Ch 18

The next morning, after a good night's sleep, Amy, Dan, Atticus and Jake all made their way to the dusty attic at the top of the old Cambridge Victorian where the Rosenbloom family lived. Dan had bunked with Atticus and Amy with Jake. Dr. Rosenbloom had made the drive to Providence to see LaCher. They had pulled down a trap door in the ceiling and a retractable ladder slid down, nearly hitting Atticus in the face.

"Whoa, what is this place?" Dan said looking around with awe. He didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't this. It was like walking into the attic of the Smithsonian. Towers of boxes, crates, storage bins, tables and chairs stacked full of odd shaped items covered in sheets. It was like a scene from a movie. Dan didn't know if he should laugh or cry. There was so much stuff up there where were they going to start?

"Ok, Mom's gone almost 20 years now, so, I'm guessing anything that would have been hers will be at the bottom of any stack, and probably the furthest in the back." Jake reasoned.

All four of them spread out, a single overhead bulb hanging from the ceiling cast strange shadows across the space. The two eyebrow windows cut in to the ceiling gave some indirect lighting, but it wasn't enough to really see things, so they all had their flashlight apps out, shining around the room.

Amy started pulling sheets off of piles causing large plumes of dust to go circling in the air. She glanced at Dan to see if his asthma was acting up, but so far so good.

"Whoa, what is this?" Atticus said faintly holding up what appeared to be part of a headstone.

Amy and the others knew they had to focus, this could easily turn into a field trip in the Rosenbloom attic if they didn't. Mark Rosenbloom had outfitted most of the world's museums with at least one artifact and it appeared that his collection had not all ended up in museums. Some of it had made it to the attic where it awaited some unknown fate. Amy figured you couldn't be a world-renowned archeologist without an attic full of treasures.

Finally, after quite a bit of time, Dan called out, "I think I found something," holding up a yellowing cardboard file box with faded marker written on the side. "B. Rosenbloom".

"This has to be it!" Jake said excitedly.

They all followed Jake out of the attic, having decided taking the box to the kitchen made the most sense. They crowded around as he lifted the lid on the box. A mishmash of papers, photos, notes and newspaper clipping stared up at them.

"Let's spread it out on the island and start going through it. Maybe we can sort through it and make piles." Amy suggested.

They all took a handful of items and began to sift through them. It became clear that 22 years of time had dulled much of the ink. The photos had age around the edges as well, but they could still be seen clearly.

Atticus suggested they start to group the information according the work it corresponded with. Eventually they had 14 neat piles on the table. One for each of the missing works and a fourth for unknown or collective status. It was clear to them all that Bianca had devoted the last years of her life to finding these works and she had put in a lot of hard work gathering notes.

"Well, if there was ever a reason for Google, this is it" Atticus said with a smile. "Imagine what she could have done with a good search engine."

Dan's phone pinged, "It's from Jonah", he opened the text. "Yo, cuz', my homies at the Janus stronghold in Rome say there was a lot of talk about the robbery after it happened. I asked for a list of any names of people who were stirring up that chatter at the time and here you go. I hope it helps."

Amy and Jake crowded around Dan's phone to see a short list of about 7 names.

Quigley O'Reilly

Antonio Marcellius

Phillippe Calabrese

Alastair Oh

Danica Simonson

Atlas Smith

Marcus Starling

Amy took a step back. She knew two names on that list and suspected a third was a fellow Cahill.

Dan said what she was thinking, "Holy Shit!"

"What is it? Let me see," Atticus said glancing at the names on the list.

Jake had gone silent which was not like him. Amy glanced at him, he had taken the cell phone when Dan set it down. He was staring at one particular name with his mouth hanging open.

"What is it Jake?" Amy asked, frowning.

"Whoa," Atticus said with awe as he looked over the list next to his brother. He slowly glanced up at Jake waiting for his reaction.

"What is it?" Amy repeated, more urgently.

Jake gave a little cough to clear his throat, "uh, well, Bianca's maiden name was Calabrese. I'm almost certain her father was named Phillippe. I think my grandfather's name is on this list."

"Uh Jake, that's not the only important name on that list. You remember Uncle Alistair? He's on there" Dan said

"As well as Atlas Smith" Amy said with distinct distain in her voice for the black-market goon who had tried to kill them earlier this year when he wouldn't let them board his ship in Nova Scotia. "He's a known arms trader."

"What about Marcus Starling?" Atticus asked, remembering the Cahill connection to several prominent Starlings.

"I saw that too, Att," Dan said, "I don't know any Marcus', but the name Starling is for sure a Cahill. Ekat branch."

"Do the names Quigley O'Reilley, Antonio Marcellius or Danica Simonson mean anything to anyone?" Jake asked, finally breaking out of his trance.

Everyone sat with blank expressions on their faces.

"When we were going through Bianca's things, did any of you find anything with names on it?" Dan asked picking up the first stack and looking through it.

"I found this notebook," Atticus said, holding up a tiny memo book. "There are some names in here, but they aren't any of those names. I think they may be the names of the maffia members who were considered suspects at the time. They've been cleared since then."

Finally, Amy spoke up, "I think it's time to go back to the Gardner and start researching these names."

"Amy, I love that you like to research as much as I do, but I gotta' tell ya', you don't need to leave this house to search the Gardner's archives. In actuality, virtually every museum in the world has digitized their collection now with hi-def images and made them public the world over." Atticus said matter-of-factly.

"He's right, between the Cahill command center and a good Google search, we can find anything we need right here. Plus, I think I need to find out more about my grandfather if he's a suspect in the Janus database." Jake said with a frown.

"We also need to consider bringing Anne Hawley up to date soon." Amy said.

"Let's order some Chinese and start going through Bianca's records and see if we can cross-reference any of the names Jonah gave us with anything in here." Dan said, gesturing to the covered marble island.