The Sayers Swindle (A Book Collector Mystery) (31 page)

A
PPARENTLY VERA DIDN’T do satisfied.

“Miss Bingham,” she said in her best voice of doom as I slowly deflated in the conservatory later that morning. She was closely examining the Sayers collection as Karen and I perched on the edge of our chairs, holding our breath.

“Yes?”

“I believe you said the collection was in the same condition as when it vanished from the safety of my library.” She shot Karen a dirty look, possibly thinking about billing her for her stay.

“That’s right except for the slight damage to the spine of
The Nine Tailors
, which I already mentioned to you.”

“No, not that. This.” She held open
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
.

“I don’t see what’s wrong.”

“Water damage. Can you not see the buckling here on page sixty-four?”

I leaned forward. She was right. Not that anyone else would have noticed the minute damage on the inside margin of the page. What a strange place for water damage. How could water get in there and miss the rest of the page? Smoke damage, I could see, but where would the water come from? When Karen left with the three books, they were safely in her bag.

“How could that have happened?”

“A better question, Miss Bingham, is why is there water damage on all three?” She pointed to
Clouds of Witness
and
Have His Carcase
.

I picked up
Clouds of Witness
.

Vera said, “It’s on page sixty-four.”

Sure enough. The same kind of mark. The same page. A long, skinny rectangle of rippled paper.

“And observe
Have His Carcase
.”

I sighed. Of course, it also had a long, thin, rectangular wrinkly bit. “What about the others? Is there any water damage there?”

“Lucky for you there wasn’t.”

So how did the same type of damage get on the same page in three different books? I stared at the three books. The marks were similar, but not identical. One short. One medium. One longer.

“But the books didn’t go near any water. They were perfectly safe once Randolph gave them to me,” Karen said.

Vera said, “And it certainly didn’t happen when they were in my possession.”

I said, “It can’t be a coincidence that these were the books Randolph gave to the Karen. And it looks so uniform. Almost as if it was done deliberately.”

“Ridiculous. Who would damage a book deliberately? Only a fool or a child.”

Candy and Mason didn’t have the books, and Kev, our resident fool, never got near them. There were no children involved. If there had been, I could have seen it. How many times had I doodled in the margins of a dusty book from Uncle Mick’s shop? But this wasn’t doodling. It was something else. I picked up
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
again and sniffed page sixty-four. I was rewarded by a sharp and pungent scent. I passed the book to Karen.

“Do you smell that? We noticed it in the box. Do you think it could be vinegar?”

Her eyes widened. “I do. But why?”

Vera roared. “Food substance? On my books?”

At the roar, the signora swept in from the kitchen, clutching some freshly cut herbs. “You hungry?”

“Travesty,” Vera muttered.

“Why indeed? Why would someone put vinegar in a book?”

“And only on page sixty-four.”

Something tickled my brain. “When I was a kid, Uncle Lucky showed me how to make invisible ink out of vinegar and lemon. You could use either one. It was a lot of fun. All you had to do was hold it up to the heat of a lightbulb to reveal the hidden writing. We would leave secret messages for each other.”

Vera barked, “Who would dare write a message in my books?”

“Randolph!” Karen and I said it together.

I added. “He was desperate, a prisoner. He knew you’d look closely at those books. That must have been why he gave them to you.”

Karen said, “But how do we see what the message says?”

“We need an incandescent bulb for the light and the heat. We’ve changed most of our bulbs here to CFLs, but I think Vera has some in her study.”

I picked up the three books and took off down the endless hallway to the study, with Karen at my heels and Vera gaining in her wheelchair. “Miss Bingham! Do not damage my books further!”

I ran faster. I needed to do this. In the study, I flipped on the desk lamp and held page sixty-four of
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
up to it. Slowly, the paper browned and a string of numbers was revealed.

Vera squawked. I lifted
Have His Carcase
. Page sixty-four. Paper browned. A shorter string of numbers.

Vera said, “This is unacceptable!”

Karen said, “She has to. A man might have died because of those numbers. And Jordan, Tyler Dekker, her uncles and I almost did too.”

A grunt. I took it to be permission and held up the last book,
Clouds of Witness
. Four numbers this time.

We had our answer. Of course, we didn’t know what the question was. What did these numbers mean?

We copied them down so Vera could get her precious books back. Karen and I stared at them.

I said, “Is it some kind of code?”

Karen said, “Not my strength.”

“Mine either.”

Vera rolled closer and glared at the three groups of numbers. “Obviously, twelve digits is a bank account number.”

I said, “But what about the others?”

“Really, Miss Bingham. The nine digits must be a routing number for the financial institution. The four could be anything. A check number. A PIN.”

I said, “But why would Randolph, assuming it’s Randolph, write banking information in a book?”

Vera said, “My books.”

Karen said, “He was having memory trouble. I know what that’s like. You have to write down everything or you’ll lose it. And you might lose it anyway.”

It was starting to become clear. “How about this? He was afraid he’d forget these numbers. He couldn’t write them down and leave them where Delilah and Mason would find them. So he gave them to Karen. It was obvious he’d taken a shine to her and felt he could trust her to take care of the books.”

Karen laughed. “But not enough to tell me what was in them. I wonder how much money there was. Maybe I’m not so trustworthy after all. I did just lose my house and business.”

I said, “But you did find true love. That’s good because I think there’s a ton of money. Candy told me that Randolph was a mob accountant who skimmed a lot of cash from some dangerous people who wanted their money back and Randolph dead. So of course, he’d have known how to move that money around. Mason and Delilah must have assumed he couldn’t remember the account information. There’d be no way to get the money without it. That’s why Mason said he’d roughed up Randolph.”

“Even if Mason roughed him up, the stress would just make it harder for him to remember.”

“So we have these numbers, but no way to find out what bank they belong to.”

Vera said, “Of course you can find out. You have everything you need. The transit number is a matter of public record. That will identify the bank. With the account number and the PIN, what else would you need?”

I said, “Right. You could do it online.”

Vera said, “It shouldn’t be difficult. The important thing is that I have my Sayers books back.”

My mouth dropped open. I said, “Yeah that’s the most important thing, all right.”

She had the grace to look abashed. “And of course, I am appreciative, Miss Bingham. And Miss Smith.”

“And you’re glad we’re still alive, along with Officer Dekker and my uncles.”

“Indeed.”

It was as good as it was going to get.

And what would we do with this mob money even if we did get access to it?

Karen’s home and shop had been insured to a degree and she’d now be having a wonderful life with Lucky. I could have used the money for grad school, but it was dirty and dangerous. I didn’t want to go through the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. That potential pile of cash was a death sentence. The only shopping you’d do was for a pair of cement shoes.

• • •

KAREN’S VOICE WAS
breathless. “He called me! On my cell phone.”

“Who? Lucky?”

“Randolph!”

“What?”

“He still had my number and he called—”

“Why?”

“He wants to meet to get his books.”

“When? That could be a problem.”

“Tonight. At seven.”

“Oh boy. What did you say?”

“I said yes. But we can’t give him the books.”

“We’d never pry them out of Vera’s grasp. But he doesn’t really want the books. He wants the numbers. And we can sweeten the deal with the Hemingway so that I haven’t actually stolen the books from him. I don’t want that on my conscience anymore.”

“Even though he’s a crook himself.”

“A charming crook though and not a murderer like the people who are after him. Where?”

“The library in Ainslie, if you can believe that.”

• • •

LUCKY DROVE. WE
weren’t completely at ease with the idea of meeting Randolph, even though we knew that Candy and Mason were behind bars and had been denied bail. Randolph did still have a price on his head.

In the library, we glanced around, but saw no sign of Randolph. We were lurking in the reference stacks and just about to give up when an attractive, sporty-looking middle-aged man edged in beside us.

“Ladies, I am eternally in your debt,” he said.

Randolph’s voice, but where was the silver hair and fragile old man? Transformed, it seemed.

“Thanks to the miracle of a haircut, a box of Just for Men and a chance to detox from the wrong medication, I am a new man. If you’ll hand me the books, I’ll be away for the rest of my life.”

“We don’t have the books,” I said. “But we have what you need. You’ll find it written on the bookmark tucked in page sixty-four of
The Old Man and the Sea.
We couldn’t bring ourselves to deface the book. We’re keeping the Sayers books, but you don’t need to worry about us. We won’t go after the money.”

He stared at me and at Karen. Then a smile broke over his face. “I should have realized that two such brilliant women would figure it out. And I am prepared to offer you something for your continued discretion.”

I said, “No, thanks. We’re all right. We’ve seen what it can bring.”

Karen nodded vigorously.

He said, “Thank you. They’ll be after me with or without the money, so . . .”

“You may as well have it. But there’s something I need to know. What about Delilah?”

“Ah, my dear Delilah. She has a history of such bad decisions.”

Karen and I exchanged alarmed glances. We hadn’t liked Delilah much, but that didn’t mean we wished her dead.

Randolph seemed oblivious. “I think all that’s all out of her system now. Mason really manipulated her. But we’ve worked through it.” He turned to gaze at a woman seated fidgeting with a magazine at one of the reference tables. She had giant Jackie O glasses. She ran her fingers through her hair, smoothing her short, blond bob. Her slender, elegant figure was impossible to mistake. I hoped she’d find a better disguise in the future. Now that Randolph didn’t have to hide his stash from Mason.

They might have been slightly left of the law, but Karen and I hoped they’d make a life somewhere safe. Karen, Lucky and I would keep this meeting our little secret.

• • •

“YES, IT SEEMS
that Mr. Kelly was able to sniff out some rare flowering shrubs that were native to this area. And would have been part of the original garden plan when my father built our home. I daresay he is having more success in one day than you have had had in the past month, Jordan.”

I guess risking my life repatriating her collection didn’t count for much. But that’s Vera for you.