A Time of Shadows (Out of Time #8) (8 page)

The man glanced at Simon, decided a hasty retreat was his best option, and quickly disappeared into the crowd. Simon glared after him.

“Let’s go,” she said, giving his arm a tug. “I’m dying to know what’s in that thing.”

“All right,” he said and started forward only to stop again immediately. “Where’s Charlotte?”

Panic-fueled adrenaline shot through her so quickly it took her breath away.
 

Elizabeth swore at herself, unsure if she’d forgotten Charlotte because she wasn’t used to having her around, or because she simply expected her to be by her side, as if she always had been.

She forcibly calmed herself and let the fear dissipate. “She can’t be far.”

Simon’s face was strained as he lifted his head to try to see over the crowd. He shook his head and Elizabeth’s calm started to slip away.

“Charlotte!” Simon bellowed so loudly that the crowd near them jumped away.

Elizabeth started to push through the crowd, and was about to lose the lunch she hadn’t eaten yet, when she saw Charlotte standing on a chair just twenty feet away waving to them.

“Thank God,” Simon said.

They hurried over to where she was. Charlotte hopped down off the chair and grinned, pointing to the glass cases next to her. “Cannoli!”

Elizabeth pulled her into a tight hug. “Oh my God, you scared us.”

“I was just…” she said but trailed off at Simon’s look.
 

Simon pushed out a breath and closed his eyes briefly, composing himself. He bent down so that he was eye-level with Charlotte and gently took hold of her arms. “You mustn’t ever do that. Do you understand?”

She looked at Elizabeth, confused. “Do what?”

“Walk off without telling us, honey,” Elizabeth clarified. She looked at Simon. They hadn’t told her how potentially dangerous what they were doing was. There didn’t seem to be the need and they didn’t want to frighten her.
 

“We’re new at this,” Elizabeth said instead. “You might feel grown up, but to us you’re brand new.”

Simon heaved another breath and stood. “And unless you want me to have a coronary you won’t do that again.”

Charlotte nodded, even though she was clearly confused. Elizabeth sympathized with her. Wandering off twenty feet wasn’t something most parents would normally have a complete freak-out over. Elizabeth hoped they weren’t the kind to do it either, but things were different here than in Charlotte’s timeline.

“I’m sorry,” Charlotte apologized. “Back home it’s no big deal—”

“Trust me,” Simon said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “Losing you, even for a moment, is a very big deal. In either time.”

Elizabeth pulled her to her side in a hug. “It’s all right.”

She glanced over at Simon, who was looking slightly less apoplectic.
 

“Maybe since we’re here…” Elizabeth said. “One cannoli?”

A laugh burst out of Simon and he shook his head in defeat. “One.”

~~~

Cannoli in hand, they made their way out to the back of the Ferry Building. The sun reflected off the bay and Simon squinted against the bright light and the wind coming off the water. In the distance, the Bay Bridge spanned the water. Despite having been to San Francisco many times before and since, it was still strange to see it. The bridge and its counterpart, the Golden Gate Bridge, hadn’t even been a twinkle in the engineers’ eyes when he and Elizabeth had been here in 1906.
 

The city wasn’t the only thing that had changed. He had, thanks to Elizabeth. And, like the city, he hoped it had been for the better.

Elizabeth and Charlotte finished their pastries and shared contented smiles as they sat at the outdoor table. They were a pair.

Elizabeth turned to him, pushed a lock of hair that blew into her face behind her ear and then arched her eyebrows. She nodded her head toward his pocket and the mysterious canister inside it as if to silently say, “Well?”

Simon looked around to see if they were being watched, and briefly considered waiting until they’d gotten safely back to the hotel. It probably would have been the most prudent thing to do, but his curiosity got the better of him.

He pulled out the slim silver tube and twisted off the cap with the inlaid moon. Inside was another small piece of paper. At the top of it was the number “13.” Dear Lord, just how many clues would there be?
 

Simon frowned as he read it aloud. “Your radio debut, Lucia. Fun with Dick and Jane.” He dropped the hand holding the paper to his side in annoyance. “What on earth does that mean? Who’s Lucia?”

“Let me see?” Elizabeth said as she touched his arm. He handed her the paper, and she and Charlotte read it silently. “Dick and Jane?”

“Do you know them?” Charlotte asked.

Simon shook his head. “No. There’s a children’s book,
Fun with Dick and Jane
, but it holds no significance for me. Elizabeth?”
 

She shook her head and handed the slip of paper back to him. He looked at it once more, hoping to divine its secrets by sheer will. Like the first note, this one had a small drawing of a moon in phase, but this time it was an old crescent. First, a first quarter and now an old crescent, the final phase. That didn’t make any sense. Those didn’t follow. But they did give him an idea as to how many clues there might actually be. Eight phases of the moon; eight clues. The thought made him sigh out loud.
 

“What?” Elizabeth asked, worried.

He shook his head. It was pure conjecture on his part. Who knew what Teddy had in store for them? For now, they needed to focus on solving this clue or however many came next wouldn’t matter at all.

He rolled the small bit of paper up and slipped it back into the slender canister before putting it back into his breast pocket.

“I don’t remember meeting anyone with any of those names in San Francisco. Did Teddy ever mention them?”

Elizabeth shook her head again.
 

“Lucia,” Simon repeated.
 

Charlotte started to say something, then seemed to think better of it, shook her head and went back to worrying the inside of a cheek.

“What were you going to say, Charlotte?”

“It’s stupid.”

“I doubt that,” he assured her. “Besides, any idea is better than none.”

“Well,” she said hesitantly, “I know this doesn’t have anything to do with here but last month Mom and I got on this old movie kick and she was showing me some of her favorites. There was one,
The Sword and the
—”

“Seven Seas!” Elizabeth said excitedly.

“Right.”

Elizabeth took Charlotte’s hand and pressed it to her chest like an ardent lover. “Come with me, Lucia, across the Seven Seas and I will lay kingdom after kingdom, all the riches of the world, at your bejeweled feet.”

Charlotte grinned. “Bejeweled feet!”

Simon sighed. “What on earth are you talking about?”

“Alan Grant! Remember? He called me Lucia.”

He mentally kicked himself. Of course! When they’d traveled to 1930s Hollywood, they’d met Alan Grant, a movie star who took an instant shine to Elizabeth and for reasons of his own had called her Lucia. He should have remembered that; it drove him crazy at the time, but Grant insisted on doing it. One of the many things Grant insisted on doing.

“But what does that have to do with Teddy and your past?” Simon asked.

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth admitted. “Maybe it’s more than just my past with Teddy. Maybe it’s my past, ya know?” She pointed between the two of them. “Our past.”

Simon thought about that. “Possible.”

“But how would Teddy know that’s what Alan called you?” Charlotte said. “He didn’t watch the movies with us.”

Simon started to answer but realized he didn’t have one.

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll have to ask Travers about that.”

“If we’re right,” Elizabeth said, “that means Hollywood’s next. But we covered a lot of ground there.”
 

That was an understatement. Grant was in perpetual motion from one club to the next, one problem to the next.

“Your radio debut,” Simon mused aloud. All at once, the answer hit him. “Grauman’s!” He felt his own excitement build as he put the pieces together. “Your radio debut. We were interviewed on the radio, briefly, before that premiere.”

“That’s right!” Elizabeth said. She shook her head, obviously pleased with something. “Wow. He’s good.”

Simon grunted. It was a little disturbing to think Teddy knew everything about their past so intimately. It made him wonder who else might, and that was not a comforting prospect.

He was about to say so when Elizabeth grinned and put her arm around Charlotte. “Ever been to Hollywood, kid?”

Charlotte glowed with excitement and shook her head.

“Well,” Elizabeth continued with a quick look to Simon, who nodded, “you’re gonna love it.”

J
ACK
SLID
THEIR
PASSPORTS
across the counter and waited. It wasn’t the first time he’d traveled with forged papers, but it was always unnerving. The airport official took the passport with a sigh and opened it. He looked from it to Jack and back again. The Council had provided him with the passport and visa. They said it wouldn’t be a problem, but judging from the way the man’s two large black eyebrows slowly began to merge, Jack was starting to wonder.
 

Jack gave him one of his best smiles, but the man’s expression didn’t change. Next to him, Tess did the same and then slipped her arm through Jack’s.

“Everything all right?” she asked as she leaned her head tiredly and affectionately against his shoulder. “Our honeymoon,” she added to the man behind the counter.

He looked at them both again, his expression still devoid of life. Then, after a long beat, stamped and closed the passports and slid them back across the counter. With a jerk of his head to the side, they were dismissed and free to enter Turkey.

Jack picked up his carry-on and, still arm in arm, the two of them passed through the last of the passport check area and into the main concourse. Once they were out of view, Tess let go of his arm.

“Honeymoon over so soon?” Jack asked.

She smiled. “To all good things.”

Jack grinned. Maybe having a partner wouldn’t be so bad after all.

They got their bags and stepped out into the warm August midday sun. Jack’s eyes burned from lack of sleep and he tried but failed to stifle a yawn. The flight had been just a little over sixteen hours. A short stop in Frankfurt had been the only thing to break up the monotony.
 

The line at the taxi stand was thankfully short and before long it was their turn.
 

“Hotel Saba,” Tess said, handing a piece of paper with the address to the driver.

The young driver bobbed his head in time to the American pop music coming from the radio and cranked the meter. They drove along the winding shore of the Sea of Marmara. Ruins of the old sea wall appeared and disappeared outside of his window as they sped along the ancient coastline on a street named after an American president, Kennedy.
 

It was just one of the many collisions of opposites that made Istanbul such an amazing city. Old met new; East met West. If there was one place that could be called the crossroads of the world, Jack thought, this was it. Asia to the right, Europe to the left and Africa in the rearview mirror. Muslim, but secular. Ancient and yet modern. Istanbul was where all of these things met, got married and had strange, but beautiful, children. He loved the city, even though he wasn’t sure the feeling was mutual.

Next to him, Tess swore at her phone as she tried to make a long distance call back to the States. Finally, her call connected.

“Yes, we’re here,” she said. “Fine.”

She listened for a moment and then her eyes slid over to Jack. “No, he’s been all right.”

Jack smiled at that.
 

“Okay, will do,” she said. “Goodbye.”

She hung up and turned to him. “He’s such a worrier.”

“Sounds like he’s got good reason.”

She nodded thoughtfully and stuck the phone back into her enormous purse. She could fit an ocean liner in there. He leaned over to peek inside but she snatched it away.

“You can enjoy him for yourself,” she said, reaching into the cavernous purse and pulling out a small black cell phone. She held it out to him. “I meant to give this to you before we left.”

He looked at it, still amazed that this little thing could be a phone. No wires, no transatlantic cable. Just magic.

“It’s untraceable, if that’s what you’re worried about,” she added, misinterpreting his expression.

He shook his head, embarrassed and feeling a bit like an idiot. There was still so much about the modern world he didn’t understand.
 

“Thanks.”
 

He put the phone into his pocket and looked outside the car window before turning back to Tess.

“So, you and Quint,” he said, leaving it open-ended.
 

Tess frowned. “What about us?”

Jack shrugged. “I don’t know. I just got the feeling the other day that maybe you two were involved?”

She turned away and watched the scenery pass by. “We used to be,” she said and then shifted in her seat to face him. “But it was a long time ago. Sometimes this job is dangerous. David knew what he was getting into.”

Jack could see that she believed that, but there were still feelings there. Losing a lover, ex or not, so recently could cloud a person’s judgment. Missions like this needed a clear head and no distractions.

As if she could hear his thoughts, she turned to him, almost impatiently. “I was young; he was older. It didn’t work out,” she said. “It’s not a very exciting story.”

Jack nodded. “All right.”

“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me want to find Skavo that much more,” she said. “But it won’t interfere with me doing my job. And besides, don’t tell me you’ve never been involved with someone you worked with?”

He had, many times. They were both pleasant and painful memories.