The Chalice Thief

by K. J. Emrick

  “We’re going to the police station,” Carly informed him when I didn’t answer right away.

  “You got it.”

  James rolled away from the curb, humming while he drove. What’s wrong with men? Here this perfectly wonderful bloke leaves me, near to tears, and now he’s back acting like nothing might’ve happened at all. I mean, where does that come from?

  “So, Dell,” he said, startling me out of my thoughts. He waited for me to resettle myself in the seat before saying, “I’ve got a surprise for ya.”

  “Really?” Carly said, drawing out the word on her tongue. “Do we get to guess?”

  “No,” I said quickly, catching her eyes in the rear view, trying to threaten her to be silent. “We’re not guessing.”

  “Really?” James said, one-handing the wheel. “It might be fun, ya know.”

  “No, thank you.”

  “Come on, Dell. Let me tell ya what’s been going on in me life.”

  I turned to look at him, and even through my rising anger my heart fluttered to have him this close again. “Are you serious right now? Are you?”

  His expression fell. “What d’ya mean?”

  “Don’t give me any of that smooth talk of yours, James Callahan.” I found myself wagging a finger in his face. Not a smart move when someone’s driving, I know, but at that moment I couldn’t care less. “Don’t you dare sit there and be all smooth with me.”

  What sort of an insult is that?

  “Mom,” Carly said from the backseat, her tone cautionary.

  “No, I’m serious,” I blundered on. “You don’t get to do this, James. You don’t get to come back in my life, but not be back in my life.”

  “Dell,” he said, the car’s speed dropping as his attention drifted away from his driving, “I’m not trying to make things hard between us.”

  “Oh, I’m sure. You never did.”

  His silence was loud. I’d hurt him. I could see it on his face. That was too bad. He’d hurt me by walking out, and I wasn’t going to let him do that to me again.

  I had a flashback to standing in Carly’s room earlier, listening to her release all of her pent up emotions. Things she’d been holding in all those months that she’d been back in Lakeshore, and maybe for longer than that, even. Guess me and my daughter really aren’t all that different, after all because here I am doing the same thing.

  The car rolled to a stop, and I rounded on James again, ready to snap at him for stopping in the middle of the road when he’d offered to take us the whole way. Only when I drew in breath to snap, I saw we were in front of the police station. He’d stopped because we were here.

  “Well. Thank you,” I said a little too loudly. Then a moment passed as I tried to figure why James was looking at me so oddly. Grabbing the door handle and tucking Ada’s book under my arm, I made a hasty retreat.

  I could hear Carly getting out behind me, and saying goodbye to James, and then his car pulled a U-turn to drive back into town. I let out an explosive breath once he was gone.

  Halfway across the car park to the police station Carly caught up to me. “You should give lessons in how to talk to men.”

  “Ha, ha. I’m not in a talking mood. Not for James.”

  “You have to give him a chance, Mom.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Well, sure, you don’t have to, I suppose, but you should.”

  “Give me one good reason,” I asked her, because I certainly didn’t have any.

  At the front of the building she stopped us by standing between me and the doors. “You’re here to help me save my relationship with Drew by keeping him from going to prison. You don’t think you deserve to give yourself a little of the same help when it comes to James??”

  “You saw the way he was back there! He was giddy as a pig in mud that he’d made the decision he did.”

  “You don’t know that, Mom. You didn’t even give him a chance to speak.”

  Only because I knew what I’d hear if I did. “It was James’s decision to break things off, Carly. Not mine.”

  “But you do still have feelings for him?”

  “That’s a very private question, daughter of mine.” I managed a smile for her that I didn’t feel. The fact that my daughter cared enough about me to worry over my love life is just grand but of all the things she could’ve picked to open up to me about, it had to be me and James? “How about we leave that for some other time?”

  “Coward,” she teased.

  “No, I just need to put some space between me and pieces of my past that will never be my present.” I sighed, realizing suddenly that I had skipped lunch, and hadn’t had more than a few bites of breakfast. Maybe that was why I felt so tired. “Come on. Let’s catch your brother before he leaves for the day and we have to chase him back to the Inn. Only so many hours in a day.”

  “Time moves on?” she asked, repeating my own refrain back to me.

  “Yes, daughter of mine, it does.”

  Good to know I’ve passed a few things on to her.

  Inside at the service window we found Constable Arianna Eckert waiting. There was a well-dressed woman sitting in one of the lobby’s plastic chairs, too. Her clothes marked her as someone who made her living in front of the camera on television. A black dress that was tight in all the right places and a neckline that revealed just enough and not too much. Add in that sharp look of hungry interest in her eyes. She was a news presenter, if ever I’d seen one.

  Arianna rapped on the plexiglass from her side of the window to get our attention. “Saw you two on the camera outside,” she said with a guarded glance at the woman in the black dress. “Was beginning to think you weren’t coming in.”

  “Hi, Arianna.” I knew it’d been a long day for her already, and here I was, about to add to it. “We need to see Kevin.”

  Her expression didn’t change. “The boss’s busy, Miss Powers. I’m sure he’ll be done here soon. Not much more we can do today. Which is what I keep telling everyone.” Another pointed glance at the woman in the lobby. “Want me to tell him to meet ya down at the Inn when he’s done?”

  “No, thank you.” Leaning in closer to the window, I lowered my voice in an effort to keep the reporter behind us from hearing. “This is about the Chalice. I’ve some information to pass on. Er, about Drew.”

  That struck the right chord with her. No way did she want to be the officer who turned away information that might be important to their case. Especially when it was coming from the senior sergeant’s mother. “Hang on, then. Just let me pop back and ask Kevin if he’s free.”

  After she’d gone, Carly ran her hands back through her short hair, tension creasing her brow. “She doesn’t seem too keen on letting us in. I thought you pretty much had the run of this place.”

  “I might,” I whispered to her, “if I wasn’t the mother of the chief suspect’s girlfriend. Not to mention we had an audience.”

  A tip of my head made it obvious who I was talking about. The woman in her tight black dress stood up when she saw me looking her way, a prim little pout on her puffy lips. Her brown hair had streaks of blonde in the curls that I’m sure she paid a lot of money for. They weren’t natural highlights, that was for sure. Whether the rest of her body was fake or not I couldn’t tell. Barbie would be jealous of her measurements, was all I knew.

  “You’re Dell Powers,” she said by way of greeting. “Aren’t ya?”

  “How’d you guess?” Not that it surprised me to be recognized. My face had been in the papers enough times now that anyone doing an internet search for Lakeshore, Tasmania, was going to find me. Any decent reporter coming down here to do a news story on—for instance—a missing historical relic was going to do the research.

  She produced a card from the little red purse hanging over her shoulder and handed it to me. Her name and the television station she works for were neatly printed on the front. “Gladys Austin. Glad to know ya.”

  I tucked the card away into my j
eans. I really didn’t want to talk to her, but I don’t suppose there was any avoiding it given the lobby was the size of a phone booth. “I’ve a feeling this has less to do with meeting me, and more to do with you investigating our recent theft. That’s why you’ve got the police station staked out, I’m guessing? You’re waiting to see what the wind might blow in.”

  “Too right,” she readily admitted. “And look what just blew in while I was sitting my cute little tush over in that chair.”

  There was some people in life that you just take an instant disliking to, no matter how much they smile and put on a pretty face. I was not a perfect judge of character by any means, otherwise I never would’ve let my husband’s killer run around town for so long before figuring out who it was, but I could tell you this much. I instantly did not trust Miss Gladys Austin.

  “So, Dell,” she said brightly. “I can call ya Dell, I hope?”

  “As long as you spell it right in the papers. There’s no E on the end.”

  You may laugh, but it happened once.

  “Oh, no worries there. I work in television. So much easier. What brings ya down to the station today? Looking into this Chalice disappearance, are we?”

  “We?” I arched an eyebrow at that suggestion.

  Gladys never broke her stride. “I’ve read about you. Real hero for that bit down in Port Arthur. Now here’s a real life mystery right here in your own home town and what’s a girl to do, am I right? You always seem to get involved in the big stuff happening on this end of Tassie. Seems to me if I want to know anything, you’re the woman to speak to.”

  “I’m no hero.” I meant that. Doing the right thing at the right time made me human. The rest of it… well, dumb luck and an angel on your side go a long way.

  “Don’t be so modest.” Gladys looked me up and down as if she’d already decided what light I’d look best in when she corralled me into an on-air interview. “You made all the papers last month. Someone like you, a mystery like this… History can’t help but repeat itself.”

  Oh, yes. I definitely didn’t like this woman. “And what do you know about our history, Miss Austin? Are you even from Tasmania?”

  “From up north, actually.” She crossed one foot over the other and planted her high heeled shoe on its pointed toe. One hand settled inside her purse, and stayed there. “I’ve got a few cousins living here in Lakeshore but most of the family’s from Victoria. Don’t know if you’ve ever heard the name of Thomas Austin but he was a rellie on my father’s side.”

  As a matter of fact, I had heard of Thomas Austin. “The man who brought rabbits to Australia in the 1800s. That Thomas Austin? He’s your ancestor?” More than a few farmers blame Austin for that particular pest being introduced here. There were huge fences out in Western Australia that were meant to stop the spread of the vermin. Fences large enough to be seen from space. That’s how deeply rabbits are hated by most of Oz. “Not sure that’s something to be proud of.”

  “Well, the jury’s still out.” She shrugged. “At least I don’t have a boyfriend under arrest in some flyspeck town out back of Bourke.”

  I took the insult to my town of Lakeshore personally. That’s nothing compared to how Carly took the insult to her boyfriend.

  “Drew might be in that cell but he didn’t do anything!” Her finger was in Gladys’s face. I’m pretty sure she was ready for a fight. “He didn’t take the Chalice! We’re not even sure if Alfonse really had the bloody thing in the first place!”

  Too late, I saw the little audio recorder in the hand Gladys was holding in her purse. This whole conversation was a setup. She was doing exactly what reporters do. She was asking questions, and getting information, and recording it.

  Recording us.

  The door between the lobby and the inner offices opened, finally, and Kevin quickly slipped out with a scowl on his face. He pulled me through, and then Carly right behind. “Miss Austin,” he barked at our not-so friendly reporter, “I’m at the end of my patience. Any questions are to be directed at my office. If you’re not gone from here in the next two minutes ya might find your paper squeezed out of this story entirely.”

  “Now, Senior Sergeant Powers,” she purred, holding the recorder out closer, “that’s no way to treat a member of the press.”

  “Seems to be the only thing you lot understand. We’ve had reporters in our town before, Miss Austin. They all seemed to respect the line and not cross it. Why can’t ya do the same?”

  “Perhaps,” she said, “it’s because lines are so much fun to push.”

  “Watch it,” I warned her with heat dripping from my voice. “My son is engaged.”

  “Oh?” she hummed. “Not married, then?”

  Kevin shut the door at that point, either to get away from Gladys’s unwanted advances or to keep me from slapping that smile off her face. Didn’t know which. Guess I should be happy I didn’t have to find out.

  “She’s just lucky Ellie wasn’t here,” Kevin growled, “or she might’ve found herself leaving by stretcher. You shouldn’t be talking to the press about this, Mom. Especially not that one.”

  “We didn’t,” I told him. “Well, we didn’t mean to.”

  “Oh? Didn’t mean to? That’s certainly helpful.”

  Carly rolled her eyes. “Give over, Kevin. That woman had it coming. Besides, we rode all the way here with James. We didn’t blab a word of anything to him.”

  “That so?” he asked. “What happened, you put a gag in your mouth?”

  “Hey!”

  “I saw you out there, Carly. If I hadn’t stepped in you’d still be talking.”

  “Kevin, you can just go to—!”

  “Both of you,” I cut in over them, “knock it off. Kevin, this town is crawling with reporters. Can’t walk down the street without tripping over one.”

  He nodded, a rueful grin taking years of stress off his face. “Only my mother would dare tell me to knock anything off in me own police station.”

  “And don’t you forget it.”

  “Of course, mother,” he said sarcastically. “So. James is back in town, is he?”

  “Yes, he is. No, I don’t want to talk about it. What we came here to talk about is this.” I held up the book in my hand. “There’s somebody else in town you should be looking at for the theft of the Chalice. Another suspect.”

  “That so?” He took the book, opening it up, page after page. “And your suspect is in this book?”

  “Ha, ha,” Carly pretended to laugh, folding her arms in front of her. “You obviously got the sense of humor in the family, big brother.”

  I swear, neither of them was too old for me to put over my knee and in that moment, I was sorely tempted. Well. Kevin might prove a bit harder than his sister, but I swear I’d manage it! “Listen to me, Kevin. The Chalice is a symbol. Sure, as a historical relic it could maybe bring someone a fortune but it has other value, too.”

  “Sure. I get that.” He’d found the section on the Chalice. “It’s important to our history. Whether you’re a native or not our modern history begins with the First Fleet and this Chalice is a part of that. So how does that give us a suspect?”

  “Can we talk in your office? This mystery’s getting more complicated by the second.”

  “Er… well.”

  “What is it?”

  “Mom, you can’t be involved in this.”

  “Since when?” I reminded him. “You’ve never turned down my help before.”

  He had to face down both me and Carly now, and under the withering stare of both mother and daughter, he didn’t stand a chance.

  “Fine. Fine, I get it.” He snapped the book closed as he shook his head and rubbed a hand at the tension in his neck. “I’ll hear what ya have to say but that’s it. This one’s a real stickler of a problem, Mom.”

  Carly glared at him. “My boyfriend is not a problem. He’s an innocent man and he needs our help.”

  Brother and sister stared each other down. “You kno
w,” Kevin finally said. “Sometimes, I really wish you and Dad had given me a brother.”

  She stuck her tongue out at him, and I found myself smiling at them both. Odd as it may be, this was the closest I’d felt the three of us had been to family in a very long time.

  “There’s one more thing,” I said as we started down the short hallway where the door to his office waits. “I think we should let Carly talk to Drew.”

  “Mom…” He didn’t like the idea. I could tell. “He hasn’t asked for an attorney, so he can talk to whoever he pleases but it’s hardly proper.”

  “I know. Since when has that bothered you before?”

  “Since the mayor started threatening to bring in the Federal Police to take over my investigation. That’s when.”

  Ah. Should’ve seen that one coming, I guess. Something this big, pressure on the town to find the Chalice… We might have less time to solve this mystery than I thought. “Better get moving then,” I suggested. “Let’s start with looking at the security recording, shall we?”

  Chapter 8

  “I’m only going to allow it if I’m there.” Kevin wasn’t giving an inch on this, and looking at it from his side of things I supposed couldn’t blame him. “Sorry, Carly, that’s the way it is.”

  “You always were a stiff,” my daughter told him. She was trying to be as stubborn as he was, her arms crossed, her lip stuck out and pouting.

  I could’ve told her that wouldn’t work.

  After another moment, she gave in and threw her arms up in the air. “Fine. Have it your way, big brother.”

  “It is my police station.”

  “And Drew’s my boyfriend,” she said defensively. “So, if you’re going to be there I want Mom to be there, too.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “I mean it,” Carly kept arguing, “I want Mom there. I want to make sure you aren’t being too much a cop and not enough… of a human being… Did you just agree with me?”

  “Sure. Mom can be there. She was right when she said she’s got a long history of helping the police force in this town. Helped us any number of times. I’d be as daft as the guy who had this job before me if I kept her out.”