Checking her watch, Elsa gave her the short version of the story. During lonely months of being bedridden with polio, Elsa had watched the birds outside her window. Their songs and flight—captivating to a girl who didn’t know if she’d ever walkagain—had inspired the passion for ornithology that led to her job at the American Museum of Natural History.
“And now you work with birds every day,” Tatiana said. “How wonderful.”
A tapping sounded, and Elsa looked up to find a red-bellied woodpecker drilling into the ash tree’s diamond-patterned bark. After a few moments, he flew away, and she watched him go with a smile. It had been the living, breathing, singing, soaring birds that had attracted her from so early an age.
Elsa thanked Tatiana for the lovely time and assured her she’d visit her and Danielle again. For now, duty called. A mansion full of dead birds awaited her.
CHAPTER
5
FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1926
Elsa returned to Elmhurst the next day but hadn’t been able to leave until after her morning staff meeting. So by the time she finally reached the mansion, she found Luke and Tom in the courtyard, eating their lunches. As soon as Luke saw her, he buttoned his collar and rolled down his sleeves. Tom didn’t bother with either.
Barney stretched out in the sunshine, so content with his situation he only wagged his tail when he saw her and made no other move.
“Now, that’s a good boy,” she said, standing over him. She was almost tempted to rub his belly.
Almost.
Tom finished off a Coca-Cola, then lit a Lucky Strike. “Take a load off.”
She sat on a bench opposite them, arranged her pleated skirt over her knees, and smiled. “Just the gentlemen I was looking for.”
“There’s only one gentleman here,” Tom told her, squinting from the sun, “and it isn’t me.”
“Are you some kind of a rogue, Tom?” Elsa teased.
Luke elbowed Tom in the ribs. “Don’t be fooled. He’s as good a man as they come.” He picked up a ball, showed it to Barney, then threw it across the lawn.
“But still not a gentleman,” Tom insisted around the cigarette between his lips. “Luke and I grew up together, but not in the way you might think. My pop was, and still is, the valet for Luke’s father. We lived parallel lives, I guess you could say, until after—”
“Did you say you wanted to see us about something?” Luke’s interruption surprised Elsa almost as much as Tom’s revelation. She’d gathered the two had some personal connection but could never have guessed Tom’s family had been in service to Luke’s.
Barney bounded back up with the drool-covered ball in his mouth. Luke wrestled the ball from him and threw it again. “We should get back to work,” he said.
“Sorry, I did want to talk to you.” Elsa lifted a hand to stay them before lacing her fingers in her lap. “The last time I was here, I visited with Tatiana Petrovic, the gardener. She told me that the aviary Mr. Spalding has been looking for was willed to her and her daughter. It would make all the difference in securing their future. I thought you should know why it matters.”
A gust of wind blew Luke’s hair across his brow. “That’s interesting. Spalding didn’t mention that he didn’t have any right to it.”
“He could be looking on their behalf since he wouldn’t want the Petrovics searching the mansion themselves,” she suggested.
Luke eyed her. “Think so?”
Well, she had thought so before he looked at her like that. She supposed a man with his experiences would have trouble believing the best of people.
Tom inhaled on his cigarette and blew the smoke to one side. “Regardless, we’ve emptied all the cases now and never saw an aviary. If we come across it in other areas of the house, we’ll give it directly to the Petrovics.”
“We did find a few more field notebooks while you were out,” Luke said. “I placed them on the dining room table for you.”
“That’s wonderful, thank you!” Rising, she dusted off the back of her skirt and followed the men inside while Barney flopped in the shade beneath a bench.
Before she reached the dining hall, however, the sound of a door slamming drew her to the entry hall.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Spalding,” she greeted him.
He looked up from the clipboard he carried. “Miss Reisner. How is your work here coming along?” His camel brown suit matched his fading hair.
