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“Be quiet.” She was smiling. “You’re lucky I’m too happy about finding these Fiona treasures to properly put you in your place. Now let’s go through the rest of this library and see if we can find anything else.”
“I doubt if we will. She put two of her treasures in one single book. She probably wanted to be able to grab and run if she had to.”
“Maybe. But we’ll try anyway.” She opened another book. “Hurry, I want to finish before dark. Get to work, Rodland.”
***
They finished going through the library before twilight, and Rodland was annoyingly correct about the search being a waste of time. Then they had to carefully, separately wrap the letter and the novel and replace them in the original book. Rodland found a burlap sack in the kitchen, and they wrapped the Oystermouth train book itself and slipped it into the sack. Rodland bowed and ceremoniously handed Jane the sack. “Not a very elegant clue. But may it be the first of many. At least it’s a decent start.”
“Actually, I’ve been thinking about it, and that dime novel might be very elegant in its way,” she said slowly. “The reason my art teacher had us study them was that she said they were as important in their way as a work by Shakespeare.”
“Cowboy Bob?”
“It didn’t matter about the content. They were stories, and because they were cheap, they were available to everyone. Books were no longer only for the rich. Everyone wanted them. Not only for the stories, but for the colorful illustrations. It opened the world to artists as well as writers.” She shook her head. “Who would have guessed it?”
“Not me. But it’s interesting. Evidently Fiona thought so, too. I wonder why?”
“We’ll find out.” Jane tucked the sack carefully in her art case and fastened it. “But you’ll have a good deal of work to give us a picture of MacClaren and his relationship with Fiona.”
“I’ve already got the groundwork done on MacClaren. I just have to complete the connections.”
“You could have told me. I can’t see why the connections would—” Jane’s phone was ringing and she pulled it out of her jacket.
“MacDuff?” Rodland asked. “It’s getting dark, but I didn’t think he’d be nagging so soon.”
“No. Not MacDuff.” And it wasn’t Caleb, either. She was puzzled as she checked the ID. “Wilma Dillard. It’s my agent Felicia’s mother. This shouldn’t take long.” She punched the access. “Hello, Wilma. It’s nice to hear from you. Are you trying to reach Felicia? I’m afraid I can’t help you. I’m not in London.”
“I know you aren’t.” Wilma Dillard’s voice was shaking a little. “She told me when you left town. I’m sorry to bother you, Jane. I just didn’t know what else to do. I don’t know where she is.”
Jane stiffened. “Something’s wrong? What are you talking about? The two of you are so close. You must know where she is.”
“I thought you might have an idea. The last I heard from her was a few days ago. We’d made plans to go out to dinner and then she was going to take me to a concert. I talked to her that morning and she told me she’d pick me up at seven.” She paused. “She didn’t show up. I called her, but her phone was turned off. At first, I thought it was just an electronic glitch. I don’t know anything about those things.” She was breathing hard. “So I called the gallery and asked her assistant, Penny, if she knew what had happened. Penny said she’d left with a well-dressed man around noon. She’d thought maybe she’d gone out to lunch. But she didn’t come back even though she had an appointment for two with a client. When she couldn’t reach her by phone, Penny had to take over the appointment.”
“Weird,” Jane said. “No one is more reliable than Felicia.”
“Do you think I don’t know that? She was a little crazy as a teenager, but once she found her way, no one was steadier. When you hired her to be your agent, she loved every minute of working with you. I was so proud of her. And she…loved me. She would never have stood me up without calling.” Her voice broke. “And she’s been gone for four days. I’m scared to death, Jane. Sometimes bad things happen out there.”
No one knew that better than Jane. But she didn’t want to panic Wilma. “It might be okay. Felicia didn’t tell me if she was planning on visiting any of her other clients living out of the city. But we don’t have an exclusive contract. Why don’t you ask Penny to call them and—”
“I already did that,” Wilma interrupted. “No one has spoken to her. I even called the hospitals. And yesterday I couldn’t take it any longer and I phoned the police. They weren’t worried, they thought she might have gone away on a long weekend with a boyfriend. I tried to tell them she was between boyfriends right now.” She added bitterly, “I’m only a mother, what do I know? But they did one thing right, they got the gallery to give them the video camera photos of Felicia and the man she was with that day. The police said they’d check him out. I didn’t recognize him.”
“You probably wouldn’t if he was a client.”
“And what if he wasn’t? I’ve got a bad feeling.” Her voice was full of pain. “I don’t knowanything. You’re my last hope. She said you and Seth Caleb know people with MI6 and Scotland Yard. They’d pay more attention to her being missing, wouldn’t they?Please, don’t pat me on the head and send me away. You cared about Felicia, too.”
Past tense. A shiver ran through Jane. “I do care about her. She’s my good friend. Look, send me the photo. I’ll see what I can do.” Her hand tightened on the phone. “I’ll get back to you as soon as I can, Wilma. Look, don’t stay there alone. Go visit Penny, or Felicia told me you have neighbors you spend a lot of time with. This doesn’t have to be bad. Try not to worry.” Lord, that sounded lame. “I won’t stop until I have an answer.”
“Thank you, Jane.” Wilma was openly sobbing now. “I’m desperate. All I can do is pray. Like I said, I’m sorry I had to bother you.”
“It’s no bother, you’re both my friends. I want to do this. Bye, Wilma.” She cut the connection.
“Shit,” she whispered.
“Trouble?” Rodland asked. “I heard a bit of it. How can I help?”
“My agent, Felicia, disappeared four days ago and her mother is going crazy. Her phone was disconnected. She no-showed a business appointment, and she wouldn’t have done that. Wilma notified the police but they’re not taking it seriously yet.” She heard a ping. “That should be the photo of the man she was seen with at the gallery.” She pulled up the photo. “Sleek, well dressed, not a very good shot of his face.”
“May I?” He took her phone. “He’s probably trying to avoid the cameras. He didn’t do a very good job. There may be a way we can make it clearer.” He typed in a number on her keypad and pressedTRANSMIT. “It shouldn’t take long.” He handed the phone back to her. “This really scared you. Why?”
