Neil recognized the voice, even though he had no idea what he’d just said. “Skink! You’re too late. I’ve already given the Queen the jewel,” Neil lied.
“Oh, please,” Skink said, closing the door behind him. “I’ve been trailing you for days. I know your every move. After I left poor Cordelia to battle with Jones, I followed you to Buckingham Palace. I know you left without leaving anything behind.” There was a click as the man turned the key to relock the door.
“Poor Cordelia. So faithful. She thought helping me would give her a long career in theater. Now a long stay in the hospital is more likely.”
Skink turned around, and Neil could clearly see his face. Neil recognized the man who had visited his restaurant and the man whose face had appeared in the newspaper photo about the Raven Theatre. “How? Wait. How can you be both Lane and Skink?” Neil said, confused.
The man smiled. “Only a thespian as gifted as myself could have pulled it off.”
Lane stared down at his unconscious daughter. “ ‘Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend. More hideous when thou show’st thee in a child than the sea-monster!’ ”
“I’m not sure I’d pick King Lear as a model for parenting,” Larry said. “What did you do to turn Penny against you?”
“We’ve never been close. Then, when she discovered that I’d used up her inheritance to find the jewel . . . well, she didn’t take a future of poverty very well.”
“She’d been working with the Crayfish all along,” Jones said.
Lane shrugged. “As you can see, it is no great loss. I will have the jewel and make sure Penny never sees a penny.” He chuckled. “A bad pun unworthy of me, but it does appear to match your level of intelligence.”
“Lord Lame,” Larry said.
“You just proved my point.” Lane gave a loud theatrical sigh.
“The man who puts the ham in Hamlet,” Larry said.
Lane fired a bullet at Larry’s feet. “I am a theatrical genius! I’d suggest you don’t anger me, or the next bullet will find itself lodged inside your ‘mortal coil,’ if you get my reference.”
“So why the whole Skink act?” Neil asked, stalling for time. Jones and Rose must be working on some kind of plan. There were five of them, after all, against only one man . . . of course, that man did have a gun.
“I asked the delightful twins if they would allow me just a short amount of time more to make good on my loans. They refused and exerted a fair bit of argument with a knife and blackjack. I felt it was expedient to disappear.”
“So you changed out of your clothes at the theater and made it look like you’d been killed.”
Lane nodded. “I added some fake blood to make the scene more aesthetically convincing, of course.”
“Then you dressed up as Skink and ran away,” Rose said.
Lane smiled. “Skink is a persona I have inhabited for years. You see, I wished to be on the stage from an early age, but it was frowned upon in the Lane family. It was fine to watch theater, but a career as an actor? That would never do.” He shook his head sadly.
Neil did his best to keep the conversation going. “So you created the Skink persona to live a double life.”
“A very Shakespearean solution, in fact, don’t you think?”
“Um. I’ll have to take your word for that.”
“I toiled in the wings for years, wilting in the shadow of lesser so-called talents.” A dark shadow came over Lane’s face. “It was in the pursuit of a suitable theater in which to display my brilliance that I came upon the shield. I knew then that the universe was telling me I was on the right track, that I was meant to be an heir to the great Bard himself.”
“Is this a soliloquy or an epic poem?” Larry said, making a “cuckoo” sign with his finger and ear.
“But there were so many false trails. I searched and searched for more clues, for more signs of this jewel. All the while I continued my career on the stage. Then you found that note in the honey. I knew then that there were more clues, clues unlike the shield. I also knew that there was still a way to find the jewel. It was time to renew my search.”
“But then the Crayfish creeps caught on.”
“Those guests who accompanied me to your restaurant were not all friendly, it turns out. Some told Penny about the note. She, alas, betrayed me. I knew the Crayfish twins were casing the theater in case I tried to come back.”
“And to see if you were hiding something.”
“Then they saw us coming out that day and assumed we were working with you,” Rose said. “So they opened fire. Lane, you owe me two side mirrors and a new paint job for my car.”
“No. ‘I will not lend thee a penny,’ as Falstaff says. I’m afraid it is time for this play to come to a close. For me it is a comedy, but for you a tragedy. I would like to thank you for all your help, though, before I exit stage left.”
“Our help?” Neil said angrily.
“You broke the code. You confirmed that with our little meeting in the theater, when you so indelicately soiled your trousers and revealed that you were on the right track for the jewel. I knew I would only have to let you go, and then I could follow you.”
“What do you mean you let me go?”
Lane smirked. “Your idiot cousin didn’t jimmy the lock on the theater. I let him in, and then snuck out when he went to save you. There was never any real chance of a fire. It was all theater tricks.”
Neil scowled. “We would take all the risk in the final search for the jewel, and then you’d swoop in at the end.”
Lane nodded. “You exceeded my expectations. I almost got the jewel at the College of Arms. If only that fool at the front desk had turned off the intercom.”
Jones scowled. “You threw that poor young friend of yours in my way so you could escape.”
Jones made a move toward Lane, who fired another shot into the floor. Jones stopped.
“Enough. You did help capture my enemies. I will reward you with your lives, if you cooperate. Now all you have to do is lie down on the floor while I take the jewel.”
“And if we refuse?” Neil said.
Lane pointed his gun at Isabella and prepared to fire.
“No! No! I get it.” Neil quickly fell to the floor.
The others did the same. “Now I would like to ask Rose to stand up and come over here, with her hands on her head.”
Neil looked across the floor and saw Rose stand up.
“Very good,” Lane said. “Now Neil, take the jewel from your pocket and slide it across the floor to me.”
“It’s not a jewel, you know,” Neil said. “It’s just a scrap of paper.”
Lane didn’t say anything for a second. “Give it to Rose.”
“Rose?” Had she been working with Lane after all?
“Now!” Lane said.
Neil reached into his jacket and grabbed the rolled-up paper. It had gotten quite bent during the last few hours. He took it and slid it across the floor.
Rose bent down to pick it up, and Neil could see her wide eyes locked onto the Shakespeare signature. She seemed possessed. Then she stood up straight and Neil couldn’t see her face anymore.
“Read it!” Lane said. He seemed agitated, and his voice grew more and more shrill. “Is it worth anything? Kemp said it was a jewel!”
Rose took a second to answer. “It’s a sheet from a legal document. It looks like a partial deed to the Globe Theatre. There’s a list of plays by Shakespeare, and then he signed it. . . .” Rose was almost whispering now as she gazed at the signature.
Lane threw his head back and laughed. “So that’s the jewel!” Neil couldn’t tell if Lane was angry or happy. “The deed to a burned-down, four-hundred-year-old theater?”
“As a historical document it’s priceless. It’s got an actual Shakespeare signature. It lists Shakespeare as the writer of a series of plays, and then it lists them! And there’s more—”
Suddenly they heard sirens wailing in the distance.
“Enough. We are leaving now. If we escape, I will let you out of the car at the city limits. If not, we will both die. Now give me the jewel.”
“No. I can’t let this leave the country. It’s too important.”
“Rose, don’t be an idiot,” Jones said.
“It runs in the family, I’m afraid.”
“If you don’t hand it to me, I’ll pry it from your corpse,” Lane said.
The sirens were getting closer.
“Go for it,” Rose said. She turned and sprinted for the front door.
Crack!
Lane fired, and Rose fell to the floor.
“Noooooo!” Neil yelled as Rose slumped down the wall. Lane ran over and bent down, desperate to grab the parchment from her. She clutched it, gasping for breath. Neil saw to his horror that a red stain was spreading across her shirt.
“Give it to me!” Lane screamed, frantic.
Neil saw a chance to get Lane and began to stand up. He felt a whoosh past his ear as Jones rushed byhim. Neil was amazed at the catlike agility and speed of the huge man. Lane turned his head as Jones lunged, but realized too late that he was done for.
Jones knocked the gun from Lane’s hand and then knocked him cold with one punch to the jaw. Now it was Lane who slumped to the floor.
Jones grabbed Rose, who was still holding the parchment in her hand. He ripped the sleeves off his own jacket and made a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding.
“Why don’t you ever listen to me?” Jones said.
Rose gave a weak smile. “I knew there was no way Lane could escape if he had to try to get the jewel off me and then get out the door.”
“You idiot,” Jones said. Neil ran over and handed Jones his jacket. Neil could see tears forming in Jones’s eyes. Jones pressed the jacket on top of the bandaged wound in Rose’s side.
Rose spoke quietly. “I knew he’d focus on the parchment long enough to give you a chance to do your gymnastic Jones thing.”
Jones didn’t say anything. His great frame seemed to be fighting the tears. Despite his best efforts, the red stain was clearly growing. Isabella joined Jones and handed him her shawl.
“Just stay still, bella Rosa. I can hear the sirens getting closer.”
“There’s a first-aid kit on the wall,” Larry said. He ran over and grabbed it, handing Jones even more bandages. Jones ripped Rose’s shirt in half and wrapped the bandages and clothing as tightly as he could around her torso. He put his enormous hand on the wound, pushing hard to help it close.
“We’ll get you to a hospital,” Jones said.
Rose gave a weak laugh. “ ‘A hit, a very palpable hit,’ as they say in Hamlet. But at least the jewel will stay here in England. People will know, Jones. People will know.”
“It’s just a stupid piece of paper,” Jones said.
Rose shook her head, her eyelids fluttered. “Some things are worth risking your life for.”
Her fingers went limp, and the parchment fell to the floor. Jones hugged Rose, the red stain soaking his shirt as well.
Neil had never seen Jones cry. But his whole body now heaved with great sobs.
Then, all of a sudden, there was the screeching of tires outside and the loud hum of a helicopter. The door opened, shoving Lane a good five feet sideways as an entire team of black-clad police officers stormed inside.
The next thing Neil knew, he was lying facedown on the floor with a boot on his back.