Icefall (Dane Maddock Adventures) Read Online Free PDF Page B

with Dane ’ s gray mood which had only begun to lighten when Jade had received a text from Otto letting them know he was all right an d had been released after being questioned by the police. They had sampled a few German Christmas specialties and were digging into plates of spaetzle and bottles of Kolsch, a local specialty beer, when Otto wandered in with a bandage on his finger and looking dazed but otherwise whole. He declined Dane ’ s offer to buy his dinner, but accepted a Kolsch and drank half of it in three large gulps.
    “ I don ’ t feel right about leaving you there by yourself, ” Dane told him. “ We should have stayed with you. ” The others agreed. Excited as they were about the discovery they had made, leaving the man to face the authorities alone felt wrong.
    “ No, no. ” Otto waved away their apologies. “ The police would have taken the skulls and we would not have had a chance to look for the hidden passage. The place is now a crime scene. There is no telling how long it will be before it is once again open to the public. ” He took another swallow of his beer, this one moderate, and wiped his mouth on his shirt sleeve before continuing. “ I also agree with the priest. If the public knew the Shrine of the Magi held such grotesqueries .. . ” He pinched his lower lip, his eyes narrowed in thought.
    “ What do you think they are? ” Angel asked. “ Have you ever seen anything like them? ”
    “ Never. I suspect they are forgeries – a sinister joke left behind by whoever stole the real skulls of the Magi . ”
    So you think the bones of the Wise Men really were in the shrine at some point in the past? ” Dane had been wondering if perhaps the horned skulls had been there from the beginning.
    “ If the records are to be believed, the shrine once contained three crowned skulls. This was supposedly verified by priests at Kölner Dom. Of course, everything is in question now. ” Otto lapsed back into deep thought, then his eyes suddenly brightened and he looked at Jade. “ Where are the skulls now? ”
    “ Back in our hotel room. I thought about leaving them in the temple, but changed my mind. ”
    “ What temple? ” Otto ’ s eyes shone with disbelief as they filled him in on what lay beneath Kölner Dom.
    “ A temple to a Roman god beneath Cologne ’ s most sacred site. It is difficult to accept. Of course, ours is a tangled history. ” He smiled sadly. “ Why do you suppose the priest wanted someone to know about it? Would it not have been best for the church to let it fall from memory? If he was the keeper of the secret, he need not have passed it along. ”
    “ Jade left out the most interesting part. ” Dane smiled. “ She does that for dramatic effect. ”
    “ I was getting there, Maddock. ” She blushed, giving her almond-colored skin a warm, pleasant hue. “ But you go ahead. ”
    “ You ’ ve got the disc. You tell the story. ” Dane took a long pull of his Kolsch, savoring its sweet, almost fru ity flavor, something between ale and lager. He glanced at Otto, whose eyes sparkled as he leaned in close, his beer forgotten, as he waited for the rest of the story. ” Bones smirked and Angel grinned behind her mug.
    “ But you ’ re the one who found the compartment inside the Milan Madonna. ” Jade played along. “ You should tell him. ”
    “ Disc? Milan Madonna? ” Otto sounded like a little boy, early on Christmas morning, begging to open his gifts.
    They all took long pulls of Kolsch, prolonging the moment as Otto ’ s pleading eyes darted around the table, eager for someone to let him in on the secret.
    “ It was nothing much, ” Jade said, placing her mug on the table and reaching into her purse. “ We found the original Milan Madonna and this was hidden inside of her. ” She handed Otto an object wrapped in a handkerchief.
    He held it gingerly and unwrapped it with care , holding it close to his chest and hunching over as if to hide it from prying