Jamie Brodie 02 - Hoarded to Death

relatives for a while. Then she finished her tea, pushed back from the table and stood up. "Right, then, I've been revived. Shall we see this manuscript?"
    I took her downstairs and signed into the Special Collections area. We went to Conrad's office and I made the introductions. Conrad greeted her effusively, then we went through the steel doors into the room with the Book of Kells facsimile. Conrad went to the drawer where we'd stored the manuscript; we all pulled on gloves and face masks, and he took the manuscript out.
    Gillian sucked in her breath and said softly, "Holy mother of God." She took the magnifying glass that Conrad offered her and examined it closely, muttering to herself, then pulled a notepad and pen out of her bag and made quick notes. She turned it over and did the same thing. All in all, she examined the manuscript for about 20 minutes. Conrad and I just waited.
    Finally, she straightened up and looked at us, eyes wide over the face mask. "If this is a fake, it's a very, very good one. I don't know how it's possible, but I believe this might truly be..." She stopped and laughed a little. "I can barely bring myself to say the words. But I think it might be real."
    Conrad's eyes were wide too. "One of the missing pages of the original Book of Kells."
    "Yes." She picked up the magnifying glass again, then pointed to a spot on the page and handed him the glass. "See the small holes?"
    "Yes. I know they were made so the writing would be even."
    "Yes. But the edges are aged. You can make a piece of vellum look aged quite easily, but it's very difficult to make the edges of these tiny holes look uniformly aged as well. And these holes are quite old."
    We all just looked at each other for a few moments, then I said, "Okay. What now?"
    Gillian asked, "Who owns this? The woman in whose home it was found?"
    "Yes. My ex-sister-in-law."
    She nodded. "I think the next step is to draw up a contract with her. Pending authentication, the contract would restrict her from bargaining with anyone else."
    "I think s he'd be okay with that."
    "Wonderful."
    Conrad put the manuscript back in its drawer, then closed the door and spun the lock. We went back to Conrad's office, where we shed our gloves and masks. "Even if it's not the genuine page, it's worth a bit of money, just for being a beautiful work of art. We'd stipulate that if we didn't buy it from Ms. Graham for our collection, we'd return it to her and she could do with it whatever she liked from that point."
    "But for all this to happen, you'll have to take it back to Dublin."
    "Yes."
    “Of course.” Conrad was beyond delighted. “You’ll want to carry it yourself.”
    “Yes. But I’m not going back until next week. Can I leave it with you until then?”
    Conrad beamed. “Naturally. We’re glad to keep it for you.”
    Gillian smiled. “I’m going to contact Trinity and have the solicitors draw up a contract. Can we arrange a meeting with your sister -in-law, Dr. Brodie? Say, the first of next week?”
    “Ex-sister -in-law. Yes, that’ll be fine.”
    “Excellent.” Gillian pulled out a business card, turned it over and wrote on the back. “I’m staying at UCLA’s guest house – thank you for those arrangements, by the way, Dr. Huffstetler. Here’s my email address. And I will contact you, Dr. Brodie, when I have a contract. You may want to tell your ex-sister in law to alert her attorney, to make certain the contract meets with his or her approval.”
    “Sure, I’ll do that.” I doubted Jennifer had an attorney, but I could recommend my dad’s buddy Neil to her.
    “Very well. I’ll be in touch.”
    W e saw Gillian out. I paused in Conrad’s office on the way back upstairs. “Well, it looks like we might have the real thing.”
    “Indeed.” I’d never seen Conrad so pleased. “This is the most excitement I’ve had since…” He thought. “Well, since ever. At least professionally.”
    I grinned. “Hang on, Conrad. We may not be done with the excitement.”
    The first week of class was always hectic, and this was no exception. On Thursday, I did manage to call Jennifer, to tell her about Gillian’s visit and to give her Neil’s phone number. By the time Friday rolled around, I was ready for the weekend. I was still carrying the police cell phone with me, but had nearly forgotten that I’d had it. It had been over a month since Eckhoff and I had visited the book dealers.
    So when the phone rang, I nearly jumped out of my skin.