Unhallowed (Rath and Rune #1) - Jordan L. Hawk Page 0,27
the day Kelly departed.”
A sympathetic look crossed Ves’s face. “So you believe he did steal the Flamsteed, intending to take advantage of the mania for the comet to get an inflated price?”
“I don’t know. I never would have believed it, but…maybe I’ve just been fooling myself this entire time.”
“Possibly. It would explain why he didn’t ask for references—if Mr. Quinn knew where he was looking for employment, it would be easy to chase him down after the theft was eventually discovered.” Ves chewed on his lower lip, then seemed to come to a decision. “Why don’t we return to his apartment building and talk to the landlady. See if we can get our hands on his mail.”
“If she’s even there.”
“If she isn’t, we’ll break in.”
Sebastian blinked in shock. “Break into her apartment? But—that’s illegal!”
“I’m quite aware.” Ves shrugged uncomfortably. “I thought, with your mania for puzzles, you might have branched out into lock picking. And it isn’t as though we mean to steal anything from her, except for letters that belong to O’Neil in the first place.”
“I did play with locks as a child, though it’s been a while,” Sebastian admitted. He wasn’t at all certain this was the right thing to do…but they’d run out of any other options. Either he followed this last final path hoping for a clue, or he decided Kelly was a thief and gave up trying to figure out what door the key might open.
“All right,” he said. “This afternoon, do you think?”
“Too many people going in and out on a Saturday afternoon,” Ves pointed out. “I’d say early tomorrow, when people are at church. Unless you’d prefer to go to church yourself.”
“Bonnie goes, but my attendance is haphazard at best. I think you have the right idea. Meet me in front of the museum tomorrow morning?” He held out his hand.
Ves shook it. “I’ll see you then.”
Neither of them pulled their hands back. “Thank you,” Sebastian said, tightening his grip slightly. “Truly. You don’t owe me anything, and yet you’ve helped me every step of the way.”
The color rose in Ves’s cheeks. “I’m as curious as you to discover what happened to my predecessor.”
“Then I am grateful for your curiosity.” Sebastian reluctantly let go. “I’ll see you first thing tomorrow.”
Ves lingered in the bindery after working hours, with the excuse of needing to catch up on the work that had been neglected while there was no one to do it. Which was true as far as it went, but his actual intentions were far less scrupulous.
The more he got to know Sebastian, the worse he felt about his plan to betray the library to Fagerlie. But it wasn’t as though he and Noct were going to get another chance. The museum was surely insured against theft, and Sebastian would get over his disappointment eventually.
It was already Saturday, and the comet would pass between the earth and the sun late Wednesday. He’d spent every spare moment he could find working on his map, but his involvement with Sebastian had cut into his time. Still, he could make significant progress today, especially if he remained until after nightfall.
Once everyone else was gone, Ves quietly entered the stacks, armed with his paper and pencil, and began to draw again. The doors to the bat room stood open, though the sun was still high enough to keep them somnolent.
As he sketched the maze, he slowly penetrated deeper into the heart of the library. The rooms made little more sense laid out on paper than they did when walking through them, but he could tell they wrapped around some central column. No doubt it supported part of the museum roof, though he didn’t honestly know enough about architecture to be certain.
The hours passed by, the silence at first broken only by the rustle of his clothing and the scratch of his pencil. The light coming through the random shafts faded, and a dark shape flitted past.
Ves paused and looked up. The bats had emerged from their slumber, and they swooped and dove, an occasional chitter reaching him just on the edge of hearing. As he watched them, something in him uncoiled. This was the closest he’d gotten to nature of any sort in so long; even in this artificial setting the tiny beasts were a balm to his heart. Perhaps having bats in the library wasn’t as insane an idea as he’d thought.
He went about his work, and the bats went about theirs. The dinner hour came and