. Including, as it turns out, the Van Diemen’s Land Chalice. That was the original name for Tasmania, you know. Did I mention that?”

  “You did,” I told him, although it was all I could say. The reality of what he was telling me was beginning to sink in. The idea that the Chalice was real was hard enough to accept, but to think it had been here, in this building?

  Okay. Deep breath. If this Chalice was real, if it was a physical thing and not just a myth you find on one of those nutter websites, it would be the single most important artifact of Australia’s history. If it was here, in Lakeshore, and we lost it…

  Oh, snap.

  “Right,” Kevin said, correctly reading the abrupt change in my expression. “The entire country’s going to hate us. We’ll be worse than a laughing stock. This could mean a loss of business. Tourism, and otherwise. It might be something we never recover from.”

  Popping off the top from my longneck, I drank a long swallow that I barely tasted.

  Alfonse was still pacing. “Anyway. For our anniversary Dan said he had this special thing to show me, and it turns out to be the Chalice.”

  “Well… where did it come from before that?” I asked him, trying to make sense of this whole thing. “All well and good that his family got it from the wreck of the Sirius, but where did it come from before that?”

  He shrugs. “Dunno. He’d found it in his family’s things, and… well. That’s not important. We decided that it should be put on display, here in Lakeshore. Great boost for the economy. Great thing for our little town. Had a glass display case on order and everything. Ya know?”

  I did. I really did. He was right, of course. A piece of our culture that no one even knew existed, suddenly here for all to see? That’d draw in folks from across the country. Maybe even the world. No wonder Alfonse tried to get the news outlets here. This could’ve been big. It was sort of a blessing now that they hadn’t shown up. Probably, they all thought this was nothing more than a stunt to get a retired pop star back in the limelight.

  Hmm.

  “See why I wanted to let you know?” Kevin was asking me. “Businesses that depend on tourist dollars, like yours, those’ll be the first ones to take a hit.”

  “Yeah. I suppose so.” I tapped a finger on the back of the chair I was leaning on. “Alfonse, did anyone know you had the Chalice here? Did anyone see it? Mayor Brown?”

  He nodded his head, but then he shrugged. “Well, yes and no, I guess. Mister Calico here told me what he had planned. As the town’s mayor I was all for it. If one of our businessmen wants to put up a new tourist attraction I’m not going to tell them no. Town needs every dollar it can… well. You know that, Dell, running that Inn of yours and all. But I never saw the thing. Myths made reality. What a day, what a day.”

  Kevin looked at me intently, questions in his eyes that I didn’t want to give voice to here in a room full of people. Then I looked over at his sister, and saw that Carly was giving me pretty much the same look. She knew what I was thinking. Well. She was my daughter after all. She had my smarts in that head of hers.

  I did have a few questions, to be sure. “Kevin, can you walk me out? I’m going to head back to the Inn and let my staff know what’s going on. I’ll keep this quiet as I can but we all know that rabbit’s out of its den, right?”

  He waved his hand in the direction of the street. “All those people out there know something’s going on but not what. Not yet. The rumors will start easy enough but in the meantime, we need to keep this news here in Lakeshore. Leastwise, as much as we can. Although… Alfonse here wasn’t exactly, er, quiet when he found the Chalice was missing.”

  “I was upset!” Alfonse said, his voice rising and then breaking on the last word. He coughed into his hand, trying to pull himself back together. “I’m still upset. Not only did I lose a national treasure, I lost something important to my husband. This here was a piece of his family, and now it’s gone. He’s going to blow his stack, he is!”

  I rested my hands on his shoulders and waited for him to meet my gaze. “Don’t worry Alfonse. Kevin and I will find out what happened.”

  He seemed to breathe a little easier after I said that. “Thank you, Dell. That’s mighty nice of you to offer. You really think… I mean, you always did help out when things in town got tough, but I can’t even imagine how someone got that Chalice out of here without me noticing. There’s a lock on the door. There’s video surveillance. How’d this happen?”

  That was something I wanted to know, too.

  Kevin and Carly both walked me out of the Roo. It took Carly a moment to follow, and when I looked back I saw why. She’d stayed behind to have another few words with Drew. It struck me that he was a bartender here, and if something was stolen from the back room nobody would’ve ever noticed the bartender coming and going.

  Something to think on.

  Outside, most of the crowd had gone their way home, but taking their place were several people I didn’t know. One had a shoulder-mounted video camera. Another was taking pictures. Two others were busy writing in notebooks and interviewing anyone who was still left.

  I took hold of my unicorn necklace and couldn’t keep a sarcastic smile from my face. “Well I guess the news reporters showed up after all.”

  Kevin saw me looking around, and knew what I was hoping to see. Or rather, who. “He’s not going to be here, Mom. James made his choice.”

  “We both did
,” I reminded him. “Let’s talk about something else. I want to know if you’ve looked at the security footage yet. This all sounds a little suspicious to me.”

  Carly crossed her arms over her chest. “You think everything’s suspicious, Mom. Why can’t you just take people at their word?”

  I had the feeling she was talking about her dad. About how I’d doubted him when he disappeared, only to find out it wasn’t his fault.

  Kevin shook his head. “Sometimes you need to be a little suspicious, Sis. We haven’t looked at the security cameras yet, but my guys are pulling the recordings now. We’ll see what’s on them, but…”

  “But,” I finished for him, “you have to wonder.”

  “Exactly.”

  Carly looked from her brother to me. “Wonder what?”

  “I have to wonder,” I explain, “if that Chalice was ever really here to begin with.”

  “Alfonse said it was,” Carly shrugged.

  Which was true, I realized. Alfonse was a colorful character and a bit of a larrikin but one thing I’d never known him to be was a fool. I knew that, but still. “Could it have been a stunt? A publicity promotion, now that he’s writing new music? He’s got that album coming out. Nothing like a little free press to relaunch a career, I’m guessing.”

  “I wondered that myself, Mom,” Kevin said. “He was certainly disappointed when the news reporters weren’t here before. Then again he was even more upset when he found that box empty. He thought he had something, or sure looked like it anyways.”

  “That doesn’t mean what he had the actual Van Diemen’s Land Chalice!” I muttered. “Strewth, I can’t believe I’m saying that. Kevin, it’s just a myth!”

  “Hmph,” Carly griped, crossing her arms again just like she had inside. “Maybe you need to have a more open mind, Mom.”

  I smiled at her in a very patient, motherly way. I’d learned a lot about Carly since she came back into my life. She was into all those mind expanding things like crystals and meditation. That’s why she wore that copper jewelry. She thought it brought her spirit in better alignment with the energies of the universe. Oh, she thought she had a very open mind, my daughter did.

  Wonder what she’d think if she knew her mother could talk to ghosts?

  Kevin looked over at the reporters still mingling about. They’d spotted him, and weren’t wasting any time homing in on the senior sergeant of police. “And, here we go,” he sighed. “Look. There’s a lot for me to do and not much reason for either of ya to stick around and watch. I just wanted to let you know what the town was in for, Mom. Now that you know, why don’t you and Carly sneak out while you still can? I’ll catch up to you tomorrow.”

  “I’ve got a few sources that might know about the Chalice, too,” I add. That was sort of true. I had a few ideas, anyway. “Come to the Inn tomorrow morning? We’ll compare notes.”

  “What about Rosie?” he asked. “She okay? You sort of rushed out of here like a gazelle earlier.”

  “She’s fine. No babies yet. Afraid it was a false alarm.

  “Let me know if she needs anything.” He hugged me goodbye, a nice gesture from my grown son, and then turned just in time to catch the first questions from the reporters. It gave me and Carly time to duck under the yellow barrier tape on the other side and slip away.

  Chapter 3

  My daughter was silent on our way back. Since she was staying in a room at the Inn we had to go that way, and no reason to pretend otherwise. With her arms crossed over her abdomen, gripping her opposite arms, she was lost in thought. There’d been a lot of awkward silences between us over the last two months but this one was different somehow.

  I could tell she wanted to talk. She just didn’t know how to start. So I did it for her.

  “Want to share?”

  “Hmm?” Carly pulled herself out of her thoughts to focus her gaze on the tips of her sneakers. “Share what?”

  “Those heavy thoughts you’re carrying around with you.”

  I almost got a smile out of her. Quite the accomplishment for any mother, getting your grown daughter to smile. “Not like I’m contemplating the secrets of the universe. It’s just… you and Kevin, I guess. The two of you have this whole thing. You get each other right off without having to try.”

  Ah. “Honey, Kevin and I have been through a lot in the last few years. He stayed here in town when you—”

  I bit my tongue, literally, to keep from saying the end of that sentence. I was getting into tricky territory and I knew it.

  But my daughter’s a bright one. “You don’t have to pretend it’s anything other than what it is, Mom. Kevin stayed when I ran off. I thought putting some distance between me and Lakeshore would make things easier, after Dad… er, after he disappeared. I never forgave you for that and then I find out it wasn’t your fault and my whole world gets turned upside down. Now here I am back in Lakeshore, but it feels like I’m still not really a part of it. Does that make sense?”

  Pushing my luck, I put my arm around her shoulders. Wonder of wonders, she didn’t pull away. “You belong here, Carly. Same as Kevin and I do. It was your home for years. It’s still your home. And, hey, it looked to me like our friendly neighborhood bartender sure wanted you around.”

  I could almost imagine her blushing there in the dark. “Mom. We’re just friends. Me and Drew, I mean. He’s not… we’re just friends.”

  Sure they are. And Uluru is just a speedbump. “Hey, just because I’ve failed in love since your father’s death doesn’t mean you can’t find happiness here.”

  Carly flicked her left wrist, the bracelets clinking together almost musically. “Well. Actually. I want to talk to you about Drew. About a lot of things. It’s just… it’s all just jumbled up inside of me right now. Can we just walk for a while?”

  “Sure, honey. That’s fine.”

  For a while, that was all she said. It wasn’t until we turned onto Fenlong Street that she suddenly stopped, and I could see that she was going to tell me what else had been on her mind. The slope of the street led down to the water’s edge of Pine Lake, and the only building on Fenlong was my Inn. Lights were on inside. People were still awake in there. It wouldn’t be long before they and everyone else knew what I was going to have to break to my staff in a few minutes.

  The Van Diemen’s Land Chalice. Imagine that.

  “Mom?” Carly said. “I need to tell you something.”

  “Anything, honey. You can always tell me anything.”

  She pulled a sour face. “Can I?”

  “Of course you can.” I reached out to her, but drew my hand back in when she bladed her body to me. “Yes, Carly. You can.”

  “I’m leaving,” she said quickly. “I can’t stay here. I just… I wanted to tell you in person.”

  I won’t lie. My heart sank. Having both of my children with me again has meant the world to me. Carly and I still had so far to go before we could be as comfortable with each other as a mother and daughter should be. If we had some more time…

  Well. She was a grown woman. I couldn’t expect her to stay here just for me. Much as I might want to ask her to do exactly that, I wouldn’t be much of a mother if I was that selfish.

  Especially since I suspected that Drew had more to do with her decision than she was letting on.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I know you had this image of me and you and Kevin being a family, and maybe even that James of yours, but that’s not what I want. I’ve got a life to get back to. Friends. There’s a job waiting for me in Brisbane, too.”

  “Brisbane?” I blurted out. I couldn’t stop myself. “That far away?”

  “Mom, I’m not a little girl anymore. I’m a grown woman, and I only came here to say a proper goodbye to Dad and now…” She paused long enough to take a breath. “It’s a good job, Mom. And… and Drew said he’d come with me. It’s a chance for me to be happy.”

  She didn’t have to say anything else. It wasn’t like I was keeping her here a
gainst her will. Although it occurred to me, suddenly, that was exactly how she felt. Like she couldn’t leave. Like I was keeping her here through a crushing sense of obligation.

  If I wanted to prove otherwise, then there was only one thing I could say.

  “I’m happy for you.” Which was true. “You know I’ll always be here for you. I know you’ll come back to visit me.”

  Which… wasn’t true. I was actually very certain that if Carly left this time, she would never come back. I took hold of the unicorn necklace in my fingertips and made myself be strong. This had to be her choice. Whether she stayed, or whether she left, I had to let it be her decision. Otherwise she’d grow to resent me. Again.

  A genuine smile spread over her face when she saw I wasn’t going to force the issue. For the first time since she’d been staying here with me she threw her arms around my neck and held me tight. That alone would have made this crazy night worth it. I couldn’t keep myself from wondering however what her father would think of her decision. Or mine.

  When we did go inside, up the three steps and through the front door, Carly didn’t see the man standing in front of the fireplace, smiling at us in a most pleasant way. She walked right past him.

  He was translucent even to my eyes and to Carly, her father’s ghost would be literally invisible. He reached a hand out toward her, to cup her cheek as she walked right through him.

  For a moment she stopped where she was, and brushed her fingertips over her cheek. Then she blinked and kept going to the stairs, waving a little hello to Janus my night clerk as if nothing at all had just happened. He couldn’t see my Richard standing there either.

  I could. He was the man I had fallen in love with so many years ago. The man I had made a family with. A man who still held a large piece of my heart, and always would. I could see his thick, wavy black hair. His beautiful eyes that he’d passed on to our daughter. That shirt that he was wearing the day he disappeared. The one I gave him for Christmas that year. The one I loved so much.