"I am not here," Maggie Tremaine insisted as she struggled through the doorway of the office she temporarily shared with Professor Carmel Ward. Maggie dropped her laptop, a travel bag and box on her desk. "I'm just dumping these and then I am really not here."
"Ah, you might have to be," Carmel said, waving a hand to get Maggie's attention. "A man has been waiting to see you for five hours. He was here most of yesterday too."
"A man, indeed? Well he can wait until Monday," Maggie declared.
"I'd rather not."
Maggie turned in surprise to find a tall, angular man rising from the armchair behind the door.
"My name is Richard Avonscroft," he said, offering his card. "Of Hudson & Bolt."
"And?" Maggie prodded.
"You are Dr Margaret Selby Tremaine?"
Maggie scowled at him and rummaged around in her traveller's belt pouch for her passport.
"We have been instructed," Avonscroft stated, after actually holding the picture up to compare it to the real thing, "by Professor Lloyd Marsden to deliver this personally to you."
Maggie accepted the audiotape-sized package and tore off the paper. Written on the lid of a slim cardboard box where the words:
If you are reading this my fears have
been realised. I am no more.
Maggie read it again then stared at Richard Avonscroft. "What's happened?"
"Professor Marsden was apparently found murdered in Melbourne yesterday morning."
"To which part of that sentence does the word 'apparently' actually apply?" Maggie asked.
"The Professor was found dead in the State Library. It is apparently a case of murder."
Maggie dropped into her chair. Her hands were shaking as she removed the lid of the box. Inside was a door key, and a note which read:
Check the odyssey of Ouroboros.
Safe no more.
Return to the finder, from the words
of the Bard. Sweet bugger all
back here is the key to Thomas's clue.
"What is it Maggie?" Carmel asked.
"I have absolutely no idea," Maggie stated. "But I have to go to Melbourne."