Viktor appeared in the threshold, his left sleeve pushed up to reveal a large bandage around his forearm.
“Good evening, officers,” he said, looking back and forth between them.
“We’d like to ask you a few questions, if you’re feeling up to it,” Officer Wagner said.
“Of course, gentlemen,” Viktor said. “I expected you would be by. I’m very happy to cooperate.”
“We’ll just step inside, then,” Wagner said.
Viktor stepped back to welcome them, and they disappeared into his room. Wagner closed the door behind them.
“He’s very smart,” Channing said softly. “The bandage was a good touch.”
“True,” Dru said.
They stood there a moment more. Dru wished she could hear what was going on behind that door. And she had a feeling Channing felt the same.
“Let’s go downstairs,” he said. “We can’t have them come out and find us here.”
“I have to get ready for work,” Dru told him.
“See you at the desk, then,” Channing told her with a little wave.
She headed into her room.
Edgar Allan Crow greeted her with a light squawking sound.
“Hey bud,” she crooned. “Want a snack?”
She was pretty sure that in the wild he would eat live prey, but that was beyond what she could summon.
She pulled a sleeve of crackers out of her bin of supplies, and opened the cage, pulling out the shoebox where Edgar rested.
The raven fluffed out his feathers a bit, but showed no signs of aggression.
She sat on the bed and placed the shoebox next to her.
“Here you go,” she told him, breaking a cracker in half, and offering him one piece.
Edgar snatched it up like she might change her mind.
“You are feeling better,” Dru said.
He made quick work of the first half, so she offered him the second.
He let out a joyful caw and snapped it out of her fingers.
She smiled in spite of herself, and hopped up to get the water bowl from his cage. It had been propped up on a book so he could reach it without moving.
He thrust his beak into it and threw his head back to swallow as she watched.
After three more crackers and another drink, he fluffed himself up and went promptly to sleep.
She made a mental note to try to figure out what else to feed him, and how long to keep the splint on his wing.
Now that the internet was on again, she was anxious to dive back in.
But for now, she had another mystery to solve.
She popped into the bathroom, washed her hands, dried them, and then came back out and pulled the journal pages out of her desk drawer, where she’d stashed them after retrieving them from Edgar’s box.
She wasn’t sure why her first instinct had been to hide them from Viktor. But he knew about them now, so there was no need to keep them hidden away.
There were so many pages. Dru was curious about who had been so eager to translate them, but also grateful. As much as she was hunting for clues, she also wanted to treasure this stolen memory of Nana.
“Even if I find out something I didn’t expect,” she reminded herself softly as she spread the pages out on the bed next to the sleeping bird.
9
An hour later, Dru was deep into the journal pages.
They described Nana’s life at the hotel in the sixties, which was surprisingly not all that different than Dru’s life at the hotel now.
There were staff that she liked and didn’t like, favorite meals in the dining room, and then there was Michael.
The mysterious guest had caught Dru’s eye the last time she’d perused the journal. He worked at night, and slept during the day, and his dark good looks reminded her enough of Viktor that the whole thing had her wondering if it was possible that Viktor had been here back then.
She should have just come out and asked him about it.
But part of her felt like she shouldn’t have to.
If he was at Hemlock House back then, if he actually knew her grandmother, shouldn't he be the one to tell her that?
At least it seemed like the relationship never went anywhere. From what she read, Dru sensed that Nana appreciated Michael’s charming personality and good looks, but she was already dating Frank, Dru’s grandfather, who was getting ready to serve in the Army.
It felt like a harmless crush.
And honestly, there wasn’t much going on in the journal outside of the musings of a young girl. Dru wasn’t sure what she’d been hoping to find, but it looked like the whole journal was going to be a wash.
Dru had nearly reached the end of the pages when she came upon another section about Michael.
Well, it happened.
Michael has asked me to go for a walk with him.
Of course I’ve walked around with him plenty of times, but it’s never been planned. We’re friends, and that’s all. We just happen to be awake at the same time, which throws us together.
But this is different. I’m sure of it.
I’m so happy, even though I feel torn when I think of Frank. Frank is a good man.
But there’s something about Michael that feels a little bit like destiny.
Dru frowned. That was certainly a twist.
But this wasn’t like reading a novel. She knew what happened in the end. Nana married Frank and they lived happily ever after.
The next entry was dated that same day.
The whole hotel is buzzing.
Eddie “Diamonds” McCarthy just checked in. He used a different name, but we all know it’s him. The other girls told me he’s a famous thief, and rumor has it that he brought some of the goods with him from the Manhattan jeweler’s row break-in last week.
I normally don’t like the idea of criminals being here. But this is more like having a celebrity in the hotel. There was even a piece about him in the New Yorker.
I haven’t seen him yet, but Mary Ellen said he tipped her a twenty and a pair of opal earrings this morning when he checked in.
I’m jealous about the money, but we all know he stole the earrings.
Anyway, I can’t wait for my “date” with Michael tonight. Only a few more hours…
Dru flipped the page and realized she was nearly at the end. There was only one more short entry.
I was wrong about Michael, so wrong.
I’m never going to see him again.
There’s a treasure right under my feet and I know it probably makes me seem crazy, but I’m not going to touch it. I want my normal life back.
Maybe one day I’ll come back. The key will be over the uniform, if I ever change my mind. The treasure will be safe under the pillars of Hemlock.
Until then, I’m going back to the simple life I planned. Frank is waiting to make me happy, and I’m going to try my best to deserve him. He’s a wonderful man. Thank God it’s not too late.
“Whoa,” Dru murmured, going back to the part about the treasure.
There it was, clear as day, along with a clue.
The key will be over the uniform, if I ever change my mind.
Of course she thought immediately of the antique army uniform that was currently hanging in the sitting room.
She hopped up and carefully lifted Edgar Allan Crow’s shoebox to bring him downstairs with her. She hated leaving him alone, and her shift was starting soon. If she found a real clue to find the treasure, she might not have time to come back up for him.