David walked slowly down the street in a light drizzle, his hands jammed in his pockets. A flock of crows were screeching from a telephone wire overhead. Stupid birds, he thought. Why do they even hang around in this miserable weather? How do they expect to find any food in the city with winter coming on? But of course they’re scavengers. Somehow they survive.
He thought of Jeremy. Poor Jeremy. The scavengers have gotten a hold on him, too. But I guess no one would want to admit that. That’s why he keeps denying that he’s really in trouble. And I have no idea how he’s going to get out of this one. Somehow he probably had to borrow some more money just to pay for Morgenstern’s tests. It seemed pretty obvious that he didn’t have any extra cash sitting around for that.
I sure hope that the Beethoven manuscript turns out to be worth some money because he sure seems to need it. And I hope somehow he finds a way to get back the missing two pages that he showed me that first day. Without those pages, the thing’s not going to be worth nearly as much.
David’s thoughts were cut off sharply by the ringing of his phone. He fumbled for a few seconds before answering it.
“Jeremy?” he said.
“Absolutely,” came the voice. “And I’ve got some good news for a change. Drop everything and come and meet at Mackinaw's—immediately!”
Jeremy was seated at a corner table, beaming broadly as David entered the coffee house.
“I’ve finally heard from him,” Jeremy said excitedly. “Sit down quickly and I’ll tell you all about it.”
David slid into the seat opposite Jeremy quickly. “I’m all ears.”
“Morgenstern called. Most of the tests have been completed. The manuscript is authentic. Everything fits. The watermark is good for the early nineteenth century, the ink is good and even the damn software says that the remarks written in the margins are by Beethoven.”
“You’re kidding! That’s spectacular news!”
“Yes, it couldn’t be better.”
“And the value of the manuscript? What does he say about that?”
“He didn’t want to discuss it over the phone. Besides I can tell he’s a bit reluctant to quote a price until we recover the first two pages of the document.”
“I was afraid that was going to be something of a problem.”
“Of course it is. It’s the comments on the first two pages that prove beyond a doubt that it’s Beethoven’s composition. But Morgenstern’s made it clear that the handwriting he looked at is by Beethoven and that’s half the battle.”
“So I take it there’s been no progress in finding the missing two pages.”
Jeremy frowned. “No. And I have to tell you, I’m getting a bit worried. The police have obviously come up with nothing. I keep asking around at pawn shops to see if anything shows up there, but no luck so far. I’m beginning to worry that someone really did assume the pages were worthless and tossed them.”
“But you said you checked every city trashcan for blocks the day it disappeared.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything. It could have been disposed of anywhere.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Not much I can do. I’ve put some ads in the papers and posted online. I’m still hoping someone is still just sitting on those two pages and decides they want to pick up a little extra cash by selling them back to me.”
“But in the meantime, Morgenstern’s message is great news. When are you going to meet with him?”
“You mean when are we going to meet with him? I want you to be in on this.”
“Of course.”
He’s going to call me later on today and then set up an appointment for us to meet with him tomorrow.”
“Excellent,” David said. “Now things are really going to happen.”
As he opened the door to the sleazy little diner on the corner, Danny Moore wondered exactly what news Wade Nelson had that just couldn’t wait. He might be unemployed at the moment, he thought, but that didn’t mean he had time to waste. There were a number of jobs he intended to interview for and he hated to waste an afternoon doing nothing.
Upon entering the diner, he immediately saw Wade sitting at a booth against the far side of the restaurant. There was one other person at the counter, but other than that the place was empty.
“So what’s up?” Danny said as he slid into the booth seat opposite Wade.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Wade said, barely controlling his excitement, “but David just called and told me that Jeremy’s Beethoven manuscript is real, and it’s probably worth a lot of money. They just heard back from some antiquarian specialist—guy named Morgenstern— who’s got evidence that the manuscript is authentic and probably worth a bundle.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Danny said, shaking his head. “Why’d David call you?”
“He was wondering if either of us had come up with any ideas about the missing two pages of the manuscript,” Wade said.
“That’s a longshot,” Danny said. “I don’t know how anybody can expect us to know anything about it. We’re not the ones who lost it.”
“He was just asking.”
“Well, I’ll say one thing. I guess that manuscript must be worth something after all. When we first heard about some Beethoven manuscript worth a ton of money, I figured it was just Jeremy making a typical fuss about nothing. But it looks like he really has gotten lucky.”
“Jeremy doesn’t deserve that kind of luck,” Wade said. “There’s no justice in this world, you know.”
“You’re telling me?” Danny leaned back in his seat, a look of disgust on his face. “He’ll just use the money to pay off his old debts. Now if I had that money, I could really do something with it.”
“Welcome to the club,” Wade said.
“I still say something will go wrong,” Danny said. “I’m still thinking that he’ll blow it and he’ll never see that money.”
Wade shrugged. “We’ll just have to see what happens.”