“It’s important. There’s a little girl missing and we think she might be inside.”
She’d explained this to the police at Lonnie’s, but they’d seemed confused, asking her repeatedly what “antique books” had to do with the case, and finally she and Lonnie had thrown up their hands and taken off, telling LuAnn to call the Berg Collection if they got any news.
“I’m sorry.” The guard shook his head.
“It’s okay, they’re with me.”
Sadie turned to see Nick struggling out of the revolving door, heading straight toward them.
“Nick, my niece is missing, I think she’s inside the library.”
“Right. I got your message.” His eyes were wary. He probably thought she was a madwoman, trying to worm her way back into the library to steal more books. She didn’t care—Valentina came first—but she had to pull herself together if she wanted to get inside.
“This is my brother, Lonnie. I think my family was somehow involved in the thefts, but not directly. I found the page from the folio in my niece’s bedroom, hidden in a game.”
His face hardened. She was explaining this all wrong. “You found the missing folio page?” He looked over at Lonnie. “In your brother’s home?”
“Yes. But he didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Your niece stole the page? I thought she was like seven or something.”
“She’s six. And no, she didn’t steal anything. I think her babysitter did.” She looked at Lonnie, who didn’t nod his head or affirm her statement, still unwilling to admit she was right. Sadie supposed that doing so meant that he’d put his daughter in harm’s way, and it was easier to imagine some other person forced them to leave. Either way, the girl was gone. Panic rose up in Sadie’s throat—she thought she might be sick.
“The babysitter?”
“Yes. Please, Nick, she may have brought her inside, to find the Tamerlane. I think they’re still in here. She’s only six, and probably terrified. Can you at least alert the staff, tell them to be on the lookout?”
“All right. Let’s go.”
She almost collapsed from relief. With Nick on board, they had a chance.
He grabbed a walkie-talkie from the information desk. “What do they look like?” Lonnie provided descriptions of Valentina and Robin, and Nick relayed them over the radio, with instructions to begin searching for the duo.
“Does the babysitter know the library well?” he asked.
“Not that I’m aware of. But I think I know where they might have headed. I went to London to see the executor of my grandmother’s estate, to find out if there were any links between that earlier robbery and ours. She said that Laura Lyons once alluded to the Tamerlane, and hinted that she knew where it was.”
“Where is that?”
“She said, ‘Where it should be, yet where it should not.’ Like a riddle. I’m guessing in the old apartment where they lived when my grandfather was superintendent.”
“And how does that connect with your niece’s babysitter?”
“I told Lonnie about it over the phone yesterday, and I think Robin may have been listening in. In fact, looking back, the thefts track with what I mentioned to Lonnie over the phone, about whatever I was working on for the exhibit.”
“So you think this woman rushed here to beat you to it?” He still didn’t quite believe her, she could tell.
“Yes. According to a doorman down the street who spotted them, they left with enough time to get into the library right before closing. It’s not yet open to the public, so I’m hoping maybe they’re still in here.”
“Show me.”
She led them to the mezzanine level, where the old apartment used to be. When Sadie had first seen it, it had reminded her of that one closet in every house that was jammed with random detritus. But this morning, it looked far worse than usual, the boxes’ contents spilled out, covering the floors.
Sadie turned to Lonnie and Nick. “Robin was here, looking for the Tamerlane.”
They waded their way through the litter of paper, checking each room. The farthest one, at the end of the hall, was locked. Sadie banged on the door, called out for Valentina. No answer.
Nick called on the walkie-talkie for someone to bring a key.
“Do you think Robin found the book?” asked Lonnie.
“It’s hard to tell,” said Sadie.
He let out a soft moan. “Please God, let Valentina be okay. This place is huge, they could be anywhere.”
“Don’t worry,” said Sadie. “We’ll find them. I want to go to the Art and Architecture Room to look at the floor plan I requested last week. It might give us a sense of how Robin has been getting around the library or where she might be hiding.”
“I’ll stay here and wait for the key, and keep on looking,” said Nick.
In the Art and Architecture Room, the clerk handed over the old floor plans. Sadie rolled them out on the nearest table, Lonnie peering over her shoulder.
“You can see the mezzanine area clearly here.” She pointed to the location of the apartment. “These were the bedrooms, this was the kitchen and living area.”
“What’s that?” Lonnie pointed to a small square marked with an X located inside one of the columns.
Sadie scanned the page, counting almost a dozen similar markings scattered through the library. Including in the center section of the Reading Room.
“It’s a dumbwaiter. They’re dumbwaiters. Here’s the one that runs between the Reading Room and the stacks. There’s another here, and here. That’s it. That’s how Robin’s been scurrying around without being detected.” She remembered the way the thief disappeared into thin air, after Sadie had chased her to the third floor. Sure enough, there on the plans was another X, this time in the women’s restroom, which originally had been a study room. “It’s like a vertical maze.”
“Robin’s tiny enough to fit, I suppose,” said Lonnie. “Do you think they’re hiding out in the dumbwaiter?” His expression turned to horror. “That that’s where Valentina is?”
Sadie suppressed a shiver. “I hope not. I didn’t see anything like that in the old apartment. It would have been right where we were standing.”
Nick was still waiting for the key when they returned, and hadn’t found the book, either. Sadie filled him in on what they’d discovered and marked the spot, a few feet from the top of the stairs, where the dumbwaiter should have been. A clean wall presented itself, with no sign of an open shaft.
Nick began knocking on the wall, and the sound changed from solid at the edges to hollow in the middle. “There’s definitely an opening here.”
Sadie searched the room where the janitors’ supplies were kept and found a rusty old toolbox. Nestled inside was a hammer, which she handed to Nick.
He swung at the column, not too hard, but enough to crack through the plaster. It crumbled easily, and together they pulled it off, eventually revealing a paneled door. Lonnie joined in, pulling off the chunks of wall, and soon they had enough of an opening to view the entire dumbwaiter.
The dark wood was smooth and pristine, kept safe from exposure behind the false front, clasped shut with a metal latch. Nick clicked the latch and opened the door. Inside, the interior shaft was dark, ominous, and filthy. The dumbwaiter car wasn’t lined up with the opening, the bottom edge resting a few inches below the top of the doorframe. Nick leaned in, looking down.
“Valentina?” he called out.
The sound echoed back up at them.
Lonnie looked like he was about to be sick.
There was no answer. Nothing.
“See if you can lower the dumbwaiter car so it’s even,” said Sadie.
Nick reached up and tried to pull it down with his hands, but no luck. He grasped one of the two lines of rope that ran down one side of the shaft, and the shelf slowly creaked down.
In the very middle of the car sat a wooden box.