Buried Secrets Kristi Belcamino (uplifting novels .txt) 📖

will help me narrow them down. I’ve already narrowed it down to the five most likely candidates as far as sites go.”

“Wow. Just last night?”

“Yes. But I’ve been thinking about this for years, Colton.”

He nodded, examining her. She was dead serious and he could see it, she could tell.

“How long will that take you?”

“Like I said, I’m going to ask for a year’s sabbatical. But first I need to go over there and get permission from the Egyptian Minister of Antiquities to even visit the temples. Most are closed to the public because of grave robbers.”

Colton bit his lip thinking and then said, “So you’d be gone a month the first go around? If you got permission?”

She nodded. “If I left right away, I could maybe be back in time for spring semester.

The Adams’ Apple on Colton’s neck bob as he swallowed. He did like her. She knew it. She hadn’t imagined all those moments of almost between them. And the thought of not seeing him for months, or God forbid, even years, didn’t sit well with her.

It was up to her to make the first move.

“I was thinking that I might need some help…” she trailed off, hoping he would get the hint.

“Oh, yeah?” he said and took another bite of what appeared to be broccoli tempura. She waited for him to quit chewing and meet her eyes.

“I would want someone who was very experienced; someone I’ve worked with before…”

Come on, Colton! How much clearer can I make it?

His eyes widened as he got it and a slow smile spread across his face. “I don’t know if I could get the time off. Even though school is out, I have all sorts of boring work to do.”

“Even for like a two-week vacation?” she asked, sort of hating the hopeful pleading she could hear in her voice.

His smile was her answer. “I don’t know but I can sure try.”

She returned the smile.

“Meanwhile, I’ll fill out the paperwork for my sabbatical application,” she said.

“Sounds good.”

It was dark by the time Dallas finished cleaning her office and returned home to her place at the Ice House Lofts. As she walked up to the front door, she knew immediately that something was wrong.

Her neighborhood was pretty safe, one reason she’d bought there with the money she’d inherited from her parents, but a rash of home and vehicle burglaries last summer had the neighborhood on alert.

The front porch light that was set on a timer, was out. She turned her key in the lock and the door swung open but she stayed back for a few seconds listening. Then she reached in and flicked on the line of light switches. The porch light and the inside hall light flickered to life.

That’s when she saw the disarray. Stepping back onto her front porch she got out her phone and dialed 911.

Four

After the police had cleared her loft, saying anyone who had been there was gone, they walked her through the space, asking her to point out if anything obvious was missing.

The Bose stereo system sitting on its spot on the table was the first indication that she wasn’t dealing with a regular burglar. Without stopping to check for other valuables, Dallas immediately headed to her office in the loft space. As she rounded the corner at the top of the stairs, she gasped.

Every book was pulled off every shelf and flung on the floor. Filing cabinets drawers were open and papers covered the floor and furniture. The yellow legal pad with her notes about the temples was gone. Thank God, her laptop was still in the backpack she carried everywhere.

“Did you have anything of value here? It looks like the burglars were very interested in this room.”

Dallas realized she was shaking. The idea that a stranger had violated her home was bad enough, but when she understood what they were after, it shook her to the core. They’d left the expensive items and taken her notepad. With the notes on Cleopatra’s tomb.

The only person she could think of who knew about her research into Cleopatra’s tomb was Colton. And there was no way he would do this. But the creeper archeologist, David Caldwell, and his somewhat pervert partner, Malcolm Land, they knew she had a theory.

Dallas shut the door after saying goodbye to the detective who had come to interview her.

They’d sat on her couch and talked. He didn’t take notes, which surprised her. But when she cleared her throat and told him she could only think of one person who’d be interested in what was on her laptop, he took out his phone and began to type.

“It doesn’t make sense, though,” she said.

He didn’t answer but it looked like his teeth were working the inside of his cheek as if he were thinking hard. “Well, we’ll just have a quick conversation with Mr. Caldwell and see where he was tonight.”

“Or today, right?”

“Or today, but your elderly neighbor was home all day and said she didn’t hear a thing.”

Dallas made a skeptical face. “Not sure she can hear anything, frankly.”

“We’ll see what we can find out. Meanwhile, why don’t you go to a hotel until you can get someone to fix your backdoor?”

They officers had shown her how someone had scaled the tall wall leading into her bricked patio area and then broken the glass on her backdoor window. They then easily reached in to turn the lock.

But now, closing the door on the detective, Dallas knew she wasn’t going to any hotel. The detective must think her position at the university garnered her a whole lot more money than it did. Right now, she needed to save every penny for her upcoming trip to Egypt. The way it stood now unless she was granted paid sabbatical her trip would wipe out her meager savings, clean out her bank account, and probably max out her credit cards. But it would be worth it. Tonight’s burglary made that clear. If someone