Page 3 of Skullduggery
‘And you know that I’ve not had any success in discovering what happened to her.’
‘She vanished without a trace thirty years ago, Gordon.’
He nodded. ‘The last time anyone saw her was the thirtieth of May 1994. The anniversary is coming up soon.’
I did my best to reassure him. ‘I’m sure you’ve done your absolute best, but even you can’t work miracles.’
‘I’ve exhausted almost every option,’ he admitted.
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Almostevery option?’
Gordon swallowed. ‘There’s an object that might help me get to the bottom of what happened to her. I’ve seen it mentioned in several books. It’s a magical object that…’ His voice trailed off and he seemed embarrassed. ‘Well, let me just say that it’s a magical object that might provide the answers.’
I no longer felt quite so tired. ‘What is it?’
He reached into his breast pocket and took out a folded piece of paper. When I opened it up, I was confronted by a small hand-drawn diagram of a skull. My brow furrowed.
‘It’s not a real skull,’ Gordon said hastily. ‘It’s made of gold and the drawing is to scale.’
If that were true, it was only three inches high. ‘Okay.’ I was reasonably certain what he was going to say next, and for once the frisson of anticipation that ran through my veins was nothing to do with drugs. This was exactly what I needed to keep my mind off my health problems.
‘My skills lie in old books and ancient runes,’ he said. ‘I’m not a treasure hunter – I don’t have any experience in that field, and I suspect that I’d be useless if I tried.’
My excitement got the better of me. ‘You want me to speak to Hugo and persuade him to hunt for this magical skull. With my help, of course.’
Gordon blinked. ‘Uh … no. I was rather hoping that you’d agree to hunt for it on your own.’
I was so taken aback that I jerked and narrowly avoided colliding with yet another waiter hoisting aloft a silver platterwith more elaborate but unappetising canapés. Everyone always asked for Hugo;hewas the celebrated treasure hunter andIwas the inexperienced upstart who rarely got a look in. ‘Me?’
‘Yes, you. You’re smart, resourceful and powerful. You’re the perfect person to search for the skull.’
Before I started to preen at his gushing praise, I tilted my head and gave him a narrow-eyed look. My earlier excitement was fading away. ‘How many other treasure hunters have you spoken to before me?’
‘One or two.’
At least he didn’t try to deny it. ‘One or two?’
Gordon shifted his weight. ‘Okay,’ he admitted. ‘Maybe it’s more like six.’
‘Let me guess,’ I said wryly. ‘The others declined because they don’t want to annoy Hugo. And you won’t ask Hugo because he’ll definitely say no.’
‘See? I said you were smart.’ Gordon’s gaze was nervous but earnest. ‘We both know that Hugo will only say no because he’s scared.’
I felt a twitch of discomfort at discussing Hugo behind his back and I glanced over at him. The beautiful brunette was still by his side but he wasn’t looking at her: he was looking at me, his expression inscrutable.
I nodded. ‘Hugo is scared that your investigation will prove his parents’ culpability in Lady Rose’s disappearance.’ And likely her murder, too. ‘But they might have had nothing to do with it. Your investigation means that speculation about their involvement will never stop.’
‘But my investigation could also prove that they weren’t involved and clear their names!’ Gordon protested.
I drew in a deep breath. ‘Do you think they were involved?’
‘Honestly?’ He shrugged. ‘I have no idea. There iscircumstantial evidence but nothing concrete.’ He didn’t take his eyes from me. ‘Lady Rose had a family too, Daisy, and they deserve closure. But the simple fact is that I’m running out of avenues to explore. If this magical skull doesn’t provide any answers, I’m prepared to put my investigation to rest for good and tell Lady Rose’s great-aunt, Grace Assigney, that we’ll never know what happened.’
I rubbed the back of my neck. Everything about Lady Rose’s disappearance all those years ago was complicated, and I didn’t want to get involved if it would hurt Hugo. I cared about him too much. Gordon was right: Lady Rose should be found so her remains could be taken care of properly and her family had answers – but those answers might neverbefound. Life wasn’t fair, no matter how much we wanted to believe otherwise.
In any case, this wasn’t the place or the time to be making any sort of decision. I needed a fresh head to consider everything – and I needed to talk to Hugo. ‘Send me what you have on the skull and I’ll think about it. But,’ I added hastily before Gordon’s delight became too obvious, ‘I’m not making any promises.’
He reached for my hands and squeezed them. ‘Thank you, Daisy. Thank you so much.’
