Page 7 of Chaos and Crowns

“You know,” Ernie barreled on, oblivious to Odelle’s annoyance, “If you went the talk show route, you would be able to enjoy your days off. Go out and meet a handsome guy.”

“Oh, I won’t be here long,” Odelle assured him, “I’m just here to grab some contact info from my computer.” She avoided telling him she had met a handsome guy who was currently waiting at her apartment, but he just wasn’t interested. After all, the fact that her boss would comment on her love life was preposterous to begin with. She had grown used to ignoring his misogyny over the years as she climbed into her current position.

Ernie gave a shrug that seemed to say, “whatever floats your boat,” even as his condescending smile indicated he thought she was making a mistake.

Odelle brushed off the interaction, sliding herself into her desk chair and waking up her computer. Sure enough, the lead archaeologist from the dig in Greece was listed prominently in her notes from the museum gala coverage. She smiled in victory at the sight of a phone number beneath the name. Odelle snatched up her desk phone and punched in the number. The line rang several times, and Odelle propped the receiver between her ear and shoulder as she idly swung back and forth in her swiveling desk chair.

“Hello, Dr. Darwish speaking.” A cheery female voice answered.

“Hi, Dr. Darwish, this Odelle Zvezda, a reporter from Channel Three News Chicago.” Odelle easily slipped into her plucky reporter voice, the one that Nora teased her for accidentally using on personal phone calls.

“Odelle Zvezda?” The woman’s cheerful tone disappeared so quickly that Odelle momentarily thought she was talking to a completely different person. “Are you the reporter that covered the Field Museum gala featuring Classical Greek artifacts?”

“Yes?” Odelle didn’t intend for the word to come out as a question, but Dr. Darwish’s accusatory tone threw her off balance.

“Well then, I hope you are calling to apologize for not even mentioning the work of my excavation and research crew in your feature of the new artifacts, even though we’re the ones who did the discovering.”

She blinked. It hadn’t crossed her mind that the archeologists would be following the news surrounding the weapons. Apparently, nothing was going to be easy today.

“Actually, you aren’t that far off.” Odelle swung back to her computer, scouring her notes for any other information she might have on Dr. Darwish. “I’m planning a feature on your excavation. I know that the sword and the spear currently at the Field Museum aren’t the only artifacts you discovered, and I’d love to highlight your work.”

“Oh.” Dr. Darwish sounded taken aback, but not quite won over, “Really?”

“Yes!” Odelle’s voice was a tad too enthusiastic. She toned down her feigned excitement as she continued, “We would love to feature some of the discoveries you’ve made. I did want to make sure that we don’t miss any of the fantastic pieces you’ve found, though. Were any artifacts sold to private donors in the area? It would be great if we could photograph those to show as well as the more well-known artifacts. Really paint a picture of the scope of your work.”

“Hmm…”

Odelle held her breath at the sound of shuffling papers on the other end of the line.

“Yes, we did sell to three different private collectors.”

She scribbled down the names as Dr. Darwish listed them out. She probably wasn’t supposed to be giving them to Odelle, but a little bit of flattery went a long way. She scrutinized the names, seeing if any of them rang a bell. She barely registered Dr. Darwish still prattling on through the receiver.

“When would you be conducting the interview?”

“How about I call you to schedule once we have all the images from around here we need? Probably in a few weeks,” Odelle deflected. Hopefully that would give her enough time to resolve the issue with the Shadow and smooth things over with Ernie.

“Alright then.” Dr. Darwish’s enthusiasm didn’t dim. Maybe Odelle would turn this into a lovely feature piece after all. “I’ll call you on this number if I don’t hear from you.”

Odelle was sure she would, as she rushed through a polite goodbye. As soon as she hung up, she searched the names on the internet. As expected, all were bigshot businessmen, having the type of money to throw around on something that would likely only ever sit in a glass case to start conversations at cocktail parties.

The first name on the list was quickly ruled out as a search showed many pictures of the man on red carpets with his husband. The lady wearing the crown had claimed to be the owner’s wife. She could have been lying, but Odelle couldn’t imagine what purpose that would serve.

The second man on the list lived in New York. Odelle itched to rule him out too, but people traveled across the country for events regularly. He very well could have flown out for the political fundraiser, and Odelle didn’t manage to find any pictures of him with a woman who might have been his wife.

Odelle noted all the names and addresses in case the Shadows started targeting the other artifacts as well. For now, she would focus on the one she knew they were after.

The last name on the list struck a chord in Odelle’s mind. Frederick Whitehall was a prominent philanthropist in Chicago, but she couldn’t find any pictures of him with the woman she had spoken to at the fundraiser. Still, she crossed her fingers that he had bought the crown. Having to track the artifact down in New York would present an even larger challenge. What she would do when she found the crown, she hadn’t even begun to think about.

I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.

Odelle closed out of the browser and grabbed the paper with the names on it, shoving it into her already overcrowded purse. Antony had spent enough time waiting in her apartment. The vision of her pile of dirty clothes pushed into her mind again, but she shoved it away. Antony already didn’t like her, so his thoughts on her laundry habits were irrelevant. Still, she hurried home.

* * *

Antony sat on the floor surrounded by pieces of what had once been her toaster. At least, Odelle guessed it was her toaster from the amount of crumbs now scattered across her area rug. She made a mental note to decrumb her toaster more often—once she bought a new one, that was.

“I told you not to take apart the television, but you assumed kitchen appliances were fair game?” Odelle asked as she pushed into the apartment. The plastic bag of takeout she held rustled as she set it down on the counter. Odelle thought she was demonstrating how she was the bigger person, grabbing lunch for the man who had rejected her. Seeing the state of her living room though, she had second thoughts about the gesture.