It was nearly dark when Dirk pulled up to their hotel in Tralee an hour later.
Brophy begged off an invitation to dinner. “It’s been quite an harrowing day. I must be getting home to the missus,” he said. “Let’s plan on meeting first thing in the morning at Portmagee. It’s less than an hour from here. I’ll arrange for a boat, and we’ll pay ourselves a visit to Falcon Rock.”
“We’ll be there,” Dirk said. “Hopefully, our clothes won’t still smell like a barbecue grill.”
He and Summer showered and changed, then walked to a nearby Italian restaurant. After they received their wine, Dirk noted his sister stared at the doorway every time someone entered. “Expecting company?”
“The people that tried to kill us in Egypt have tracked us here.”
“Possibly. But I doubt they’d want to join us for dinner, unless the gnocchi here is really good.”
Summer shook her head. “Not funny.”
“We don’t know for a fact there’s a connection.”
“Of course we do. That’s why you parked the rental car behind the hotel.”
“Touché. Yet at this point, they have to suspect we died in the blaze.”
“I suppose.” She sipped her wine. “They must know we’ve made the connection between Meritaten and Ireland. Perhaps Dr. Brophy mentioned it to someone.”
“It must be the grave of Meritaten they’re trying to protect—or find before we do,” Dirk said.
“It can only be for two reasons. Either there’s treasure associated with the site or it’s the Apium of Faras.”
“This far from Egypt,” Dirk said, “the treasure potential would be minimal. I suppose any relics from that age are still valuable to an artifact thief.”
“What can we do tomorrow if they’re onto us?”
“We’ll make a roundabout drive to Portmagee and watch for a tail. On the small roads around here, it shouldn’t be too hard to tell if we’re being followed.”
Having eaten their salad of burrata with tomatoes finished with pesto sauce, they finished their dinner of pappardelle with lamb ragu, then made their way back to the hotel. Dirk was preparing for bed when someone knocked at his door. Expecting Summer, he opened the door and found Riki standing there with a travel bag over her shoulder.
“I’m told the hotel is full,” she said with a seductive smile. “Any chance you have room for a stray boarder?”
47
Pitt quietly dressed in black clothes and waited in his darkened room until midnight. He kissed his sleeping wife on the cheek and slipped out the window, lowering himself from the sill and dropping to a rocky knoll. He moved away from the illuminated manor and made his way up to the driveway. Crossing the road, he threaded his way through the trees, working his way, unseen, past the guard at the front gate.
He found the Mini where he’d parked it, still within view of the manor. Pitt put the transmission in neutral and pushed the car onto the road. With the aid of a downhill grade, he was able to shove the car around a curve and out of the guard’s sight. Pitt jumped in and started the car, driving slowly toward Drumnadrochit, using only the parking lights. Once he’d put a mile between himself and the manor, he flicked on the headlights and increased speed.
He’d traveled only a short distance when a set of headlights appeared in the rearview mirror. Pitt maintained a healthy speed until he approached Urquhart Castle. Then he braked hard, pulled into the visitor parking lot, and turned off the Mini’s lights. With an open view down the road, he watched as the car following him approached. A quarter of a mile away, it stopped and sat idling in the road.
Pitt flicked on his lights and hopped out. He stepped to the back, crouched, and ran his hands beneath the rear bumper. At the far end, his fingers touched a small metal box, attached with a magnet.
“Gotcha,” he said, examining the GPS tracking device. He debated about tossing it into the lake, but climbed back in the car and set it on the passenger seat. He pulled out of the lot and zipped down the road, not stopping until he entered Inverness a few minutes later. He didn’t have to look behind to know the other car was still tailing him.
Inverness was quiet at that hour, save for a handful of spirited pubs near the center of town. Pitt drove randomly through the city, searching for a decoy. One presented itself in the form of a late-night street sweeper.