“It’s possible, but again, not everyone would know that.”
“Can I try fifty-seven?”
“Why not?”
Rune got pouring again while Ravi picked up a black box. “There’s some kind of electronic thing, but I don’t know what it is or what it does. Do you think these scribbles on the wall mean anything?”
Alaric went to check while I studied the skulls. They ranged from the size of a grape to bigger than a watermelon, and out of all of them, I only recognised one—a horse. Except the plaque underneath said Tamias striatus. Now, I had no idea what a Tamias striatus was, but it certainly wasn’t the scientific name for a horse. That was Equus caballus, which was attached to something the size of a fist.
“I think these skulls are mislabelled.” When I picked at the top plaque, the Velcro behind it loosened, and it came away in my hand. “I think we’re meant to rearrange them. Should I get the zoology book from upstairs, or…?”
Alaric leaned over my shoulder. Usually, I hated when people invaded my space, but he was welcome to as much of it as he wanted.
“Simia paniscus—that has to be some sort of monkey. The top one? Rune?”
Rune managed to match five more. Nandinia binotata and Nyctereutes procyonoides were a mystery to all of us. But it didn’t matter anymore because I suddenly realised the connection.
“Look at the first letters. We’ve got two N’s left, and it really doesn’t matter which is which.”
Simia paniscus
Equus caballus
Vulpes vulpes
Eudyptes chrysocome
Nandinia binotata
Tamias striatus
Erethizon dorsaum
Enhydra lutris
Nyctereutes procyonoides
Rune’s face lit up. “Seventeen! I’ll pour it out.”
We had three filled beakers on three scales, but nothing happened. No bells, no whistles, and certainly no way out of the room magically revealed itself.
Rune muttered under her breath. It sounded like “ai-shia,” and from the delivery, I suspected it would be frowned upon by the Thai language version of Alaric’s parenting book. Luckily, she’d spoken too quietly for him to hear.
“The fifty-seven’s probably wrong,” she said more loudly. “We’re missing something. What else doesn’t fit?”
Ravi picked up the black box again, and this time, a light started flashing, bold and bright, like something out of a disco. He started jigging around, and Rune groaned.
“Did you read the ‘dad dancing’ chapter from Alaric’s book?”
She used his forename rather than calling him Dad? Odd. Mind you, a girl in my ballet class had done the same, although her parents followed some sort of new-age religion that meant they didn’t wear shoes or wash their hair. Rainbow Starshine, she’d been named, although her parents were Bob and Susan.
“Would you rather do the foxtrot?”
Rune giggled as Ravi twirled her around, and I was surprised to note that he actually was dancing the foxtrot. Where had he learned to do that? This trio kept surprising me, yet I knew I’d only scraped the surface of their personalities. Working for Sirius promised to be far more interesting than my time at the gallery, and infinitely more fun than a decade of playing the perfect hostess. I started laughing too, not just because of Ravi’s dancing but out of relief. When Hugo fired me, despair had threatened to overwhelm me again, the way it had after I walked in on Piers and his floozy, but somehow, I’d managed to land on my feet, even if the job interview had been a little unorthodox.
Alaric caught my eye, then rolled his. “Do you guys want to get out of here or not? Next time, I’ll book dance lessons.”
Ravi gave Rune one last spin, and Alaric caught her before she stumbled into the wall of flasks. I was so glad to see her enjoying her birthday. My own fifteenth had been a disaster. I’d wanted to go for pizza with my friends, but Mother had insisted on a marquee, a string quartet, and a finger buffet. As if trying to stomach caviar wasn’t bad enough, I’d fallen asleep in the sun the day before and turned the colour of a lobster. My dress chafed against my burned skin with every step I took, so I’d snuck out in tears at seven thirty and hidden in the hay barn until everyone went home.
“We have twenty-six minutes left,” Rune said. “What are strobe lights used for?”
“In the FBI, we used them to stun criminals.”
Alaric had been an FBI agent? I suppose I should have guessed he’d been law enforcement of some kind before he moved into the private sector. What about Ravi? He didn’t exactly scream “cop,” but perhaps he’d done undercover work or something.
“When I worked in nightclubs, the strobe lights slowed down movement. Either that or they made people vomit.”
Okay, definitely not a cop.
“What movement are we gonna slow down?” Alaric’s forehead creased into a frown, then relaxed as he glanced upwards. “The fan. It’s the fan. See the AC ducts? There’s no reason to have a fan too, so it must be part of the game. Can we adjust the speed on the strobe?”
“There’s a dial.” Ravi held out the unit to Rune. “Care to do the honours?”
It was like magic. The fan flickered and flashed, and then suddenly, it stopped. Not really, but it looked as though it did. Eighty-four. The numbers were clear on the blades.
“Yeeeah!” Rune shoved the strobe back at Ravi and grabbed the flask again, measuring carefully. This time when she stood back, the entire blackboard lifted up, revealing a set of stairs leading upwards. Ravi hopped through the hole first, and Alaric lifted Rune through to him, her feet clearing the remaining three feet of wall.
“Need a hand?” he asked me.
“It’ll be an ungainly scramble otherwise.”
I’d expected just a hand, as he said, but he shocked me by swinging me off my feet, bridal style again. I ended up nestled against his dark grey cashmere sweater. I’d say it reminded me of my wedding night, but when Piers had attempted the same move at Château de la Messardière in Saint Tropez, he’d put his back out, then spent the whole of our honeymoon zonked out on painkillers prescribed by a local physician. With hindsight, that was probably when his habit started. On again, off again, worse whenever things weren’t going his way at work. Of course, he always denied there was a problem, but nobody had that many tennis injuries. What he did have was a number of doctor friends who’d write him prescriptions with no questions asked.
Over the years, I’d given up trying to help him. It only led to arguments, and quite frankly, he was easier to live with when he was under the influence.
What was Alaric like to live with?
What was I even thinking?
Rune belted up the stairs, and the rest of us followed as she pushed through the door at the top. I half feared we’d find ourselves in another freaky room, but no. Keiran was slouched on a plastic chair with his phone in his hand, and judging by the hasty way he shoved it into his pocket, he hadn’t been expecting to see us quite so soon.
“Uh, that was quick. Maybe even the quickest.” He checked his twin of Rune’s electronic widget. “Yes, that was the quickest. Congratulations! You win a prize.”