“Unlikely,” Alex said. “His place was tossed. If whoever did that had my missing man, they’d just beat the location of whatever they were looking for out of him, like Pemberton.”
Danny whistled. “Sorry,” he said.
“I’ll manage,” Alex said, putting on his hat. “As soon as you get that manifest, call Leslie and give her the list, then I’ll check them out. Once we find out who got robbed, we’ll know the identity of our killer.”
“It occurs to me that if they killed Pemberton to get their property back, they aren’t likely to admit being robbed.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Alex said. “If they’ve got something to hide, I’ll sniff them out. You just make sure you get that manifest.”
“Will do,” Danny said, then turned back to his breakfast.
9
The Visitors
It was such a nice day that Alex decided he would walk all the way to his office. The fact that when he got there, he needed to tell the lovely and worried Evelyn Rockwell that her brother was, in all likelihood, dead, had nothing to do with it whatever. Danny had been right, of course — there was still a very slim chance that Thomas was alive, but that felt like false hope.
He had to tell Evelyn the truth.
Alex stuck out his arm to hail a cab, but the park was only a block away and that gave him an idea. Right by the entrance to the park stood a public phone booth, so he crossed the street to it and dialed Evelyn’s number.
“Hello,” she said after four rings.
“Evelyn, this is Alex Lockerby. I have some information about your brother. How soon can you meet me by the carousel in Central Park?”
“Um. About twenty minutes, I guess.”
“Fine. I’ll wait for you there.”
Evelyn promised to hurry and hung up. Alex strolled across the park to where the carousel stood. He bought a bag of hot peanuts from a vendor, then picked a bench a little way away. The ride was noisy enough that anyone walking by wouldn’t be able to overhear them.
Alex took out the pack of Bert’s cigarettes and checked them. Only five left. With a sigh, he lit one, then amused himself, pitching an occasional peanut to the squirrels while he waited. He had just got down to the bottom of the bag when Evelyn hurried up. She was dressed in a dark green skirt and matching jacket over a white blouse, and her makeup was perfect. She flashed him an earnest smile that made him a little lightheaded.
“I came as soon as I could,” she said, sitting down next to him. “What news do you have?”
Alex’s good mood evaporated and he wadded up what remained of the bag of nuts.
“I’m sorry, Evelyn,” he said in the gentlest voice he could muster. “I believe that Thomas is dead.”
He was expecting hysterics, but Evelyn simply pulled an embroidered handkerchief from her clutch and dabbed at her eyes.
“I knew it might be something like that,” she said, her voice full of emotion. Alex offered her a precious cigarette from Burt’s dwindling pack and she took one. Her hand trembled as she lit it. “Can you tell me what happened?” she asked, her voice weak.
“I don’t know,” Alex said. “My finding rune couldn’t locate him. Now that could just mean that he’s left the city. On the other hand, it’s clear that someone wanted something from him, that’s why they tore up his apartment. I think they were looking for this,” he said, taking the blue leather book out of his jacket pocket.
“What’s this?” Evelyn asked, taking the book and flipping through its pages.
“This is a runewright’s Lore book,” Alex explained. “If your brother had gone on the run, he’d have taken this with him.”
“I don’t understand,” Evelyn said, her voice breaking. “Why would anyone kill Thomas for this?”
Alex took the book back and flipped through to the six special runes in the back.
“Have you ever seen anything like these before?” he asked. Evelyn looked at the pages as Alex turned them, then shook her head.
“Is this what Thomas was working on?”
“I think so,” Alex said. “These rune constructs are more complex than anything I’ve ever seen.”
“What are they? Are they valuable? Is that why someone wants them? Is that why Thomas…” Her voice trailed off and she suppressed a sob.
“They might be extremely valuable to the right person,” he said, and shrugged. “We runewrights usually keep our constructs secret, but Thomas may have discovered something that would be more valuable if he sold it.” He paged to the finding rune. “This is the one he spent the most time working on. It’s a finding rune. I have one that looks very similar, but I’ve never seen one laid out this way.”
“What was Thomas looking for?”
“I don’t know.” Alex shook his head.
“What about these others?” she said, flipping the pages. “What are they for? Is it possible they go together?”
Alex furrowed his brow. He hadn’t thought of that. He wondered why Evelyn had.
“I just want to know what happened to my brother,” she said in response to his questioning look.
Alex pointed to the page where she had turned. “This is some variant of a life rune,” he said. “Runewrights power our constructs when we write them. The longer we spend making the rune, the more power it has. With this,” he indicated the rune, “we can power our constructs instantly with our own life energy. It can make even a simple rune incredibly powerful. It can also shave years off your life in a matter of seconds.”
“Do you do that?” she asked, her eyes full of concern.
“No,” he said. “It’s extremely dangerous.”
“What about this one?” Evelyn said, turning another page.
“I don’t know,” Alex said, flipping through them. “I’ve never see that one, or this, or this.” He turned to a construct that looked like a roadmap of some crooked European city. “I think this one is a protection rune, but I have no idea what it protects from.”
Evelyn stared at the book, turning the pages back and forth until she lowered her head and pushed the cover closed.
“I don’t know what any of this means, Alex,” she said. “All I know is that my brother is gone, most likely dead.”
“I am sorry,” Alex said. “If you come with me to my office, I’ll refund the rest of your money since I only needed the one day and the finding rune.”
“No.” She looked up with intensity in her eyes. “I want to know what happened to my brother. I want you to find the person who killed him. If they killed him for these drawings, you need to figure them out, Alex.” She shoved the book back into his hands. “You need to find whoever did this and give my brother and me some peace.”
Tears were streaming down her face now, ruining her makeup. Alex had an overwhelming urge to put his arm around her and hold her close, to tell her it would be okay.
“You sure you want that?” he said instead. “I might spend a lot of time spinning my wheels and not find anything.”
“I’ve got some money my parents left me,” she said. “This is what I want.”
Alex couldn’t really blame her. Her brother was all the family she had, and someone had taken him away. Just like Father Harry.
“All right,” Alex said, looking her square in the eyes. “I’ll find out what I can, but no promises.”
“That’s good enough,” Evelyn said.
He waited while she fixed her makeup with the aid of a tiny mirror from her purse, then walked her out of the park to get a cab. He pulled the blue book out of his pocket as she rode away, wondering how he would find out who killed Thomas. Runewrights were secretive about their runes, especially new ones. It was unlikely that Thomas mentioned it casually to a friend.
Maybe he had a partner, someone who worked on developing these constructs with him? But a partner would already know the runes, he wouldn’t have to search for them in Thomas’ apartment.