Alex pocketed the money, then removed the glasses and the empty bourbon bottle from his desk, stowing them back in the drawer where he’d gotten them. He then rose and moved to the filing cabinet in the corner. Opening the top drawer, Alex took out a rolled map of New York and a cigar box.
“What are you doing?” Hannah asked.
Alex put the map down on the desk.
“This is how I’m going to find Leroy,” he said.
Unrolling the map, Alex placed the cigar box on it to keep it from rolling back up. Opening the box, Alex took four small figurines from inside; a wolf, a jaguar, a rhino, and a horse. Each figure was about the same size, rendered in dark green Alaskan jade, with a rectangular base.
“What are those for?” Hannah asked, her fear for her husband momentarily forgotten.
Alex picked up the wolf and smiled an enigmatic smile. He rolled the map out to its full size and placed the figurine on the corner.
“Weight,” he said.
Hannah couldn’t help herself and snickered while Alex placed the other four figures on the other corners of the map.
With the map fully open, Alex took a battered, brass compass out of the cigar box, then set the box aside. The box also contained chalk, candles, and special powders that he could use to draw a stabilizing symbol around the map that would make the Finding rune work better. Here in his office, however, he didn’t need them. Alex had a permanent stabilizing rune cut into the wood floor under the room’s faded red rug.
He took out his rune book and tore out one of his two remaining finding runes. The rune had an octagon as its base, with diamond shapes at each corner, and a symbol in the center that looked a bit like a dragon reclining on a chaise longue. Carefully, Alex folded the paper into quarters and then placed it atop the brass compass. He put the compass in the center of the map with the silver wedding ring on top of the rune paper.
“We’re ready,” Alex said, shifting his gaze to Hannah. “I’m going to activate the rune and the compass will be linked to your husband.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I can use the compass to find him,” Alex said. He removed the metal match in the touch-tip lighter on his desk and pressed it down on the sparker. The match caught and flared to life.
“Now, I need you to think about your husband,” Alex said, bringing the burning match close to the rune paper. He closed his eyes for a second and mentally reviewed everything she had told him about Leroy Cunningham, architecture student from Coaldale, West Virginia. Opening his eyes, he lit the flash paper and it vanished in a puff of smoke and fire. A sound like a miniature gunshot erupted from the space where the paper had been, and the silver ring was sent rolling across the map. Alex had been expecting this, and he intercepted the ring before it could roll off the table, dropping it into his pocket.
In the space above the compass, an orange copy of the finding rune appeared, spinning in the air over the compass. As Alex and Hannah watched, the needle on the compass began to spin in parity with the rune. As the needle came up to speed, the rune began to slow down until their speeds matched, then rune and needle slowed to a stop.
“That way,” Alex said, following the direction indicated by the north end of the compass needle. The indicated direction moved away from the compass toward the east side of Manhattan.
“So, Leroy is somewhere along that line?” Hannah gasped.
Alex slid the compass along the map in the direction of the needle. He didn’t lift it up; that would break its connection to the map. Eventually, the needle began to spin in lazy circles. Alex pulled the compass back to see what was directly beneath it. The spot was near the east side docks. At this scale, it was hard to tell exactly but it looked like a small, private marina.
Alex knew the place. Rich folks kept their boats there. It didn’t seem like the kind of place to keep a kidnap victim, but he’d ask them about it when he found Leroy.
“Is he there?” Hannah Cunningham asked, fresh tears blossoming in her eyes.
“Yes,” Alex said.
Hannah leapt to her feet.
“Then let’s go,” she said. “Hurry.”
“Easy,” Alex said, motioning her back into her chair. “Would Leroy leave and not tell you where he was going?”
“N-no,” she stammered, not understanding Alex’s hesitation. “But, we need to—”
“You need to go home,” Alex said in a firm voice. “If Leroy didn’t go there on his own, someone took him. Whoever did that is likely to be dangerous. I’m going to go over there right now and check it out. If I can get Leroy out safely, I’ll do it.”
“What if you can’t?” Hannah asked, fear rising in her voice.
“If I can’t,” Alex said, coming around the desk to put a comforting hand on her shoulder, “then I’ll call the police and they’ll go in and get him. Either way, I’m not going to put you in harm’s way.”
He didn’t say that having an emotionally involved spouse on the site of a rescue was likely to get him and Leroy killed. He hoped he didn’t have to explain that.
“What if he’s not there?” she asked.
Alex picked up the compass and its connection to the map vanished with a small pop. The needle swung around and pointed off to the east.
“The needle is linked to your husband,” Alex said. “If he moves, I can follow. Now go home and wait. I’ll call you as soon as I know anything. Okay?”
Hannah hesitated for a long moment, then she nodded.
“Thank you, Mr. Lockerby,” she said, rising. “Please bring my Leroy back.”
Alex promised that he would, and Hannah left.
“She seemed happier,” Leslie said, entering the office once Hannah was gone. “I take it you found her husband.”
Alex grinned at her.
“Best finding rune in the city, remember?”
“Did she pay you?” Leslie said, trepidation in her voice. This was clearly the reason she’d come in and Alex didn’t blame her a bit.
He pulled the bills from his pocket and handed the singles over, then presented the fiver to Leslie.
“As promised,” he said.
She started to turn away, but he stopped her and picked up two of the ones.
“Cab fare,” he explained.
“Take a crawler,” Leslie said, reaching for the money, but Alex put it in his pocket.
“I think I might need to hurry this time,” he said, rolling up the map.
“Why?” Leslie asked. “You know where the husband is, right?”
Alex nodded as he returned the figurines to the cigar box, and put it and the map back into the filing cabinet.
“Something just doesn’t add up about this,” he said. “The husband has no money, nothing they could use to ransom him.”
“You’re worried the kidnappers will figure that out and kill him,” Leslie finished. “What are you going to do when you find him?”
Alex opened the second drawer down in the filing cabinet and withdrew his Colt 1911 in its holster, slipping it over his shoulder.
“I’ll convince whoever took him that Leroy Cunningham isn’t worth keeping,” he said.
5
The Leak
A little over half an hour later, Alex got out of a cab in front of a quiet little boatyard on the eastern edge of Manhattan. A wooden sign hung, suspended over the entrance with the words, Sunrise Marina, painted on it in gold letters. Beyond the entrance, a short paved road ran down to a small wooden building beside a concrete boat ramp.
A long wooden dock stretched out over the water from the far side of the building. From there, other docks branched off the main one to either side. Boats of every description, from tall sailboats, to boxy cabin cruisers, and even the occasional sleek speed boat bobbed in neatly arranged slips. At this time of the year many of the slips were empty, their owners having taken their boats out on the water.