Authors: Stefanie Matteson

Murder on the Silk Road (36 page)

Kitty slowly turned the bone over in her perfectly manicured fingers.

“I bought it from an herbalist at the Dunhuang bazaar.” Charlotte smiled. “Ground-up dragon bone powder is sold for its aphrodisiac properties.”

“How fascinating!” said Kitty, with a salacious little grin.

“I have one, too. Mine’s incised with the ideograph for ‘The Wanderer.’ Marsha didn’t say what the ideographs on your bone stand for, but we can ask her next time she comes up to visit. She estimates from the style of the calligraphy that the writing dates from the tenth century.”

“I’m very touched,” said Kitty, getting up to give Charlotte a kiss and a hug. “This is one of the nicest gifts I’ve ever received.”

“The bone itself dates from about sixty-four million years ago,” Charlotte continued. Or maybe, sixty-three million years ago, she thought. Like those of the
T. fiski
, this bone could have come from a post-Cretaceous dinosaur.

Holding the bone in her hand, Kitty studied it for a minute, and then looked up at Charlotte over her reading glasses. “Shall we?” she said, her blue eyes, which were still her best asset, gleaming.

“Shall we what?”

“Consult the
I Ching?
” Without waiting for an answer, she got up and fetched her antique Chinese coins and a pad of paper and pencil from the counter. “Here, you throw,” she said as she returned to the table. She handed Charlotte the coins. “I’ll go get the books.”

Charlotte threw the coins six times. After each throw, she wrote the line down on the pad of paper. The first line, a yang, or solid, line, was followed by five yin, or broken, lines.

Kitty was back in a minute, her gray-jacketed volume of the
I Ching
clutched in her hands along with several books of interpretation. “What have we got here?” she asked, leaning over to look at the hexagram. “It’s number twenty-four: ‘Return,’” she announced after looking it up in the index.

For a moment, she consulted the
I Ching
and the books of interpretation. “Here’s my reading,” she said finally. She looked up at Charlotte again over the tops of her glasses. “Are you r-e-a-d-y?”

“Shoot.”

“You are beginning a new stage in your life after a long period of stagnation. The powerful light that was on the wane is coming back, as when winter changes into spring, or nighttime into day. With it, it will bring new forces, refreshingly different and more powerful than before. This applies both to your professional life and your personal life.” Kitty looked up. “I’ll read you what this book says about relationships.”

Charlotte nodded.

She read the relevant passage. “‘Return’ also refers to the new forces that are forming in an old relationship. As a result of the new light that has been shed on this relationship, the problems inherent in it should now be more apparent. The new light should also help you become aware of how the basic structure of the relationship relates to your own needs.” Kitty looked up again. “Is this making any sense?”

“Perfect sense.”

“As a result of this new light, you will see the changes that must be made. But you can’t forcibly seek these changes,” Kitty continued. “You have to let them come of themselves at their own natural and deliberate pace.”

“Yes.”

“Another aspect of this hexagram applies to your relationship with a group of people with similar interests to yours. ‘This is the time for you to work harmoniously together toward a common, and high-minded, destination,’” she read. She continued. “If you ask me what I think—”

“You’ll tell me whether I ask or not.”

“That’s right,” said Kitty, with a pert nod. “I think this means that you are going to return to China to work with the Chinese Academy of Dramatic Arts, and that it’s going to be a very exciting experience for you.” Raising her head, she looked Charlotte straight in the eye. “I also think it means that you’re going to work things out with Jack.”

“Kitty,” protested Charlotte. “I don’t think you’re an objective soothsayer. You and Stan have a
stake
in this.” As her oldest friends, Kitty and Stan had often met Jack, and they liked him enormously.

“That’s absolutely right,” Kitty said. “But that doesn’t deny what the
I Ching
says, does it?”

Charlotte had to agree. “No, it doesn’t.”

“Actually,” Kitty went on, “I haven’t been consulting the
I Ching
as much lately as I used to. I’ve moved on to something else now.”

“Tea leaves?” teased Charlotte.

Kitty ignored her. “Numerology. Numbers are very powerful. I can tell you what kind of year it’s going to be for you just from your birth date and the letters in your name.” She paused for a moment to think. “I’ll bet it’s going to be a ‘one’ year for you: new beginnings.”

When it came to change, Kitty was the expert. She had a new enthusiasm for every day of the week.

Picking up the pencil, Kitty started writing out Charlotte’s name and assigning a number to each letter. Looking up at Charlotte, she suddenly stopped. “Maybe I should save this,” she said. “I think the
I Ching
has given you enough to think about for today.”

Charlotte leaned back in her Windsor chair and stared out the window at the sun sparkling on the cove. “Enough for a long time to come,” she said.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Drew Padrutt

ISBN: 978-1-5040-3714-3

This edition published in 2016 by
MysteriousPress.com
/Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com