A/N: Thanks to pen4lew, Leya, max2013, ILoveMom, BurnedSpy, Caranath, zenfrodo, Stork Hardy, Jackie and Vinsmouse for reviewing! I really appreciate it. Thanks also to those who are reading!
Chapter 36
"Simone isn't staying in one of these cabins, is she?" Frank asked Emily as she stepped down from the shuttle bus to the ski resort and handed him a key.
Emily shook her head. "No, the rental office assured me that the other cabins around ours would be unoccupied. I told her we didn't want any neighbors."
"Good."
Frank glanced around. The shuttle bus had stopped in front of a group of four small cabins, tucked into a copse of trees.
The area was very secluded and not too far from the latitude and longitude coordinates they'd decoded in Simone's book. This would be a good place to strategize and investigate. Frank didn't believe for one second that Simone and Delacroix showing up in the same small French town, on the same day, was a mere coincidence. They had to be associated somehow. And he was determined to find out what their connection was...and how it related to the missing monstrance and Madonna.
The shuttle driver approached him after unloading the luggage, and Frank reached into his pocket for a tip.
The driver smiled his gratitude as he climbed back into his vehicle, and Frank reached down to pick up his and Nancy's suitcases.
Bess grabbed one of her smaller bags. "So…whose party should I crash? I promise I won't be staying the night. My train leaves at eight p.m. I have to be in Three Valleys before Lars's ski competition tomorrow."
Nancy laughed. "You can come with us."
"Okay, but I'm holding you to that departure time, Bess," Frank said. "Otherwise, you're moving to Joe and Em's cabin."
Joe looked at Frank with a furrowed brow. "Say what?"
"You owe me, bro," Frank said. "And I'm planning on collecting today."
Bess snatched up another of her suitcases. "You guys really know how to make a girl feel welcome, don't you?"
"Nothing personal, Bess," Frank said. "You know I love you like a sister."
"Yeah," she said. "A pesky, younger sister who's been designated the chaperone to her big sis, so she and her boyfriend don't do something naughty."
Nancy laughed and grabbed her arm. "Come on, let's go check out our cabin. And then we're getting right to work on this case, so nothing naughty will be going on…for a while, anyway."
Joe smirked at Frank. "That tunnel vision Nancy gets when she's working on a case would annoy the hell out of me."
Frank sighed. "Yeah. Tell me about it."
OOOoooOOO
Joe hurried through the snow after Emily, who had already started down the path to their cabin. He arrived at the front door in time to hear her suck in her breath as she bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.
"Oh, it's so cute!"
Joe glanced up as he adjusted the suitcases he was carrying. He didn't know much about cute, but it did look cozy. The cabin was tiny, with its roof extending almost all the way to the ground. The second story windows were multi-paned with painted shutters surrounding them, and the door was rounded at the top with decorative carving on either side. Nestled in the snow, it reminded him of a Christmas card.
Emily unlocked the door, and held it open for Joe, who stepped past her.
"It's nice," he commented. "A perfect place to hide away."
He watched as Emily walked over to admire the fireplace on the far side of the small room. She then turned her attention to the little staircase that led to the loft, where Joe assumed the bed was.
"This looks exactly like the dwarves cottage in Snow White!"
Joe smiled at the joy in her expression. Maybe they could come back here sometime for a real vacation. But for now he had to concentrate on finding Simone.
"Honey, I'm going to get Frank and check things out around here a little. Why don't you stay and get settled?"
Emily put her hands on her hips as she turned to look at him. "Nice try, but you aren't going to ditch me that easily."
He crossed the room and kissed her. "I'm not ditching you. I want to get this case solved, so we can have time for some fun here."
"And I want to help you solve it."
Joe's stomach flip flopped. Over the past year, Emily's interest in his cases had grown exponentially. It was now to the point where she expected to be included and didn't like him telling her otherwise.
"Honey…"Joe began.
"Joe, this was Nancy's case to begin with, and she brought me along as a consultant."
"And a consultant doesn't do actual detective work. A consultant…consults."
"Lame, Joe." Emily crossed her arms in front of her. "This case is about a missing piece of artwork. And I know more about it than the three of you put together. Not to mention, I know more about the background of this piece, and the history of the church, and how they deal with this sort of thing than you do."
"I don't need to know anything about the statue to find it," he protested.
Emily rolled her eyes.
"Babe, please." Joe crossed the room and pulled her into his arms. "Just let Frank and Nan and me try to locate Simone. Then we'll talk about finding the Madonna and the monstrance. They may not even be anywhere near here."
Emily remained silent.
Joe kissed the top of her head. "If we do find something that involves the art or will lead us to it, I promise I will consult with you before we do anything."
Emily looked into his eyes. "You swear it, Joe? Because that statue needs to be carefully handled. It's over six hundred years old, and she could be damaged if she's not–"
Joe placed his fingers over her lips. "I swear it."
She kissed his fingers, then pulled away. "Okay. But I'm holding you to that. I don't want anything to happen to the Madonna."
"It won't." Joe bent his head and touched his lips to hers.
A knock sounded on the door.
Joe groaned. "My brother and his impeccable timing."
Emily laughed, then moved over to the door and opened it. Nancy, Frank, and Bess stepped into the room.
"We're ready to go search for those coordinates," Nancy announced. "Get your gear, guys. The resort has backpacks full of equipment stowed in the closets. How cool is that?"
"They thought of everything," Frank added.
"Yep, they're the Frank Hardy of ski resorts," Bess said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. "Always prepared."
Joe crossed the room to a closet near the fireplace and reached inside for a backpack.
"Em's waiting here," he said. "So I'll only need one for me."
"What? Why?" Nancy asked. "I was counting on her expertise."
"He doesn't think you're going to find the Madonna now, so my expertise is a moot point," Emily explained.
Nancy rolled her eyes as Joe pulled on the backpack and moved over to them.
"You do realize it's nineteen seventy-nine, right Joe? Women's Lib and all that?"
"I'm humoring him for now," Emily explained. "But only because he's promised he'll come get me if you get a lead on the statue and the monstrance."
"I'll make sure to hold him to that," Nancy said.
Joe ignored her for the moment as he reached into his duffle bag and pulled out two maps he'd gotten at the hotel. An argument with Nancy over Women's Lib was not something he wanted to get into right now. He spread one of the maps out on the kitchen table.
"Here we go. The coordinates are marked. It doesn't look like there's anything there but wilderness, but I think we have to check it out."
Emily pursed her lips, but didn't say anything. Joe knew she was still mad. That was fine. He'd rather have her mad and safe, than happy and in potential danger.
"If you don't hear back from us in a couple of hours, then go and get someone at the lodge to look for us. Don't come on your own, understand?"
She crossed her arms in front of her, but didn't respond.
"Em, I'm serious."
"It'll be fine, Joe," Bess inserted. "We'll stay here and man the command center. Somebody has to."
"Thank you," he said, giving Emily and Nancy a sideways glance. "At least someone is being rational."
Emily narrowed her eyes. "Not sure I'd go there if I were you."
"Sweetheart, please." Joe put his hands on her shoulders. "We don't have a lot of time to argue. And chances are we're not going to find anything out there but some snow and trees."
Emily sighed and Joe knew he'd won…for the moment. He hugged her and gave her lips a gentle kiss.
"Thank you. We'll be back soon, I promise."
He grabbed his backpack and headed out the door with Frank and Nancy.
OOO
"Ooooh," Emily seethed. "He can be so infuriating sometimes."
"Yeah, but I'm sure the smokin' hot sex helps make up for it, right?" Bess asked, reaching for a bowl of fruit in the center of the table.
Emily burst out laughing. "Yeah. Actually, it does."
OOOoooOOO
Frank pulled the map out of his backpack and studied it. "We're in the right spot. The coordinates are dead on."
"Then why is there nothing around here but trees and more trees?" Nancy asked.
"I don't know." Frank scanned the surrounding area. It was wooded, but not heavily. They were near several decent size rocky areas that were snow covered at the moment, but even if the snow melted, they couldn't hide the reconstruction of a cathedral. Or even a small chapel for that matter.
"Maybe these coordinates just determined the meeting place, not the spot where the cathedral is supposed to be," Joe offered.
"Yeah, but why would you have a meeting in the middle of nowhere? In the winter?" Nancy asked.
"I agree. It doesn't make sense," Joe said. "But I don't see anything else."
"Maybe that's the point," Frank spoke up. "Look here."
He held out the map and put his finger on a spot about twenty yards from where they were standing.
"What?" Nancy asked.
"What do you see?" Frank asked.
"More nothing?" Joe chimed in.
"No. It's a marked entrance to a cave." He turned to Nancy. "Do you remember the lady in the bookstore in St. Sylvie told us that this area was popular with spelunkers?"
Nancy's eyes lit up. "Are you saying….?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
"Uh," Joe interrupted. "For the outsider here who isn't a part of your weird telepathic 'our two brains are really one' crap….would you mind filling me in?"
Frank laughed. Joe was right. He and Nancy had always finished each other's thoughts and sentences since they'd first met. He knew it annoyed everyone around them, but he loved that they were so simpatico.
"Think about it," Nancy said. "What if the location of the cathedral is right here…just underground."
"You're saying it's in a cave?"
"What better place to hide the artifacts than underground?" Frank asked. "Who's going to search there? Especially in the winter."
"But if the cave is marked on a map, then people will find it at some point," Joe said.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Not all caves are completely mapped out. Most aren't actually," Frank explained. "The public may only have access to the first half mile or mile of this cave system. What if Delacroix has a spot that hasn't been explored yet?"
"That's a lot of 'ifs', Frank."
"Maybe. But I think it's worth checking into, don't you?"
Joe sighed. "Yeah. You're right. Besides we have nothing else."
Frank nodded. "Then let's go explore the cave."
OOO
Joe leaned over Frank's shoulder and peered at the map of the caves located in the same general area as the coordinates from Simone's book. He knew this was going to be a shot in the dark at best, but he agreed it was one they had to take.
"Based on what you have in front of you, it doesn't look like the cave map extends to the coordinates where we think the cathedral might have been," Joe said to his brother.
"I know, but that doesn't mean the caves don't extend that far, just that they haven't mapped them."
"Which means they're probably too dangerous to map, and they don't want the public in there," Joe said.
"It could mean they just haven't gotten around to it," Nancy told him. "If we're careful, it shouldn't be a problem."
"Yeah," Frank paused. "Nancy, maybe you should wait–"
"Don't even go there, Frank," she warned. "Just don't."
Joe smirked. Frank was going to have a fight on his hands if he thought Nancy was going to stay behind at this point. He was glad he managed to convince Emily that the cabin was the best place for her to remain.
Frank sighed in resignation. "Fine, just stay behind me."
Nancy rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. The three of them hiked over to the main entrance of the cave.
"I don't see footprints," Frank commented. "Of course someone could have been here earlier, and the snow could have buried them."
"Yeah, well let's get this over with. I don't want the snow to bury us while we're in there." Joe pulled out a cave helmet with a lantern attached from his backpack and placed it on his head, while Nancy and Frank did the same.
They snaked through the narrow entrance of the cave and moved in a single file line, with Nancy in between Frank and Joe.
Frank held the map in front of him. "In order to get closer to where the coordinates would be, we're going to need to take this passage coming up on the left. According to this map, it dead ends after about a half mile, but we'll see."
Peachy, Joe thought. He wasn't wild about caves. He didn't have claustrophobia, but being in a cave could get him pretty close to feeling that way. He was also fairly confident that Delacroix wouldn't choose such an easy-to-find meeting place. Of course, there was no way to be sure until they ruled it out. And he was hoping to do that quickly.
"Here."
Frank pointed to a side passage that looked a bit narrower than the passage they were in currently.
Joe swallowed hard. He hated narrow.
"Let's keep our voices down, just in case someone's here," Frank said.
"Won't the giant beacons of light on our head give us away?" Joe asked.
"Nan and I will turn ours off," Frank said. "That'll be much less light, and since you're at the end of the line, it won't precede us."
"Fine," Joe said. "Let's get this over with."
They started down the passage way with Frank still in the lead. The ground was flat and easy to navigate at first, but the passageway tightened as they got further in, until Joe's shoulders were almost grazing both walls as they walked. The ground became rockier as well, forcing them to slow down as they stepped over small formations in the dirt.
After a few more minutes, Frank stopped. "It looks like it dead ends up here."
Joe saw Nancy try to peer around his brother.
"Are you sure?" she asked. "Maybe there's another passageway off to the side."
A deep male voice coming from in front of Frank startled Joe.
"Very good, Miss Drew. I see you're the one with the brains around here."
Joe swore silently. In their eagerness to finish up this case, they had managed to walk right into a trap. He knew he should have paid more attention to that uneasy feeling he had coming into this cave. It had nothing to do with narrow passageways and everything to do with imminent danger.
He clicked off the lamp on his helmet and began to back up slowly. If he could sneak out, he could get help.
"Not another step, Mr. Hardy," said another male voice behind him.
Joe felt the press of a revolver into his back and heard the click of the safety being released.
"Or I promise it will be your last."