Cid didn’t move from the wall. He didn’t want any more but a hand’s reach to come between him and the open safe. “It’s lead-lined, Faye.”
“Yes. I know.”
“I’m thinking those keys may open the boxes in the corners of the attic.”
“I was thinking along the same line,” she said.
“We know that they are here. I think I can carve a copy of them using the photos. I can make a start and fine-tune the keys here when no one is about. If I had a 3D printer, we would have better copies.”
“What if the owner takes the keys away and hides them elsewhere before you can make viable copies?”
“We could have one of your friends watch the library if Bridgeton returns. Just in case he opens the safe. I have a feeling the man doesn’t know it’s even here. The congressman knows, but not the heir.”
Jesse finished and Sally brought the two books back. She tapped a book and explained, “I scanned the contents of the old ledger. Originally, I was curious about the contents of this house, and then I found a listing of craftsmen. It has the workmen’s names in it. Jon O’Connor is one of them.”
“And my friend Blue Daniel?” Jon asked, manifesting near Sally.
“If he’s Daniel Sullivan, who’s a wood carver, then he’s in this book.”
“That’s my talent and my curse,” Blue Daniel said appearing.
Sally admitted later she was seconds from losing the contents of her stomach. His face was a crude illumination of the worst death one could have, suffocation. “She remembered asking, “What happened to you, sir?”
“Jon, she called me sir. The girl’s not right in the head.”
“Military,” Sally stammered. “I was a soldier.”
“Ah, this country must be in trouble if they have to put comely women behind the lines.”
Sally blushed.
Cid slid the books in and closed the door. He replaced the lead plate and then covered it with the portrait. He turned around, looked at Jon and Daniel, and promised, “I will set you free. Be patient. We have to be crafty. Any information you can give us personally, or through Faye, would be appreciated. If I do this wrong…”
“You don’t have to explain, sir,” Jon said. “I’ve watched and taken my measure of you.”
Cid reached out his hand. “I know you can’t connect but…”
Jon did so, and Cid felt the wooden grip he was used to with Murphy.
“Never underestimate we Orish,” Jon said and disappeared.
Blue Daniel moved forward and held out his hand. Cid shook it. “You will find a lot of information written between the lines of The Invisible Man. I found if I could conserve some energy, I could turn the pages. The title struck me. Years later, I learned, if I wanted it enough, I could put pen to paper, but I needed to be careful. No one reads that book if they can see the film. I decided to record our plight as I remembered it.”
Cid moved to the bookshelf and scanned it. He found the H. G. Wells The Invisible Man tucked with other red cloth-covered books of note. Cid really hated when decorators lined up books according to the color of their spine, but he would push down the rant that wanted to escape his lips in order to get back to business. He turned around, and Blue Daniel had gone.
“I wonder…” he said, scanning the shelves.
“Can I help you search for something?” Sally asked.
“When Daniel first said The Invisible Man, I wasn’t thinking of H. G. Wells. I was thinking of Ralph Ellison. I thought, if Congressman Atwater has this book in his library, he wouldn’t be the complete villain I assumed him to be. Just a complex man who made a deal with a demon.”
Jesse decided he’d leave the two alone. He waved Faye to follow him into the hall. “There is no place more romantic for the likes of them than one surrounded by books.”
“Here it is,” Sally said, holding up the charcoal and gray hardcover. “I think it confused the person who was shelving by hue. It was hidden with the other mixed-color books.”
Cid watched her face as she realized what she had innocently said.
“I know what you meant,” Cid said, drawing her into his arms. He pushed the tumble of curls away from her face and studied her blue eyes closely. “I wonder how much of the sky was robbed when you were conceived. Or the land when your parents pooled their love together. The ice of Norway and the heat of the southern states. So much beauty contained in one body.”
Sally melted. She waited for him to kiss her, and he waited painfully long before his lips touched hers.
Cid felt the softness of her full lips and tasted the salt from tears that had sprung to her eyes and ran down her face. He reached his hands and gently cupped her head as she kissed him as if she were eating a juicy pear.
“If we don’t stop, our first time together will be in a haunted house,” Cid said when reason knocked on the door of his overheated body.
Sally broke away and surrounded the Turkish rug with salt. She closed and locked the door and dropped items of her clothing as she walked over to Cid. “I want you to see me. If I’m beautiful, then I’m a battle-worn beauty. Can you take this broken body to bed with you every night?”
Cid saw the scars from the wounds that burning explosives caused, which ran down the right side of her torso. He walked over. “Your beauty radiates out from your soul. Your skin
