Riki crouched low in the backseat of the Audi as a fire truck raced by with its siren wailing. S
he watched with horror as it stopped in front of the Franciscan Friary. Above a line of brick row houses across the street, a curl of black smoke rose into the sky.
She took another look at an electronic tablet in her lap. The signal from the GPS transmitter placed on Dirk’s rental car indicated it was still parked in front of the friary. She pulled out her phone, then convinced herself to wait another two minutes. At last, she spotted a man and woman in dark clothes walking down the street. One carried an empty duffel bag as they approached and climbed into the front of the Audi.
“What on earth did you two just do?” she asked.
The man, a balding, overweight tough named Gavin, gave a devious smile. “We tracked them into a small building behind the church. It had only one door, and someone left the key in the lock. Ainsley had seen a petrol station up the block, and we found a glass jug at a garden shop, so we made an extra-large Molotov cocktail.” He grinned. “Those people should be charred to the bone by now.”
Riki felt a momentary pang that ignited into anger. “I told you to follow them and see where they went. I didn’t tell you to kill them. What were you thinking?”
Gavin’s satisfaction turned to spite. “Mrs. McKee told us to take them out at the first reasonable opportunity.”
“Mrs. McKee?” Riki said. She forced herself to take a deep breath. “I wanted to find out what they knew.” She stared at Gavin and shook her head. “Carrying a jug of petrol down the street and starting a blaze at a historic church doesn’t sound reasonable to me.”
“It was a self-service petrol station,” Ainsley replied. The woman’s high-pitched voice didn’t match her plain face and large frame. “We carried it in a duffel. Nobody saw anything suspicious.”
“Let’s not bank on that,” Riki said. “Get us out of here. Now!”
Ainsley drove them out of Killarney. Outside of town, Riki yelled to the driver, “Pull over! Pull over!”
Ainsley braked hard and pulled to the shoulder. She turned to the backseat and saw Riki with her nose to her tablet. The young woman studied the screen a moment, then looked up at the two thugs. “Their car is moving.”
Gavin shrugged. “Maybe the police are moving it.”
Riki shook her head. “No, it’s leaving town.” She pointed to a barn a short distance down the road. “Go park on the other side of that.”
Ainsley did as she was directed, backing the car along its far side so they wouldn’t be seen by traffic from Killarney. Riki watched on the tablet as the car approached a few minutes later, then she gazed out the windshield.
The little rental car zipped by with Dirk at the wheel, Summer alongside him, and Brophy in the back. None of them seemed to notice the Audi parked by the barn as they rounded the next curve and headed north. And none of them appeared charred to the bone.
It was nearly dark when Dirk pulled up to their hotel in Tralee an hour later.
Brophy begged off an invitation to dinner. “It’s been quite an harrowing day. I must be getting home to the missus,” he said. “Let’s plan on meeting first thing in the morning at Portmagee. It’s less than an hour from here. I’ll arrange for a boat, and we’ll pay ourselves a visit to Falcon Rock.”
“We’ll be there,” Dirk said. “Hopefully, our clothes won’t still smell like a barbecue grill.”
He and Summer showered and changed, then walked to a nearby Italian restaurant. After they received their wine, Dirk noted his sister stared at the doorway every time someone entered. “Expecting company?”
“The people that tried to kill us in Egypt have tracked us here.”
“Possibly. But I doubt they’d want to join us for dinner, unless the gnocchi here is really good.”
Summer shook her head. “Not funny.”
“We don’t know for a fact there’s a connection.”
“Of course we do. That’s why you parked the rental car behind the hotel.”
“Touché. Yet at this point, they have to suspect we died in the blaze.”
“I suppose.” She sipped her wine. “They must know we’ve made the connection between Meritaten and Ireland. Perhaps Dr. Brophy mentioned it to someone.”
“It must be the grave of Meritaten they’re trying to protect—or find before we do,” Dirk said.
“It can only be for two reasons. Either there’s treasure associated with the site or it’s the Apium of Faras.”
“This far from Egypt,” Dirk said, “the treasure potential would be minimal. I suppose any relics from that age are still valuable to an artifact thief.”