“Hell.”
“Didn’t work?” I asked.
“No, and I’m sure the exorcism would have disrupted any link between the spirit and these if there had been a link holding it here.”
“Then why is the EMF still maxing out?”
Gail turned the detector off and picked up one of the bracelets. After staring at the figures in the metal, she said, “It must be the enchantment.”
“So spells and enchantments emit EMF?” I asked.
She returned the bracelets and the EMF detector to her backpack. “That’s a possibility, I haven’t come across that many spells on objects like these bracelets, and I just don’t know. I can check my parents’ records and see if they mentioned it. If not, I’ll call Mom and see if she remembers anything about it.”
On the center console, Gail’s phone rang. She climbed into the back of the van and retrieved it.
“Hello,” she said into the phone.
After a pause, she added, “Yes, you have the right number.”
She listened again.
“Yes, Professor, we’d like to talk with you, too. How soon?”
“Where shall we meet you?”
“Ah, yes, that will work. We know the way. We’ll see you in thirty minutes.”
She clicked off and slid out of the van.
“That Nichols?” I asked.
“Yep, he wants to meet and find out more about how we’re going to keep him alive.”
“Yes, I can see how he might be interested in that.”
“You drive, I want to contact Leonard and see if he’s found anything useful.”
“Okay, where are we going?” I asked heading for the driver’s door.
“Back to Murray Hall. He’s in the storeroom, I’ll bet he’s wondering who shot up his stuff.”
“Well, we could blame it on the Morenos,” I said.
Gail laughed and slammed the side doors shut.
Chapter 19 – Trinity Tattoo
We found a parking space near Murray Hall, but not nearly as close as we had parked on our last visit. I had to admit that I was a little nervous about returning to a spot we had so recently shot up. Professor Nichols could probably guess that we had been the vandals responsible for the destruction, but I thought he’d be sensible about it after we’d saved his life.
When we arrived in the basement storeroom, we found the police had come and gone and that a dozen or so students were attempting to salvage everything they could from our handiwork.
Nichols saw us coming and met us in the aisles. “I’m glad you were available on such short notice.”
“Well, to be honest, you’re the primary reason we’re here,” Gail said shaking Nichols proffered hand.
“Oh? What do you mean?” Nichols asked as he shook my hand.
“I mean if it hadn’t been for your opening whatever dig activated this spirit, we wouldn’t be here. I’m not assigning you any blame, Professor Nichols, that’s just the way things are. We’ll do our best to put the spirit back and save your life,” Gail said.
“Oh, well, yes and I do appreciate what you’ve done.” He turned to glance toward the nearest students. “I guess all of this damage was more of you two trying to stop the … ah … spirit?”
“Yes, we had hoped to find something that the spirit was anchored to, something that we could break its tie to and send the spirit on.”
“But you didn’t find anything?” Nichols asked, still eyeing the students.
“No, is everything you unearthed stored here?” Gail asked.
“Of course it is. Why would you ask?” Nichols said.
The man’s voice seemed more stressed than it had a moment ago and he made a point of studying the shine on his shoes. I had to wonder why he was lying.
“Come on, Professor. We can’t help you if you hide things from us,” I said.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Gail’s voice was harsher than before. “He means that you’re obviously lying. What’s the deal, Professor? Did you keep a little something for your personal collection?”
Nichols's head came up. “I resent your insinuation. I’m a reputable archeologist, I wouldn’t think of—”
“Save it,” Gail said. “Let’s go, Jesse; if he doesn’t want our help, then I guess we should leave him to his own devices.”
She turned to leave and I hesitated, watching Nichol’s face. The man was definitely remembering just how close he’d come to dying the night before.
“Wait, don’t go. Look, will you come to my office? We need to talk in private.”
Gail reversed her steps and nodded. “Sure thing, Professor, lead the way.”
When he turned away and started for the door, Gail caught my eye and smiled.
I bent close and said, “Would you have really left him to die?”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “I think last night convinced him that he needs us, no matter what.”
“You are wicked,” I said.
Her smile was sly. “You should remember that yourself, Hoss.”
I chuckled as we hurried to catch up with Nichols.
Nichols’ office was on the second floor of the building. He didn’t have a receptionist or office assistance and his door was down a short hallway that contained several other doors with professor’s names on the frosted glass.
I noticed that one of them was Robbins, the last professor on the list of those involved in releasing the spirit. I tapped Gail’s shoulder as we passed it and pointed it out with a nod of my head. She followed my direction and nodded.
“Is your co-worker, Professor Robbins, around this afternoon?” Gail asked.
Nichols opened his door; it wasn’t locked, and he stopped at Gail’s question.
“John? Yes, he’s around somewhere. I talked with him this morning.”
Nichols held the door until we were in and then shut it behind us.
I thought his office was tidy, considering my only experience with archeologists was from the Indiana Jones movies. Neat bookshelves lined the sidewalls, a window covered most of the far wall, and the view outside was green. The canopy of a large oak blocked all sight of the campus.
Nichols walked around his ancient wooden desk, covered by a laptop, phone, and a small stack of papers held down by a textbook. A small area rug on this
