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“Oh no, nothing of that sort, just the symptoms that your late husband had were the same as a few other cases that we have run into. We just want to know everything so we can get down to the bottom of this for in the future we can maybe save someone’s life,” more fibbing spilled from Henry mouth. It made him better to know that the whole thing wasn’t a complete lie.

“Oh are you guys with a hospital or something?” the woman looked between the two men. Henry eyes fluttered open a little wider.

“We are with Mortly’s Medical Center down in a more southern region. We have traveled quite a ways to come and speak to you,” Rhys calmly slipped in assisting his friend.

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She directed them into her living room and to a plush couch. While both sat down she seated herself across from them on the love seat. “Oh okay, what would you like to know then? I’m Diana by the way,” she added as she petted Missy who settled down on Diana’s lap.

Secretly glad that he did have Rhys with him now Henry surged the conversation away from his lies. He wasn’t good at them anyways and if the lady did look up the fake hospital the only thing down south that had the name Mortly’s on it would be an old mechanic shop, “did your husband enjoy going out on trips? Like hiking or just exploring new places?”

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Diana slowly shook her head thinking, “no… he rarely had the time to go out and do things like that. He mainly spent a lot of time at the shop. Why, do you think he could have gotten some disease?”

“Well no not necessarily, we are just trying to cover all the bases so we can hopefully narrow down the possibilities. If you do say that he spent a lot of time around the shop did he in the past month pump into in anyone different or… strange?” Henry pressed on while Rhys made faces at the dog.

She frowned, “if he had, he didn’t tell me.”

Henry nodded, “was there anything that your husband did do, hobby wise?”

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“Uh, he liked to go garage sailing. Every weekend that he had off he would be out pilfering through other peoples stuff,” she started to chuckle, “he would always be miffed when he would try to type garage ‘saling’ into the web and be told that he was wrong. It would always correct it to sailing. Finally he would go around and call himself an avid garage sailor.” She finished with a sad little sigh and a distant look before pulling back to them, “you don’t think he could have gotten anything from that do you?”

“Hmm… did your husband bring things back home from these sales often?” Rhys finally decided to join the conversation since the dog had hopped off Diana’s lap and wondered off realizing the guests weren’t anything interesting.

Diana nodded, “yes all the time. He filled this house up with all kinds of junk that he found.”

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“Do you have the stuff that he had bought over the previous month?” Henry asked hoping that the blade could have been among the stuff.

Diana stood up, “all the stuff is pretty much scattered around the house, and he liked to buy interesting furniture really cheap.”

“Is there anything like random objects?” Henry asked hoping it didn’t sound too weird of a question.

“Oh okay yeah, yeah I think we have some stuff in the garage, follow me and watch your step when coming through the door. People usually can’t see the frame sticking up and sometimes trip,” she pointed out as she stepped over it herself.

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Henry watched his step and walked over to a shelf that Diana stood by. It had different boxes and outside tools laying on it. He carefully started to rummage through the stuff making sure to be extra careful of what he touched. As he was looking into a small box, he pushed back a few odd and end books to discover on the bottom of the cardboard box was a medium sized box made of beautiful oak stained wood. He peered over his shoulder to see where Diana was, she was craning her next over Rhys shoulder seeing what he was digging through. Turning back to the expensive box he carefully opened it up.

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Inside was a beautiful dagger made of bone, the hilt was decorated in fine leather and jewels. It was snuggly tucked into foam padding making sure no damage came to it. He slowly closed the lid not wanting to draw attention to it, moving the books back over it he turned around and cleared his throat. “Do you mind if we take a few boxes so we can examine them more closely in our lab?” he asked as he picked up the box that held the blade.

“Yeah sure, take it all. I have no idea what to do with all this junk,” Diana answered.

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Rhys followed suit as they all walked out of the garage and into the main room, standing by the door Henry gave the lady his condolences one more time before heading to his car. He put the box into his trunk and climbed back into the driver’s seat. With Rhys on the passenger side already buckled up he drove off and back down onto the main street.

“So I am assuming that you found what you were looking for?” Rhys asked after coming to the conclusion that his friend wasn’t going to tell him on his own.

Not being able to hold his excitement in any longer he pulled into a parking lot of the motel that he planned on staying in that night, “yes I found and it looks beautiful. The way that it was preserved whoever had had it last must have never had it open. Looks like our garage salior bought it off him and opened it without knowing what it was."

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Rhys frowned thinking, "who owned it last? Obviously the last owner knew of its," he wiggled his fingers around, "powers. Why would he all of sudden sale it in a garage sale?"

Henry shook his head, "I'm as clueless as you are on that matter."

"What I'm shocked, Dr. Henry Cruz doesn't know something. Now come before we freeze out here," he got of the truck and headed toward the motel.

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✖ ✖ ✖
Bright and early the next morning they were both back out in the vehicle on their way towards the mountain. "So I get why we're headed here, but why so early," a yawn escaped Rhys mouth at the end of his sentence.

"Because the early bird gets the worm," Henry drove carefully making sure not to cause an accident.

"I don't think we'll be having any competition from other birds," his head was pressed against the window while he half dozed.

"You don't know that. Surprisingly there are very... dangerous competitors in this field. Will we meet any probably not but there's still a chance," Henry lectured him.

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"Dr. Cruz what do you get yourself into?" he asked surprised.

"Nothing trust me, I normally don't do this. Mostly I just read about it but I don't know, I couldn't help but go and see this one for myself," Henry parked the car and got out. "This is it," he spoke looking around.

"This is what, the middle of the woods?" Rhys followed suit and stepped out of the mobile.

Grabbing the book that they looked at the day before Henry flipped it open and walked around the car, "look here there's a map."

Rhys took a glance at the page, "yeah an unmarked map. This doesn't show any names. How are we to know where to begin?"

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"I wasn't entirely sure of that either coming up here but," he pointed with his index finger, "look at that over there."

Rhys followed the direction of where his friend was pointing. He looked back down at the map, "that ridge looks just like what's drawn on this."

He nodded, "so that's where we begin. Grab the case that has the ribbed blade."

"Why?" Rhys asked even as he was already in the process of doing it.

"Because as much as I believe that artifacts belong in museums I think that this time this is a lot safer returning it back to where it came from originally," Henry was already in the process of hiking up.

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"It has been over an hour. Are we coming any closer to the spot?" Rhys complained not to thrilled to be tromping through the snow in shoes that didn't belong in the snow.

Staring at the map and continuing to look up Henry spotted the last landmark, "yes we are very close. Just over there and we should be at the spot."

"Thank god," Rhys mouthed to the heavens. He didn't know how much longer he could take.

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Coming around the corner they came across quite a surprise. A whole excavation was in the process. Startled Henry looked around, "this wasn't authorized."

"How do you know?" Rhys asked curiously.

"Because they would have to have gotten a warrant from the city but when I visited other day there was nothing for this area," he explained.

"So these were the unsavory people you mentioned earlier-" he was cut off by a group of people noticing them. Roughly they were grabbed by several of the men. "Hey watch it I walk on my own," Rhys struggled.

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They we're promptly thrown into a tent and confronted by a French man. Smiling at them he swirled a drink in his hand, "well who must you two be."

Rhys being quick to respond said, "sorry we we're just and got lost from the trail. Do you mind sending us back on our way?"

One of the men snatched the book and case from them and handed it the French man. Flipping through the man frowned and then when he opened the case his eyes grew wide, "hiking did you say? Highly doubtful, why you're coming back to this spot is beyond me when obviously you have the golden egg right here."