Burke Devlin is dead, and Phillip has been restored to Vicky. In the meantime, people are disappearing, and Iris' nephew, Peter, is connected to it, as is the Faberge egg that was in the treasure that Derek and Patterson discovered..

THE MISSING

To the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo

Chapter 1

"Phillip is doing a lot better." Vicky told Barnabas as he helped unload the food truck. "But not sure what he wants to do."

"Well, it will come to him. "

"At least he is helping here. and that's a start." she hesitated for a few moments. then added. "I wanted to talk to you about... Devlin." she said his name with distaste.

"He is dead. He cannot threaten you again."

"Yes. But that's not it. I know what facing him did to you, how it brought back all that mess in 1967...I know that it twists you inside to remember it all. Maybe you'd feel better when I tell you what I found about him."

'What did you find?"

"How he made his fortune. He did some dirty work for an American company working in the Amazon. There was a small peasant community that was sitting on a place that the company wanted. So they hired him to take care of the problem. He set fire to the village. San Cristobal dos Montes. I found out more by contacting a Maryknoll missionary. There were five dead, including two children in the fire. They lost all their crops. They ended up destitute. And for that he was richly rewarded. He did more of that kind of thing for the company and accumulated enough to go into business for himself... So that's how me made his fortune and how he came to impress all of us, when he came, asking for justice for himself, he had all that in his conscience and did not care."

"Because they were not Americans. Because they were not "people like us"" he shrugged. "It has happened before. Same as with my family. We had a code of conduct how to deal with people. But that code did not extend to the slaves we transported in our ships"

"In any case, Burke was never the stalwart hero he thought himself to be. As you were not the unredeemed villain you thought yourself to be. Even at your worst, your victims had names and faces. His victims were only a bunch of illiterate peasants who stood in the way..."

Barnabas sighed. "I see."

"You know that I had Tammy and Joe find his fortune. in the safety box where he had stashed it - all in untraceable cash and gold. Tammy and Joe got their finders fee. And I have the rest. I should send it back to his heirs, but..."

"But..."

"But I'd rather give it to the people Burke harmed. They are all ill gotten gains, and the people who suffered have first claim on it.. The remainder, it can go to the heirs."

"I can see the wisdom of that."

"The heirs got it by error, as he was not dead. It belonged to him. And now I am the custodian of it, and it is up to me to see that it is spent wisely."

"Then there is the factory. I understand that they are in dire financial straits due to Burke cleaning their account."

"I will arrange for most of it to go to them, on the condition that it becomes a worker's cooperative."

"You have thought it all through."

"Yes. I have." she opened her collar "and now, I think that you are hungry."

"They haven't found Uncle Roger yet." Carolyn said, clutching the telephone against her breast. "What could have happened to him?"

"He will show up." Adam tried to reassure her. "And he is a grown man. He can take care of himself."

Carolyn's mouth twisted. Could Roger really take care of himself? Adam could not help feeling resentful at Roger's latest caper. Just then thing to make Carolyn feel guilty about her talk of committing him. By the time Roger figured out that Carolyn had learned her lesson, he'd reappear.

He had been noble about it at first, but it had been easy with Carolyn set on commitment. Now, there was a danger of Roger staying with them forever, looking for other ways of killing him..

Not to mention that Edmund had begun to be polite to him. now that Roger was not around interfering. It was hard, because Edmund had strongly bonded with Roger, and echoed his distaste of Adam... his own tendency for temper tantrums had not helped. But now Edmund looked at him more calmly, and even accepted that Adam was not fully rotten.

He wanted to bond with Edmund, as that was the only way they would be a family. And he knew how hard it could be.

Carolyn kept thinking of all the things that could happen to her uncle. He could be lost, he could be hurt, he could have been mugged... maybe he was in a hospital someplace... maybe he was dead.

Iris poured herself a drink.

She should not. She knew it, yet she did it. And she knew that what Brant had said was true. Yet she did not know how to change it.

It wasn't good for Peter, she knew that, too. But knowing made no difference. Her drinking and her sleeping around robbed Peter of the time and dedication she had to give him. She really wanted to do what was best for him. But something would not allow her to.

Maybe George was right. Maybe guilt about Violet was paralyzing her.

No, she would not think that. Why should she feel guilty about Violet? Violet had asked for it.

On and on she went. She knew it by heart, the sad broken record, and she could not stop it.

Derek packed his bags. He was going to have a real good time. He had plenty of money with him, and no need anymore to carry a coffin around. It was about time that he sought greener pastures. Collinsport had been good to him, but there was a big world out there waiting for him.

It was a pity that Patterson would not return the egg to him. But at least no one was blaming him for Patterson's disappearance.

Even without the egg he had plenty of money for himself. Yet, he would have liked to have the egg, if only to admire it. Faberge eggs were so rare...

No sense in crying over spilled milk. Or blood.

He laughed good-humoredly at himself. he had already forgotten what blood tasted like. Actually, he had stopped very early paying attention to the taste. It was always the same, with nothing else to compare it with.

Where would he go? Vegas? Atlantic City?

On the other hand, there was more to life than gambling. It surprised him to be able to think that way. Two months ago he could not have imagined such a thought. But it was true. There was more to life than dice and cards.

He had gone into the water looking for gold and precious stones, and down there, he had beheld living beings, fishes and snails that looked more precious than gold when he swam by.

He had spent a long time in the dark. Now the light had been given back to him. Why squander it in smoke filled rooms? All throws of ice look the same. And in the end you lost. Gambling was a form of self-destruction. He could see it now. He was well again, why throw it away on a green carpet?

So where could he go?

"You will come with us."

He turned. There were a man and a woman in the room. And their clothes... they were not contemporary, to say the least.

"You will follow us. You saw the egg. You handled it. You can't leave town with what you know."

Before he could ask any questions, a silvery shower fell on him and the room. The room seemed to swirl in front of his eyes. He could not focus anymore. And they took his arms, and they pointed him in the direction they wanted him to go. And he moved, and he lived his foot and stepped into... into... some woods. What were woods doing inside the room?

And there was a castle in the horizon.

"Welcome to Petofi castle" a booming voice said to him "You shall be shown your quarters and your duties."

Jessica peeled potatoes. There were too many potatoes to peel. And other vegetables, too. Her hands were becoming raw from doing this for hours. She was not even a cook. She was a scullery maid, in this big jewellike castle where fine lords and ladies disported themselves. And ate nice meals prepared by serfs toiling in the kitchen. Serfs like her..

Zeb was out, carrying wood on his back. He was bent under the weight. And no sooner had he laid one burden now, that the had to go and gather another. From sunrise to sundown. While upstairs, fine lords and ladies played their games.

Sometimes she caught sight of Roger in his jester costume. The lords and ladies of the land found Roger amusing in his madness and rewarded him with the mottled dress of the professional fool.

At other times she saw Patterson, in his livery. He, how had been a proud officer of the Law, had to bend his knee and be servile to those who ruled, to those for whom their whims were the only Law...To them he hand to curtsy and open doors.

Jessica could not believe what was happening to them. How could they be in this medieval setting? This was the Twentieth Century, was it not?

Those around her, most of the time she could not understand what they said. They did not speak English but Russian, at least that's what it sounded like.

AT one tome, someone who could speak English had come into the kitchen and told his tale. The lords and ladies were Russian aristocrats and sorcerers, who escaped the Revolution. They had reached America, but unlike other refugees, they scorned America and did not wish it to be their place of refuge. No, they had a place of refuge already set up. They had their lands, their palace, their enchanted castle, surrounded by enchanted woods. And their servants. But they could not carry as many servants as they wished, so they had begun to kidnap Americans to serve them. They were all prisoner into a jeweled egg, where they had place their enchanted land.

They had needed money in America, to set up their castle properly, and they had taken to bootlegging. But before they could finish their restoration and retire to the egg permanently, they had been attacked and their boat sunk. They had had to seek refuge in the egg, as the boat sank into the ocean. There they remained for many years, until Derek and Patterson had foolishly brought it to the surface, so that they could start kidnapping servants again.

Patterson had paid for his foolishness... As for Derek... Jessica scowled. She could imagine Derek spending money and living it up... She wished that she could kill him...

"Any news of Uncle Roger?" Carolyn asked George

"No." George sighed. "We have looked, believe me. We have looked and asked everywhere. But there is not trace. No one has seen him... He may be miles away now... Or waiting to spring a surprise on us."

"You think that he is hiding, waiting to kill Adam?"

"It is a possibility. He did shoot Adam, didn't he?"

"It was an accident. He was handling an antique pistol, and he did not know that it was loaded."

"Please, don't try to con me. I now what Roger is capable of. I will keep my eye out for him, believe me."

"Maybe it has to do with the other disappearances. Patterson also disappeared, and also the Kings"

"There is not connection that I can see. Patterson stole the Faberge egg and left town. The Kings might well be visiting family."

But as he spoke, he did not feel so sure. What if they all tied together?