Free Private North by Tess Oliver

office. He headed to the wall lined with book shelves. He reached in behind a small, manufactured statuette of Osiris, and the rumble of a small motor vibrated the wall of shelves. A panel popped open from the wall.
    Open mouthed, I stepped closer to the shelves. “I thought these secret passages only existed in castles.”
    “It’s not a passage but merely a small space to store valuable items. Occasionally, the university has me store museum pieces and other irreplaceable items. I got the idea from one of the secret chambers of the Great Pyramid. Only this is on a much smaller scale. It is lined with brick though making it somewhat impenetrable like the walls of the pyramid.” He leaned inside the opening and came out with a small black box. “Ethan told me that Dalton brought up the gold arm band during their heated conversation, and I thought I should explain it.”
    “Please, Professor—”
    “Thomas,” he corrected.
    “Thomas, please don’t feel that you need to divulge any secrets or important information to me. To be honest, I was more concerned about their anger toward each other than the topics of their conversation.”
    He shook his head. “I’m sorry if they behaved like children in front of you. Dalton and Ethan are very close, but as I’m sure you’ve noticed, they could not be more different.”
    I smiled. “Yes, I have noticed that.”
    “Let’s go to the desk. I had planned to show this to you anyhow because I know how intriguing you find Egyptian artifacts.” He lowered the box to the desk with the care that someone might place down a bottle of nitro glycerin.
    He sat down and I pulled up a chair across from him. “Four years ago,” he began, “the university had sent a group of grad students and me on an expedition in Alexandria. We had a great time, and while we didn’t find anything too noteworthy, we learned a lot and it was an experience all of us would never forget. One day several of us wandered into an open market to buy some fruit and bread for lunch. An odd little man poked his head around the corner of a building and motioned me over. Against my better judgment, I followed the man to a dark alley. Once out of sight of others, the man reached into his coat, and I was certain I was about to be robbed.” Professor North smiled. “Frankly, it would have served me right. But he wasn’t a thief. Instead, he produced a gold arm band. He placed it on my palm.” He lightly fingered the top of the black box as if it contained his most prized possession. While there was a definite air of excitement about him as he told his story, the man across from me reminded me much more of the thoughtful, intelligent professor I’d grown to love. And his enthusiasm as he spoke about the expedition was contagious. “There was little light in the alley but the weight and feel of the jewelry made me fairly certain that it was gold, or at least gold-plated. The man was extremely agitated the whole time we spoke, and he glanced around constantly to be sure we were alone. He wanted a hundred American dollars for the piece, and I considered the offer for only a moment before paying the man. I figured that even gold-plated, it was worth three times that amount. I stuck the arm band in my pocket and thought little about it again.” My curiosity and anticipation increased with each passing moment, and the professor sensed it. “I guess you can tell that there was far more to my hundred dollar market find.”
    “Considering you pulled it from a highly camouflaged safe in your office wall, I can only assume it.”
    “Of course, that does make it rather obvious. Well, back to the story. Naturally, when we got back to the hotel the grad students had a good laugh over their professor getting duped out of a hundred dollars for a fake gold arm band. To avoid further ridicule, I left it in my coat pocket and pushed it from my thoughts. Then one evening the students had gone out, but I’d stayed behind with