A/N: Thanks for the review, Virtute! Glad you liked the pancake scene. LOL I love writing humor, especially that kind, so there's lots more to come. And yes, the mystery is also ratcheting up several degrees. I promise lots of action in the next chapter! As far as this chapter goes, the story of Lady Elizabeth Campbell is a true one. If anyone wants a link to read more or to see a video of "Lady's Rock", let me know and I'll send it to you. Thanks again to all who are reading!

Chapter 18

"I dreamt of my lady, I dreamt of her grief,

I dreamt that her lord was a barbarous chief;

On a rock of the ocean fair Ellen did seem;

Glenara! Glenara! Now read me my dream!"

Joe looked up from the book of Scottish poetry he was reading while perched on the edge of Duncan's mahogany desk. "Now what on earth is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," Frank said. "Is there a footnote or something?"

Joe glanced down at the bottom of the page. "Yeah." He flipped through the pages to an appendix at the back of the book. "Okay, it says here that this poem was written by Thomas Campbell as a tribute to Lady Elizabeth Campbell MacLean who was married to Lachlan MacLean, the laird of his clan. Apparently Lachlan wanted to get rid of his wife, so he took her out in a boat and left her on some small rocky island to drown when the tide came in."

"Nice guy," Frank commented.

"Yeah, really." Joe continued reading. "Anyway, someone from her clan was out on the water and apparently heard her crying, so he pulled up and saved her." He grinned. "I guess Lachlan then sent word to her family that she'd been lost at sea. When his messengers arrived at her family's castle to deliver the sad news, Elizabeth Campbell was already there, eating dinner in the hall."

"Ouch," Frank said. "That must have been a surprise."

"Well, apparently revenge is a dish best served cold with this crowd," Joe said. "They let him live for a few years and then Lady Elizabeth's brother stabbed him with a dirk while he was sleeping at an inn one night."

"Good story," Frank said. "Now what could it possibly have to do with Duncan?"

"Other than the fact that his last name is MacLean...you got me." Joe slid the volume back into the floor to ceiling bookshelves behind Duncan's desk. "The note seems to be a threat from Elizabeth from beyond the grave."

"Right before Duncan got shot."

"Did he see the note though? Or was it left afterwards? Maybe by the gunman."

"We'll have to ask him. He's supposed to be back in a few days, right?"

"That's what Emily said."

Frank reached for the evidence bag and held it next to the book he had lying open on the desk. "Joe, do these two patterns look the same?"

Joe peered over his shoulder. "Yeah, why?"

"Because if this book is right, the tartan tied to the note is the plaid for Clan Campbell."

Joe's eyes met his brother's. "Maybe Duncan's right. Maybe he is cursed."

Frank chuckled. "Actually, I think he said you were cursed. When you found that charmstone in Emily's office."

"Nobody shot me last night."

Frank sat in Duncan's chair and leaned back. "Okay, well, it seems like someone is clearly after Duncan, or trying to scare him, for whatever reason. Someone is also after some sort of information Emily may or may not have. Someone murdered Professor Ayres for an undetermined reason. And, someone stole the artifacts from the Scottish clans exhibit and set part of the building on fire, possibly trying to kill me as well."

"And are all of these someones the same someone?" Joe asked, crossing his arms in front of him.

"That's the million dollar question," Frank sighed.

"I wish we had the million dollar answer."

"There's a link. We're just not seeing it." He looked up. "I think we need to dig up some more info on Ayres. Maybe if we can figure out why he was murdered, the rest of this giant mess will fall into place."

"I still have those papers I borrowed from his office on the day of the murder."

"Great. Let's go over them tonight. Maybe with all that's happened in the past ten days, something will pop out at us that we overlooked before."

"I wish Dad were here to bounce theories off of. When's he getting in?"

"Late tonight." Frank replaced the volume on Scottish tartan between the bookends on the desk and picked up the evidence bag as he stood. "Aunt Gertrude went to Southport though, so we're on our own for dinner."

"Pizza?"

"Sounds like a plan."

OOOOOoooooOOOOO

"Hey Frank, look at this." Joe gestured to something on a piece of paper with one hand while taking a huge bite of the slice of pepperoni pizza in his other hand.

"Don't drip sauce anywhere," Frank warned as he approached his brother, who was seated on the living room couch with his feet propped on the coffee table.

"I'm not an idiot," Joe replied while he chewed. "Look at that last line on this list. Above Duncan's signature. Tell me what that says."

"Breadalbane et al." Frank squinted. "Campbell."

"Didn't Evan call that charmstone that was stolen the 'Breadalbane' charmstone?"

"Yeah, but Duncan mentioned the museum was planning on sending it to them."

"What about the 'et al' part? Wouldn't that be the other charmstones?"

Frank looked at the paper more closely. "Yeah, I suppose it would."

"So does that mean that Duncan requested the other charmstones, too?"

"I don't think so. Look at the writing. 'Et al' is in blue ink. And, part of it's written on top of Duncan's signature. So is 'Campbell'."

"So you think that part was added after he signed the paper requisitioning the other stuff?"

"That's what it looks like."

"So Ayres requested the other charmstones without Duncan knowing about them?"

"It would seem that way."

"I wonder if he wanted to scare him."

"That may have been his intention, or it may not have. He's certainly not the one scaring him with them now."

"Think Duncan found out what Ayres did and killed him?"

Frank shook his head. "That doesn't seem likely. Duncan seemed pretty freaked out when you unpacked that last charmstone. If he knew Ayres had sent for it, he wouldn't have been so surprised to see it."

"This also doesn't explain how the charmstone got into a box from the museum in Edinburgh if they supposedly didn't send the things."

"Well, we haven't gotten the final word on that yet. But let's make sure we follow up on it tomorrow. I think it may be an important piece of the puzzle."

Joe pointed to the paper. "What does this 'Campbell' written here mean?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe we need to check through Ayres' things again. See if he has any contacts named Campbell or something like that."

"First thing in the morning?" Joe stuffed the pizza crust into his mouth.

"Sounds good," Frank agreed, reaching over his brother for the pizza box. A blob of cheese slid off the end of the piece he grabbed and landed on the sofa with a plop.

Joe gave him a huge grin. "Aunt Gertrude is going to kill you. You know you're not allowed to eat in the living room, Frank."

Frank glared at him as he strode into the kitchen to get something to clean up the mess. Joe chuckled and grabbed another slice of pizza from the box.

OOOOOoooooOOOOO

Emily entered her house around seven-thirty that evening and collapsed on the living room sofa. "Hey Stace, are you home?"

"Yeah, in here." Stacey and Eric came into the living room holding boxes of Chinese takeout.

"Mmmmm, that smells so good." Emily inhaled deeply as she closed her eyes.

"Want some?" Stacey sat on the couch next to her and handed her a box and chopsticks. "Firecracker chicken."

"Sounds amazing, but are you sure you have enough?" Emily stuck her chopsticks in the box and speared a piece of chicken without waiting for an answer.

"Positive," Stacey laughed. "We still have boxes in the kitchen. Eric always orders enough for an army."

"Well, that's good, because I feel like I can eat enough for an army. I haven't had anything since breakfast." Emily reached for the other box in Stacey's hand. "Please say you have eggrolls."

"I'll get them." Eric set his two boxes down on the coffee table and headed into the kitchen.

"How much do I owe you?" Emily asked, through a mouthful of fried rice.

Stacey waved her hand. "It's on the house. You had an awful night last night. You deserve a treat."

"Thank you," Emily smiled. "Today wasn't that much better either."

"Did you go to the museum?"

"Yeah, and spent most of my time on the phone with insurance people. First I went to the hospital to see Duncan though. He should be getting out in a little while. The wound wasn't as serious as they initially thought it was."

"That's good." Stacey smiled up at Eric as he returned with more takeout containers and handed the eggrolls to Emily.

"Frank Hardy was in there as a patient, too." She took a bite of eggroll and closed her eyes for a minute, savoring the taste. "Did you know he got hurt last night?"

"What? How?"

Emily explained what had happened to Frank, including the fire, and how he'd saved himself by finding the hidden staircase, and looked up to find Stacey and Eric slack jawed.

"Do they have any idea who's behind all this?" Eric wanted to know.

"No," Emily sighed. "Not for lack of trying on the part of the police and Frank and Joe though. Hopefully they'll get a breakthrough soon."

"Joe wasn't hurt last night, was he?" Stacey asked.

"No, I talked to him this morning while I was visiting Frank. He got upset with me because I walked home last night and of course, I started to cry." Emily shook her head. "I'm not a crier. I seriously don't know why I can't seem to hold it together around him. It's humiliating."

"So what happened then?" Stacey asked, settling back on the couch with a box of sweet and sour shrimp.

Emily told her about the scene in the linen closet and everything she and Joe said to each other, finishing with, "So after the whole bit with Heather last night, he says she's not his girlfriend. That he actually has the hots for somebody else."

Stacey picked up a fortune cookie and threw it at Emily's head.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"How can you be so stupid?" Stacey asked. "Seriously, are you really that dumb?"

"What?"

"Emily! He meant you, you idiot!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh my gosh!" Stacey stood up from the couch and threw her arms in the air. "The girl he likes. The one he wants to ask out. It's YOU!"

Emily opened her mouth and closed it without saying anything.

Stacey turned to her boyfriend. "Was he not talking about Emily?"

"He was talking about Emily," Eric agreed as he reached for the box of eggrolls.

"Tu es stupide!" Stacey said with a grin, as she sat back down on the couch.

"B-but he never...I mean he didn't...Why didn't he just..." Emily covered her face with her hands. "Oh my gosh he must think I'm the biggest idiot in the world!"

"Well, if he doesn't, I do," Stacey laughed as she pulled her feet up underneath her.

Emily's face was bright red. "What do I do now?"

Eric shrugged. "Nothing. You know he likes you. I'm assuming you like him."

Emily smiled shyly and nodded her head. "I'm still a little scared about it, but just being in the same room with him is wearing down my resistance. I think I want to go out with him.

"Then just wait. He'll ask you." He glanced at his watch and then at Stacey. "Hey babe, if we don't get going, we're going to be late."

"Hot date tonight?"

"Well, actually, we're going to his parents for the long weekend. Is that okay, Em?"

Emily gave her a blank look. "Long weekend?"

"You are definitely too stressed. It's mid-semester break."

"Oh geez, I totally forgot. With everything that's been going on..." She shrugged her shoulders and left her thoughts unfinished.

Stacey looked at her anxiously. "I won't leave if you're nervous about being here by yourself."

Emily waved her hand. "No. You two go and have fun. I'm not worried anymore. I think whoever trashed my office and my locker was looking for information of some sort. Something I don't have obviously, so he moved on."

"Only if you're sure." Stacey hesitated.

"I'm sure." Emily sat back on the couch. "I'm going to polish off the rest of this Chinese food, watch TV for a little bit and then go to bed. I'm exhausted."

"Okay, but I'm going to check on you tonight. I'll call you around ten."

"I'll be fine. Just go and have fun."

Stacey leaned in and hugged her. "I will. Oh, and guess what?"

"What?"

Stacey grinned. "Joe Hardy has the hots for you."

Emily blushed furiously as she stared into her box of fried rice while Stacey began chanting in a sing-song voice, "Joe and Emily sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G".

OOOOOoooooOOOOO

Joe stuck his head in Frank's bedroom later that night. "Hey, mind if I come in for a minute?"

Frank looked up from his position on the edge of his bed. "No, I was just going through my notes on the case as a matter of fact."

"Good, because something's been bugging me and I haven't been able to put my finger on it until just now."

Frank cleared away his papers and Joe sat down at the foot of the bed.

"What?" Frank asked.

"The fire. The whole thing was too easy. Too cliché."

Frank's eyes widened. "Too easy? What on earth do you mean by that?"

"Come on. You're hit over the head...not enough to kill you, just to stun you for a bit...locked in a room where the main exit is blocked by fire and the only other way out is through a staircase hidden behind a closet wall? Please. I think someone knew that we'd discovered there was a hidden staircase in the museum. And they set the fire and locked you in the room where you'd be forced to find it."

Frank held his hand up to his chin and sat lost in thought for a moment. "So, you're saying that someone found out we had the blueprints and set the fire on purpose so that I would discover the staircase and use it to escape?"

"Yeah." Joe stood up and began pacing across the floor. "Think about it. The fire didn't really damage anything essential. No artifacts. No important files. And the only way you could get out of that room was by going through the closet. That inevitably leads you to the staircase. You follow it and wind up coming through the other side." He paused. "Right into Perriton's office."

Frank looked up at Joe. "We almost fell for it."

"We moved him way up on the suspect list today."

Frank nodded slowly. "You're right. You're absolutely right."

"The whole thing was a smokescreen." He grinned at his brother. "Pardon the pun."

Frank chuckled. "So, whoever set the fire wanted Perriton to appear guilty of harassing Emily at the least and maybe of murdering Ayres at the worst."

"Yeah." Joe sat on the bed again. "I'm not saying that Perriton is completely above suspicion on this, but I am saying that he's not alone."

"I agree." Frank reached for his notebook. "First thing tomorrow, we need to get into that museum and see if there is some other way to get to that hidden staircase besides through Perriton's office."

"Definitely."

"One other question. Did you tell anyone about the blueprints?"

"Not a soul."

"Me neither. So how did anyone else find out we had them?"

"I think Mitch's office must be bugged."

"Makes sense. Let's put that on our list, too."

Joe reached for Frank's notebook. "De-bug security office at museum," he said as he scribbled it down.

"Big day tomorrow."

"Yep, that's why I'm hitting the hay." Joe stood to go.

"Hey, bro?" Frank called out.

"Yeah?"

"Don't ever let me get away with saying I'm the 'smart one' again."

Joe grinned. "I only let you do it to save your ego. I know how hard it would be for you to know that I'm really the smart one AND the cute–"

Joe was cut off by Frank's bed pillow smacking him in the face.

OOOOOoooooOOOOO

"Glenara" written by Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Glasgow, Scotland