“Well, if you’re busy, I won’t hold you up.”
“Sorry. I don’t mean to brush you off,” Harper apologized, and she paused when she reached the doors outside the faculty building. “But I’ll see you when I come home this weekend for Gemma’s play.”
Once she got off the phone with her dad, Harper headed inside to find Professor Pine’s office. She didn’t have him as a teacher, but she’d talked to her advisor, who’d referred her to him because of his archaeology experience.
When Harper had given him a call the day before to set up the appointment, she’d had to fabricate the backstory for how she’d found the scroll. He probably would’ve sent her to a psychologist if she started talking about monsters and curses. So she’d told him simply that her sister had found an old scroll in Bernie McAllister’s house when she was cleaning it out after he’d died, and they had a few questions about it.
Pine had been kind enough to set up a time to meet her in his office, although he sounded dubious about being able to help that much. Still, Harper was willing to follow any lead to find out more about the scroll.
Harper was getting a handle on the campus quicker than she’d expected and managed to find his office with five minutes to spare. The frosted glass on the door read PROFESSOR KIPLING PINE. She thought about waiting outside, but his door was partially ajar, so she gave a slight knock.
When he didn’t answer, she pushed it open wider and saw a man hunched over his desk. He appeared to be in his early thirties—a little young for all the traveling his office and reputation suggested—with blond hair combed to the side.
Earbuds ran from his ears to an iPad resting on his large oak desk, precariously close to an open can of Red Bull. In front of him he had a small box covered in symbols that reminded Harper of a cross between a cryptex puzzle and the Lament Configuration from Hellraiser.
The professor wore a small spyglass attached to his glasses, like the monoculars jewelers used to inspect diamonds. He had a tiny needlelike tool to poke at the box, then he typed rapidly on the iPad next to him, apparently documenting some miniscule discovery.
Since he was so immersed in his work, Harper took a moment to look over his office, which was rather hard to do since it was filled floor to ceiling.
His office was a mash-up of ancient Egyptian, steampunk, and technomodern. Artifacts and old books were overflowing from the shelves, mixed in with all kinds of vaguely antique gadgets. An ankh, an old globe with a spyglass protruding from the side, and a flashing digital scale all occupied the same shelf. Then there was a slick computer, the tablet on his desk, and something flashing a blue laser light buried in a corner among textbooks and newspapers written in Syrian.
Professor Pine’s office was like the strangest episode of Hoarders ever.
“Professor?” Harper asked hesitantly.
“Yes?” He lifted his head to look at her, peering out from around the monocular, and pulled out one of his earbuds.
Harper had to suppress a smile when she realized that he kinda did look like a young Indiana Jones. Unfortunately, he wasn’t sporting a tweed jacket or fedora. Instead, he wore a dress shirt that was unbuttoned to reveal the Joy Division T-shirt underneath.
“We had a meeting at one fifteen.” Harper gestured to one of four clocks he had in his office—the only one that told the correct time. “I’m a few minutes early, but I can come back—”
“No, come on in.” Professor Pine pulled out the other earbud and clicked something on the iPad before moving it aside on his desk, along with the puzzle box. “Harper Fisher, right?”
“Yeah.” She smiled at him.
He gestured to the ergonomic chair across from his desk. “Have a seat.”
“Thank you again for seeing me,” she said. She slipped off her backpack and dropped it by her feet as she sat down.
“On the phone, you said that your sister had found some kind of artifact?” The professor took off his glasses and set them on his desk.
“Yeah, it’s, um … an old scroll,” Harper said, struggling to find the right word for it.
“And she found it near where you live?”
“Kind of. An older family friend passed away recently, and we were cleaning out his house. She found the scroll among his things.”
He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his chin. “Where are you from again?”
“Maryland,” she answered. “Capri, specifically.”
“It’s probably not that ancient, but I could take a look at it,” Pine offered.
“I don’t have it with me, but I have some pictures on my phone.” Harper quickly pulled her phone out of her pocket.
He held his hand out for it. “I’ll have a look.”
Harper scrolled through her phone until she came to the photos she’d taken of the scroll. Over the weekend, she’d easily taken two dozen pictures.