Читать книгу The Caged Ruby - Rodney Syler - Страница 7

“Tell me again what we are doing in France,” Taylor asked.

“I would like to visit two clients while I’m on this side of the ocean. There’s an archeological dig that’s just getting started a few hours out of Paris. I’m a minor investor but if it shows promise, I might invest more. Let’s go there and get out of the city. I don’t feel good about staying here near an airport.”

“So you take a girl halfway around the world to the most romantic city in on earth, and the first thing you want to do is go to an archeological dig.”

He tried to recover and agree to stay a while but Taylor was ready to travel. She said, “I will take a quick shower and be ready to go in twenty minutes.”

After hours cramped in the tiny rental Renault, they pulled into the little town. Dining at an outdoor café, they relaxed from the long car ride. Still suspicious of being followed, Taylor scanned the surroundings for any familiar faces. The dig site was about ten minutes out of town and they were not expected. Rex even wondered if they would find the site abandoned. His other concern was that Juliet, the archeologist, would still be mad. Months ago, he left her and went back to the states to finish school. She was a wild and unpredictable woman.

“Taylor, there’s something I need to confess. The archeologist, Juliet, and I had a fling when I was here before. She was not happy when I left.”

Taylor smiled, “So you are taking your new girlfriend, to meet your old girlfriend, that’s still mad at you. Did she throw things when you left?”

“Yes, in fact she threw almost everything. Wine bottles, shoes, you get the picture.”

“Should I get out the scepter and be ready to do battle?”

“That isn’t a bad idea. Not to do battle, but to divert her attention.”

“Can she be trusted? You know, not to turn us in, and get us put in a French or Egyptian prison.”

“I think so. Her dad is a world renowned professor of archeology. She was raised right.”

“I will keep the scepter handy and if I see you need an assist, I’ll come to the rescue.”

They drove to the site and there were two tents, one dusty truck, and a small travel trailer. The tents were set up at the base of a hillside between two streams. As they walked across the footbridge to the tents, Taylor whispered, “It’s too quiet, this is like a horror movie where the murderer jumps out.”

Rex led the way and Taylor followed with the towel-wrapped artifact over her shoulder. “Hello, its Rex.” He announced after knocking on the trailer door.

From inside the trailer they heard a door slam. The front door opened to a raven haired lady with fire in her eyes. She spewed line after line of French that seemed to be more insults and cursing than anything else. Finally she cooled down and seemed to realize for the first time that Taylor was there. She suddenly turned her wrath toward Taylor and Rex intervened.

“You have every right to be angry with me but you have no right to speak like that to Taylor. Your father surely taught you better than that.”

She quieted. “And I suppose your father taught you to bring a beautiful girlfriend to see the girlfriend you dumped.”

“No, I learned that on my own. Juliet, this is Taylor. We are graduating together and yes, we are dating.”

Juliet was beginning to get angry again so Taylor stepped forward and held out her hand. After a moment Juliet relented and shook. Taylor felt the strength and calluses. She said, “Rex wants to talk business, but I want to talk girl talk. Let’s sit down somewhere cool.”

Seizing the opportunity to put Rex in his place, Juliet put her arm over Taylor’s shoulder and led her toward the nearest tent, leaving Rex standing at the doorway. Taylor motioned with the towel-wrapped scepter for him to follow.

Juliet pulled a bottle of wine from the cooler and three cups. She said, “What girl talk?”

Taylor rolled the towel across the table so that the scepter lay unwrapped just in front of Juliet.

With a straight face Taylor said, “I was wondering if you could help me identify the stone wrapped up by the gold bug?”

Juliet sank slowly onto the bench easing her wine glass to the table.

Taylor cracked a smile as she went on, “I got into a little scuffle and may have dented this thing up a bit but the stone still seems to be ok. I’m thinking about having it made into a necklace. This scepter is so out of style. You hardly ever see anyone carrying one of these around anymore.”

Juliet looked up from the scepter and cracked up laughing. “You are either a very big joker or you are insane. May I examine this more closely?”

From a nearby box she brought out a magnifying glass and a notepad. As she read, she jotted notes and sketched. “Where did you get this?”

Rex said, “We haven’t discussed this yet, but it might be best for you not to know until the dust settles a bit. Are you ok with that?”

“Rex, I don’t think you are a thief, so I can only assume you are either keeping this out of the hands of thieves or holding it until the right time to reveal its discovery.”

Taylor said, “We could have bought this from a museum.”

“I don’t think Rex has that much money. The ruby is worth millions.”

Rex said, “We need a place to hide this for a while. We have to fly home soon and we can’t take this. I want to get lawyers involved to get it to the proper authorities.”

“Does anyone know you are here?”

“We stopped in town and had lunch. If someone tracks us to town, they will know I came to the site. I hate to drag you into this.”

“I am going to leave now. You and Taylor make yourself at home as long as you like. When I get back from town tonight you won’t be here. There are shovels there by the pit. If you use one, wipe all the fingerprints off before you leave. You know how I run a clean operation. We have exclusive dig rights on twenty or so acres. Feel free to take a walk. Is there anything else you need before I go? More wine maybe?”

Taylor came around the table and gave her a big hug. “How big is that ruby?”

“Maybe fifty carats.”

Rex said, “I’ll walk you to your car. I want to talk about the dig. What have you found?”