In Plain Sight

Alex grimaced. He had his opinions about the entangling proprieties of relationships, and he didn’t like Iggy’s desire to discuss them.

“Just most,” Alex said. “Although I might make an exception for Evelyn.”

“The woman with the missing brother?”

Alex nodded.

“She must have made quite an impression on you.”

“She did,” Alex said. “Now, do you have my runes ready?”

Iggy sighed and rolled his eyes.

“There’s nothing better for a man than the companionship of a good woman.”

“How about not being thrown in jail where I’ll wait to be murdered by Danny’s father?”

“That’s good, too.” Iggy chuckled and shrugged. He reached into his vest pocket and pulled out four folded pieces of flash paper. “I’ve marked them, so you can’t get them mixed up,” he said. “Each rune will work for five hours or until you cancel them. Have you figured out how to get the truth out of the Broker?”

“I just need some rope and a couple of pulleys.” Alex nodded. “I’ll stop at Ralph’s place, then I’ll be all set.”

“Sounds messy,” Iggy said, yawning. “I thought you were going to avoid that kind of thing.”

“Don’t worry,” Alex said, and chuckled darkly.

Iggy raised his eyebrows as if weighing whether or not Alex was being straight with him.

“You’ll have to tell me about it,” he said finally. “I’m spent, I’m off to bed.” With that, he rose and went upstairs to his room.

Alex headed up to his room and showered, then changed into some work clothes. He had a pretty good idea how to make Jeremy Brewer, A.K.A. the Broker, talk without having to beat the truth out of him. Such tactics were time-consuming and messy. His idea involved using his vault to transport Mr. Brewer and then to force him to reveal who stole Van der Waller’s stones. And, if he had time, he’d ask where Charles Beaumont lived as well. If Beaumont was the Spook, the Broker should know him.

Alex hurried out to a building supply company run by an Italian named Ralph. His parents were very proud to be Americans. Alex had helped Ralph uncover a competitor who kept vandalizing his storefront, and now Ralph sold Alex anything he needed at a discount.

An hour later, Alex was back at the brownstone with fifty feet of heavy rope, a sturdy metal chair, two pulleys, and a thick gauge U-bolt. He installed the pulleys and the bolt in his vault in a matter of a few minutes. The walls of the extra-dimensional space were a flat, seamless gray and hard as stone. Since Alex had created the space, however, he could mold it like clay with just his hands. All he had to do was push the pulley’s anchor bolts into the material of the wall then let it harden around them. The U-bolt went in just as easily, right beside the door.

That done, he cut a thirty-foot length of rope, looped it through the pulleys on the back wall, and tied the ends to the sides of the metal chair.

“That ought to do it,” he said to the empty vault. He pulled his watch from his pocket and found that it wasn’t even noon yet. He wouldn’t be able to make his appearance at The Emerald Room until after seven.

He paced back and forth in his vault for almost a minute before he switched on the light over his work table. Opening his kit, he took out a worn, dog-eared notebook and thumbed through to the last few pages where the handwriting changed from Thomas Rockwell’s neat lettering to Alex’s more loose script. He scanned through the notes he’d been making last night before Evelyn—

Before Evelyn.

Alex shook his head like a dog.

No time for that.

He pulled out the copy he’d made of the Archimedean Monograph’s runes when he first found Thomas’ lore book. The original finding rune was very different from the one Thomas had unraveled just before he died. The man had been sure he’d figured it out, sure enough to bet his life on it. Alex had seen right away that the rune was far more complex. Thomas simply didn’t have the skill or the training necessary to decode it.

Alex brought out his own notebook and set to work.

Four hours later, he finished deciphering it.

* * *

The taxi let Alex off in front of an all-night drug store, three blocks from The Emerald Room. He decided to splurge and bought a pack of cigarettes before heading to the phone booth to call Iggy.

“I’m here,” he said when Iggy picked up. “If all goes well, I shouldn’t be in there for more than half an hour.”

“If I don’t hear from you in an hour, I’m calling Danny,” Iggy said.

“All right,” Alex said, checking the time on his watch; it showed a little past eight.