Countdown - Iris Johansen [98]
“Without giving me the choice. I was seventeen but I was no child, Eve.”
Eve flinched. “I always intended to tell you later. After you’d had your chance to forget Cira. But you didn’t forget. You still went on those archaeological field trips even after you went off to school.”
“So why didn’t you tell me then?”
She shook her head. “A lie keeps on growing, festering. We’d always been perfectly honest with each other. You trusted me. I desperately wanted to keep that trust.” Her lips twisted. “And then Grozak came on the scene and you told me that Cira’s gold might be a way to stop Grozak from getting what he needed.”
“What’s that got to do with this?”
“You didn’t look at the artifact case outside in the exhibit room.”
“I saw the reconstructions.”
“And they rivet the attention so much that most people don’t look at the other shelves. There was a small bag of gold coins found at the marina. They were near Guilia’s skeleton, but after they examined her and found she was probably a laborer, they decided it must have belonged to one of the other victims in that crowd running toward the sea.”
“My God.” Her gaze swung back to the reconstruction. “Then it could have been Cira.” But it was all wrong. This was not Cira. She felt it.
“Or Toriza could have been correct and the gold didn’t belong to her.” She added, “But I had to tell you about it, because I didn’t want you looking in Julius’s tunnel or at Cira’s theater when it might be buried somewhere near the marina.”
“How did you find out about the pouch?”
“Oh, Signor Toriza and I have become the best of friends during the past four years. You might say we’ve had a mutual exchange of favors.” Her lips lifted in a mirthless smile. “I could stomach a lie only so far. I had to make it right with the museum.” She nodded at the reconstruction. “And I had to make it right with her. I made her someone she wasn’t, and that wasn’t fair to her. I had to try to bring her home. So the summer after we left Herculaneum, I flew back here and talked to Toriza. We made a deal. I got him to agree to let me redo the reconstruction of Guilia and to promise that he would never put her on exhibition until I gave the word.”
“And the reconstruction in the case outside?”
“No skull. A bust I sculpted to match the reconstruction we were replacing. After all the publicity we couldn’t just let her disappear. She had to be on display.”
“I’m surprised Signor Toriza was willing to compromise his principals by suppressing the reconstruction.”
“Money. I paid him well.” She shrugged. “Not in cash. The sweat of my brow. I told you, we made a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“Every few months he’d send me one of his skulls to reconstruct. Over the last few years he’s acquired one of the best collections of ancient reconstructions in the world.”
“How did you do it? You’re always overworked.”
“I lied. I paid the piper.” She met Jane’s gaze. “And I’d do it again. Because there was always the chance as long as I didn’t feed the flames that you’d forget about Cira and get on with your life. That was worth a few all-nighters to finish Toriza’s reconstructions.”
“More than a few. Eleven. Did Joe know?”
Eve shook her head. “My lie. My price.” She paused. “What are you feeling? Are you angry with me?”
Jane didn’t know what she was feeling. She was too stunned to sort out the emotions. “Not . . . angry. You shouldn’t have done it, Eve.”
“Perhaps if I hadn’t been so tired and worried, I wouldn’t have made the same decision. No, I won’t give myself excuses. I gave you four years to rid yourself of an obsession and have a normal life. Do you know how precious that is? I do. I never had a normal life. I wanted to give you that gift.” She paused. “I realize you’ve always thought you came second with me after Bonnie.”
“I told you it didn’t matter to me.”
“It matters. You were never second, just different. I lied, I violated my professional ethics, and I worked myself to exhaustion for you. Maybe this will show you how much I care for you.” She shrugged wearily. “And maybe it won’t.” She turned