His eyes danced as he spoke; this was a man who enjoyed his work. She felt flashes of that sometimes at the pawnshop, like the day she was unpacking boxes from an estate sale and came upon a pile of old letters. Uncle Donny said to just toss them in the bin, but she’d saved them for when the shop was slow and read through each one, imagining what the letter writers might have looked like, where they might have lived, who they had loved.
“Intriguing,” she said. “What have you found so far?”
“Lots of things, including a series of correspondence between Henry Clay Frick’s children, Childs and Helen.”
“How do they feel about the discovery?”
“Childs died last year. I’m not sure if Helen Frick, or ‘Miss Helen,’ as she’s referred to by the staff, knows. I’m guessing that’s why they have me down in the basement, working in secret. She’s difficult, you see.”
“How old is she?”
“Almost eighty, I believe.”
“It would be hard, I suppose, to have your home ripped away from you and opened up to the public as a museum. Tossed out into the streets.”
“She moved to a six-hundred-acre farm upstate, so I wouldn’t say she was tossed into the streets. As for being difficult, well, she has strong feelings against certain types of people.”
Veronica paused, trying to figure out what he meant. “You mean she’s racist?”
He laughed. “Not quite. She hates Germans. For years, she wouldn’t let anyone with a German surname work for her in any capacity, or even enter the art reference library she runs next door. Refused to have German-made equipment on her farm. Something to do with World War I, apparently.”
“She sounds beastly.”
“I don’t think she cares what people think.”
“What’s your last name?” Veronica asked.
“Lawrence. So I’m safe from her wrath. And yours?”
She swallowed. “Weber.”
“Dear God, girl. That won’t do at all. I have to say, the reversal is refreshing.” In the firelight, his face looked almost smug. “This must be what it’s like to be white.”
She suppressed her laughter, not sure if it was appropriate or not.
“That was meant to be funny.”
“Sorry. I thought it was. But then I thought I oughtn’t think that.”
“Oughtn’t? Now, that’s a ridiculous contraction. Very British.”
He was taking the piss. “Why is it ridiculous?”
“I don’t know. Very fancy, upper-crust.”
That was rich, coming from a man with university education and a posh internship. “Not what a model would say?”
“No, I didn’t mean that.”
The fire emitted a large snap, a welcome interruption. Joshua got up and used one of the irons to maneuver the logs around.
Veronica hadn’t meant to sound so harsh. The conversation had gotten away from her, and she reminded herself of why she’d brought up his work in the first place. “If you like, you can catch up on whatever you need to do today. Why waste the time if you’re here anyway, right?”
He looked over at her, wary. “Are you sure?”
“Sure. I’ll be fine. Off you go.”
She waited five minutes after he left before heading to the adjacent library and opening up the book with the clue inside. It lay exactly where she’d left it.
I’m fifty-two
Feeling quite blue
Although I look like a king
I’ve got absolutely nothing
to my name.
Whereas the previous clue had triggered a memory of the painting it referred to, this one drew a blank. The trail was going to be much harder to follow than Veronica had expected, she realized with a thud of disappointment.
Just then, she heard Joshua coming up the back stairs. That was fast. She slammed the book shut with the clue still inside, shoved it back on the shelf, and raced to the couch in front of the living hall fireplace just as Joshua entered carrying two Danishes. “I came upon these in the back of the fridge. It’s not much, but it’ll keep us going.”
There was no way Veronica was going to be able to solve the mystery of the magnolia treasure, even with the extra day of searching. Not with Joshua checking in on her every five minutes, and also because she simply didn’t know where else to look. The house was enormous. If she was going to figure this out, she’d need his help.
If there was a reward, it would certainly be worth the risk. And by working with Joshua, she couldn’t be accused of theft or meddling.