Alvarado Gold (10 page)

“No. It was bought up by a private. My job will change. The only real difference is Geller will be gone and the Vice President slot will be open.” A slight grin began to catch the corners of Jack’s mouth.

“Who’s the new owner? Anyone we know? Is Findley over in the lab going to get the VP job? He’s been here the longest.” I shot questions at Jack before he could answer.

“I bought Docurestore. You’re the new VP.”

I never felt the cup slide out of my hand. When it landed and slopped out on the clean, brown tile floor, we looked at each other and laughed.

Chapter Twelve

After I cleaned up the coffee and sent Jack on his way, time came to prepare my strategy for the project. I wanted to call the museum, talk with Elizabeth McCran to find out what I’d gotten myself into, and have the documents brought from the safe room. I made a mental note to have maintenance crank down the air conditioning and ask Catherine to give me a key to the archive room.

By eight-thirty, I’d checked off everything on my list except placing the call to Elizabeth. She and I had been friends for a long time after meeting while I worked at the museum. She’d worked her way up through the ranks and now spent her time divided between procurement and management.

I dialed her number and heard her voice, “Liz, it’s Addie. I haven’t talked to you in ages.”

“It is so good to hear from you. I hear Jack lured you back to his den.”

“Word gets out fast doesn’t it? I’ve only been back two days,” I laughed. “That’s where you come in, my dear. What’s this project I’ve been lassoed into?”

“Ah…the Cairo project. Well, to put it into a nutshell, two years ago a tomb was opened about two hundred kilometers north of Cairo, not far from where the Rosetta Stone was found. It was of some little known government official. Since he had no importance, his tomb was never raided leaving everything in near perfect condition. The documents you’ll be working on are tax records and local government transactions.” I could hear a lilt of excitement in Elizabeth’s voice. The findings must have been fairly important for her to get excited.

The project sparked my interest. “How did it wind up here?” Now, I was eager to see the documents and glanced at my watch to see what held up my delivery.

“Geller and John Cahill both happened to be in Cairo when the tomb was found. They struck a deal with the Egyptian officials to let the museum have the first exclusive showing and, in turn, work would be done on the artifacts and documents to preserve them. The artifacts will be cleaned here at the museum with Docurestore taking care of the papyrus.”

“Those two can always turn a deal, can’t they?”

“They’re good at it but Cahill’s going to retire. Geller is taking his place on the Board in September. The opening of the exhibit coincides with the change-over. Geller won’t be around your place much after he takes over the chair position.”

“Well, he isn’t here much now anyway.” I didn’t know if anyone knew Jack had bought the business so I kept my mouth shut. This project turned out to be bigger than I’d thought. If Geller took the chair position on the Museum Board and was selling Docurestore all at the same time, the exhibition would be his premier showing. No wonder Jack seemed nervous.

“You’ve been a lot of help, Liz. The docs should be here any minute now and I’m anxious to see them.”

“Are you working this alone?” Liz sounded a little apprehensive. “There are one hundred and fifty documents to be cleaned before the end of August. That’s a big job.”

“I might as well be. Jack hired two kids straight out of the university. I’ll spend a lot of my time teaching them what to do.”

‘You have your work cut out for you then. Are they any good?”

“I don’t know. Actually, they each have some irritating habits. Sherry can’t say enough good things about me, which makes me think she’s up to something. Then, I have Mitch who, when he isn’t following me around like a puppy, is hinting at a date. He waited for me in the parking lot this morning.”

“Oh, Addie, you’ll do fine.” Liz’s stifled chuckle could still be heard on the phone.

“I may have you come over and put the a little fear into them if need be. I really don’t want this muddled up. I’m afraid it’s going to be a lot of long hours in the next two months.” I heard the cart being wheeled down the hall toward my open door. “Liz, gotta go, the docs are here.”

As I hung up the phone, I motioned to Matthew, the assistant from the safe room, to lay the documents on the table. They were sealed in airtight bags probably just as they’d been when taken off the site.

I walked around the table and noticed the excellent condition of the papyrus. I must admit, I felt a sense of relief. If there had been much damage, we’d never finish in time. I glanced at the clock. Nine o’clock, and just as if they’d heard my mental cue, my two protégés stood in the doorway.

Mitch eagerly ran to the table and reached for one of the bags.

“Don’t.” I must have snapped at him with more force than I intended. He stepped back and stood behind Sherry.

I knew neither one of them understood the frailty of the documents nor did they understand why it was so important to me everything went back out on the museum floor in better condition than it had come to us in the bags from the dig. It was hard to explain that our work wasn’t exactly repairing the documents as much as it was to stop any further deterioration. I wasn’t but a few years older than the two of them but I had “old” ideas. I always did. Sometimes I think I was born a grownup. I didn’t play with the usual dolls. If you wanted to find me, you needed to look for my dad because I was right by his side. I loved to play with his surveying equipment, thumb through his passport and, often times, beg to go with him when he left to engineer another bridge or building. Everything he did was precise and accurate; it had to be since people’s lives depended on it. I learned that from him and applied it to everything I did. I’d been too hard on Mitch.

“I’m sorry, Mitch. I can’t let you just run in and grab things. I need to have a little ‘class’ first to find out exactly what you two know. This is an important, first-time showing for the Museum. The documents are in near perfect condition. They’re important and fragile. You’re not only going to be preserving history, you’re actually touching something another person held in their hands over
two thousand
years ago. If you two learn quickly and do a good job, I’ll remember it. If you mess up, I don’t give second chances. You’ll be pushing a broom in the warehouse. Is that clear?”

They both nodded their heads and moved to chairs at the table. I hated to be so rough on them but I’d seen too much damage done by employees who didn’t know what they were doing.

Since Sherry and Mitch hadn’t been issued their company shirts yet, she wore a short, spaghetti strapped dress. “Addie, can we turn down the air conditioning? I’m freezing.”

“No. That’s one of the first things you need to learn. The documents have to be kept in a climate-controlled situation especially when they’re in the open and not under glass. There’s a sweater on the back of my chair. You probably should bring in one yourself tomorrow.”

“Okay. Let’s begin Restoration 101. Here’s what we need to do. First, each set of documents will be kept together as they are labeled on the bags from the dig. Always wear gloves. Don’t try to lift them, slide them onto the table. If you don’t think you can do it yourself, ask for help. From that point we will be cleaning and smoothing before placing them between two sheets of glass to be mounted. I’ll be working on all of the torn documents. I don’t think there are too many but there’s bound to be a few. I’ll let you watch me piece them back together and clean them. After everything is mounted, we take them to the digitizing room where they’ll be scanned into a computer. That way when they’re on exhibition at the museum, the viewers can look closely at the documents on screens in front of the display. Our job here is to conserve, not as much as to restore. Have either of you ever done anything like this before?” I knew the answer before they gave it.

Silently, they both shook their heads no. A long, long summer lay ahead.

Chapter Thirteen

The morning moved slowly. Sherry didn’t quite understand the cleaning procedure, so I’d sent her up front to ask Catherine for some data input forms. Since Sherry seemed fairly adept at the computer, I planned to use her to do the cataloguing. Mitch, to my surprise, caught right on. In her absence, I decided to ask him a few questions.

“Mitch, what was your major?

“History. I really don’t know what I’ll do with it. I’ll probably go back and get my teaching credential someday but this job seemed so interesting.”

“It is interesting work but you have to dedicate a lot of time and patience to it. I don’t think Sherry has gotten the knack of it yet.”

“She always did well in school. I just think she doesn’t know where she’s going. Have you thought any more about Friday night?”

I should have kept my mouth shut, especially about Sherry. Now he thought I was interested in him. I’d have to keep this strictly business. “Everyone in the main service area goes out together on Friday after work. That was what I referred to, Mitch. I’ve made it a policy not to date anyone at the office.”

“Oh. I see.”

He sounded so deflated that I felt a little sorry for him. “You knew Sherry in school, then?”

“Yes. She was a history major, too. In fact, she was the reason I signed up for this job.”

“Mitch! You and Sherry?” Whew. Thank goodness. Then why was he always following me around?

“She never looked twice at me.”

No wonder. Nerd boy wasn’t exactly a catch. I don’t know why I said this, but as happens to me on occasion, my mouth works, before my brain thinks. “How about a new haircut and some contacts? I could take you shopping at lunch sometime. I think you’d catch her eye then.”

“Really, Addie? That would be terrific.”

Yeah, terrific all right.
Now what maternal instinct had brought that one on?
Poor kid, I’d help him out. I’d probably get rid of him, too. Not a bad plan.

At lunch I decided to do a little of my own restoration work. I brought out the letter and the map and smoothed them out on the light table. Both the pieces had little flecks running through them. They looked like they’d come from the same paper. I took out my magnifying glass and went over the map, inch by inch. When I came to the area near the outcropping of rock Gary said was the cave, I thought I could detect a lightly written group of words. They’d been either erased or faded. I strained my eyes but couldn’t decipher them.

When we went to Barnesville, it would be the first place we’d look. I planned to call the cousins that night and make sure our plans were firmed up for September. I walked over to the storage cabinet and took out a large piece of acid free paper. I placed the map and the letter on the sheet far enough apart so they wouldn’t touch each other and rolled up the documents into a tube. This would prevent any further damage from folding.

I’d finished up just as Mitch and Sherry came back. “Sherry, I’ve decided to make use of your computer skills and have you enter the data. You’ll take notes and fill out the input forms while Mitch and I work. Is that all right?”

“It will be fine. I’ll probably do better at that anyway. I’m sorry, Addie. I shouldn’t have taken this job. I didn’t tell Jack I was going back to school in the fall.”

“He won’t be happy to hear that but we might be able to use you part-time, just in another capacity. Well, let’s get back to it. We only did five documents this morning.”

When three-thirty came around, I happily called it a day. Working and teaching at the same time exhausted me. Once I found the appropriate jobs for them, both of my new assistants were doing amazingly well. I think Mitch truly seemed interested, might even make a career of it; just as obvious, Sherry was just looking for a summer job.

Mollie greeted me at the door with terry cloth strips in her mouth. The light on the phone machine blinked “two.” I picked Mollie up and playfully wrestled the sock away from her and pressed the button.

“Addie, it’s Susan. I wanted to call and tell you about the wedding plans. It’s Friday, August 24, the weekend before we leave for Texas. Give me a call.”

My life certainly had gotten busy lately. A wedding, a dinner date and a trip to Texas all lined up in less than a week's time.

The second message wasn’t so pleasant.

The caller breathed heavily into the phone. Then a rough, male voice growled, “Don’t even think about coming back to Texas. You’ve been warned to stay away. Something could happen to the four of you.
Something unfortunate
.”

I collapsed into a chair, not even realizing how tightly I was holding onto Mollie until she began to struggle a bit and I released her to the floor. I also didn’t realize how badly my hands were shaking until I reached to replay the recording to see if caller ID picked up a number. Nothing.

I hadn’t talked to Donnie since we were children. I had no way of knowing if it was him. Why the phone call now? How did he know we were planning to return in September? And if it wasn’t him, who?

Chapter Fourteen

My mind spun. No, it has to be Donnie but how did Donnie know we planned to go to Barnesville? Did David Darrow tell him? When Darrow gave me the letter, he acted like he didn’t know why Donnie appeared upset. His words were, “He’s afraid you four will take something precious away from him.” We never told Mr. Darrow we were going to Barnesville. The red digits blinked out 4:15 on the clock near the phone. Good, after seven on the east coast.