Paint the Town Red (Fox & Oakby Murder Mysteries Book II)

A Turtle Trap

After Petra and the Titan had breakfast, had to take a small nap, and then actually had breakfast, he left for Abernathy, and Petra had another cuppa and decided to venture on an adventure. She got dressed, brushed her unruly curls, and asked Fellowes to bring her the crutches. The stern housekeeper gave her a long studying look, fractionally squinting one eye - and then left to fetch the utensils.

The weather was lovely, and Petra thoroughly enjoyed her slow - very slow - walk through the greens. She realised on the way that the Titan had been rather successful in keeping her inside the whole time and it had been a while since she'd been out and about. The man was exceptionally talented in bribing and distracting, she mused and giggled, thinking about the man's methods.

Finally, the dig showed up on the horizon, as Petra poetically thought - some tangled and thrashing memories, metaphors, and thoughts about a promised land, a dove or a pigeon bringing a twig, and something from Jules Verne, jumped around and bubbled in her mind - and there she was, at the location of her sleuthing and adventuring.

"Dr. Nenadovich!" Stella jumped to her feet from where she'd been crouching near a broken wall with a trough in her hand. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm walking on sunshine, my dear!" Petra announced gleefully. "Walking on sunshine!" She made that 'whoa' sound that they made in the song. There was a song like that, wasn't there? "How's my dig going?"

"Quite well." Stella brushed her hands off against her trousers. "We're following your instructions. Except–"

"Yes?" Petra's sleuthing intuition tingled.

"Well, you see, I don't want to point fingers, but Marcus has been missing his shifts." Stella looked uneasy. "You know Marcus! He's got the intellect of a squirrel." The girl laughed awkwardly. "He's been saying some nonsense about someone trying to kill you! Can you imagine? And then he would start whinging that we're 'implicated' in whatever put you into the imaginary danger that made the mysterious somebody try to run you over! Complete rubbish!" Stella waved her hand in the air with the face of an irritated cat who's been moved from a sunny patch on a carpet.

"You don't say," Petra drew out.

"So, I let him go home, couple days in a row, to be honest. He was pale and shaking, it's ridiculous." Stella sighed. "I was hoping I'd finish all assignments before you check, and so he wouldn't–"

"Don't worry, my dear, neither of you is in trouble," Petra dismissed. "And you know the most interesting thing. Squirrel brained or not, I think our dear Marcus might be onto something!"

"No!" Stella's eyes boggled. "You mean to say, someone actually tried to end you in?"

Petra nodded enthusiastically. "And there is indeed a matter that has gotten me into this barney, and it has to do with... a treasure!"

"No!" Stella hollered again and pressed her gloved hands - dirty and dusty - to her cheeks.

"Mhm," Petra hummed and sat down on the nearest rock. Her leg was starting to ache dully. "It has to do with an Oakby family treasure, and I'm currently looking into finding where it is."

"But what is it?" Stella asked greedily, sitting next to Petra.

Petra didn't spare any glorifying details while describing the reliquary. The girl's eyes were burning like the fires of Mount Doom.

"And so we can assume it was moved after its accidental discovery in 1912," Petra finished her account.

"So, they're looking in the wrong place!" Stella exclaimed. "Whoever tried to run you over, if they're digging here in the chapel, they won't find it!"