The Memorist

Chapter 69

Wednesday, April 30^th-11:03 p.m.

Lucian Glass and Alex Kalfus pulled up to the Sacher just after Malachai’s cab dropped him off and the two of them watched him disappear through the hotel’s front door. They’d trailed him all day, from the hospital early that morning to a bookstore with Sebastian and Meer, then to the Beethoven house and then into the Rathaus garden where the three of them had parted ways.

It was easy enough for the agent and the policeman to stay on Malachai’s trail even when he was out of sight thanks to the tracking device still in place. But the team following Meer didn’t have a tracking device, and after she and Sebastian jumped on the tram they’d lost her.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to wait a while and see if Meer returns,” Lucian said to Kalfus, who gave him a curious look.

“This isn’t just professional for you, is it?”

“It’s a case, Kalfus. A case I want to solve.”

“Are you personally involved with the woman?”

“I’ve never met her.”

The two law officers stayed on watch until one-thirty in the morning but when Meer still hadn’t arrived, Kalfus insisted they call in backup and each try to get some rest themselves.

Lucian couldn’t sleep, though, and sat in his hotel room with the television on and the sound off, sketching scenes from the day. One after another he ripped them off the pad before they were finished and let them fall to the floor until there was a pile of almost a dozen. He didn’t care about them; it was the action, the movement, and the release of the tension that he craved.

Where was she? And why, as Kalfus had asked, was he taking her disappearance so very personally?