Chapter Fourteen
Parlor Tricks
By the time, Oliverand Felipe reached the gallery a few streets away, the crowds had thinned for the night and the police officer lingering near the entrance looked eager to leave. As they approached, the officer waved them in from where he and Louisa spoke to an older gentleman. He sat on a stool, holding his head and speaking slowly as if still slightly dazed. On the other side of the darkened gallery, Agatha shook her head while giving a statement to another uniformed policeman. Felipe could hear the edge of her voice jump, though he wasn’t sure if it was due to the theft or the fear of being surrounded by police. When he instinctively drifting to her side, she flashed him a grateful smile.
“No, I have no idea why anyone would take the book. Perhaps someone thought it valuable. I have a sketch of it in my office, which I can show you gentleman later, but it didn’t have any gems or anything valuable beyond the metal on the clasps. Frankly, it was kind of ugly. Then again, book collectors are a cutthroat lot.”
The mustached officer harrumphed with a nod. As if he knew anything of book collectors.
“Was it only the book?” Felipe asked.
“Seems so. I don’t see anything missing, but something small missing from the cabinets might be easier to spot in daylight. At least Mr. McCallister isn’t hurt. He thinks someone snuck up on him, knocked him out, and stuck him in the cloakroom. Doesn’t remember a thing, poor man, but at least he isn’t bruised.”
The policeman murmured something about alerting the newspapers and drifted away, but Felipe’s attention was on Oliver. He trailed along the cabinets lining the perimeter of the room, eyes fixed on each object. When he thought no one was looking, he leaned in closer until his nose nearly touched the glass. When he reached the open cabinet, he sniffed and winced.Magic.
“Agatha, what was the book about?” Felipe asked as he caught Oliver’s eye and motioned for him to come over.
“You know, I’m not even sure. I hadn’t asked my contact in Italy to send it. It just came with the exhibition, provenance, history, and all. I gave it a once over when I set up the display, but I couldn’t read it. It was all in Latin. There were some figures and drawings, none of which were particularly well done. It could have been on hermeneutics or alchemy, given the time period in which it was created. They were all into those sorts of absurd parlor tricks back then, you know. Why?”
“Because I think your ugly book may have been more than it seemed.”
Stuffing his handkerchief back into his pocket, Oliver sniffed. “Magic. The bookstand stinks of it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means we potentially have a much bigger problem than we thought.”
***
The moment the lastpolice officer gave Agatha the information on how to claim a report for the gallery’s insurance and shut the door behind him, Felipe leapt up to start processing the scene for the Paranormal Society’s investigation. While Oliver stood next to Louisa and Agatha, Felipe stalked from one side of the main hall to the other with his eyes sweeping the floor. Sister Mary Agnes’s death had been the first crime scene Oliver had worked on with any depth, but without a body to focus on first, he wasn’t certain what to do. As if sensing his hesitance, Felipe waved him over to the gallery proper’s back exit. Behind the coffered paneling and high ceilings lurked a far less polished room where artwork sat in corrals or hung waiting on the unfinished walls. Unpacked crates lined the far wall near a hatch large enough to accommodate the back of a cart or steamer. Beside it was a normal door, though that was made from a far heavier metal than what he had glimpsed out front for the public.
“You have a good eye; do you see any signs of tampering?” Felipe asked, squatting next to the open door.
Oliver shrugged his scarf closer to his neck. In the scant light, it was hard to see anything with great certainty, but he didn’t feel or see any scratches on the lock or obvious pry marks. “No. Do you think someone might have knocked to lure the guard? He might be more willing to open it for a woman.”
“Perhaps.” Shutting the door behind him, Felipe sighed. “Or we’re dealing with someone with telekinesis. They could have easily let themselves in.”
A wave of anxiety rose swiftly in Oliver’s gut. “We should talk to the guard. The cabinet, from what I could tell while the police were here, wasn’t forced open.”
