The Lions of Fifth Avenue: A Novel

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

New York City, 1993

What do you mean, Valentina’s missing? What happened?”

Sadie tried to make sense of what LuAnn was telling her. She was still half-asleep and caught up in that terrible dream.

“I caught the red-eye back last night, and when I arrived home, Lonnie was still out on his shift. Valentina is supposed to be here, with Robin, getting ready for school. I checked her bed and she hasn’t slept in it.” Her voice was ragged with panic. “She’s not with you?”

“No. Where’s Robin?”

“Same thing, gone. My God, if something happened to them while I was away, I’ll never forgive myself.”

“Slow down, let’s talk this through. Did anyone see them leave?”

“The police are here now and are reaching out to the doormen on the street to find out. Lonnie’s on his way home. He’s the one who suggested I try you.”

The police. The seriousness of the situation hit Sadie hard. Her niece and the babysitter had vanished in the night.

She tried to come up with ideas of where to find them as she ran the five blocks to the brownstone, frantically wondering who could have taken them. And why?

It was New York—anything was possible.

Robin was too small to be a caretaker. Sadie had known that right away, and should have told Lonnie so. How could a tiny person like that protect another tiny person? If they had been kidnapped, they would’ve been easy pickings.

When she arrived, Lonnie and LuAnn were sitting on the couch, ashen-faced, as two policemen asked them questions.

Lonnie rose and hugged Sadie. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Any news?”

He shook his head. “The cops have been through both Valentina’s and Robin’s rooms, and found no sign of foul play. It’s like they just disappeared.”

“Have you checked the hospitals?”

“We have.” A policeman introduced himself—Sadie didn’t catch his name—and started asking questions about Valentina, if she had difficulties at home, if she might have run away.

“She’s only six,” said LuAnn. “Of course not.”

Lonnie put a hand on her knee. “They have to ask.”

Sadie spoke up. “What about Robin? Is there family of hers you should call?”

“I looked through her things for an address book or something like that, but no luck,” said LuAnn. “She said she was from somewhere in Massachusetts, I remember.”

Another policeman appeared at the front door. “One of the doormen down the street who worked a double shift said he saw them last night, around five thirty. He’s worked there for years, knew Valentina by name. He said Robin walked by first, and the little girl followed a little later and waved at him. He didn’t notice them return, but he could have been busy helping residents if they did.”

“Hold on, they didn’t leave together?” asked Lonnie.

“The doorman figured they were, even though the girl passed by a few moments later. Like she was hurrying to catch up.”

Strange. Lonnie and LuAnn exchanged a look.

“Was anyone else with them?” asked Sadie.

“Not that he recalls. He also said that they weren’t carrying suitcases or anything.”

“Maybe they went out for ice cream and something happened,” LuAnn suggested tearfully.

Out there, anything could have happened. Two young kids, so easily picked up, picked off.

Sadie couldn’t sit still. She asked the cop for permission to go into Valentina’s room.

Valentina had always been neat, with everything in its place. Sadie walked over to the small vanity, where the nail polish bottles were all lined up in a row, in the order of the rainbow. Her heart broke at the thought of this little girl out somewhere strange, lost and alone. They had to find her, make sure she was safe, protect her. Sadie shouldn’t have gone to London and left them. Maybe she would have been here when the kidnappers came, and stopped it. And poor LuAnn. How horrible for her to come home to an eerily empty house.

She opened the closet door, where Valentina’s clothes hung—mostly varying hues of purple and pink, her favorite colors—her shoes paired up on the floor below. The bookcase was overflowing with books and games and silly knickknacks, including a jewelry box with a ballerina who twirled about when opened. Inside was one of Pearl’s rings. A pearl, of course, which brought tears to Sadie’s eyes.

Valentina’s favorite games were stacked up on the bottom shelf: Connect Four, Clue, a box of Uno cards.

Sadie glanced back at the closet. Up on the top shelf, high above the clothes, sat the box for Operation, Valentina’s favorite game of all time. The last time they’d played it was with Pearl, when the game had descended into tears and chaos. Sadie had promised to get new batteries, but then forgotten.

Odd that it was on the top shelf. Valentina was too short to have placed it up there easily, not without having to pull over a chair to stand on.

Sadie lifted it down and placed it on Valentina’s bed. Inside, the buzzer still didn’t work.

Something was off, though. The cardboard piece where the goofy patient lay on his back, staring at her with alarm, was worn and bent along one side. She didn’t remember it looking this beat-up before. Like it had been removed and then replaced. Maybe Valentina had been curious as to how it worked, or tried to replace the batteries herself. But then how did it end up hidden away in the top of the closet?

She pried off the top of the operating table. Underneath lay a folded piece of paper. Old paper, brown and crinkled at the edges.

She unfolded it and dropped it on the bed, like it was on fire.

“Lonnie!”

He and LuAnn came rushing in.

“Look.”

They stared down at the page, where Shakespeare’s face stared right back.

“Is that the page that was stolen?” asked Lonnie. “The one you told me about?”

“Yes. From Shakespeare’s First Folio.”

By now, the policemen had joined them. Sadie explained about the missing page, then turned back to Lonnie. “Why on earth would Valentina have this?”

“I have no idea.”

In fact, the children’s game was the perfect hiding spot. But not for Valentina.

“How much do we know about Robin?”

Lonnie’s eyebrows knitted with concern. “That she worked as a nanny for those twins we saw in the park. I called her references and checked them out.”

That was easy enough to fake—just ask a friend to make up a story. “Was Robin here last night, when I called from London?”

Lonnie nodded. “I was in the kitchen, I’m not sure where she and Valentina were, exactly, but they were both here in the town house.”

Sadie tried to recall what she’d said to Lonnie. She’d definitely filled him in on the details of her conversation with Miss Quinn. About how the Tamerlane was somewhere deep in the library. And how she suspected that meant the apartment. “Could Robin have been listening in on the extension?”

“I suppose. But why would she?”

“Lonnie, think back. Is there a chance that she would listen to our weekly check-in calls, when I told you about what was going on at the library?”

“Again, I have no idea. What are you getting at?”

“We have to go to the library. Now. LuAnn, you stay here in case they return in the meantime.”

LuAnn rose. “No, I want to come with you.”

Lonnie took her hand in his. “Please stay, so one of us is here if they do come back.”

Reluctantly, LuAnn relented.

Sadie grabbed her coat and made one call before they left, to Nick. His answering machine picked up, but she left a message telling him it was urgent and to meet them at the library.

She hadn’t seen the danger, and it turned out that it had been right in front of her.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Donovan, I can’t let you in.”

The burly security guard at the library’s side entrance put up his hand, but couldn’t quite meet her eyes. She’d brought the man a cup of coffee a couple of times a week since she’d begun working there, and almost felt sorry for him, having to keep her out on Dr. Hooper’s orders.

“It’s important. There’s a little girl missing and we think she might be inside.”

She’d explained this to the police at Lonnie’s, but they’d seemed confused, asking her repeatedly what “antique books” had to do with the case, and finally she and Lonnie had thrown up their hands and taken off, telling LuAnn to call the Berg Collection if they got any news.

“I’m sorry.” The guard shook his head.

“It’s okay, they’re with me.”

Sadie turned to see Nick struggling out of the revolving door, heading straight toward them.

“Nick, my niece is missing, I think she’s inside the library.”

“Right. I got your message.” His eyes were wary. He probably thought she was a madwoman, trying to worm her way back into the library to steal more books. She didn’t care—Valentina came first—but she had to pull herself together if she wanted to get inside.

“This is my brother, Lonnie. I think my family was somehow involved in the thefts, but not directly. I found the page from the folio in my niece’s bedroom, hidden in a game.”

His face hardened. She was explaining this all wrong. “You found the missing folio page?” He looked over at Lonnie. “In your brother’s home?”

“Yes. But he didn’t have anything to do with it.”

“Your niece stole the page? I thought she was like seven or something.”

“She’s six. And no, she didn’t steal anything. I think her babysitter did.” She looked at Lonnie, who didn’t nod his head or affirm her statement, still unwilling to admit she was right. Sadie supposed that doing so meant that he’d put his daughter in harm’s way, and it was easier to imagine some other person forced them to leave. Either way, the girl was gone. Panic rose up in Sadie’s throat—she thought she might be sick.

“The babysitter?”

“Yes. Please, Nick, she may have brought her inside, to find the Tamerlane. I think they’re still in here. She’s only six, and probably terrified. Can you at least alert the staff, tell them to be on the lookout?”

“All right. Let’s go.”

She almost collapsed from relief. With Nick on board, they had a chance.

He grabbed a walkie-talkie from the information desk. “What do they look like?” Lonnie provided descriptions of Valentina and Robin, and Nick relayed them over the radio, with instructions to begin searching for the duo.

“Does the babysitter know the library well?” he asked.

“Not that I’m aware of. But I think I know where they might have headed. I went to London to see the executor of my grandmother’s estate, to find out if there were any links between that earlier robbery and ours. She said that Laura Lyons once alluded to the Tamerlane, and hinted that she knew where it was.”

“Where is that?”

“She said, ‘Where it should be, yet where it should not.’ Like a riddle. I’m guessing in the old apartment where they lived when my grandfather was superintendent.”

“And how does that connect with your niece’s babysitter?”

“I told Lonnie about it over the phone yesterday, and I think Robin may have been listening in. In fact, looking back, the thefts track with what I mentioned to Lonnie over the phone, about whatever I was working on for the exhibit.”

“So you think this woman rushed here to beat you to it?” He still didn’t quite believe her, she could tell.

“Yes. According to a doorman down the street who spotted them, they left with enough time to get into the library right before closing. It’s not yet open to the public, so I’m hoping maybe they’re still in here.”

“Show me.”

She led them to the mezzanine level, where the old apartment used to be. When Sadie had first seen it, it had reminded her of that one closet in every house that was jammed with random detritus. But this morning, it looked far worse than usual, the boxes’ contents spilled out, covering the floors.

Sadie turned to Lonnie and Nick. “Robin was here, looking for the Tamerlane.”

They waded their way through the litter of paper, checking each room. The farthest one, at the end of the hall, was locked. Sadie banged on the door, called out for Valentina. No answer.

Nick called on the walkie-talkie for someone to bring a key.

“Do you think Robin found the book?” asked Lonnie.

“It’s hard to tell,” said Sadie.

He let out a soft moan. “Please God, let Valentina be okay. This place is huge, they could be anywhere.”

“Don’t worry,” said Sadie. “We’ll find them. I want to go to the Art and Architecture Room to look at the floor plan I requested last week. It might give us a sense of how Robin has been getting around the library or where she might be hiding.”

“I’ll stay here and wait for the key, and keep on looking,” said Nick.

In the Art and Architecture Room, the clerk handed over the old floor plans. Sadie rolled them out on the nearest table, Lonnie peering over her shoulder.

“You can see the mezzanine area clearly here.” She pointed to the location of the apartment. “These were the bedrooms, this was the kitchen and living area.”

“What’s that?” Lonnie pointed to a small square marked with an X located inside one of the columns.

Sadie scanned the page, counting almost a dozen similar markings scattered through the library. Including in the center section of the Reading Room.

“It’s a dumbwaiter. They’re dumbwaiters. Here’s the one that runs between the Reading Room and the stacks. There’s another here, and here. That’s it. That’s how Robin’s been scurrying around without being detected.” She remembered the way the thief disappeared into thin air, after Sadie had chased her to the third floor. Sure enough, there on the plans was another X, this time in the women’s restroom, which originally had been a study room. “It’s like a vertical maze.”

“Robin’s tiny enough to fit, I suppose,” said Lonnie. “Do you think they’re hiding out in the dumbwaiter?” His expression turned to horror. “That that’s where Valentina is?”

Sadie suppressed a shiver. “I hope not. I didn’t see anything like that in the old apartment. It would have been right where we were standing.”

Nick was still waiting for the key when they returned, and hadn’t found the book, either. Sadie filled him in on what they’d discovered and marked the spot, a few feet from the top of the stairs, where the dumbwaiter should have been. A clean wall presented itself, with no sign of an open shaft.

Nick began knocking on the wall, and the sound changed from solid at the edges to hollow in the middle. “There’s definitely an opening here.”

Sadie searched the room where the janitors’ supplies were kept and found a rusty old toolbox. Nestled inside was a hammer, which she handed to Nick.

He swung at the column, not too hard, but enough to crack through the plaster. It crumbled easily, and together they pulled it off, eventually revealing a paneled door. Lonnie joined in, pulling off the chunks of wall, and soon they had enough of an opening to view the entire dumbwaiter.

The dark wood was smooth and pristine, kept safe from exposure behind the false front, clasped shut with a metal latch. Nick clicked the latch and opened the door. Inside, the interior shaft was dark, ominous, and filthy. The dumbwaiter car wasn’t lined up with the opening, the bottom edge resting a few inches below the top of the doorframe. Nick leaned in, looking down.

“Valentina?” he called out.

The sound echoed back up at them.

Lonnie looked like he was about to be sick.

There was no answer. Nothing.

“See if you can lower the dumbwaiter car so it’s even,” said Sadie.

Nick reached up and tried to pull it down with his hands, but no luck. He grasped one of the two lines of rope that ran down one side of the shaft, and the shelf slowly creaked down.

In the very middle of the car sat a wooden box.

Sadie reached in and lifted it out, carefully, as if it were a religious relic.

Inside were some old bills and, beneath that, a worn-looking book with an olive green cover.

The Tamerlane.

They’d found the book.

“What does this mean?” asked Lonnie. “What about Valentina?”

The radio squawked again. Sadie jumped at the sound. What now?

“We’ve found the little girl.” The voice came from the radio, a man’s baritone. “Down in the basement, in the bindery. We’ve found the girl.”

Sadie almost tumbled down the stairs. Her legs wouldn’t move fast enough. She held on to the railing to keep from falling but really wanted to throw herself down to the bottom level, to the basement.

If something had happened to Valentina here in the library, she would never forgive herself.

Lonnie, beside her, was pale and panting.

At the bottom of the stairs, Nick took off down the long hallway like a high school football player. Sadie and Lonnie followed him along what seemed like an endless passageway. It reminded Sadie of recurring nightmares where she was in a hurry to get somewhere, but the destination was murky and always out of reach.

Inside the bindery, Valentina sat at a table, a book in front of her, with Mr. Babenko standing nearby. She looked up and smiled.

Lonnie ran to her and grabbed her in his arms. “My girl.”

Valentina’s smile quickly changed to alarm. “I’m sorry.”

“What are you sorry for, my love?” asked Lonnie.

“I don’t know.” At that, Valentina began to sob.

Sadie wrapped her arms around both of them, not sure of what to say. She had so many questions, but didn’t want to scare the girl any more than she already was.

“We were just putting a jacket on a new library book,” said Mr. Babenko. “She’s quite good, I must say. Has a delicate touch.”

Valentina broke off her crying and looked up at him. “I do?”

“You do. Here, show them what you’ve done.”

Valentina picked up the book, which was wrapped in shiny clear Mylar. “I put the sticker with the call number on it here, see? Then we do this wrapping, like a Christmas present, but see-through.”

“Well done, my girl.” Lonnie stood and addressed Mr. Babenko. “Thank you for finding her.”

“Oh, she found me, I must say.”

Valentina remained seated at the table, not in any hurry to leave. Sadie took the chair next to her. Valentina was safe—that was what mattered most. “Mr. Babenko, can my brother use your phone to call home, let them know she’s safe?”

Mr. Babenko nodded. Lonnie went to his desk and dialed.

As he spoke in a low voice with LuAnn, Sadie turned to Valentina. “How did you end up here, V? Did Robin leave you last night, at home?”

Valentina didn’t answer, but she didn’t have to. Her eyes grew wide at Robin’s name.

Sadie put a hand on Valentina’s shoulder. “You can tell us, it’s okay.”

“I’d lost another tooth, and she said she had to see the tooth fairy, that she’d bring me back a present.”

“She left you alone in the town house?”

“She told me I could watch TV until I fell asleep. But I wanted to see the tooth fairy, too, so I followed her, right to the library and up to that big room at the top with all the desks.” Valentina would have felt at home in the building, as she’d visited Sadie there multiple times. And with the hordes of tourists coming in and out of the Reading Room, she would have blended right in. “She went into one of the doors.”

The Reading Room. Sadie tried to picture where she might have gone. “Where exactly?”

“Inside was a curvy staircase.”

Sadie knew immediately what she was referring to. By now, Lonnie had returned, and she directed her reply to him. “It’s one of a few doors that line both sides of the Reading Room. The spiral staircase inside leads to a railed walkway that runs above the shelves.” When she’d first been hired, the new employees had been given a behind-the-scenes tour, where they’d been taken up the spiral staircase, onto the walkway, and then out to a balcony that led to a sweeping view of Bryant Park. Thank goodness Valentina hadn’t gotten that far.

The enclosed spiral staircase would have made the perfect hiding space for Robin until the library shut down for the evening. After everyone was gone, she would have had easy access to the stacks via the dumbwaiter at the delivery desk. How she got inside the Berg’s cage, though, was still a question.

“Did you follow her through the door?” Sadie asked.

“It was locked. I walked along the shelves to the very end and sat down to wait for her, and I must have fallen asleep.”

A low row of bookshelves, about four feet high, ran just in front of the wall containing the door. If Valentina had tucked herself in there, she would have been out of sight of the librarians closing up. Sadie imagined the dark library at night, with all its creaks and groans. “That must’ve been very scary, V.”

“It was. When I woke up, the door in the wall was unlocked again, but Robin wasn’t inside. I wandered around for a while. Then I found this room and there was a couch.” She pointed to the corner, where a sofa was pushed against a wall. “So I lay down.”

Mr. Babenko took over the story. “When I came in this morning, there she was, fast asleep. I called up to security to say that we had a visitor, and we did some work together in the meantime.”

Sadie was grateful for Mr. Babenko’s kindness, that he’d done everything he could to keep Valentina calm and safe.

“Security is guarding the exits,” said Nick. “If Robin’s still here, we’ll find her.”

The police arrived, and Sadie gave her niece a huge hug before watching Lonnie and Valentina go off with them.

She turned to Nick. “We should loop in Dr. Hooper, bring him the Tamerlane.”

“Right. I’ll wrap up down here. Why don’t you take it up, and I’ll meet you at Hooper’s office?”

She appreciated the opportunity to explain what they’d deduced. Even if they didn’t have all the answers. “Will do. Hand it over.”

Nick froze. “I don’t have the book. You have it, right?”

Sadie thought back. She had had it, but couldn’t remember much of anything once they’d heard that Valentina was found. She could have sworn Nick had picked it up. She checked her purse, in case she’d put it away there. Nothing. The hairs on her arms prickled, and the room felt like it was spinning around her. “I don’t have it. In all the rush to come down here, it must’ve been forgotten.”

“Then it must still be up in the room.”

The thought made Sadie ill. She followed Nick out the door.