“You can keep sleeping.”
“I’m fine. I’m really not that tired,” she insisted. When someone was too tired, the mind sometimes snapped into a hyperaware mode, which made them seem alert and fine, but I could tell she was dying on the inside. She continued, “Also, are you sure the hidden fortune is even in this town?”
I understood April’s point. She was suggesting the possibility that it had been secreted away to some other town. While it would be hard to transport such an amount at once, if it was taken in bits and pieces over months and years, it would certainly be possible.
“The keeper of the treasure was in this town, too, though,” I said. “I don’t think it’s likely.”
Coming and going all the time would draw attention and suspicion. At some point, someone would have followed him to find out where he was going, and the place would’ve been spotted long ago.
“Oh,” she said, crestfallen. “I thought it was a good idea.” Her reaction was comical, like watching a puppet’s strings loosened, but I didn’t feel like laughing. April was just trying to think of anything she could that might solve the problem.
“If only the keeper would show up—that might clear this up really fast,” she added.
“They say the safekeeper vanished during the stampede. He’s probably dead by now.”
The entirety of the criminal underworld was on the hunt. If this person was still alive and hiding in this town, he’d have been found already. No matter how much money someone had, they always left a trace to follow.
“Hmm?”
Something about that detail struck me as odd. They claimed the safekeeper had been a victim of the stampede, but he must’ve had money. Obviously, anyone keeping watch on a vast treasure could turn into a thief at a moment’s notice, so Heather must have been paying him an appropriate stipend.
So if he had the resources, why didn’t he run away?
When the first inklings of the stampede happened, the rich were the first to hightail it out of town. I didn’t hear about this fellow being injured or sick in some way that would prevent an escape. Perhaps there was some other reason he couldn’t leave.
If it was anything, it’d have to have been the hidden treasure. He was too worried about it and couldn’t leave it behind. Or perhaps he tried to, but it was already too late.
April was skeptical that the hidden fortune was even in this town. People were looking through every inch of it and still hadn’t been successful. Which meant…
“I get it now.”
I knew where the fortune was hidden.
“Thank you, Matthew,” April said, pulling me out of my feverish contemplations. “I’m so grateful to you. I’m glad you’re here.”
“Don’t thank me until this is all over.”
The old man was still in jail, and both the mob and the city officials were after us. It didn’t feel bad to be thanked, but it was still way too early for that.
“I want to say it now. If I don’t thank you now, I’ll never get the chance, I think,” she said earnestly. “Listen, Matthew. I…”
At that exact moment, the window shattered as a stone the size of a child’s head flew through it. April screamed, and Ralph leaped into the room.
“We’re surrounded!” he shouted in warning.
Through the broken window, I could see dark shapes encircling the building. The torches they held up revealed them quite plainly: a bunch of money-hungry miscreants. I’d been so absorbed in my brainstorming, I never noticed them coming.
“Damn, they were quicker than I expected.”
Ralph put his back against the wall by the window, reaching for his sword. His lips were blue, and his hand shook. He’d fought many monsters in his time, but this would be his first experience fighting for his life against other people. Some of them looked like ordinary civilians, too. Even if he had the excuse of self-defense, it was going to be painful to kill his fellow man this way.
“Don’t worry, I’ll jump out there and draw them away, while you—”
“That’s a very funny joke.” I chuckled, clapping Ralph on the shoulder. The goons outside were tightening the noose around us. There were too many to fight back against.
“Follow me.”
I led the two of them across the house to the basement entrance.
“What’s this?”
“Underground storage.”
A ladder led down a large hole.
“What is it?”
“Something some crazy folks built.”
This had belonged to Thomas, the scrivener on Sages Street. Not long ago, Sol Magni had been using the place as a hideout. I’d use anything I could, even if it was dug out by the believers of the loopy sun god.
“Follow me.”
I grabbed a candelabra, lit a candle, and descended into the hole. I’d have prevented them from following us by blocking off the hole behind us, but there wasn’t time for that.
“There’s a big open space a bit farther down, with a number of exits from there. It’s the perfect way to escape from them.”
“So that’s why you chose this location to hide in,” Ralph said, impressed.
“A solid escape route is a must-have when planning for a siege,” I said. Even the stoutest castle had its way to safety. “I haven’t checked every last inch, but I know several of the tunnels lead to the surface. We’ll be able to lose them here.”
I led them through the chamber where I’d once fought the baphomet, then down the narrow natural cave passage.
It was getting brighter; we were close to the exit. The naked rock walls turned into a plastered basement. We ascended a short staircase and finally came out into the open again. It was a church close to a main street. Though unrelated to the sun god, its priest had died in the stampede, and it had been abandoned without anyone to run it. The building smelled like piss and shit, suggesting that some stray dogs or cats had found a home there—not that I wanted or was obliged to clean it.