Chapter 36

House of Emily

After school Eddie, Fabian and I set off straight away towards the retirement home. Stepping into the place for the first time in years, I was shocked by the sheer smell of old. In a way the place smelt of Senkarah's tomb. The scent of death lingered in the air along with sterilization. I always assumed the clean smell was to protect people, but maybe it was really just to mask the stench of death and despair.

Okay. Maybe I needed to get a bit more sleep. I was starting to sound like a proper associate of the death god with my way of thinking.

"Can I help you three?" the women at the desk greeted and I smiled as I recognized her. Mrs. Mulligan, that's her name. "Don't I know you?" she recognized at the same time I did.

"Yeah, um, I'm Nina Martin, this is my boyfriend Fabian and my friend Eddie," I told her with a smile. "I used to be a friend of Emily Grant, she was a patient here."

From the confused look on Eddie's face he didn't know that Sarah had been known as Emily, but Mrs. Mulligan instantly knew who I meant. "Yes yes I remember you now!" she told me smiling brightly. "So nice to see you. What is it that you're here for?"

"Well it's kind of hard to explain," Fabian told her causing Eddie to chuckle. Obviously we couldn't explain to this women anything, but it's not actually that hard to explain.

"When Emily died I was given all her possessions, they were in a box, but I recently discovered that Emily was actually by great-grandmother when working on a school family tree." Well, that was close enough to the truth.

"Isn't that funny," Mrs. Mulligan muttered with a laugh. "Blood really does call to blood, doesn't it."

"Yes," I told her with a nod. 'I guess it does. The thing is I came across record of her having a silver moon necklace that dates back to Ancient Egypt and am just trying to track it down. You wouldn't have any records would you of what she came here with?"

Mrs. Mulligan's smile faded. "That's probably not something I can help you with, but let me find her file and look." As the women disappeared, I exchanged a look with my boys. If Sarah's file didn't mention anything about the necklace then we were royally screwed. How do you track down a piece of jewelry when the only person who owned it is dead? "Let me see here," the caretaker muttered as she opened up the file and started to scan. "You did receive everything Emily owned at the time of her death, but apparently there were certain family items being sold by her estate manager to pay for her care here. We don't have any record of what was sold, but I can give you her contact info."

"Would you really do that?" I asked with my most patronizing smile. In all reality I just wanted to scream; this was getting harder and harder. Why did Louisa have to put a priceless artifact on a necklace?

Soon enough my trio was picking up a taxi and driving into the city to meet Emily/Sarah's estate agent. "You think she's going to be able to help us?" Eddie worried as we drove down the innerstate.

"If Sarah still had the necklace when she went into the home then her estate agent should have record of who it was sold to," Fabian reminded. (He always was too confident in the system.)

"But what if Sarah lost it or sold it before?" I fretted. "I mean there have to be hundreds of moon necklaces in the world. How are we supposed to find this specific one?"

"We can't," Eddie answered calmly. "If we can't find the necklace it's over and we die." Wow. Something must be in the water because both Eddie and I were really embracing our death sides today.

"You teens today," the cab driver laughed. "You all make such a big deal out of everything. In my day you'd never say not finding a necklace would kill you!"

Eddie just shook his head, but we didn't speak anymore. Who knew what the eavesdropping taxi driver might actually understand.

"Hi is Mrs. Dough in today?" Fabian questioned of the law firm's secretary who, luckily, nodded.

"Yes. She's in a meeting at the moment but should be out soon. If you want to give me a name and wait I'll call you when she's ready," the women replied boredly. Doing as she requested we took a seat and within 15 minutes there was a middle aged lawyer standing in front of us with a hand extended.

"Nina Martin?" I nodded to confirm my identity. "Nice to meet you. Why don't you three kids come into my office." I went to follow her, but Eddie grabbed my harm in hesitation.

"I've got a bad feeling about this girl," he whispered and I knew exactly what he meant. Mrs. Dough was trouble, but she was trouble with info on the ankh and that made her worth it.

"It will be fine," I told my Osirian with a smile hoping that I would be right.

"Normally I don't take people without an appointment," she explained as we sat down and he riffled through a file cabinet. "But I recognized the name." With a charming movement she popped the file from its place and opened it on to the desk. "Nina Martin."

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, how exactly did you know my name?"

Mrs. Dough laughed, "Come on, you're the Chosen One and Mr. Miller here is your Osirian. Everybody knows about you!" What the heck? "Don't give me those blank looks, surely you've seen … oh, you haven't have you?" By this point the women was in an uproar. "You've never met a goddess before? Really? Well, now you have. I'm Hanet, minor goddess of Egypt and servant of Osiris and Anubis, but then again aren't we all."

"I'm sorry," Eddie gaped, "But did you just say you're a goddess?"

"Hanet," Fabian informed us. "She was a protector of souls as they crossed from this world to the next."

"Now I like you," the goddess told my boyfriend running a finger across his hand. "Not many know who I am. Which is a shame really considering that the whole reaper story is based off of me." Ah. So not only were we meeting a goddess we were meeting a goddess who felt unappreciated. Great. "But I don't matter, which yes you don't often hear from a goddess. You two are trying to assemble the ankh of Osiris, right? You must be suicidal, but whatever. You came here looking for a certain necklace of your predecessor which you were told I sold."

"Did you?" I asked hopefully. "Because we really need it."

"I can tell that," Hanet was still laughing, but now it was something darker. Maybe, as a reaper goddess, she could tell that I was dying and taking Eddie with me. "And yes, I do know where the necklace is. I sold it to a museum to pay for Sarah's end-of-life care and her fake documents. Normally I don't get that involved, but she did me a favor back in her 20's and I owed her. Ain't a god on this planet who didn't owe a Chosen One at some point in time don't you forget it. Anyways, the necklace is in the Tutankhamen exhibit in Dorchester."

Oh. So now I had to break into another museum to save Eddie's life and I didn't even have Kat's help this time.

"No one expected Fish to make her 3 million dollar bail, but at noon today she was released until her trial next week…" the news broadcaster informed us as we left the goddess's presence in despair. How was I supposed to get the necklace? I don't actually know how to do the breaking in, that was Kat's job. If only it was a Cleveland and not a Fish who'd just made bail.

Or maybe it was Cleveland after all, I realized when I hopped into a taxi and saw the unmistakable face in the mirror.

"Miss me?" Just when I needed her Kat was back.

I was really glad you all liked her before, because she's actually a REALLY important character when I finally get to the end of this yeah, Kat;s back. I hope you liked it don't forget to review with thoughts or theories!