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The door to Dr. Van Flemming's house opened. His crotchety old housekeeper looked at Clara up and down. "Thought I had seen the last of the likes of you."
"Please let Dr. Van Flemming know I am here. I have come to check in on him," said Clara.
The bent old woman shuffled off down the hall, passing the stacks of books and papers in the hallway slowly. Several minutes passed and she shuffled back again. She gave a wave of her hand, not even bothering to go the whole way to the front door. "Come in then. Watch you don't track any mud on my clean floors."
Clara looked down at the carpet. It had a layer of gray dust over what was probably once a burgundy pile. Clara wondered if clean meant anytime in the past century. The housekeeper coughed a wracking, phlegmy cough.
Clara walked down the hallway and into Dr. Van Flemming's office. It actually appeared to have undergone a bit of a transition, and Clara realized why.
Standing by the window was the actress Pauline who had been possessed by the Egyptian Queen's curse. Dr. Van Flemming had held a candle for her, and from the way she glanced at Dr. Van Flemming, Clara deduced that perhaps the feelings had evolved to become mutual.
"Dr. Van Flemming! Pauline!" Clara said coming in. "How delightful to see both of you!"
"Come to destroy more of my life's work?" said Dr. Van Flemming.
"Shut your trap," chided Pauline affectionately.
"The correct words would be 'hush, please'," Dr. Van Flemming corrected her.
"Well, then hush your trap," She reached out to Clara. "Delighted to see you again. He's been helping me with my words and stuff."
"I supposed I do have you to thank," said Dr. Van Flemming.
"For what?" Clara asked.
"With Dr. Mallfeld's death, the museum was in need of someone to head his department and I have finally been able to introduce some real science in that place, outside of the flim-flammery that he was espousing."
"How lovely!" said Clara, not entirely sure what the correct response should be. "Congratulations."
"And he hired me to help him sort through his research here at the house and decide what needs to go to his office at the museum," said Pauline with a wink.
Dr. Van Flemming got a faraway look in his eyes, as if enraptured with the thought of his impact. "I'm sure it will be a great boon to the scientists there to have all my work there to inform their studies. One must ensure that they build their ideas off the backs of giants."
"So true," Clara said with a smile.
"Now, how can I be of assistance?" Dr. Van Flemming asked, "Because we really must be getting back to things."
From the way he was looking at Pauline, Clara wondered if their work was entirely of the scientific variety. But no matter.
"I am afraid that I must seek your assistance. Do you have any familiarity with famous gemstones?"
Dr. Van Flemming sighed. "Oh, why is it that everyone is always so interested in gemstones? Merely shiny rocks which reflect back the light and all of you female types go weak in the knees!"
Clara breathed deeply. Dr. Van Flemming had never been one for tact. "I am afraid that I am interested more in the history of a particular stone," she said.
"Ah! Well, that is a horse of a different color!" he replied, suddenly leaning forward with great interest.
"I am looking for the history of a large emerald," said Clara.
"I've always been partial to emeralds," said Pauline, meaningfully to Dr. Van Flemming.
"This one has some superstition surrounding it," continued Clara.
Dr. Van Flemming rubbed his chin. "Superstition, you say?"
"Yes," said Clara. "Something akin to those scarabs and how they were used to hold a mummy's heart in place."
She saw that her thinly veiled allusions were not lost on her audience.
"You say like a scarab?" said Dr. Van Flemming. Pauline walked over and stood behind him, gripping his shoulder tightly.
"This emerald," said Clara, "perhaps may have been surrounded by rumors that it could control the dead."
Dr. Van Flemming got up and walked over to his shelves. "You are so fortunate that we had not sent all of my books off. Pauline, I feel very strongly that we should keep more at the house..."
Pauline rolled her eyes and Clara could tell she was concerned Dr. Van Flemming might use this incident as his excuse to hang onto his hoard.
The man ran his hand over several books, and then ran over to another shelf. He did not seem to find what he was looking for because he ran over to his stacks and began digging. Finally, he pulled out a black bound notebook and flipped through. He stopped on a page and nodded.
"I am pleased that my facilities have not completely abandoned me."
"Pardon?" asked Clara.
"He means that he's glad he's so smart," said Pauline, leaning against his desk with her hand upon her hip.
Dr. Van Flemming glared at her before turning back to Clara. "What I mean is that of all of the Egyptologists you could have been acquainted with, you are very fortunate that you associate with me."
Clara wondered how much of a coincidence it was that their paths had crossed. Between Thomas and Minnie, she felt as if lately every footstep she took was divinely guided.
"There was an emerald dug up from a tomb in the Valley of the Kings. According to the hieroglyphs we discovered on the wall, this emerald was rumored to have been able to control the dead. It was attached to a staff, which looks like this." Dr. Van Flemming turned his notebook over to Clara and showed her an Egyptian holding a stick. The top of the stick was shaped like a flaring cobra and held between the tips of his fangs was an emerald. "It allowed the user to focus their thoughts and control the dead. We believe that it was owned by a high priest of the era."
"And what happened to the emerald after it was discovered?" asked Clara.
"Well," said Dr. Van Flemming. "It was found on one of the expeditions funded by Lord Horace Oroberg and Lord Alastair Beltza. It was brought back on Captain Grey's ship. It arrived here and was supposed to go into the private collection of Lord Beltza, but there was mix up, I'm afraid, and it was sold to a private donor."
"Do you know who that person was?" asked Clara with great interest.
Dr. Van Flemming shook his head. "I am afraid that the purchase was done anonymously through a third party."
Clara sighed, grateful that there was no record which could lead anyone back to Thomas. He seemed to have thought of everything.
"When did this happen?" she asked.
"About a year and a half ago," said Dr. Van Flemming. "It was a very disappointing turn of events to lose such a valuable piece of antiquity."
They were interrupted by Pauline knocking over a stack of books. In her arms was a large box.
"Careful with that!" shouted Dr. Van Flemming in alarm.
"It ain't nothing but a box of old rocks," she said.
Dr. Van Flemming leapt from his chair and took the box from her. Clara, out of curiosity, walked over behind him and looked inside. It was full of carved scarabs.
"You got a million of these things," scolded Pauline. "You got so many, you don't even know which ones you got."
Dr. Van Flemming sighed in resignation. He looked over at Clara. "She does keep me honest."
"He'd be buried if it weren't for me helping him out."
Clara thought of the destitute woman they encountered who swore it was a scarab which kept the Quatre Portes from stopping her heart. She wondered if the woman spoke the truth or superstition. She had encountered enough in recent days, though, to believe many things others might find extraordinary.
"Dr. Van Flemming, I was wondering if I might borrow a few of these," Clara asked. "There is a very particular turn of events which has happened since last we met, and I fear that they may come in handy."
"Really?" he said.
"You might both wear one, too," Clara suggested.
Dr. Van Flemming nodded and reached in. He took out four blood red scarabs and handed them to Clara. "Will these do? Call them replacements for the one you lost during our last adventure."
Clara smiled and took them gingerly from him. She did not feel any magical presence as she had the last time. The room did not spin. Her earth did not tilt. Perhaps it truly was nothing more than a piece of jewelry.
"Thank you," she said.
He waved her off. "It is the least I could do for you saving my Pauline." Pauline blew him a kiss. This time there was no misunderstanding of the relationship which had developed between the actress and the scientist. Dr. Van Flemming laughed. "May you never have use for them."
Clara felt a little shiver and hoped that his words had not just tempted fate.