Book of Days_ A Novel - James L. Rubart [102]
"He's stalked you too?"
"Well, I wouldn't say stalked exactly, but yes."
"We need to be more careful than the elves."
"Agreed."
Cameron slowly squeezed his door handle, opened his door, and slid out. He pulled out his pack from the backseat, looked at Ann, and raised his eyebrows, as if to say one more time, "Are you sure?"
Ann nodded, got out—her pack in hand—and darted across the rough asphalt street, Cameron close behind. They sliced through the alley between The Sail & Compass and the Three Peaks Hotel around to the back of the building.
"I'm an idiot," Cameron said as they knelt next to the back door.
"Why?"
"I didn't remember to bring a glass cutter. We're going to have to break a window."
Ann scrunched up her face. "Are you teasing me?"
"What do you mean?"
"We talked about not having to worry about bringing tools to break in."
"We did?" Great. Another missing song from his brain's CD.
"We did. Watch." Ann pulled out an eight-piece lock-pick set from her pack and grinned at Cameron. After a quick study of the lock in the doorknob, she chose two picks and leaned in, her ear millimeters away from the lock.
She closed her eyes and seemed to be talking to herself. In less than thirty seconds the door was open. Ann bowed her head and extended her palm in invitation for Cameron to enter the building first.
"Another unknown skill of the resourceful Ann Banister."
"From when I was a teenager. Before I met Jessie and Jesus. Don't ask."
Neither spoke till they'd stepped inside and shut the back door behind them.
"Not to be paranoid, but let's lock that."
"Done," Ann said as she locked the door. "I need you to explain a mystery to me if you don't mind. If the book is genuine, why would Taylor hide the book in the heart of town where someone is more likely to go down to the basement and find it? Why not hide it in the basement of his home? Or in a cave out in the middle of nowhere? Or bury the thing in the ground?"
"Two reasons. The first is Poe."
"What?"
"Edgar Allan. 'The Purloined Letter.' The best place to hide something is—"
"Right out in the open," Ann finished. "I wouldn't call the basement out in the open."
"All I'm saying is you wouldn't expect him to hide it on his own property right in the center of Three Peaks."
"And the second reason?"
"The same reason we're here in the middle of the night. With this place filled all day long, seven days a week, it would be a little tough for someone to explain why they were headed to the basement, especially if it's locked, which I'm guessing it is."
Cameron moved through the restaurant's kitchen and looked for a door leading to the basement. "Taylor owns the building and The Sail & Compass?"
Ann stared at him, concern etched into her face. "No."
"But he started it, didn't he? The restaurant?"
Ann nodded. "Yes."
"I'm supposed to know this, aren't I?"
"Yes." She hugged him and whispered, "It's going to be okay. We're going to find the book and you're going to be healed."
A few moments later they found the stairs to the basement and Cameron started down them. The restaurant's dim night lights illuminated enough of the pine stairwell for Cameron to see his way down, but not much more. Two thirds of the way down he stepped on a stair that screeched like a catfight.
He glanced back at Ann. "I think you might want to avoid that step."
"Good call, H."
The quote from the K2 movie. Cameron smiled. He remembered.
At the bottom of the stairs was another door, this one with a double lock. "I'll take this as confirmation we're on the right track."
After Ann did her lock magic, they stepped through the door and snapped on their flashlights.
They stood in a large room filled with dusty cobwebs hanging from rough-hewn dark wooden beams. A light brown carpet, which might have been white once, covered the floor.
"It's a museum; no one's been down here in years," Cameron said.
"Museum is right."
Along the far wall was a series of shelves piled with an extensive assortment of Native American artifacts: arrowheads, clothing,