The Mask of Destiny (37 page)

‘It'll do him good to see what life's like without great wads of cash,' Ruby said.

There was a light knock on the door and a housemaid announced that Inspector Parrott from the London Metropolitan Police had arrived.

The inspector greeted them all warmly and handed a shoebox to Gerald.

‘What's this?' Gerald asked as he peered inside.

‘It's the last of the material we recovered from Sir Mason's rooms at the Rattigan Club,' he said. ‘It appears to be the documents stolen from your house by Green's associate.'

Gerald flicked through a pile of newspaper clippings, envelopes, a dry cleaning ticket…and a letter, with ‘Delphi' written at the top in Greek.

‘The letter from great aunt Geraldine,' he said. He skimmed the contents and groaned. ‘It says Delphi is the key to the mystery. This could have saved us a lot of stuffing around.'

Sam shrugged and took a chocolate-chip biscuit from a plate on the card table. ‘Never mind,' he said. ‘It helped fill in the time.'

‘Have you heard from Constable Lethbridge?' Ruby asked the inspector. ‘How is he?'

‘He's running a pigeon hospital in Rome with his new girlfriend,' Parrott said. ‘He seems to be very happy.' The inspector fixed Gerald with a penetrating stare. ‘You three certainly led the police on a merry chase across Europe. I'm still curious exactly how you located Sir Mason Green. In a cave. In Greece.'

Gerald glanced at Sam, who looked to Ruby, who closed the triangle with a look back to Gerald.

‘Um, we had help from a boy in Delphi,' Gerald said, as innocently as he could. ‘He'd heard some rumours about an old man hiding in a cave. We found him and brought him out in an underground stream.' He turned back to doodling on his notepad. ‘There's not much else to tell.'

‘What about Charlotte Green?' Parrott said. ‘The local police found her chemistry laboratory and the poison she used to murder Green's double in the Old Bailey, but they haven't been able to find a trace of her. It's as if she's disappeared in a puff of smoke.'

‘Um…' Gerald said.

There was a long silence, which ended with Mr Prisk and Mrs Rutherford both jumping to their feet. ‘Can't keep you all day, inspector,' Mr Prisk said, ushering him towards the door.

‘That's right,' chimed in Mrs Rutherford. ‘You're a busy man, inspector. Let me show you out.' There was a bustle of bodies in the doorway and finally Gerald, Ruby and Sam were alone.

Gerald checked that the door was properly closed before collapsing back into his armchair.

‘Are you sure we did the right thing?' Ruby asked. ‘Keeping the real city of Delphi a secret?'

‘Completely,' Gerald said. ‘My ancestors gave up their lives to keep the Oracle's secret safe. It'd be poor form for me to give it away now.'

‘It's funny when you think about it,' Sam said. ‘The mask actually protects itself. You can't wear it outside the temple without turning into a human sandcastle. And if you do put it on inside the temple, you're condemned to stay there for the rest of your life.' He picked up another biscuit. ‘We could have spent the summer at the beach.'

‘I guess Marcus, Lucius and Gaius went that one step further to make sure it remained a secret,' Ruby said.

Gerald was putting the finishing touches to a drawing of Ruby. ‘Do you still think everything that happened was coincidence?' he said.

Ruby shuffled the playing cards and started laying them out, one by one, on the table. The first card she turned up was the joker. ‘I think there's a perfectly logical explanation for everything.'

‘Really? How about my name being chiselled into a block of marble sixteen hundred years ago.'

Ruby straightened in her chair. The next card she turned up was the ace of spades. ‘Just because I can't explain it doesn't mean there's no explanation,' she said.

Sam let out a loud laugh, and flicked a rubber band at his sister. ‘I wonder how Nico is going,' he said.

Ruby flipped over the nine of diamonds. ‘I'm glad he didn't see what happened to Charlotte in the temple.' She shivered lightly. ‘It still gives me the creeps.'

‘Do you think Nico will try to find the real Delphi again?' Sam said. ‘All that treasure would be tempting. Just one of those gold statues and his aunt wouldn't need to take in lodgers anymore.'

Gerald pulled a document from the pile of papers Mr Prisk had left on the coffee table. ‘I think Nico might be too busy to worry about buried treasure. The Archer Corporation's tourism division has just invested in some holiday accommodation in Delphi.'

Ruby smiled at Gerald. ‘Oh, really?'

‘Yes. We've found some local experts to run the place for us on an extended minimum loan repayment agreement.'

‘Just how extended?'

‘About a thousand years.'

‘You've bought Nico and his aunt a hotel, haven't you!' Ruby said.

Gerald blushed. ‘It was the least I could do, after what we put Nico through,' he said. ‘It'll set them up and you just know that Nico will make the business a success. So much more satisfying to build your own fortune.'

‘More satisfying than what?' Ruby asked.

‘Than inheriting it,' Gerald said.

There was a pause in the conversation. The afternoon sun streamed through the tall windows, filling the games room with lethargic warmth.

Gerald looked up to find Ruby staring at him.

‘School starts on Monday,' she said. ‘For Sam and me, anyway.'

‘Yeah,' Gerald said. ‘I know.'

‘So what are you doing?' Ruby asked. ‘Have your mum and dad decided?'

‘They're talking about boarding school,' Gerald said. ‘In some grim castle in Scotland, I think.'

‘It'd be nice if you were in London,' Ruby said. She turned over the queen of hearts. ‘You know. Close by.'

The room seemed to heat up a few degrees. Gerald's stomach did a back flip.

‘Yeah,' he said. ‘That'd be good.'

There was an awkward silence

Sam jumped out of his chair. ‘Oh for Pete's sake, let's go outside and do something. You two are making me nauseous.'

He clipped Gerald over the back of the head and made for the stairs.

‘I'll get you for that!' Gerald called after him. He pulled Ruby out of her chair and they set off after Sam, diving down the staircase in a helter-skelter dash to the front entry. They skidded past Mrs Rutherford and pitched through the door into the sunshine.

Summer may have been over.

But there was still fun to be had.

Dear Gerald,

And so to the family legend. When I was a young
woman, my father sat me down and told me a fantastical
tale of ancient Greece. I had no reason to disbelieve him
then, and you have no reason to disbelieve me now. You
are the first and only person I have told this story to. But there are others who know of it. And that is the
reason they are out to kill me. And you.

The prize they are seeking is the one that we must
protect. That is our purpose and our promise.

The prize is in Delphi.

It is the very secret of the Oracle herself.

I will not bore you with the details of the Pythia:
they are recounted in endless books. Get a library card
and educate yourself, dear boy. But you need to
know that you are her descendant—and that makes you
special.

I visited Delphi in my younger days, sailing down
from Turkey. It was truly wondrous. I wasn't looking
for the Oracle's secret—I knew it was hidden well
enough. But I wanted to see the place, to feel its presence.

We must protect this secret, Gerald. The future is
for all of us to create—not for any one person to control.

I have left a great trust to one so young, Gerald. Use
this fortune to honour that trust. And to bring some
happiness to others.

And buy yourself some ice cream. I wish I'd eaten
more of it.

Wishing you eternal good fortune,

Geraldine.

PS. And for pity's sake, tell Mr Fry that teaspoon collec
tion I left him is extremely valuable—worth five million
pounds to any decent collector. He's such an old fluff,
he's probably sulking about getting a box of cutlery. I
hope he doesn't give you a hard time about it. xxx

Acknowledgments

A big thank you to:
Dr Gilbert J. Price from the Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis at the University of Queensland, for advice on the fossilisation of human skeletons; Jordan Brown in New York, whose unfailing good humour and patience have helped me chart new and sometimes bizarre territories; the many school teachers and librarians who have sipped coffee at the back of the room and allowed me to talk with their students about the wonderful world of writing; booksellers…I salute you; and Jane Pearson, whose vision I trust and whose skill, talent and patience are beyond measure.