Page 57 of King’s Ransom

‘This has been fun, everybody, really it has. And I must say, being tens of millions of dollars richer does feel nice. Although, Insurance Guy, that was cold on the hundred mil.’

Quinn McCade bowed his head, swallowing, looking more than ever like he wanted to be invisible.

‘Anyhoo. You know what they say, you gotta strike while the iron’s hot, or, in my case, get your king’s ransom while you still hold him hostage.

‘So let’s get to the main event: the location of Mr King himself.

‘I’m not going to give you some cute riddle to find him. I mean, gosh, the world’s greatest detectives are here. Ask them where he is. They’ll also know the price for his release. But don’t forget, Mr King’s air is running out.’

Click.

The line went dead.

We—being the four allegedly greatest detectives still alive—all looked at each other.

The Tech Detect said what we were all thinking: ‘Us? How are we supposed to know where he is?’

‘And what the ransom for him will be?’ Xiao added.

‘Because it’s another riddle,’ Merritt Garrett said.

Special Agent Hooper said, ‘But the kidnapper said there’d be no more cute riddles . . .’

‘He’s toying with us,’ I said. ‘Like he’s been toying with us all day. While we were dealing with Alexei and his bodyguard hanging from the elevator, he was downstairs attaching Ajax and Cassandra to the outside of the building. Then, while we were occupied down there, he was killing everyone in the apartment and taking the two wives.’

Hooper said, ‘So, what’s the riddle now?’

I said, ‘He told us to ask the world’s greatest detectives.’

I looked at Garrett, Xiao and the Tech Detect, and they looked at me.

‘It’s not us,’ I said. ‘He’s mocking us. It’s something else.’

It was the Tech Detect who got it.

‘Sherlock Holmes,’ he said firmly. ‘Sherlock Holmes is the world’s greatest detective. There was a Sherlock Holmes book on the shelf in the master bedroom.’

Moments later, we were back in the master bedroom, all of us gazing at Aristo King’s bookshelf, at the thick leather-bound volume on it titled The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

With its windows smashed by the gunfire from the drone earlier, the corner suite was now basically an open-air balcony. Wind whistled through it. The body of the dead FBI forensics guy was still there but thankfully it was now covered.

The Tech Detect nodded at the book. ‘Could it be booby-trapped?’

‘Doesn’t look like it,’ Garrett said, peering closely at the hefty tome. ‘Doesn’t seem attached to anything—’

He pulled the book from the shelf.

We caught our collective breaths.

Nothing happened.

Then Garrett’s brow furrowed.

He gauged the weight of the book in his hands.

‘What’s wrong?’ Audrey asked.

‘This book’s too light . . .’ he said.