Read The 39 Clues: Cahills vs. Vespers Book 2: A King's Ransom for Free Online

heist a week for me,” Dan said.
    They tiptoed past and kept on going. Finally at the end of the hallway, a door on the right was marked REKORDBÜRO . Amy nodded, and, after listening for a minute, they cautiously pushed it open. The office was empty.
    “Whew,” Amy whispered after they closed the door behind them. “Lucky. I think this is where the records are kept.”
    Unlike the elegant offices they’d glimpsed, this room was small and cluttered. A small desk with a fax machine was shoved in between a table and the door. The rest of the room was filled with filing cabinets. The old files could be right here.
    “I don’t think they would have digitized their transactions from eighty years ago. But they should have dead files.”
    Amy peered at the labels on the filing cabinets. “Bingo. These are the records from the 1950s. There are no records for the 1940s … they closed the business during World War Two … so … here!” She stopped before the last filing cabinet. “The records from the 1930s.” She opened the drawer and groaned. “This could take a while. They aren’t filed by the name of the object. It’s by date. We know it’s 1932, but we don’t know what month.” She handed Dan a hanging file. “Let’s get started. We have to get this done before the auction is over so we can leave with the crowd.”
    She opened the first file. Records were kept in a tiny, neat handwriting. Amy slumped against the cabinet. “These are in German. Of course they would be.”
    “It’s all right,” Dan said. “It will still say ‘de Virga.’”
    She and Dan bent over the files. They had to keep the light off, so they used their penlights, flipping through paper after paper. Their eyes almost crossed trying to decipher the thin, spidery handwriting or faint typewriter ink, all written in a language they didn’t know. Occasionally, they would freeze if they heard footsteps outside. Amy’s palms were damp with nerves. If they got caught, what would they say?
    Finally, just when
wild goose chase
was starting to dance around in Amy’s brain, Dan whispered, “Got it.”
    He passed over a paper. Amy saw the words
de Virga
and
mappa mundi
.
    Amy’s heartbeat speeded up. Here it was, the original notes on the auction of the antique map. “I can’t read the rest,” she murmured. “But look — there’s a list of names: ‘Prof. Otto Hummel … Jane Sperling … Marcel Maubert … Reginald Tawnley.’ And there’s a notation next to each name.”
    “Doesn’t Ian speak German?” Dan asked. “Maybe we can get a good enough resolution on a photograph to send it to him.”
    “Worth a try. And if he can’t translate it, he can find a Cahill who can.” Amy spread the sheet out on the floor and took a photograph with her phone. She e-mailed it to Attleboro.
    A loud noise sent them shooting to their feet. Amy looked around wildly, but Dan laughed softly. “It’s just the fax machine,” he said.
    “Make it stop,” Amy groaned. “Somebody might come in. We’re overstaying our welcome.”
    Dan crept over to the fax machine. “I wonder if it’s somebody bidding on an Old Masterful.” He mimicked a snooty British accent.
“ I say, old chap, a million for that drawing of the cow. Make that two million… .”
    Amy stared down at the phone, willing it to chime an answer. When she looked up at Dan, he was staring at the fax in his hand.
    “I think you’re right about overstaying our welcome,” he said. He walked over and handed her the fax.

    INTERPOL MOST WANTED
    AMY CAHILL DAN CAHILL

    ALERT TO ART DEALERS, MUSEUMS, AUCTION HOUSES

    BE ON LOOKOUT FOR TWO SUSPECTS. CONFIRMED THEFT OF CARAVAGGIO MEDUSA FROM UFFIZI. CONSIDERED TO BE PLANNING ADDITIONAL HEISTS IN EUROPE. BELIEVED TO HAVE CROSSED THE ITALIAN/SWISS BORDER. IF SPOTTED, CONTACT INTERPOL NUMBER BELOW.

    “It’s from some guy named Milos Vanek,” Dan said. “He’s the detective assigned to our case, I guess.”
    “Photos and