“Not to alarm anyone, but he’s in the hospital too,” Nathan said, “getting checked out. The EMTs thought he looked pale and sweaty. With the trauma he experienced, they feared he might be having a heart attack, but it’s just a precaution.”

“What?” Terra asked. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I’m telling you now. There’s been a lot going on, okay?” Nathan lifted his hand, a half apology.

“There. I feel something.” Owen dropped to his knees.

“Wait.” Nathan pulled on gloves. “I’ll take it from here, Owen. This is one convoluted mess, and I wouldn’t want someone to have a reason to point at you.”

Owen nodded. “Right. That makes sense. Already easy to do if this is it and it’s in my barn.”

Nathan slid the box out. Jack and Terra crouched closer and shined their flashlights as Nathan gently opened it.

A thick gold mesh crown filled with colorful jewels reflected the light. Terra gasped. “So, the murders, all of it, was over this.” Terra noticed a stone tablet in the box behind the crown. “Looks like the rest of the corner that I found. An ancient cuneiform-inscribed tablet. It must go with the crown for some reason. Some information about whoever wore it.”

Maybe Jim had taken this to his cabin, but had he dropped it? Broken the piece off? Then he decided he wasn’t the one to keep it? She hoped they could eventually put all the pieces together.

“Gramps did know where it was all this time. He lied to Marcus.” Terra crossed her arms. “Why would he do that? He risked our lives. He could have turned it over to him.”

“Your grandfather probably believed his only bargaining chip was the artifact, and likely feared that Briggs would kill you all once he got his hands on it,” Jack said. “Robert is shrewd, Terra. I have no doubt he made the right call here. He was simply buying time until someone else came to save the day.”

Owen stood and leaned against a post. “That makes sense. I think after Jim was killed, Gramps hired someone to break into the safe so he could say the item was stolen if ever asked about it. He could claim he didn’t know what it was. He’d just taken it for a friend. And then it was stolen. No harm, no foul—at least in his mind.”

“And what was he planning to do with it then?” Terra shook her head.

“You know, we could just ask Gramps,” Owen said, “but if he’s in danger of having a heart attack, I agree that all this can wait. We know the main player now.”

“Briggs mentioned to me that with Neva taken out, he would have to deliver the artifact himself.” Terra sighed. All this murder. Leif had definitely been tightening the screws around Briggs’s operation.