“Not good enough, Mr. Sullivan.” Dr. Hancock grabbed her purse. “Finding those artifacts is the only way to clear my name. I’m going, with or without you.” She left, forcing Conor to hop to it to keep up.

He followed her silver BMW to a garage under a swank condominium complex. Her penthouse was all glass and wood and gorgeous views. Either her job at the museum paid a lot more than Conor thought or the doctor came from the kind of money that was understated and very, very old. True to her word, she had an overnight bag packed in no time. She also changed her clothes to jeans, boots, and a blue sweater. Casual dress looked good on her. Her uptight do and attitude, however, remained.

Back in the garage, she cast a glance at his car. “We can take my SUV.”

“My car runs.”

“I’m sure it does, but it doesn’t look like it can handle off-road. Rural Maine isn’t Philadelphia, or Bangor, for that matter. You can do what you like. I’m taking my car.”

She had a point.

“OK,” he grumbled.

She fished in her purse. Not the skinny one she’d had earlier, but a larger, sack-like bag in brown leather. Lord, she matched them to each outfit.

At the chirp of her fob, the lights of a Porsche Cayenne blinked. Oooh.

She climbed behind the wheel. If he weren’t so worried about his brother, he would have seriously enjoyed the sweet ride.

Conor resisted sniffing the leather seat. “Tell me about May Day.”

She slipped into lecture mode the way Conor wore a broken-in pair of running shoes. “Beltane is one of the four great fire festivals that occur quarterly during the Celtic year. On the eve of Beltane, the Celts built bonfires, called Bel-fires, to honor Belenos, to celebrate the end of winter’s cold and the beginning of spring warmth. People jumped over the fires to ensure good health or luck.”

“Belenos. Isn’t that the god of fire who’s on your stolen cauldron?”

“Yes. He was a major Celtic god. Beltane Eve was also a celebration of fertility. One of the well-known symbols associated with Beltane is the maypole. Maidens would decorate it with flowers and ribbons and dance around it. Then couples would go off into the woods and, um, consummate a relationship in greenwood marriages.”

“Basically, it was a giant phallic symbol?” Conor glanced over.

Blushing, she changed lanes. Cute. “Another May Day tradition is the May Queen, who represents the maiden aspect of the Celtic triple goddess. The goddess is maiden, mother, and crone, or past, present, and future, all wrapped up into one. Beltane is all about sexuality, passion, joy, and new life. Rebirth, if you will.”

All things a dying man trying to save his only son would want. “So, this happens tomorrow, May first?”