Glass Town by Steven Savile

Author:Steven Savile
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

29

A PROBLEM SHARED OR TWO LIVES RUINED

Josh took Julie to the flat in Rotherhithe.

“You wanted to know what Boone left me. This is it in all of its glory.”

“This place?” the policemen asked, looking up at the dark windows. “Nice. Must be good to have rich relatives.”

“You say that now, but you might not think so in a minute,” Josh opened the door. “Welcome to the obsessive world of the Raines family, Constable Gennaro.” Josh led him upstairs. “You might want to brace yourself; you’re about to enter a whole lot of crazy.”

Julie nodded, it all beginning to come clear. “So this is where you got to for a week? Some sort of love nest you didn’t want to tell your mother about? No telephone I take it?”

“Ah, well … not quite … I think it’s best if I just open the door and let you see for yourself,” and so saying, Josh opened the lounge door and stepped aside to let the policeman enter the room.

There was a momentary silence followed by a slow whistle, which in turn was followed by, “Holy shit … you weren’t kidding. What is this place?”

“My inheritance,” Josh said. “This little lot is what Boone left me.”

Julie turned and turned about, trying to take it all in, just as Josh had the first time he’d walked into the room. The sheer amount of articles and photographs Boone and Isaiah had gathered about Eleanor’s disappearance and events surrounding it was overwhelming. But that was nothing compared to the web of threads linking them all. Crazy was the only rational word for it. The policeman walked across to the nearest wall, ducking under the colored yarns, to read some of the vast wealth of information plastered up there. “You think this is what Lockwood wants? Some old newspaper articles?”

“It’s not what they are,” Josh said, “it’s what they’re about. Read them.” Josh waited for Julie to skim a few and get the gist of the crime the room was dedicated to before taking him next door. He was putting his trust in the policeman, with no real reason to think he was worthy of it, or that he’d keep it save for the fact he’d obviously seen the Comedians, even if he didn’t understand what it was he’d seen.

“An actress disappeared nearly a hundred years ago? Seriously? This is the big mystery that kept you away for a week?” He shook his head like he couldn’t quite believe the answer was something so understandable after all of the intimations he’d have to see it to believe it.

“There’s stuff in here he’d rather no one knew,” Josh said, looking toward the wall obsessed with Damiola’s antics.

“Look, even if his grandfather was complicit in the kidnapping, it’s water under the bridge now. We’re talking about a century. Crimes don’t last that long, no matter how shocking they are at the time. Unless we’re talking something like Jack the Ripper, no one’s interested, and even then it’s purely academic. You need to face it, Josh, they got away with it.

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