“Helen,” Soula puffed, “will we make it to the hotel before they catch us?”
“Sure we wi… wha… before who catches us?” Helen inquired quizzically.
Nonchalantly Soula replied with some blood-curdling words. “The two men that have been following us. They are getting too close for my liking.”
“What?” Helen frowned, feeling her blood run cold. Just then she first discerned the sound of infrequent footfalls behind them, footsteps she had not heard before because they were not this close. She elected not to look behind them because then their stalkers would know that they had been made. And that would only lead to a full-blown chase the ladies could not afford, so they soldiered on, attempting to quicken the pace to where the bright blue and white lights of the hotel poured out on the sidewalk in front of it.
As they sped up, the followers came closer.
“Christ, what am I going to do? I don’t even have pepper spray,” Helen said to herself.
“What if we get into trouble?” Soula asked.
“We are in trouble,” Helen hissed, checking her peripherals for moving shadows.
“I mean, do something crazy to draw attention,” Soula forced through her lethargy. “Maybe if we make… noise and act c-c-crazy they will l-leave us alone. People will be looking at us..a-a… and witnesses, y-ou know?”
“Oh, I see what you mean,” Helen whispered. “But this is London on a Friday night, Soula. Acting crazy will just get us arrested.”
As she said it, Helen knew what to do. She held Soula back to a halt.
“Sit down here on the bench,” she told the Greek woman.
“Why?”
“Just do it!” Helen snapped softly. “Just trust me. If you feel anyone try to take you, you kick the shit out of him, okay?”
“Oh yeah!” Soula shouted drunkenly with a hoarse voice that would intimidate a Whitechapel pimp. “Oh, I will! I will!”
The two men stalled a bit, keeping their distance, but they kept coming closer. Helen picked up a trash bin, and, after losing grip on the impractical object a few times and spilling trash onto the street, she finally got it. She dragged it to the next shop window along the sidewalk that of Leila’s Boutique, where the ornate pink and green cursive slanted into pretty ribbons and twists.
“So sorry, Leila,” Helen said with a groan. Lifting the trash can as high as she could, Helen flung it through the window of the high-end clothing shop with a mighty crash, watching how the bin shattered the beauteous logo. All round the street she could hear people gasping while Soula gave her a resounding cheer and burst out into applause.
Reluctantly, Helen turned to see what their stalkers were up to, but the two men had apparently disappeared. Shortly after the screeching tires of two security vehicles announced the arrival of the authorities. Helen plopped down next to Soula.
“That was a good idea,” Soula laughed crudely as the security men approached them.
“I’m sorry, love. I suppose we are going to be arrested, but it is better than getting killed,” Helen sighed. “You had better call your husband and let him know you will be late.”
“Oh, please,” Soula scoffed, “this is the most f-fun I have ever had in this bloody bland, co-old country of yours.”
“Madam, may we have a word?” the polite security officer asked.
“Certainly, officer,” Helen replied. She got up and acted as sober as she could, informing the officers of the two men who were gaining on them. Of course, she imbued the statement with talks of guns in their hands and shouted for them to come over, but she would be forgiven that for making her misdemeanor look more justified.
“We will still need you two ladies to come with us so that we can take a formal statement in the presence of a police official if you don’t mind,” the officer informed her. “But not to worry, it is mostly for insurance purposes.”
“Thank you,” Helen said, as she and Soula climbed into the one vehicle to be taken to the local police station. She felt bad for doing what she did but every time she reminisced about the scaly males on their trail who had God knows what in mind, she felt safer in the claws of the authorities.
“Soula, are you alright?” she asked. Her Greek friend nodded, looking exhausted. “Here, put on your shoes.”
“I wonder… who they were,” Soula whispered in a foul breath that almost had Helen hurling, yet Soula had a valid point. The men did not show any guns, after all, but there was no doubt they were about to seize the two women.
“I don’t know,” Helen replied. “I cannot think of anyone who would want to kidnap me. What about you?”
Soula scoffed and smiled at her. “I can think of hundreds.”
Chapter 15
In Edinburgh, it was a rainy Saturday. Each member of the forthcoming excursion was preparing for the trip in Wrichtishousis, except for Nina. She was in full protective gear and goggles in Purdue’s laboratory, sitting in on the chemical analysis done by Dr. Graham’s staff.
“It was so kind of you to come in on the weekend,” Nina smiled.
“Oh, it’s no problem, Dr. Gould,” the lab assistant told her. “I, for one, had very little to do this weekend that did not entail video games and too much potato chips.”
They chuckled as the laser from the XRF machine scanned the double statues meticulously, running data into the nearby spectroscopy program on the nearby screens. Nina was admittedly curious about the result, having heard the full fascinating tale from Purdue when he came to visit her in Oban. He left no detail out, filling her in on everything that had happened and what Heidmann had told him and Donovan Graham. However, Purdue asked for some discretion on Nina’s part. Dr. Heidmann was not to know that she knew the full story since Purdue and his friend Dr. Graham were still uncertain about Heidmann’s intentions.
After meeting the men the night before, she understood why she was sworn to secrecy. Nina was no psychiatrist, yet she could clearly see that Dr. James Heidmann was suffering from some underlying anxiety, perhaps even an inkling of paranoia. Even though the historian had grown terribly weary of questionable people and engaging in perilous ventures with them, the origin of the stone man was just too intriguing to resist.
Several hours later, after of employing various techniques for analyses of different compounds in the artifact, the results were printed. Nina was ecstatic, eager to determine if the stone men were truly at the receiving end of some mythological monster or whether their condition had a scientific basis. Naturally she expected the latter, although she had witnessed some seriously strange phenomena in her life; things that defied explanation.
“Purdue, the results are here,” she said over the intercom through which she could reach him while he was busy preparing the other pieces for analysis.
“Splendid!” he exclaimed. “I’ll be right there.”
Upon arrival in the Chemical section of his laboratory, Purdue found Nina and the two scientists looking positively excited.
“Wow, looks like you bunch struck gold,” he smiled, “so to speak. What did you find?”
“Plenty, sir,” the head scientist bragged. “But we will let Dr. Gould fill you in.”
“Aye,” Nina said, “although we are aware that you know science, they thought it would be a nice way to explain to you in layman’s terms.”
She winked at the other two spooks who finally started to remove their gloves, as Purdue took her to the print-out of the data.
I would not have it any other way,” he smiled. “Take a break, people. You have certainly earned it.”
The two scientists left the lab for a spot of lunch and a hot beverage while Purdue read the reports. “Do you see what I see?” he asked Nina without peeling his eyes from the data.