Treasured Dreams (25 page)

Alessandro located book nine and brought it back to Helen. She grasped the book briefly, then handed it back. ‘This book will have information on Egypt.'

Alessandro's jaw dropped. ‘How do you know?'

She turned to Archer. ‘Don't you remember your own system, Wade?' Her tone was incredulous.

Archer's shoulders sagged. ‘I'm Archer, Mum.'

‘Oh.' Helen's face crumbled. In a flash, the clarity in her eyes vanished, and she was lost again.

‘Come on.' Archer led her to the stairs. ‘Let's have a look at the Egyptian sunset.'

Alessandro waited until they'd left the room before he spoke. ‘I feel terrible.'

‘It's not your fault.' Rosalina's lips drew into a thin line. ‘Helen is always confusing Archer for Wade. She told us once that he looks exactly like Wade did, and she gets muddled up sometimes. It must be awful.' Rosalina shook her head and turned back to open the oven door.

Alessandro loved researching the past, but he couldn't imagine being trapped in one. Especially one with such horrific circumstances. He turned his attention back to the book in his hand and frowned. ‘How did she know this was the book?' Inside the cover were four countries. Ireland. Brazil. Australia. Italy. ‘I don't understand. Egypt isn't even listed in the front cover.'

He turned over page after page, trying to work out Wade's logic. Some pages were filled with Wade's scratchings, some barely had two words. There were drawings, names, dates, and entire paragraphs of handwritten text. A drawing about a third of the way through caught his eye. It was a baboon.

‘Look at this.' He laid the book out on the kitchen bench. ‘A baboon.'

‘Looks like a monkey to me.' Jimmy smirked.

‘We've already been over … never mind.' Alessandro dismissed Jimmy's comment. He'd previously attempted to point out the obvious differences between monkeys and baboons, but the man didn't really want to know.

‘Hey, look at that.' Ginger pointed at a drawing on the other side of a seahorse. The artist, presumably Wade, had drawn oversized wings with the deft strokes of a pencil. The way they were drawn made it look like the seahorse was an angel about to take flight.

‘The Flying Seahorse!' Rosalina, Ginger and Jimmy all said in unison. Together they burst into laughter as another piece of the scrapbook puzzle slotted into place.

‘We need to pay more attention to Wade's drawings.'

Ginger squeezed his arm. ‘It's like playing Pictionary.'

A beeping behind Rosalina had her turning away. She opened the oven door and the aromas of roasted potato and rosemary filled the room.

‘Damn that smells good,' Jimmy said. ‘I'm so hungry I could eat the arse off a flying duck.'

Alessandro gawked at Jimmy. ‘That's disgusting.'

‘What?' Jimmy shrugged.

Rosalina shut the oven door. ‘Well, lucky for you, we're having steak. Now, can one of you boys start the barbeque for me please?'

‘I'm onto it.' Jimmy strode off towards the stairs leading to the sun deck.

Alessandro tugged a bar stool out for Ginger and chose one for himself, too. ‘I still don't understand how Helen knew this book would have Egypt in it.'

‘I think Helen knows a lot about Wade's treasure hunting,' Rosalina said. ‘But going back to that time hurts so much, she forces those memories away.'

Alessandro couldn't imagine living with so much horror. ‘It would be lovely if we could involve her somehow.'

‘Maybe it would help,' Ginger said. ‘I mean, if it were me, I'd like to have something to do.'

‘Everyone grieves differently.' When Rosalina looked away, Alessandro assumed she was referring to her father's reaction after her mother died. She'd told him once that her father had never been the same after her mother had passed away.

Ginger turned the pages over one by one, and her hand fell down between his knees, dragging his thoughts from the past. She stopped on a page that had Egyptian hieroglyphics. ‘Looks like Helen was right about this book having Egypt in it.'

‘But how?' Alessandro flipped to the front. ‘Egypt isn't listed in the front.'

‘I'm going to get these on the barbeque.' Rosalina loaded up a tray with enormous steaks, and Alessandro's mouth salivated just looking at them.

‘We'll come up soon.'

‘Actually, you can bring up the salad and potato bake when it's done.'

‘
Va bene
.'

Rosalina left the room, and Alessandro turned his eyes back to the notebook.

‘Show me the first book you gave her,' Ginger said.

He reached over and handed her book seven. Ginger opened it to the inside cover and studied the four counties, then she jumped in her seat. ‘I know.' She beamed up at him.

‘What?'

‘I know how Helen did it. You'll figure it out.'

Alessandro reached for book seven and searched for something that indicated where to look next, like a hidden symbol or inscription. ‘You're looking too hard.' Ginger was wriggling on her seat now. The grin on her face was adolescent in its exuberance.

‘Tell me.'

‘No.' She slapped him on his knee. ‘You have to work it out. I know you can.'

‘Mmm.' He turned his attention back to the book. When the answer hit him, he felt like a fool and rolled his eyes at Ginger. ‘Egypt is the second country listed, so the information is in the second book after this one.'

‘You got it.' She reached up to plant a kiss on his lips. ‘I knew you would.'

‘
Il mio dolce
, you're brilliant.'

‘So are you.'

Alessandro clicked his fingers. ‘Let's find the Solomon Island notebooks.'

They jumped off the barstools simultaneously and dropped to their knees on the plush carpet to open the front covers one by one. Once finished, they had five books that supposedly contained information on the Solomon Islands and hopefully the
Awa Maru
treasure.

‘Let's go tell the others,' Ginger squealed.

Alessandro clutched her arm before she scooted off and drew her in for a kiss. Their lips met, and it was perfect, like a puzzle piece slotting into place. Her mouth was hot and soft, yet hungry at the same time. Their kiss deepened, and their probing tongues moulded together in a delicious tango. Her warm hand on the back of his neck had little fireworks blazing through his body.

She pulled back all too soon. ‘What was that about?'

‘You. You're adorable.' He wanted to kiss her all night long.

Her smile lit up her face. ‘You can tell me again later.' She reached up on her tippy-toes and gave him a brief kiss on the lips ‘Come on.' She grabbed his hand, and giggling, they raced up to the top deck.

The smell of steaks cooking on the barbeque set Alessandro's stomach grumbling again.

‘We solved it,' Ginger said, as soon as the others were in view.

‘Ginger solved it,' Alessandro corrected her.

‘Solved what?' Rosalina said from the barbeque.

Helen sat at the bar with her fingers wrapped around the stem of a wine glass. She didn't look sad. She didn't look happy, either. It was more a look of numb indifference. Archer was at his mother's side, and Jimmy was behind the bar with a beer in his hand.

‘We worked out Wade's system to determine which books contained information of each country.'

‘How?' Archer jerked his head in their direction.

‘Go on, tell them.' Ginger squeezed his hand.

‘You worked it out; you should tell them.'

‘Bloody hell, one of you tell us.' Jimmy grumbled.

Ginger looked up at Alessandro, her long blonde lashes flicking up and down, and he squeezed her hand again. ‘You tell them,' he said.

She jiggled her head. ‘Okay.' At the bar, she opened up one of the books and explained how it worked.

Jimmy slapped his hand on the marble top, and the sound was like a cracking whip. ‘Fucking genius. Sorry, Helen.'

‘You're forgiven. Just don't do it again.' When a smile crept across Helen's face, Jimmy laughed, and soon everyone was laughing too.

Rosalina tapped the tongs on the barbeque. ‘Okay you lot, dinner is served.'

‘Oh shit,' Ginger said. ‘Come on, Alex, we'll get the potato bake and salads.'

Before Rosalina had a chance to rouse on them, he dashed after Ginger.

Dinner was a fun affair. The steaks were perfectly cooked, juicy in the middle and just the right amount of char on the surface. The lights of Alexandria in the distance matched the abundance of stars above them. During the meal, the conversation revolved around the markets Rosalina and Ginger had gone to and the scuba diving afterwards. This was the first time Alessandro was actually jealous about them diving. To have seen those ancient treasures sitting at the bottom of the ocean would've been incredible.

‘Do you know how those statues and columns got down there?' Archer asked.

‘I bet Professor Alex is about to tell us.' Jimmy swigged on his beer.

Alessandro played his aloof card and shrugged. ‘I don't have to.'

Ginger placed her hand on her forearm. ‘Go on, honey, tell us. Don't worry about him.'

‘Yes, honey, tell us.' Jimmy's grin was contagious, and Alessandro found himself grinning despite himself.

‘Alexandria's Royal Quarters, including the palace and temple complex where Queen Cleopatra lived in 30BC, slipped into the sea after an enormous earthquake in the fourth century.'

‘That's a bloody long time ago. It's a wonder it's still there,' Archer said.

‘It was only discovered in 1996. Until then, centuries of sediment had protected it from the salt water.'

‘Even so'—Archer waved his fork at Alessandro—‘why is it still there?'

‘Some of the pieces weigh tonnes, so raising them from the water would be a logistical challenge. Interestingly, the Council of Antiquities have decided to leave the bigger pieces down there and are considering making an underwater museum,' Alessandro said. ‘I must say, I was surprised that you could dive down there. I would've thought there'd be all sorts of red tape to dive in a significant site like that.'

‘Oh there was,' Archer said. ‘But cash in the right people's pockets encouraged them to turn a blind eye.'

Alessandro shook his head. That sort of thing horrified him. Priceless artefacts like that should have strict rules about who went near them, no matter how much money they had.

‘Speaking of the Council of Antiquities,' Rosalina said, ‘how did you go today, Alessandro?'

‘Oh.' Alessandro swallowed his mouthful of steak and placed his knife and fork on his plate. ‘It was amazing and horrifying at the same time. They have hundreds of incredible ancient artefacts scattered around everywhere. People can touch them. These pieces are priceless and should be secured behind glass facilities to protect them.'

‘This is Egypt,' Helen said. ‘That's how things have always been done.'

Archer grinned at his mother's comment.

‘Yes, I understand. But just because it has always been done this way doesn't make it acceptable.' He shrugged. It was an argument for another day. ‘I saw many sarcophagi of all different shapes and sizes. Some were as small as a child, some were as big as a van, and all were detailed with hieroglyphics. Oh, I saw a five-thousand-year-old wooden statue and the remains of a queen's intestines that had been preserved in alabaster jars.'

‘Ewww, gross.' Ginger scrunched up her nose.

‘No, not at all. It's
magico
.'

‘So did you just swan around, or did you actually meet anyone who might be able to help us?'

‘I didn't swan around, Jimmy.' Alessandro huffed. ‘But I didn't get behind the scenes, as you say. Although, sadly, I have the impression that if I was willing to pay, like you did, Archer, I would have progressed much further.'

‘Remember that for next time,' Archer said, as he pushed his plate forward and leant on his elbows. ‘So I guess we have a decision to make.' He quickly glanced at all of them. ‘As we're already in Egypt, do we go after the Calimala treasure, or do we carry on to the Solomon Islands and look for the
Awa Maru
treasure? I'm sure Nox doesn't care which one, as long as he gets
a
treasure.'

Alessandro was running through the pros and cons in his mind when Helen cleared her throat.

‘You go after the easiest one,' Helen said.

Archer blinked at her and then frowned. ‘And which one would that be, Mum?'

‘The
Awa Maru
of course.' She said it like Archer was a fool, and he laughed.

‘Okay. I'll bite. Why is that one easier?'

‘Because the
Awa Maru
mystery is only sixty or so years old. The Calimala treasure, on the other hand, is over seven hundred years old.'

Archer nodded, draped his arm over his mother's shoulder, and pulled her in to kiss her forehead. ‘Brilliant decision. Does everyone else agree?'

‘I'll drink to that.' Jimmy held up his beer.

‘You'll drink to anything, Jimmy,' Alessandro said.

‘Bloody oath. Life's too short.'

‘I'll drink to that,' Helen said, and raised her glass with everyone else.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Nox wandered the halls of Provenzia orphanage, searching for an ideal room to detain Filippo. In the end, there was only one room that didn't have windows—the medical centre. It was an odd half-hexagonal-shaped room positioned beneath the stairs, as if an afterthought. The unusual stepped ceiling was the only part of the room that wasn't covered in blue three-inch square tiles, although many of those tiles had fallen off, leaving cracked glue residue after their departure from the wall.

It was in this very room that Nox had experienced his first and last legitimate dentist visit. The chair he'd sat in was still here, stuck in a disjointed three-piece position, making it impossible to lie down flat. Above it hung a giant metal cylinder pockmarked with holes that once housed seven bright lights. He was only nine years old when he'd laid upon it and the dentist, with most of his face hidden behind a yellowed mask, had looked down at him with ghoulish black eyes. It didn't matter how much Nox had screamed, or how much blood he'd swallowed, the dentist had continued drilling and scraping until Nox had passed out from the pain.