“So true,” Pete agreed. “Both for the library’s sake and for mine.”
“Was he helping you curate a set?” Nell asked.
“The final touches on a personal collection,” Pete replied. “Dr. Young could track a map down like no one I’ve ever seen.”
“A veritable hound after a fox,” Julian proclaimed, which drew yet another toast.
“If only he was interested in the General Drafting hunt,” Wolff said.
“Not this again,” Claire sighed, bored.
Wolff, Pete, and Julian chuckled, but Nell felt her stomach drop through the floor.
How did people like this, people who had drivers and butlers and spent their weekdays at ski resorts and their weekends at operas and art galas, know about a map like that?
“The what?” Nozomi asked, looking baffled.
“Oh, it’s just a little hunt for an old highway road map of New York State that some of the board members play in their spare time. A silly story,” Pete said to Nozomi.
Nell managed a smile. “A good one though?” she asked.
“Depends on who you ask,” Julian replied. “I find it entertaining, although some of the other collectors take it too seriously. My friend Olivia especially, but she’s always been competitive.”
“It’s such nonsense.” Claire took a long drink. “This secret game.”
“Claire refuses to play,” Wolff said to Nell, winking. “She finds the whole thing embarrassing.”
“It is embarrassing. No one with a shred of respect for their reputation has ever even heard of it, besides the two of them and some of their drinking buddies,” Claire replied.
“That’s not true,” Julian said. “You can find other amateur collectors who are after it online. There’s definitely a bit of a cult following. Small, but fervent.”
“‘Cult following,’” Claire repeated, with mock horror. “There are far better maps to spend one’s money on.”
“Like?”
“Literally any other American map from the same era!” she cried. “In the early 1900s, Rand McNally was still producing beautiful collector’s atlases and giant murals, before the whole industry became obsessed with convenience and affordability.”
“Blame that on the automobile,” Nozomi replied. “The Model T was invented then, wasn’t it? Suddenly, everyone could travel much farther than ever before in a single day. They would have needed a new kind of map for that.”
“That was exactly General Drafting’s business plan,” Pete said, pleased at the chance to show off. “They didn’t have the resources the bigger companies did, but they knew that lugging an expensive tabletop atlas everywhere wasn’t going to satisfy drivers. They were the ones who invented the concept of the cheap, folding driving maps we all used for decades. I still even have some in my glove compartment, even though we all just use our phones now.” He smirked at Wolff. “Don’t worry, I don’t have the General Drafting edition in question in there. I looked.”
“Good to know,” Wolff replied. “Now I won’t have to break in to your car to check.”
They laughed, but there was a mercenary undercurrent to the joke that made Nell shiver. She glanced around the circle nervously as they all toasted again. Now, everyone looked a lot less friendly. And a lot more suspicious.
Suddenly, Nell realized that Francis was no longer standing with their group. He’d disappeared as soon as the gas station map had come up.
“This sounds like an intense game,” she finally said.