He stumbled to his feet. He felt like his eyes were full of sand. “Okay. I’ll catch a few hours.”
Sinead’s green eyes were steady on his. “I never knew how much you cared about her until now.”
He nodded. “Me, neither. I’ll do anything for her.”
Sinead nodded. “Me, too,” she said softly.
Basel, Switzerland
Dan woke in a panic, forgetting where he was. He lay for a long moment taking in the room, the flowered duvet on the twin bed, the flowered wallpaper, the flower painting on the wall, the vase of roses… .
Gartenhaus. The small inn on a side street in downtown Basel. Mr. McIntyre – Mac – had left them here last night, urging them to get some sleep. He had to head off to see a client in Rome.
Dan glanced at his sister, curled up like a comma in the other bed. A perfect time to grab a shower before Amy monopolized the bathroom.
He stood under the spray. Despite its warmth, he still felt chilled. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Nellie’s face, white with pain.
No more deaths, he thought. If I have to live through one more death, I’ll fall apart.
He knew what he had to do. Change the odds.
When he emerged, he gave the smell test to a T-shirt in his pack and pulled it on, along with his jeans.
He heard a groan from the other room and stuck his head out the door.
“I’m so hungry,” Amy said sleepily.
“Hey, you stole my line,” Dan said.
There was a soft knock at the door. They both tensed.
“Breakfast,” the landlady called softly.
Amy opened the door and Frau Stein bustled in, carrying a tray laden with rolls, cheese, sausages, eggs, jam, a pot of coffee, and a pitcher of hot chocolate.
“I heard the stirring. I don’t know what you like, so I brought everything,” she said.
Dan took the tray. It smelled like paradise on a plate. “Thank you a bazillion times.”
“I don’t know this bazillion, but you are welcome.” She smiled and walked out.
Amy and Dan attacked the food. In mere minutes, the plates were clean and they were sitting, stuffed, with cups of hot chocolate. The food and sleep had helped. They were raring to go. But where?
“We’ve only got three days left,” Amy said.
“And counting.”
Amy spread out the paper she’d taken from the auction house. She ran her fingers over the names. “A professor, a socialite, an art dealer, a guy with a private library. Just what you’d expect. And they all have money. So why would one of them steal it?”
“And why would it stay hidden?” Dan asked. “It’s been eighty years. Why hasn’t someone found it? Why hasn’t someone tried to sell it? It doesn’t make sense.”
Amy frowned. “Attleboro has probably researched these names already.” She reached for the computer. In a moment they saw Evan’s concerned face. Sinead was right at his shoulder.
“McIntyre told us that he brought you to a safe house,” Evan said. “I’m glad you got to crash. We have some background information. Are you ready?”
“Ready,” Amy said.
“Let’s see … Marcel Maubert and Reginald Tawnley both died during the war. But this is interesting – the German professor with all the dough? He became a big guy in the Nazi party. He killed himself – or maybe someone killed him – after the Allies took Berlin in 1945. And Jane Sperling – she was a socialite – her father was Max Sperling, who had a chain of department stores in the Midwest. She was also a medieval scholar – studied at the University of Chicago and then went to Germany. We’re betting that she knew Hummel, because she studied in Heidelberg at the university there.”
“Heidelberg,” Amy said. “Wasn’t that where the family who owned the de Virga was from?”
“That’s right. Interesting coincidence, isn’t it?”
“What happened to Jane Sperling?”
“She moved to London. During the war she worked for the War Department as a secretary. Later, after the war, she married a GI in Maine. Led a quiet life.”
“So there’s not much there,” Dan said.
“We’ll turn up something,” Sinead said. “We just have to keep digging.”
“Have we heard anything from Vesper One?” Dan asked.
“Nothing,” Evan said. “As far as we know everyone is still okay.”
They were silent for a moment. Remembering faces. Remembering how far Vesper One was willing to go.
“Well,” Amy said. “Let’s get moving.”
Dan hung up the phone. Amy bent over the paper, her finger moving back and forth over the names.
She looked up at him. “We’re on the wrong track.”
“I didn’t know we had a track.”
“We keep focusing on the map itself. We should be thinking about the world around the map. What was going on in Europe at the time? What did all those names have in common?”
“They were all rich,” Dan said.
“The war,” Amy said. “It was 1932. World War Two was still years away. But the world was gearing up for it. The Nazis were coming to power in Germany.”
She accessed a search engine on the computer. Dan looked over her shoulder. “What are you looking for?”
“No idea,” she murmured. “But sometimes you have to go fishing.”
He saw her type in Jane Sperling, then start to scroll through material. “Interesting,” she said. “Jane Sperling was Jewish. Did she know her teacher was a Nazi? Hang on.” She tapped a few more words into the computer and then turned back to Dan. “Just what I thought. The Nazis took over the government in 1933. Jewish students were pressured to leave universities as early as 1932. Eventually, the Nazis expelled Jewish students from every university in Germany.”