Free Gryphons Quest by Candace Sams

toward her.
    "Yes. More will die if I don't take back those damnable stones!"
    "Were you planning on breaking into the museum?"
    "If I had to, yes. But I'm glad you haven't left for the day. I wanted to ask you once more to take me to the artifacts and give me a chance to prove what I'm saying is true."
    "I'm not leaving for the day. The truth is, I just got here and was waiting for you. Like I said, I knew you'd show up."
    Gryph tilted his head quizzically. "You just got here?"
    "Yes." Heather paused. "Today, a police detective who trusts me told me some things. He said he suspects Ned was killed by someone he may have known, possibly someone who works at the museum.
    I didn't want to believe it, but some of the things you'd said started to make some sense. You've believed all along that Ned's death was connected to the Celtic artifacts. You tried to tell me, but I guess I wasn't ready to listen. Now it seems the police believe we have a murderer employed at the museum, though they know nothing about a possible connection to McPherson's shipments from Ireland. You and the police are working from opposite ends toward the same conclusion. And I've found something I wasn't meant to."
    "What have you found?" He could hear the excitement in his own voice. The prospect of good news rallied him.
    "After I spoke with the detective, I came in to work early. I tore into every box, crate and container I could get my hands on and didn't find anything. I was ready to give up and then, by accident, I found that one of the crates had a false bottom installed. Your rune stones are there. Professor McPherson or someone on his team took special pains to hide them. I don't know who's lying, but Ned was killed near the room where the crates are now located. From everything you and the Detective have told me, and because I've found the stones so deviously hidden, I think Ned was killed because he knew too much or saw something he shouldn't have. I don't understand why the woman in the park was killed, but the police are connecting her death to Ned's."
    "Heather, what I'm about to tell you is the absolute truth. You won't want to believe it any more than anything else I've told you, but you must listen. Those stones are the source of an unspeakable magic. It's said that if they're correctly deciphered, they can give great power to whoever possesses them. While I believe McPherson took the stones, I'm not sure if he's the one abusing their gifts. Whoever killed the woman in the park and your friend did so with the help of the stones”
    "You're speaking of the Rune Stones of the Tuatha De Danann."
    Gryph stared at her in absolute shock. "You know of them?"
    "I know about the legend. Celtic studies are my specialty. But those stones are a myth. They don't really exist I can't believe all of this is over a folktale!"
    "Did you touch the stones?"
    "Yes," she said, remembering their cool, grey-green surfaces.
    "Then you believe that what you physically held in your hands was a myth."
    "Mr. O'Connor, I quit believing in things that go bump in the night a long time ago. These were rune stones like hundreds of others that have been found in that part of the world, albeit a bit larger."
    Gryph slowly shook his head. "Someone believes in them enough to have stolen them and to have killed innocent people by acquiring the stones' power."
    "Well, I guess we'll find out about them soon enough." Heather sighed as she pulled out a set of keys from her coat pocket. "I'll take you to the room where the artifacts are kept. The guards are making their rounds. The outer doors are locked, but a keyed access won't alert them to anything. Should be easy enough for an employee to get past them right now. There aren't enough of them on duty anyway."
    Whether the guards posed a problem or not, he had to get in. But her inaction in alerting the local authorities was puzzling. "Why didn't you call the police when you found the stones? Thievery is a motive for murder, after