Perils in Provence by Carolyn L Dean

Author:Carolyn L Dean [Dean, Carolyn L]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Freeform Publishing
Published: 2018-09-11T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Standing in the cool spray of the shower, Jennifer let the deliciously clean water run over her body. It had taken a while to get back to the second floor, since she was doing her best to be sure no one would see her as she ducked into the bathroom by her bedroom. She needed time to remove the evidence of her adventure, and to think.

She’d been lucky not to run into Madame Durand or Sally. She knew if she were spotted that she’d have to answer some questions that she really didn’t want to discuss, like why she was covered in dust and dirt after what was supposed to be just a survey of the main cellar. Even as neglected as the cellar was, the fact she had head-t0-toe dirt on her would be unexplainable.

As the grime of her adventure downstairs slowly began to slough off, she tried to sort through her thoughts.

Someone knew about the ancient crypt, so long forgotten. Her best guess was that it was a remnant of the church that had burned many centuries before, with the crypt underground and intact enough to survive such a devastating blaze. Left alone for so many years, it had been a time capsule until someone discovered it, probably by accident.

A grave robber.

The only entrance she’d seen had been covered by a cave-in, but she wasn’t sure how long ago that would’ve happened. Whoever had found the sealed crypt must’ve done it recently and kept it secret. After seeing the scraped dirt where coins had been pulled out of the wall cavity, Jennifer could certainly understand why they wouldn’t want to share their discovery. They’d been pilfering the money left for whatever nameless saint or dearly departed who was lying in wrapped splendor down there, and there was plenty more to take. The scratch marks around the grid’s frame was proof of at least one attempt to remove it and retrieve everything of possible value. The crucifix alone would’ve tempted almost anyone.

The whisk was an anomaly, and it took her a bit of thinking before she figured out why it would be so far back in a wall cavity. To get it through the grate so the thief could scrape out whatever coins they could reach, it would’ve had to be compressed. The springy wires would’ve been pushed together before being poked through the metal grid. Apparently, it worked just fine for raking the money toward whoever was using it, but then something had gone wrong and they couldn’t retrieve it.

Maybe it had somehow popped out of the thief’s hand when they tried to compress it to bring it back through the bars, Jennifer thought. She blinked against the warm water running down her face. Maybe that’s why it’s so far back in the crypt. The thief’s hand had slipped and the bent wires in the whisk acted like a coiled spring when they accidentally got released against the grate. The force would’ve made the whisk fly through the air, out of reach of the thief.

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