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“Alice has gone missing.” There was panic in her grandmother’s voice now.
“They don’t think you have something to do with that, do they?” Julia could actually feel her blood pressure spike. “Is that what you’ve been arrested for? And what do you mean gone missing?”
“I don’t know what happened to Alice, we were separated and she disappeared. I was looking for her when I was arrested.”
“Gran, spit it out. What did they arrest you for?”
“They think I stole a mummified body.”
Julia blinked as time stood still. “A mummified body?”
There was silence.
“Did you?”
“Well, I’m not going to answer that over the phone! For goodness sake, Julia, use your brain. You’re supposed to be the sensible one in the family. Now are you coming to get me out or not?”
There was only one answer. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Thank you, darling.” Her grandmother sounded relieved. “I’ll get them to send you the details of where they’re holding me. Please hurry.”
The line went dead. Julia let her hand drop to her side, still holding the phone. Peru. A stolen mummy. A missing woman. And her grandmother in jail. She automatically thought of calling her mum then remembered her gran’s order not to.
Placing a hand on her roiling stomach, Julia began to make a mental checklist of everything she needed to do. Right at the top was informing Callum that she’d need some time off immediately. She bit her lip and wondered if she could do it by email. Probably not.
Gathering her courage, she turned back towards the conference room. The party mood had gained momentum in the short time she’d been gone. Megan was sitting in Dimitri’s lap while calling for pizza. Ryan was on his way out to pick up drinks and trying to gently convince Katrina to go along for the ride. Although Katrina was keeping her distance physically from Ryan, she had no problem telling him that she didn’t want to go. Elle was demanding cake. Rachel was sitting off to the side studying everyone as though they were aliens and Callum looked like he was getting ready to run. She didn’t know what Joe was doing, because she was still trying to stay as far away from him as possible until she figured out how to deal with the effect he had on her.
Julia skirted the room and sidled up to Callum.
“Um, Callum.” She spoke in the direction of his shoulder.
“Is this about work? Please, let it be about work.” He stood, ready to run as she’d suspected.
Julia swallowed hard. “I, um, got a call. There’s a family emergency.”
She found herself in the uncomfortable position of being the sole focus of Callum’s laser-like attention.
“Whose family?” he said.
“Oh.” She folded her arms around her stomach. “Mine. Sorry. Should have said. My grandmother has been arrested.” Daring a peek up at his face, all she saw was concern. Okay, so it was grumpy concern, but it was still there.
“Your grandmother’s been arrested?”
There was incredulous disbelief in his voice. Most people, when they thought of grandmothers, would imagine a tiny, grey haired woman who sat around knitting all day long. That wasn’t Julia’s grandmother.
“Yes. I wondered if it would be okay to have some time off, to go…” She wasn’t sure what the right term was. “Bail her out?” She looked up at him and he nodded. Okay, that was good, she was making sense. “I might need quite a bit of time—she’s in Peru.”
“Peru?” Callum’s voice rose and attracted unwanted attention.
Julia shuffled around slightly, to make sure her back was to the room.
Callum ran a hand down his face. “Okay, Peru. Who’s going with you?”
She startled. “No one. My gran told me not to tell the family.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to deal with the Peruvian authorities alone?”
She nodded, even though his scepticism was clear. Callum let out a sigh.
