Lorraine looked very pale. "Tonight. She screams again tonight. That’s why I came here. I want to hire Lazarus Gray to be there. To protect me. To tell me I’m not insane. And, maybe, to kill her."
"I’m willing to do that," Lazarus Gray said. All eyes turned toward the man who stood in the doorway. How long he’d been there, no one was sure. He sometimes moved with the stealth of a jungle cat, soundlessly coming and going. He was a well-built man with gray-streaked brown hair, making him look older than he was. His eyes were piercing and mismatched: one eye was a startling emerald, the other a dull brown. He wore a dark suit and tie but there was something primal about him, something that suggested he would be just as much at home in a loincloth. "But before we come over tonight, there are a few things that must be done."
Morgan rose, smiling. "Chief! Boy, am I glad you’re here! Did you hear everything?"
"Enough." Gray nodded at Samantha. "Please make a transatlantic call to this Mr. Garmont. Find out the history of this mummy and if anything unusual occurred with it in the past. Morgan, I want you to go upstairs and get Eun. I believe he’s about to start filing the papers from the case I was just on. Tell him to set those aside and go with you to the Sovereign People’s Bank. Tell him to find out if Mr. Mitchell had a safety deposit box. He needs to get access to it."
"My husband didn’t have anything like that. If he had, I’m sure his father would have given me the key at the funeral."
"Perhaps." Gray favored Lorraine with the briefest of smiles but the expression didn’t reach his eyes, which remained cold and determined. "I will need you to authorize something for me, Mrs. Mitchell. I’m going to need to see your husband’s body and confirm that there was no foul play involved."
Lorraine’s lips became a hard, thin line. "My husband’s buried in the ground."
"Yes. But if you give permission, I can pull a few strings and have him exhumed immediately."
With a shaky voice, Lorraine whispered, "Whatever you think is needed, Mr. Gray."
"Good. I’ll help you with the appropriate paperwork. Morgan, please escort Mrs. Mitchell back to her home. Examine this mummy while you’re waiting for us. Make sure that it’s what it looks like and that no one is playing a cruel trick on our client." Gray nodded crisply, energized by the mystery before him. "Let’s get to work. We only have about twelve hours before the corpse screams again."
Chapter II
Questions With Deadly Answers
Eun Jiwon stepped into the bank, well aware of the stares he received. He was smartly dressed in a black suit and tie but his Korean features made him stand out. He had come here a few times when his parents were alive and he remembered the shame he’d felt when his father had begged for an extension on his loan. The flames of anger never truly died, he realized. They just dimmed to flickering embers, ready to reignite at the proper moment.
"Can I help you?" asked one of the bank’s employees. He was an older man with silver hair and thick glasses. He regarded Eun with curiosity but not outright distrust like so many others did. A small nametag placed over his heart indicated that his name was John Mitchell.
"I work with Assistance Unlimited." Eun held out a small business card with the group’s address and logo printed on it. The logo showed an open hand, palm up, with the words Assistance Unlimited printed across it. Beneath these were the address 6196 Robeson Avenue and a telephone number. "We’re currently investigating a matter concerning Lorraine Mitchell and I’d like to have access to her husband’s safety deposit box."
John Mitchell’s face fell and his eyes became guarded. "That would be my son you’re talking about. What kind of case are you working on regarding my daughter-in-law?"
"That’s private, I’m afraid."
"So is my son’s safety deposit box."
"So there is one? Mrs. Mitchell indicated that she didn’t think there was, since you hadn’t given her access to it upon your son’s death." Eun held his ground, even as John Mitchell’s demeanor became darker.
John glanced around at the other customers and employees, many of whom were watching them. He lowered his voice and took Eun by the elbow, steering him toward the vault. "My son kept a box. All of us do. Sometimes we keep things of personal or business importance in them. A lot of times, it’s not things we’d like for our wives to see."
"Is that the kinds of things in his box?"
"I don’t know. I have no clue what’s in there. But when he died, I couldn’t bring myself to look inside. It’s still too soon. My son was a disappointment to me in many ways but I loved him. When Lorraine didn’t ask about the box, I assumed he hadn’t told her about it. And if he hadn’t told her about it, then there was some reason as to why."
Eun nodded. "I understand. I promise to use discretion. Unless it’s pertinent to our case, I won’t share the details of anything I see with Mrs. Mitchell."
"I would appreciate that. Keep in mind that the only reason I’m doing this at all is because of who your employer is. That man’s done a lot of good in this town and Lord knows we need more people like him." John gestured for a guard to open up the room containing the safety deposit boxes and he led Eun inside, closing the door behind them. He walked straight toward one of the boxes and placed it on the room’s single table. After fishing out a master key from an inside pocket on his jacket, he opened the box and pushed it toward Eun. "I do hope my daughter-in-law isn’t in any kind of danger."
"That’s what we’re trying to find out," Eun admitted. He peered inside the box, finding several envelopes of varying sizes. He peered into several of them, finding handwritten notes and erotic French postcards. From the feminine scent on several of the notes, Eun guessed that Mr. Mitchell had at least one woman on the side, perhaps more. He also found nearly three thousand dollars in cash and a small handgun. All in all, it was rather typical stuff for a man who was living a double life.
But it was the contents of a small manila envelope stuffed at the bottom of the box that caused Eun to pause. There was a necklace of some kind inside, one with a gold chain and a small seven-pointed star pendant. The pendant was lined with tiny diamonds, causing it to glitter brightly in the light. It was very old and Eun knew that it was probably priceless. On the back of the pendant were a series of minuscule hieroglyphics.
John Mitchell stood a few feet away, obviously unwilling to look into the box himself. Perhaps, Eun mused, he was afraid to find out what his son might have been involved in. "Did you find anything?"
Eun held up the necklace. "Have you ever seen this before?"
"No, I haven’t." John moved forward, staring at the pendant. "I know he recently purchased a mummy. I wonder if that came with it?"
Eun dropped the necklace into a pocket and pushed the box back toward Mr. Mitchell. "I’ll take it with me so Lazarus can look at it. If it turns out that it’s not related, I’ll see that it’s returned here."
"Can’t you tell me what’s going on?"
Hesitating, Eun considered opening up to the man. It was obvious that despite whatever problems he might have had with his son, he did love him and that extended to his widow as well. Lazarus hadn’t specifically told him to hold his cards close to the vest but Eun knew what his employer would do in this situation and he elected to follow suit. "I’m sorry. Rest assured that we’re doing all that we can."
Eun spun about and exited the room, aware of the necklace’s weight in his pocket. It was far heavier than he would have expected. Somehow, this was tied into the mystery of the mummy and he was willing to bet that Lazarus would be able to figure out how.