The Empress's Tomb (32 page)

“Molotov's gone and everyone else is asleep,” she whispered.

“Good.” Kiki had stayed awake, thinking. She shook Betty and prodded Luz with the toe of her shoe. “Get up,” she urged everyone as Oona untied us one by one. “Time to go to work.”

“Where am I?” mumbled Luz.

“You're tied up in a homicidal smuggler's haunted mansion,” I informed her.

“Right. I remember now. My mom's going to be
pissed.”

“That's Luz Lopez for you,” Oona quipped as she removed DeeDee's restraints. “Fearless in the face of death, but terrified of her own mother.”

As soon as she was free, DeeDee stood up and threw
her arms around Oona. The logical scientist had disappeared, and a sentimental sap had taken her place. “I'm so sorry for thinking you were a traitor. I really got carried away. I hope you can forgive me.”

“Me, too,” Betty said, wiping both sleep and tears from her eyes.

“Make that three of us. I can't believe we were all so stupid,” said Luz. “Now can we rescue you and get the heck out of here?”

Oona gave Luz's ponytail a friendly yank. “Apologies accepted, but you can't leave. The alarms are on. If you try to open one of the doors or windows they'll go off, and it will be the Fu-Tsang and not the police who answer the call.”

“Who cares?” Luz moaned. “I'm dead either way. My mom really is going to kill me.”

“At least you'll get to suffer in New York. I'll be milking cows in West Virginia,” I pointed out.

“You're both always welcome in the park.” It was hard to tell if Kaspar was serious.

“Okay, okay. Can we focus, please?” said Kiki Strike. “We'll save everybody one at a time. Oona gets to be first.”

“It's about time.” Oona pretended to complain.

“Don't push it, Wong,” Kiki cracked. “I've got a plan, but we're going to need some supplies. Since we're stuck in this mansion, we'll just have to make use of the resources at our disposal. And, Oona, if we can't get everything we need, we're getting out of here tonight. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“All right. First things first. Kaspar, untie the other kids. They must need a good stretch by now. Oona, explain
to them what's happening. DeeDee, how much Fille Fiable do we have left?”

“There was a whole bottle in my coat pocket. I don't think they took it.”

“Great. We got lucky. Now for the hard part. Lester Liu wants to bury Oona alive, so he's going to need a drug of some sort—one that will paralyze her so she won't move around in the glass coffin. Whatever it is, we have to find it and replace it with something harmless. DeeDee, you're coming with me to look for it. If we can't find the drug, the whole deal's off.”

“It could be one of the drugs they use to paralyze people during surgery,” DeeDee said. “I say we start in the kitchen. Something like that would probably be kept refrigerated.”

“Keep an eye out for snakes,” I warned.

“That goes without saying,” said Kiki. “Okay, Betty, you and Kaspar need to find some dresses for us to wear to the party tomorrow. Since we can't go home to change, we'll have to make do with whatever Cecelia Varney has in her wardrobe—”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Luz interrupted. “We're going to the opening of the exhibit? Are you nuts? Lester Liu would recognize us in a second—and Ananka's probably banned from the museum for life.”

“Just till I'm eighteen,” I corrected her.

“We'll just have to be careful and hope that the Fille Fiable does the rest.”

“But I don't understand your plan,” said Betty. “How are we going to keep Oona from ending up inside the Empress's coffin?”

“We're not,” Kiki told her.

“But she'll smother!” DeeDee argued.

“Not if Luz finds a way to let air into the coffin.”

“So we're going to let Lester Liu think he's won?” Luz was intrigued.

“And we'll be at the exhibition to witness Oona rise from the dead and send her father to jail.”

“That's one way to get everyone's attention.” Oona sounded pleased with the plan. “What do you want me to do?”

“You and Ananka are going to hide the Empress,” Kiki said.

“What for?” Luz asked. “She's already dead.”

“Because it's the right thing to do. Otherwise they're going to get rid of her, and Ananka and I agree that she's had it rough enough.”

“Where are we going to hide her?” I asked.

“I know a place,” said Oona.

•     •     •

We parted ways in the mansion's foyer. Oona, Betty, Kaspar, and I slunk upstairs to Cecelia Varney's bedroom, expecting the alarms to go off at any moment. The house was quiet and though all of us had removed our shoes, our footsteps sounded like thunder to my ears. At the top of the stairs, Oona passed the room with the mummy and opened the fourth door on the hall. The moonlight fell on a single twin bed covered with a ratty brown blanket. There was no other furniture in the room. The walls were bare and the floorboards naked. Nothing offered any pleasure to the eye or touch. It looked as if Cecelia Varney
had lived the life of a medieval nun. Oona lit her candle and floated across the chamber.

“There's nothing here,” whispered Betty. “I don't even see a closet.”

“Maybe you're not looking hard enough.” Oona stopped in front of a fireplace that dwarfed the massive one in her room. She tilted an andiron and pushed the back wall of the firebox until there was an opening big enough to squeeze through. “I'm the only person who knows about this.”

“How did you find it?” I marveled.

“The ghost showed me the first day I was in here alone,” she said. “She wanted me to see it.”

“So you really believe there's a ghost?” Kaspar asked.

“Of course there's a ghost,” Oona replied as if it should have been obvious to everyone.

•     •     •

The first thing I saw when I entered the cramped room behind the fireplace was someone looking back at me. A young blonde in a black lace gown stared out from a portrait on the wall with a cold, haughty expression on her beautiful face. I recognized Cecelia Varney from the photo that had accompanied her obituary, but it was hard to believe it was the same woman who had spent her last fifty-five years hiding from the rest of the world. Lining the room were racks of beautiful gowns, most in styles that had been the height of fashion in the 1940s and '50s. A wall of shelves held black velvet boxes filled with sparkling jewels. It was as if the old hermit had imprisoned the dazzling socialite inside a secret chamber. Adding to the
eeriness, every item was in pristine condition, and there wasn't a speck of dust in the room.

“Can you believe it?” Oona picked up a diamond necklace and let it twinkle in the candlelight. “Cecelia Varney had all this and it only made her miserable. She got to the point where she couldn't figure out who loved her and who loved her money, so she started to think that her fortune was cursed. She figured if she could spend every last dime before she died she could keep the money from hurting someone else. Sounds crazy, but maybe she was right.”

“How do you know all that?” I asked.

“My father found her journals. I read as much of them as I could stand. It was some pretty depressing stuff. You know her last husband stole a million dollars from her and ran away to Venezuela? After that, who
would
you trust? I'd probably leave all my money to a bunch of cats, too.

“So what do you think, Betty? Does Cecelia Varney have what we need?”

Betty examined the dresses on one of the racks.

“They're a little old-fashioned, and they're all size six. I'll have to make a few alterations, but I think I can come up with something. It's not going to be pretty, though.” She pulled out a shimmering beaded black dress that looked smaller than the others. “She couldn't have been more than a teenager when she bought this. I think I know who gets to wear it tomorrow.”

As Kaspar and Betty ransacked the clothes racks, Oona and I tiptoed to the mummy's chamber and wrapped the body in a sheet. Carefully, without bending or bumping
the Empress, we brought her back to Cecelia Varney's bedroom. We were just outside the hidden room when muffled voices reached our ears.

“I don't understand, Betty.” Kaspar's voice lacked its usual confidence. “I thought we had a deal. If I watched the mansion, you would have dinner with me.”

Betty sighed. “Yes, that was the deal. But a deal's worthless if one person isn't thinking straight when it's made.”

“Why weren't you thinking straight?”

“I'm not talking about myself. You were under the influence when you made me the offer.”

Kaspar was indignant. “Under the influence? You can call me a criminal if you like, but I don't drink and I don't do drugs. I may have eaten a few too many Vienna sausages that morning, but I was thinking very clearly.”

“No. No, you weren't. You see, a friend of ours made a perfume—a love potion. It spilled all over me the day before you saw us in Morningside Park. That's what made you develop a crush on me. Then I took advantage of you.”

“Let me see if I understand. You were wearing this perfume the night you went to Morningside Park. Somehow I inhaled it and fell instantly in love. Then you took advantage of my unfortunate state to make me do your dirty work. Is that right?”

“I'm so sorry,” Betty whispered, and Kaspar started to laugh. “Shhh!” Betty pleaded.

“All right, all right,” Kaspar said, trying to control himself. “It's just so ridiculous.”

“It's true! I know it's hard to believe, but DeeDee and our friend Iris are very good chemists. They can make anything.”

“Oh, I don't doubt they're capable of making a love potion. But let me ask you a question. Remember the note that I wrote you that night? Did the words sound familiar?”

“I know them by heart. It's a passage from
La Bohème.
I've seen that opera a hundred times. My parents are costume designers.”

“Did you happen to be at the opera to see
La Bohème
on the night of August eighteenth?”

“Maybe.” Betty paused to think. “Yes, it must have been the eighteenth. It was the weekend before my father's birthday.”

“And did you wear a white dress and a curly black wig?”

“Yes,” she admitted. I could tell Kaspar had caught her by surprise.

“Did you cry when Mimi died?”

“I always cry at that scene.”

“And were you wearing any perfume that night?”

“No. How do you …”

“I was sitting across the aisle from you. It was a week before I ran away. I thought you were the most fascinating girl I'd ever seen. I tried to introduce myself, but you disappeared backstage before I had a chance. When I saw you again that night at the park, I couldn't believe my luck.”

“Really?”

“I rest my case.”

There was a long silence. Oona winked at me and smooched the back of her hand. I tried to muffle my giggling.

•     •     •

When we carried the mummy through the fireplace and into the hidden room, we found Kaspar and Betty just inches apart, their faces beet red.

“Where should we put the Empress?” I wondered, trying to act casual, though I couldn't stop smiling.

“Let's lie her down on this.” Kaspar spread a fur coat out on the floor.

“Did you guys—um—hear anything just now?” Betty asked nervously.

“We've been busy rescuing a mummy,” Oona replied, balancing on the edge of the truth.

“So this is the Traitor Empress?” Kaspar bent down beside the mummy. “Mind if I have a peek? Is she decent?”

“Yeah, she's dressed.” I laughed. When Kaspar pulled back the sheet, both he and Betty flinched.

“You know, Oona, if she still had a nose she'd kind of look like you,” Betty remarked once she'd recovered from the shock.

“What's she wearing?” I asked. What I'd thought was a robe was actually a long strip of red silk painted with golden words. “Can you read it, Oona?”

“That writing's two thousand years old. How would
I
know what it says?”

“It's definitely some sort of message,” Kaspar noted.

Oona's spine suddenly went rigid. “Everybody shut
up!” she whispered frantically. Someone was walking past Cecelia Varney's bedroom. “They've come to get me!” A door creaked open in the hallway.

“She's gone.” Though the voice was faint, it clearly belonged to Sukh.

“They found out that I'm not in my room. I've got to go.”

“No!” I insisted. “We don't know if Kiki replaced the drug they're going to use. You could die.”

“It doesn't matter,” Oona said. “If they don't find me upstairs, they'll go to the east wing. If you guys are missing, there's no telling what they'll do. I won't let a dozen people suffer to save me.”

“Kiki will think of something!” Betty whispered.

“I can't take that risk. Hide here until the coast is clear. Maybe I'll see you tomorrow. But whatever happens, thanks for helping. You're the best—the only—friends I've ever had.” With that, she scurried out of the hidden room.

“Oona, come back!” Betty called, but this time there was no answer.

•     •     •

The sun was already rising when Kaspar, Betty, and I made it back to the east wing of the mansion with our arms filled with finery. The other Irregulars hurried toward us as we crept into the room. The Taiwanese kids noticed that Oona was missing and began whispering amongst themselves. I felt terrible. None of us could tell them what had happened.

“What took you so long?” Kiki insisted. “We were about to organize a search party.”