In the second chamber, Noland’s expression finally registered enough awe to satisfy me. When he noticed me watching him, he yawned and shrugged as if suffering from existential ennui. But he couldn’t pull it off. The artwork was simply too remarkable.
After a half hour of silent observation and note taking, he turned to Derek. “I’ll need complete access to these rooms if I’m to do a competent job of appraising the work. Do I get the key from you?”
“I assure you you’ll have complete access.” Derek handed him his business card. “Just call my cell anytime you want to look at something and I’ll arrange an escort for you.”
“An escort?” Garrity let loose a scornful laugh. “No, no. That’s not how I work. I’ll require the security code and a key to the doors so I can come and go at my own pace.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Derek said, and bared his teeth in a rakish smile. “That’s not how I work.”
Chapter Nine
By Wednesday morning, our remarkably professional-looking exhibition of The Hidden Treasures of La Croix Saint-Just was ready to be presented to the world. The subtitle of the exhibit was How One French Village Saved Its Legacy from the Nazis. That gave it a wine-country spin with the added jolt of the Nazi connection.
Within two hours of its opening, there was a line of curious visitors winding out the door and down the steps of the town hall. Mom, Robin, and Trudy, along with their exhibit staff and crowd-control volunteers, were all doing an amazing job.
I stuck around to hear people’s reactions, and they were glowing, thank goodness. Everyone was intrigued with the story of the French family shipping their fellow villagers’ treasured heirlooms out of the country and escaping the dreaded Nazis in the middle of the night.
At one o’clock, Derek picked me up, and we drove to Dharma’s city hall for the big press conference scheduled for two o’clock that afternoon. On the drive over, we discussed our strategy again. Derek was to give a brief introduction, and I would talk about what we’d found in the cave; then we would take their questions. He insisted it would go smoothly, but I was nervous.
We parked in the city hall parking lot and stayed in the car to finish discussing what we would say. Our strategy was simple: tell the truth. Before we took any questions, we would start with the story of how we found the body in the cave and estimate how long the man had been there—omitting the name of the victim, of course. Any questions beyond the basics, even if we knew the answers, would be referred to the sheriff’s department.
Next, we would discuss how we’d inadvertently found the second cave—omitting the discovery of the map on the notepaper inside Journey to the Center of the Earth. I insisted on this because I didn’t want anyone coming after the book. In my experience, people were more than willing to kill over a valuable book. And that reminded me that I hadn’t yet gone online to appraise its worth.
Finally, we would suggest to everyone that they attend the Treasures photographic exhibit at the town hall. Because there was no way in hell any of these reporters would be allowed to step one foot inside the cave if Derek had anything to say about it.
“Are you ready for this?” Derek asked.
“Sure. Do you want to embellish anything, or just give them the straight scoop?”
“There’s no way you can possibly embellish anything, so please don’t try.”
“Why can’t I embellish things?”
“Because you’re a rotten liar.”
“Thanks a lot.” I smacked him in the arm.
He patted his heart. “I say it with love.”
“I know I get a little tongue-tied and turn beet red when I’m dancing around the truth, but this is different. I can pull this off.”
“There’s nothing to pull off. We simply tell the truth.” He quickly added, “But not the whole truth.”
I grimaced. “See, this is where I get hung up. What part do we leave out?”
He grabbed my hand and kissed it. “You’re scaring me to death.”
“Come on. Tell me what not to say.”
“All right.” He sighed. “They already know about the dead body in the cave, of course, but they don’t know that Robson’s grandfather was the man’s best friend—and we’re not going to tell them.”
“Right.”
“They don’t know about the book we found, with the two boys’ signatures. They don’t know that you found a map in the book that led us to find even more priceless objects. They don’t know about Henri threatening Robson.”
I nodded. “Right. Got it. Let’s do this.”
It was Derek’s turn to look uneasy. “You should probably wait in the car.”
“No way. I’m going to be awesome. Don’t worry.”
Shaking his head, Derek gazed out the window toward the city hall steps where the members of the press were assembling. “I suppose we ought to get out there.”
I leaned forward to get a better look. “It’s a bigger crowd than I expected.”
“Yes.” He pointed to a car parked at the end of the aisle from us. “And someone from the sheriff’s department is here, too.”
“Good. I’m glad you called them.”
He glanced back at me. “Are you ready?”