The Crooked Queen by Daniel A. Crane

Author:Daniel A. Crane
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DartFrog Plus
Published: 2023-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

THE ESTATE OF TEARS

Lacey still had not made it back to the hotel when her phone rang. It was Inês. Lacey stared at the screen for a moment, reluctant to answer. Then, remembering that Inês had texted a few minutes before and realizing that she would be unable to avoid her friend for long, she answered.

“Mousie, are you OK?” Inês sounded worried. Lacey remembered that the last time they had been together—two days before outside the Igreja de São Roque—Lacey had just escaped being crushed by a car.

“Yeah, I’m fine. What’s up?” She tried to sound casual and unconcerned.

“Where are you?”

Lacey hesitated. She had just promised Ricardo not to say anything for now, and questions about her whereabouts would inevitably lead to him. On the other hand, Inês already knew that she was leaving Lisbon, and probably guessed that she would come to Coimbra.

“Coimbra. I came up on the train yesterday.”

“I thought so. Have you seen it yet?”

“Seen what?”

“The Quinta das Lágrimas. I assume that’s why you came.”

Of course that’s what Inês would have assumed, and Lacey felt foolish for not leading with that as her cover story. “Not yet. I wanted to look around the city first, see the university.”

“Good. Then we will stay there together tonight. It’s a magical place, Mousie. I will show it to you. I know the proprietor and will make the reservation. My treat. What time is it now? Ten o’clock? I will catch the next train and meet you there at 1:30.”

“Oh, you don’t have to go out of your way—” began Lacey, but Inês cut her off.

“Nonsense, of course I will come. Ciao, menina.”

And so the matter was settled by fiat. Although Lacey still felt ambivalent about what to say to Inês now that Ricardo had walked out of his tomb like Lazarus, it was also a relief to have her schedule for the next day or two decided for her. She had left Lisbon in a hurry with the sole goal of confirming that Cisterno Vazio was Ricardo Fonseca and had not given much thought to what she would do if she were successful in that endeavor.

Also, the Quinta das Lágrimas had been growing in her mind ever since Inês first mentioned her namesake’s love story and the theft of the Crooked Queen. Inês, Leonor, and Pedrinho had all called it a magical place. Whatever could that mean? Lacey’s work had taken her to many exotic places—corporate boardrooms, smugglers’ dens, love nests, counterfeiting studios, and the like—but never to a magical place. Some vestige of Iowa farm girl within stirred to walk through the tall stalks of a cornfield and emerge in an enchanted realm.

Lacey shook her head and slapped herself on the cheek. Romantic balderdash! This was no trip to Disneyland, but rather an opportunity to visit the scene of the crime; get to the bottom of the Crooked Queen’s theft; delve into Inês’s fools, lies, and skeletons; dig for the truth. She was on the case, and the case had better beware.

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