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Pro looked up at the eighteen-story Beaux-Art style structure with its striking architectural features and round turrets on the corners that faced Broadway.
“This is the Ansonia,” Pro said.
“I guess. What of it?” Chu asked.
“I’ve just always admired the architecture. I used to walk by the building. It always seemed like a fairy castle that got plopped in the Upper West Side.”
“Well, our magic store is inside somewhere on the first floor,” Chu said as he headed for a nearby elaborate door with a green awning that stated: The Ansonia.
They stepped into a hallway, the floors done in elaborate black and white marble tile. At the entrance was black veined marble on both walls with lighting sconces in the shape of elaborate seashells. As they moved in, among the white woodwork and wainscoting were doorways for businesses on each side of the hall. Each door had a small, tasteful sign, and since it was the same for each door, it was apparently a requirement that you buy signs from a specific vendor.
As the pair continued toward the main lobby, a brightly lit area in the center, they passed a door on their left which read, “Ansonia Realty.”
“Hold on,” Chu said and tried the doorknob, which turned and allowed them into a tiny waiting room, which held only a small desk with a smiling salesperson and two chairs opposite. She was a blonde woman, not young, perhaps forty-five or fifty. She wore a black turtleneck and a white sports coat. Gold earrings hung from her ears, and she had a pair of horn-rimmed glasses on the desk, where it looked like she put them when the door opened.
“How can I help you?” the blonde asked in an attempt to sound perky. “Interested in looking at a condo today?”
Both detectives opened their billfolds in one practiced move.
“NYPD,” Chu said, his voice suddenly deeper. “We want to know where the Lovell Magic Shop is located.”
“Oh dear, is Mister Lovell in any kind of trouble?”
Pro cleared her throat. “We just need to ask him some questions.”
She didn’t rise from behind her desk. “Oh, okay. Well, you just go through the main lobby and straight down the hallway opposite and it’s there.”
“Thank you,” Chu said. “By the way, have there been any complaints about Mister Lovell, or anything we should know about?”
“Oh no, he’s a very good tenant.” The blonde’s big smile returned. “He’s really interested in the history of the building.”
“How do you mean?” Pro inquired.
“Well, he’s always asking to look at the blueprints. He says he loves to tell people about the past, with scandals and the good stuff, too! We had some people interested in condos after talking to him.”
“Really?” Pro said. “You keep copies of the blueprints here?”
“Sure, in our files. We have copies of the original blueprints from 1899—those are really old. Then we have blueprints of all the units during the renovations. Those come in handy when people want to see the unit they’re interested in. Mister Lovell looks at both sets, because he wants to find the apartment Babe Ruth lived in.”
“So you like Mister Lovell?” Pro pushed.
“Sure, every time he comes here, he shows me a magic trick. He’s really good!”
“Thank you for your time, Miss—”
“Edmonds, Cathy Edmonds,” the woman said, and picked up a small piece of cardboard off her desk and rose to hand it to Pro. “Here’s my card, in case you’re ever interested in a condo…”
Pro smiled. “Probably out of my price range.”
“We rent some apartments as well. There’s nothing like living in a piece of New York history!”
Chu and Pro both smiled and waved as they went back into the hall. They continued their journey, and in a few hundred feet, they were suddenly in the elaborate open lobby. The floor tiles shifted to tan and black, and the ceiling rose up several stories. There was a large carpet over a center space, and a huge chandelier provided illumination. The sitting area had two back-to-back sofas, a pair of coffee tables, and leather wingback chairs on each of the carpet’s four corners.
“Not bad,” Chu said looking at the white woodwork and the faux windows, which were filled with multiple panes of cut glass in addition to elaborate curved tops on each one.
They continued down a hall across from where they had entered, which also had doors on both sides. The tile on the floor shifted back to black and white marble, and halfway to the exit, a door on the left caught Pro’s eye.
“Here we go,” Pro said, pointing at the sign for “Lovell’s Magic.”
