“Don’t you?”

“I’ve been in so many tombs and crypts over the years, it takes a lot to raise my hackles these days. Dark rooms don’t quite do it anymore.” She unlocked the door to the storage room and turned on the overhead light.

Connor followed her inside, then stood with his hands on his hips, taking it all in.

“Where shall we start?” he asked.

“Let’s start with crate number one. It’s there on your right.” Daria walked past him and pointed to the number on the side of the crate. “This is the number Alistair painted on before the crates left the dig. He itemized the contents, sealed it, then marked it. The X up here is mine. It indicates that I have gone through the crate and examined every piece, and marked it off on my list. The list you have in your hand is the one I ran off my computer. It has both mine and Alistair’s checks.”

He placed the list on the top of the crate and studied it.

“So, this item here-necklace of solid gold with gold beech leaves and lapis beads-he packed into the crate and later unpacked, but it was missing when you checked the contents?”

“Right.” She nodded and began to lift the lid.

“Here, let me give you a hand.” Connor picked up the wooden top of the crate with ease and set it aside. “Let’s see what’s in here.”

“Okay, first item here is a goblet, it’s the third item on your list, see?” She unwrapped it carefully and held it up.

“Golden goblet with griffins set with carnelian?”

“Right. See, it’s checked off on both lists.”

“Got it,” he said. “By the way, what is it with griffins?”

She smiled as she rewrapped the goblet. “They’re wonderful mythological beasts. I actually went on an expedition to the Gobi Desert not too long ago in search of proof they really existed.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.”

“And you look so normal.”

Daria laughed and set the wrapped goblet on top of a nearby crate, then reached for the next item, which was enclosed it its own wooden box.

“It was a spoof, of course, and wasn’t something I’d ordinarily have spent time on, but the professor in charge of the expedition was a legend in the field, and I thought, if he could take a month off, I could, too.”

“What did you do? I mean, you didn’t actually find anything?”

“We found exactly what we expected to find. Sometimes animals die in proximity to each other, say, for example, an eagle and a lion. When archaeologists from the past century, century and a half, found them, they often put the bones together incorrectly.”

“Incorrectly, as in, the eagle wings on a lion’s body?”

“Exactly. There was a time when people really did believe that griffins had been found. Dr. Allen-Elwood Allen, from Cambridge -put together the expedition and invited several other archaeologists to go along. I was one of them.”

“What was the point?”

“He was making a documentary for the BBC. It was quite clever, actually. We took bones from different animals found in the Gobi and made up the most fanciful beasts and put them on display. It was great fun.” She carefully removed the next artifact. “Here we have something really unusual. It’s a jar made from an ostrich egg.”

“Ostriches in the Near East?” Connor frowned.

“They were not uncommon several thousand years ago. What is uncommon is that this is in such lovely condition. Old Alistair certainly did treat everything with kid gloves. I’m really impressed with the care he took to ensure that every item made it to the States intact.”

Connor studied the jar for a moment, then referred to the list. “Here it is. Ostrich egg jar. With two check marks. What’s next there?”

Daria took pains to wrap the precious jar securely before setting it aside.

“Let’s see what else we have in here…oh, I love this one.” She grinned and unwrapped what appeared to be carved stone. “This is an amulet, worn to protect against demons.”

Connor leaned closer for a better look.

“I can’t really tell what that is.” He turned on the flashlight and examined the piece. “What are those things?”

“Demons.”

“I thought you said this was supposed to ward off demons.”

“It is. These are particularly fierce ones.”

“My demons are more evil than your demons?”

“Something like that.” She grinned. “They are ugly things, aren’t they?”

“This never gives you nightmares?”

“Never. I don’t do nightmares.” She pointed to the list. “This is fourth or fifth on the list.”

“Got it.”

“Seen enough to get a feel for the situation?”

“I think so.” Connor nodded.

Daria returned the items to the crate and Connor helped her to replace the lid.

“What’s your next move here?” he asked.

“I almost don’t know what to do first,” she said. “I need to compile an official list of what I believe is missing, complete with Alistair’s sketches, and the photographs that were taken at the site, if I can find them. Then I’ll compile a similar list of the items that are still here so that an appraisal can be made of the collection. The university is hoping to use that as collateral for a loan to pay for the repairs to the museum and the preparations for the exhibits.”

“Off the top of your head, what are we looking at here?”

“In terms of value?” She shook her head. “I can’t put a number on it.”

“Ballpark.”

“There are some things that are truly priceless, things that are so unique and valuable that they cannot be reproduced. What is that goblet worth? It’s hard to come up with a price. The gold is high quality, the carvings are beautifully done, add in the age of the item, the fact that there may only be that one in the entire world…” She shrugged. “How do you place a monetary value on that?”

“So you’re saying the collection, in its entirety, could be priceless.”

“In its entirety, absolutely. Priceless. This is all that’s left of a civilization that existed thousands of years ago. Its people, its art, its history, its religion…this is all that is left of Shandihar,” she told him. “There are individual pieces that could be considered priceless in their own right. This was a major find a hundred years ago, made even more valuable, I believe, because it’s been hidden for all this time.”

“Why are you not as nervous as I am about having only Stan up there guarding the door? At the very least, I’d have a couple of armed guards and the most sensitive alarm system money can buy.”

“And if anyone knew what was here, I’d agree with you. But right now, no one knows. And as long as we keep it quiet and out of the public eye…”

“Daria, someone knew.” He corrected her. “At some point over the past hundred years, someone knew and helped themselves. And that someone did not come from outside the university. Whoever stole from your great-grandfather’s collection was someone on the inside, someone who had access to the building.”

“You’re probably right.”

“There’s no sign of a break-in anywhere around the building, and as you just pointed out, who else would have known what was here?”

“Louise said the building was boarded up until recently, so the thefts probably would have taken place before the building was sealed,” she said thoughtfully. “Not much chance of catching the thief, then, is there?”

“Probably not, if that’s the case. But I’m sure NSAF-that’s the unit within the FBI that handles stolen art-will know the best way to track down the artifacts.”

“I need to think about this.”

“What’s to think about? We have experts who handle exactly this type of case.”

“Here’s the thing. Generally speaking, there are only two places where the artifacts could be. In private collections, or in museums or galleries.”

“So? The art guys will know where to look.”

“But they’re the FBI.”

“And that’s a bad thing because…?”

“It’s bad because it will give the appearance that the collector, or the museum that acquired the piece, has done so illegally, and that is not necessarily the case,” Daria told him. “It may be that the owners have no idea that the items were stolen. They may have purchased from a dealer who believed he was buying from a legitimate source.”