Page 28 of Stone
Chapter 15
Interrogation
She was wiped out by the time the cops were finished interrogating her. She’d managed to haveGarenthdrop her off on the museum roof, then made her way back down to the lower floors where she could notify the guards. Her story to the officers was pretty much the truth, starting when she had been working on a piece inside Dr.Kelling’soffice, and ending withthe intruder following her into the warehouse. She told them she’d managed to escape her kidnapper and was in hiding in the storage area when someone entered the warehouse via the stairwell. She gave them her account of the kidnapper firing at who she assumed was one of the museum guards, then running for the back exit where he first shot out the lock before escaping.
“What was the intruderlooking for?” a Detective Knowles inquired. “Did he say why he was there?”
“He said he was looking for a seal,” she truthfully acknowledged. “He seemed to be knowledgeable of the fact that my uncle had recently shipped several new artifacts to the museum, and believed the seal he was looking for was in that shipment.”
“Did he tell you what the seal looked like?”
“No, and I don’t think heknew for sure either. He ended up going through the crates, including the ones we hadn’t unpacked yet, and made off with several valuable items.” She explained further. “One in particular had a gold ring embedded in it. Egyptian burial artifacts sometimes are encrusted or covered in gold, which makes them almost priceless. Or he could have been trying to acquire them for a private collector. There’sa huge black market for authentic ancient artifacts.”
“Then you believe this guy may have been a pro?”
“Oh, yeah. Most definitely. He wasn’t some dude off the street looking for something he could hock for a few bucks.”
“How did you come to that conclusion?”
“He was wearing all black, including a mask. Kind of like a ninja. He even had a little black drawstring bag tied to his belt. Heput the items in that bag.”
“Did any of the other items that he took also have gold in them?”
She shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. We hadn’t inventoried those yet. You’ll have to ask Dr.Kelling. He’ll be able to give you a full description of everything.”
“And you’re sure there was just the one intruder?” another detective whose name she didn’t recall queried.
“As far as I know, yes.”
“So why did he follow you to the warehouse?” Knowles continued.
“I guess he wanted to see if there were any more crates that had been shipped. Apparently, he didn’t believe me when I told him everything that had arrived was up in the offices.”
“You said you managed to get away from him,” Detective Number Two verified. “How?”
“When we were in the offices, and he was digging inside the othercrates, I shoved the table up against him, blocking him in. It gave me enough time to make a run for the elevator.”
“Why didn’t you try to notify the guards?”
“I planned to, but I couldn’t find any.”
“One of the guards claimed you fled out the back door with an unknown suspect.”
“Yeah, I ran, but I was alone,” she insisted. “I found a fire escape ladder and climbed it up to the roof, andI stayed there until I felt it was safe to come down.”
By the look on the cops’ faces, it was clear they were having a hard time believing that part of her story. “Miss Van de Camp, why didn’t you come down when the police arrived? Surely you heard or saw the police respond to the alarms.”
She nodded. “I did, but I was on the phone to my uncle, telling him what had happened. He’d gotten acall from the museum curator, telling him about the break-in. My uncle phoned me to see if I knew anything about it, and I told him what had happened. I came down afterwards.”
The timeline was a bit wonky regarding when her uncle was notified and when he phoned her, but hopefully the police wouldn’t look too carefully into that detail.
They continued to question her for another hour or sobefore releasing her. After promising them they could reach her if they had any further questions, she was escorted back to the museum by an officer so she could gather her purse before heading home.
Did they believe she had anything to do with the break-in? Perhaps notifying the person responsible of the new shipment? Brielle hoped not. If they tried to go down that path, she knew they’d comeup empty-handed, but she couldn’t tell them that. They wouldn’t believe her if she tried. No, they would have to discover the truth on their own time and on their own terms.
In the meantime, she had one very unique specimen sitting on the roof of the Natural History Museum, waiting for her to return.
During her interrogation, both her uncle andIrminetexted her.Kellingwas wanting to knowwhat was happening and how she was holding up.Irminesent her one simple request.
