hour later, it all became clear to him. The Great Cygne was now trapped in his own device.
As dawn sought the horizon over the Delaware River, as Philadelphia stirred and stretched and rose, Joseph Swann ascended the stairs. It was nearing 6:00 AM, and the greatest of the Seven Wonders.
NINETY-SIX
5:45 AM
When the mirror turned fully, and a pair of wall sconces blazed to life, Jessica took a few cautious steps forward, her weapon lowered. She came face-to-face with the young woman whose image she had seen in the mirror.
'You're going to be all right,' Jessica said. 'I'm a police officer. I'm here to help you.'
'I understand.'
'What's your name?'
The girl stepped fully into the light. 'My real name is Graciella,' the girl said. 'Some people know me as Lilly.'
Graciella, mi amor, Jessica thought. It all began to make sense. She recalled the diary.
I still hide. I hide from my life, my obligations. I watch from afar.
Those tiny fingers. Those dark eyes.
These are my days of grace.
'Okay,' Jessica said. She knew who she was talking to. 'We have to leave. Now.'
Graciella didn't move. 'This man? This man who lives here?'
'What about him?'
'He calls himself Mr. Ludo, but his real name is Joseph Swann. He killed my mother. Her name was Eve Galvez. I'm going to kill him.'
The girl held up a yellowed piece of paper. It looked like an old blueprint. 'I got this from a friend of mine,' she said. 'Old guy. Wicked weird, wicked old. He used to be a magician, but his insane fucking son has kept him locked in a room for the past twenty years.' She unfolded the paper. 'There are things you should know about this house. Every room has a secret entrance and a secret exit to somewhere else.'
'What are you talking about?' Jessica asked. 'Let's go.'
Graciella handed her the paper-the slight shake in her hands betraying her calm demeanor-then stepped away. 'I'm not going with you. I'm not ready to leave yet.'
'What do you mean you're not ready? Where is Joseph Swann? Where is he right now?'
Graciella ignored the question. 'There's one more trick to come. It's called the Fire Grotto.' The girl stepped back. She reached out and touched the switch plate on the wall, then touched her foot to the baseboard. 'You've got to understand. I cannot let this rest. I will not let this rest. I'm going to kill him.'
Graciella kicked the baseboard. To Jessica's left and right a pair of partitions dropped from the ceiling. She was suddenly enclosed in a six- by-six room. The only light was from the beam of her Maglite.
Jessica was alone.
NINETY-SEVEN
5:45 AM
Swann stepped into the great room. On its tattered carpeting walked the specters of the past, the many treacheries of his childhood. On the worn, sturdy furniture reposed his victims:
Elise Beausoleil with her literary ramblings; Wilton Cole and Marchand Decasse and their thieving schemes. So many had come here, prying, threatening to expose him and the many riddles of Faer- wood, so many had never left.
Swann heard conversation in the main hallway. It was not some phantom of the past. It was happening now. Before he could enter, a figure turned the corner. It was Odette, wearing her scarlet gown. She was as young and beautiful as ever.
'Are you ready?' Swann asked.
'I am.'
'Tonight it is the Fire Grotto. Do you remember it?'
'Of course.'
Swann offered his hand. Odette took it, and together they headed for the stairs.
NINETY-EIGHT
5:47 AM
The walls in the basement were damp and clammy. The flicker of the gas lamps drew their shadows in long, spindly forms. Hand in hand, Graciella and Joseph Swann walked past many small rooms, twisting and turning through the labyrinthine halls. Some rooms were no more than ten-by-ten feet, bearing long oak shelves crammed with magic paraphernalia. Some were filled with steamer trunks, overflowing with memorabilia and mementoes. One was dedicated to smaller stage props-foldaway tables, production boxes, dove pans, parasols. Yet another room was devoted solely to the storage of stage clothing-vests, jackets, trousers, shirts, suspenders.
They eventually came to a long corridor. At the end of the passageway were bright yellow lights. As they approached the stage Graciella's heart raced. She thought of the night her mother phoned, the long dreadful night two months earlier when her world had been turned upside down. There had been so much Graciella wanted to say to her mother, years of confusion and frustration to unload. But by the end of the conversation she found that the hatred that had lived in her soul like a terrible fire for so long had simply vanished. Her mother had been not much older than she was when she'd had her baby, and she had given her up for adoption for all the right reasons. When Graciella hung up the phone she had cried until dawn. Then she had gone into her closet and opened all the boxes she had received over the years on her birthday and Christmas. She'd known who they were from all along.
Eve Galvez had loved her. That's why she walked away.
That night, via her cell phone, Eve had sent her a number of photographs. Photographs of Graciella at two and three and four years old, all taken from far away. Graciella playing lacrosse. Graciella hanging at the Mickey D's on Greene Road. The final photo was of this monstrous place. The last thing her mother had said was that there had been a girl named Caitlin O'Riordan, and that a man, a man who called himself Mr. Ludo-the man who lived here, the man she now knew as Joseph Swann-had killed Caitlin.
When the story of her mother's murder hit the newspaper, and all the flowers that had so recently been planted in Graciella's heart were ripped from the ground, she knew what she had to do. She made a promise to her mother's memory that she would finish the job.
But now that the end was in sight, she did not know if she could go through with it.
The stage stood at the far side of the room. It was about fifteen feet wide. The floor was highly polished; there were velvet curtains drawn to the sides. A spotlight over the center of the stage cut through the blackness like a knife through necrotic flesh.
Joseph Swann offered his hand, and led Graciella into the wings.
Between them, the Fire Grotto awaited.
