Mission: Irresistible by Lori Wilde Read Free Book Online Page B

the
Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Lashaundra had written a feature on Cassie last year after she’d helped the FBI capture the art thief.
    “I adore murder mystery theater,” exclaimed a very prominent, very moneyed museum patron dressed as Isis. “Will there be prizes for the winner?”
    Murmured speculation rippled throughout the room as the guests eagerly exchanged ideas and discussed suppositions. Harrison’s fabrication was a huge hit.
    “I don’t understand.” Phyllis impatiently tapped her foot. “Explain it to me.”
    “Give us more details,” one of the King Tuts said. “Who is the mummy? Why was he in the courtyard? How is he connected to the legend of Kiya and Solen?”
    “Wait, wait,” Nefertiti said. “I’ll need a pen and paper to keep this all straight.”
    “Me too,” piped up Horus the Sky God.
    “But what about Dr. Grayfield?” Phyllis asked dubiously. “What about the reunification ceremony?”
    “Oh, that’s not tonight.” Harrison shook his head. Cassie admired his grace under pressure. To the casual observer he seemed totally composed, but she noticed he was squeezing his replica djed so tightly the muscles in his wrist bulged.
    “Not tonight?” Phyllis repeated and frowned.
    Not tonight?
Cassie wondered.
    “It’s all in the memo.” Harrison gave Phyllis a gosh-are-you-out-of-the-loop expression.
    On the surface, he did not look like a man whose life’s work had just jumped off that display case and walked out the door. He was pretty darn good at bluffing. But Cassie detected the telltale signs. His lips were pressed thin, and she saw a single bead of sweat glisten on his forehead.
    “Let me get this straight, Dr. Standish. What you’re telling me is that the amulet is not really missing. No one stole it?” Phyllis asked.
    “That’s correct.”
    Cassie adjusted her cumbersome headdress. What had happened to the amulet? She shot him a surreptitious glance, and the look he returned was so desperate that she knew for certain the amulet
had
been stolen and he was covering up the theft.
    But why?
    Because of her?
    But that made no sense. Harrison barely knew her, and until tonight he’d acted as if he didn’t care for her methods or her personality.
    Was he simply using this opportunity to steal the amulet for himself? But why would he do that? He’d discovered the amulet. If he’d wanted to steal it, wouldn’t he have done it when he first excavated it?
    Should she back him up in the lie or blurt out the truth? What were Harrison’s motives? Who had stabbed the mummy? Who was the mummy? Who’d turned off the lights? Who’d stolen the amulet? And most of all, where was Adam Grayfield? Things were weird and getting weirder by the minute.
    “Where is the amulet?” Phyllis inclined her head toward the empty case.
    “It’s secured in a bank vault. The amulet on display was a copy made for the sake of the murder mystery theater. It was all in the memo.”
    “I wish I could see this memo. Clyde, do you still have your copy?” Phyllis crossed her arms over her chest.
    “I deleted it from my e-mail,” Clyde said.
    “Since there doesn’t seem to be a copy of this elusive memo, then you won’t mind taking me to the safety-
    deposit box at the bank vault tomorrow morning and showing me the real amulet, Dr. Standish.”
    “I wish I could, Ms. Lambert, but Adam Grayfield has the key. He’ll bring both halves with him to the reunification ceremony,” he said.
    “Dr. Grayfield is in on this too?”
    “You could say it’s his brainchild.”
    Was
Adam party to this farce? Cassie frowned. Pondering these questions was giving her a headache. She didn’t like thinking this hard.
    “Oh. Well. Then I’ll take you at your word.” Apparently Phyllis was willing to give them enough rope to hang themselves. “What happens next?”
    “The guests will have a chance to solve the mystery on their own, and then when everyone returns with their guesses, we’ll give out the prizes